Low power AMD build

[andreajl]

Hello everyone.

After some thought i decided so assemble a small and low power build for generic use (netflix, internet, some html coding).

 

Here's the part list that i ended up using.

Coolermaster Elite 110 - 50eur

Corsair VS450 - 42eur

Asus AM1I-A -39eur

AMD Athlon 5370 2,2ghz -52eur

Arctic M1 passive cooler -7eur

Kingston HyperX Fury 1x8gb 1600 -36eur

OCZ Trion 150 240gb -63eur

Wireless PCIEx card -15eur

BenQ GW2470H 23,4" 1080p display -130eur

I got Windows 10 via Dreamspark, so no charge for that

 

Higher res pics

 

I wanted to share this build because i think that the Elite 110 is a very interesting case and i also wanted to share my experience since there is never much information on low end components online.

 

So here's the low power cpu, this chip is a 4 core 25 watt apu clocked at 2,2ghz based on Kabini cores, and has a integrated low end R3 gpu clocked at 800Mhz. It's quite small.

 

I could tell that the stock cooler was noisy on sight, fitted with a very small fan (i think 40x40 or something around that, did not measure it)

So i replaced it with this low cost but great value cooler, the Arctic M1 passive.

 

 

 

 

 

The cooler is made of aluminium. It's 77x77 mm which, as you'll see, takes up most of the free space around the socket. It quite bigger than the stock cooler, but that's hardly a suprise since it's supposed to cool the apu passively.

The fins are thicker and the base and thinner at the top, with the outer ones (first and last) being 1.4mm to 1.7mm thick and the inner ones 0.7mm to 1.2mm thick. The base goes from 4.7mm thick at the outer edge to 6.8mm thick in the center, on top of the cpu.

The build quality is solid even if the finish of the base is very coarse. I don't think that it really matters considering the very low thermal output of the apu.

All in all, considering this is a 7 EUR product, i think i could not ask for more.

 

I won't comment on the case and power supply, since there is a wealth of information just a google search away.

 

The motherboard was one the cheapest Asus board that i ever owned but i can honestly say that i was pleasantly surprised by its weight the first time i lifted it out of the box.

I kind of missed that the board did not have a USB3 on board header, but thankfully the CM case has a USB3 to 2 adapted built into the cable. I don't really mind considering that the rear USB 3 ports are not very far from the front ones.

   

 

 

Bottom side of the board holds, left to right, the front panel audio connector (i think that if you plan to install a dual slot gpu you might have some clearance issues with this connector), two USB2 headers, two SATA3 ports, the speaker header and one 4 pin chassis fan header (that works with PWM and DC regulation)

 

Right side of the board holds, left to right, front panel connector (this board does not come with Asus Q-Connectors), ATX power connector, a TPM header and 2 DDR3 slots (note that this platform only supports single channel memory mode)

 

Top side of the board holds, left to right, pins for one USB3 header which is not soldered, one COM and one parallel port header, a 4pin CPU fan header that works both with PWM and DC current regulation. 

 

Rear IO consists of separate mouse and keyboard PS2 ports, VGA, DVI, HDMI (i don't think you'd want to make a 4k build with this MB so you won't miss HDMI 2), serial port (why?), 4 USB 2 ports, 2 USB 3 ports, one RJ45 ethernet port and 3 audio jack ports. Basic IO but nothing's missing.

 

The board has one open ended 4x PCIEx slot, good enough for any GPU you would pair with a AM1 APU / CPU.

A nice touch was the inclusion of 2 DVDs, one with W10 drivers and one with W8.1 / W7 drivers. I still downloaded them from the Asus website.

Accessories are very basic, with a rear I/O shield (very thin and basic, no nice foam layer like on the more expensive boards) and 2 sata 3 cable (one with straight connectors and one with a 90 degree angled connector on one end). 

One think i think should be included is the front panel Q-Connector. I usually think it's useless on bigger builds, but with this limited space case it would have been nice to have. I still see no point in the other USB or front audio Q-Connectors.

 

Let's start building!

 

Here's the case with standoffs mounted.

 

Here's the APU sitting on the motherboard.

 

Heatsink washers applied to the board

 

Here's the two spring loaded screws that will hold the aluminum heatsink in place

 

 

Cooler assembled, fairly big but no clearance issues.

 

 

Here's the board sitting in the case

 

 

I placed a spare Aerocool DS fan that i had from a different build as the main fan. It is very silent even at full speed and moves a nice amount of air.

The 120 mm fan had a very weird mounting system. Four rigid plastic sleeves that locked in place by pushing in a plastic pin.

If you decide to use a 140mm fan you'll have to screw it in with normal hardware.

 

 

Side mounted SSD

 

PSU installation, you have to think about cable routing before this step or you will regret it.

  

 

I installed the psu with the fan facing up since otherwise it would have sucked in hot air right from the cooler. Considering this is the cheapest PSU from Corsair i'd rather keep it at the lowest possible temp.

 

 

 

After running Prime95 for a couple of hours i'm stable at 50 degrees (with 18 degrees ambient).

Starting Furmark pushes it at 55 degree. Idle temps are 22 to 25 degrees celsius.

 

CINEBENCH R15 bench gives me these scores

OpenGL 14,71 fps

CPU multi core 168 cb

CPU single core 45 cb

 

Overall the system is very snappy, and i think it provides a pretty nice values for its money, keeping in mind it is an ITX build. I could have gone cheaper with mATX or ATX or higher perf at the same price point.

Let me know if you would like to see some game bench, i think it's possible to run older or lighter games at reasonable speed on this apu, but right now i can't think of anything to try.

[Darel321]

I wanted to say I would get 2x4 gb for dual channel but then I saw there's no dual channel.. ohh well... its a nice computer.. although I would rather get a banana PI probably would do the same job as this

[iHardware Shelden]

Awesome system, love these AM1 low power chips, they pack quite a punch. That Cinebench score is quite impressive

[andreajl]

3 hours ago, Darel321 said:

I wanted to say I would get 2x4 gb for dual channel but then I saw there's no dual channel.. ohh well... its a nice computer.. although I would rather get a banana PI probably would do the same job as this

Thanks. This setup gives me some foundation in case i'd want to go with an higher performance build further down the line.

 

40 minutes ago, iHardware Shelden said:

Awesome system, love these AM1 low power chips, they pack quite a punch. That Cinebench score is quite impressive

Thanks. Best of all the system is silent, i can hear a faint airflow but that's it. Granted it's not very packed in there but still, i'm happy.

 

I've added a high res image link.

https://imgur.com/a/qAvEW

 

 

Edited May 10, 2016 by andreajl
spelling

[NoobCase]

Awesome little thing.  any reason  you choose to put the cable bulk in front of the fan instead of to the side betjene the ssd and psu? Not sure it will matter much in terms of temps but might allowed for the fan to be mounted on the inside? 

 

Edit: nvm the last part. Fan is where it is supposed to be.  Did not realise it was covered by the front panel. 

[andreajl]

12 hours ago, NoobCase said:

Awesome little thing.  any reason  you choose to put the cable bulk in front of the fan instead of to the side betjene the ssd and psu? Not sure it will matter much in terms of temps but might allowed for the fan to be mounted on