Socket AM1 Cpus Debate

[seanpower32]

everybody seems to be hating on the relatively new am1 cpu's saying that they are terribly bad etc.. MW Technology has videos proving that they can be good for certain gaming rigs. Whats your thoughts?

Videos here: 

           

[WereCat]

I have never seen anyone hating on them.. in fact they are awesome for HTPCs due to being very cheap and having only 25W TDP... heck you can even make a home server with that thing.

[Norman_the_Owl]

My thought is they still have no upgrade path.

If you suddenly come into 200 dollars and want to upgrade? Sorry, you're just going to have to buy a whole new CPU/Mobo

[seanpower32]

look at the comment section on the $350 build and you will understand what i mean were cat. Norman the owl i dont think that really matters because of the performance your getting at such a small cost!

[MLGNOSCOPEHEADSHOTGETREKT]

Why does AM1 still exist?

[seanpower32]

its a great platform

[Mentalguy]

Why does AM1 still exist?

its new

[Kamina]

CPU performs similar to an Athlon x2 6000+. I owned one and it's pretty bad for multi tasking these days. It was decent for gaming but could never open windows while gaming.

[tmlhalo]

I wouldn't touch AM1 with a 10 foot pole strapped to a 10 foot pole strapped to yet another 10 foot pole. If you want a low end AMD build the FM2+ socket has better features and a better upgrade path as hard as that is to say. You can get an A6 and later go Athlon 860k + AMD R9 270 and be in a decent spot for a budget build. You could even go bottom of the barrel Intel and come out better. A H81 board and the Celeron G1820. The Celeron beating it extremely narrowly in both price and benchmarks while giving you an upgrade path to an I3.

Benchmarks
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+Athlon+5350+APU+with+Radeon+R3

https://cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Celeron+G1820+%40+2.70GHz&id=2129

https://cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+A6-7400K+APU&id=2392

Price

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/amd-cpu-ad5350jahmbox

 

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/intel-cpu-bx80646g1820

 

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/amd-cpu-ad740kybjabox

[Opcode]

Why does AM1 still exist?

It's cheap and low power. You can build an entire fanless tower for about $300. Meanwhile the APU is pretty beastly for that price. I've seen people playing BF3 MP with the 5350 driving a discrete GPU around 30 FPS. Although even if you're not gaming (without dGPU) the entire machine will pull less than 50w from the wall at full load. It's a great platform for HTPC or even home servers because they can be ran without fans and consume such little power.

[Laederem]

ITT stupid

I personally use an AM1 SOC on an Asrock board for an HTPC. Runs steam streaming nicely and handles 1080p streams at 15w. I don't see why you would call that bad. And that's on windows 8.1, I'm sure I could lean it down.

[Ertman]

Fantastic price of kit.

I am sure it's teribble for those expecting it to be used for gaming, but it's great for streaming, server, general pc, light/old gaming and htpc duties. Not sure about the $200 bit. For just the motherboard and a 5350 can be had for under $100. Anything else you would add, would need to be purchased anyways.

I guess my problem with this platform is with AMD itself. They are not the most reliable anymore in terms of supporting sockets.

[Hieb]

The only AM1 CPUs I would even consider are the dual-core and the 1.3GHz quad-core... and I would only use them for an HTPC. For gaming a <2GHz AMD CPU is the last thing I would want. I used to use an Intel Q6600 and that was pretty terrible for modern games like Battlefield 3 or 4, and the Q6600 is notably faster than the $65 Athlon 5350.

 

For a budget gaming system, you're better off getting a Pentium. Gives you an easy upgrade path to i3/i5/i7, has more Sata ports, fan headers, USB ports, audio jacks, has dual-channel memory, etc.

[A10-FTW]

yeah, the Athlon 5350 also win my heart 

 

(is a 4 cores cpu that run at 2 ghz with 128 sp of gpu power inside)

 

 

 

i was on plan to buy one 

 

but money come 

 

and i jump to my lovely A10  :wub:

[WereCat]

I wouldn't touch AM1 with a 10 foot pole strapped to a 10 foot pole strapped to yet another 10 foot pole. If you want a low end AMD build the FM2+ socket has better features and a better upgrade path as hard as that is to say. You can get an A6 and later go Athlon 860k + AMD R9 270 and be in a decent spot for a budget build. You could even go bottom of the barrel Intel and come out better. A H81 board and the Celeron G1820. The Celeron beating it extremely narrowly in both price and benchmarks while giving you an upgrade path to an I3.

Benchmarks

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+Athlon+5350+APU+with+Radeon+R3

https://cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Celeron+G1820+%40+2.70GHz&id=2129

https://cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+A6-7400K+APU&id=2392

Price

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/amd-cpu-ad5350jahmbox

 

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/intel-cpu-bx80646g1820

 

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/amd-cpu-ad740kybjabox

It is good because you can make really cheap and well performing HTPC media machine that is extremly low power. It is obviously not meant for games but it handles 1080p video streaming/playback with ease. It makes no sense to add dedicated GPU with this APU as the main reason of this APU is to use the integrated graphics.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: AMD 5350 2.05Ghz Quad-Core Processor  ($44.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Motherboard: Asus AM1I-A Mini ITX AM1 Motherboard  ($37.27 @ Mwave) 

Memory: Crucial 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($25.99 @ Amazon) 

Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($50.99 @ NCIX US) 

Case: Cooler Master Elite 120 Advanced (Black) Mini ITX Tower Case  ($24.99 @ Micro Center) 

Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($19.99 @ Newegg) 

Total: $204.22

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-03-22 20:03 EDT-0400

[tmlhalo]

snip

Original post is over extreme budget gaming rigs. I don't see how HTPC use debunks my critique of the socket. If I were to looking to build another HTPC then I would only not touch the AM1s with a single 10 foot pole vs three. I am critical of the platform. You're free to love it. I would never spend my money on a one trick pony platform. For a few dollars, literally a few dollars, you get an upgrade path if you ever decided to do more. 

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: AMD 5350 2.05Ghz Quad-Core Processor  ($44.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Motherboard: Asus AM1I-A Mini ITX AM1 Motherboard  ($37.27 @ Mwave) 

Total: $82.26

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-03-22 22:29 EDT-0400

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Celeron G1820 2.7GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($41.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($43.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Total: $85.98

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-03-22 22:30 EDT-0400

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: AMD A4-7300 3.8GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($39.99 @ NCIX US) 

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A68HM-DS2H Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard  ($41.98 @ Newegg) 

Total: $81.97

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-03-22 22:34 EDT-0400

[WereCat]

 

Original post is over extreme budget gaming rigs. I don't see how HTPC use debunks my critique of the socket. If I were to looking to build another HTPC then I would only not touch the AM1s with a single 10 foot pole vs three. I am critical of the platform. You're free to love it. I would never spend my money on a one trick pony platform. For a few dollars, literally a few dollars, you get an upgrade path if you ever decided to do more. 

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: AMD 5350 2.05Ghz Quad-Core Processor  ($44.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Motherboard: Asus AM1I-A Mini ITX AM1 Motherboard  ($37.27 @ Mwave) 

Total: $82.26

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-03-22 22:29 EDT-0400

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Celeron G1820 2.7GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($41.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($43.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Total: $85.98

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-03-22 22:30 EDT-0400

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: AMD A4-7300 3.8GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($39.99 @ NCIX US) 

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A68HM-DS2H Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard  ($41.98 @ Newegg) 

Total: $81.97

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-03-22 22:34 EDT-0400

 

Yes those are better chips but there is still one thing to consider if you are planing to build a home media server that will be 24/7 ON.

 

5350 - 25W TDP

G1820 - 54W TDP

A4 7300 - 65W TDP

 

And you are right. The 5350 has no upgrade path right now but AMD confirmed that there will be more APUs coming for AM1. So just because there are none on the market now doesent mean there will be none later.

It just comes down to what you will use/do/prefer. I just think that 5350 is really great chip for its price and it will work great for the tasks that is is made for.

[Hieb]

Yes those are better chips but there is still one thing to consider if you are planing to build a home media server that will be 24/7 ON.

 

5350 - 25W TDP

G1820 - 54W TDP

A4 7300 - 65W TDP

 

And you are right. The 5350 has no upgrade path right now but AMD confirmed that there will be more APUs coming for AM1. So just because there are none on the market now doesent mean there will be none later.

It just comes down to what you will use/do/prefer. I just think that 5350 is really great chip for its price and it will work great for the tasks that is is made for.

 

The AM1 platform still isn't really upgrade-able. Any future APUs to be released for AM1 will be marginal performance improvements at best, plus it's still extremely limited when it comes to memory configurations, sata ports, audio jacks, fan headers etc.

[Opcode]

The AM1 platform still isn't really upgrade-able. Any future APUs to be released for AM1 will be marginal performance improvements at best, plus it's still extremely limited when it comes to memory configurations, sata ports, audio jacks, fan headers etc.

Actually you never know. When you least expect it AMD could drop Carrizo-L for the AM1 platform. The CPU architecture (Puma+) is not any faster but is more power efficient. The iGPU would go from 128 SP's up to 384 SP's. Which is quite an enormous jump in graphics performance compared to the current flagship Athlon 5350. According to reviews the Athlon 5350 already is quite impressive for 720p gaming for what it is. With a graphics jump that large I would expect 30 FPS in most games at 720p. All out of a $300 machine running a $50 APU sucking no more than 50 watts from the wall. It's not built for gaming tho it would still be capable of it.

[tmlhalo]

snip

Again. Original post is over extreme budget gaming rigs. Just because everyone else went off track doesn't mean my points about gaming should be taken in context to HTPCs or media servers. My 1st post is in reference to gaming. When it comes to HTPC or server use I don't hate them nearly as much. Though I still wouldn't invest in a dead end. I've looked up the roadmap for AM1 in the past. It is the low power / mobile line. Some of the chips are clones of tablet processors. Power consumption on the other hand... Dynamic frequency scaling lets my I7 4770k idle at 15w, my HTPC with an G1820 idle at ~6w. I have another HTPC with a A8 6600k in it but I keep it on a more aggressive performance profile. Whenever you're not using the machine it goes idle which is the majority of the time with most personal 24/7 machines. Intel is has been pretty aggressive in their idle low power states. Don't take my word for it though.

http://www.techspot.com/review/806-amd-kabini-vs-intel-bay-trail-d/page8.html (please note it is power consumption of the entire system.)

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/athlon-5350-am1-platform-review,3801-9.html(vs a different celeron)

 

Performance when you need it, power savings when you don't. The graphs also show off the nice misconception that TDP = power consumption. The G1820's TDP is double and then some of the AMD 5350 yet the largest delta (CPU+GPU load) is only 23w. Far from double and then some for system power consumption. When it is only the CPU being tested the delta is even smaller at 9w. Then finally the G1820 actually idles at a -3w delta from the AMD 5350.  I don't know what else I can say about AM1. I've done plenty of research in the past over the platform. My distaste for it is not out of ignorance. It is over personal opinion with the upgrade path and objective data you can get from benchmarks over its performance versus things of a similar price.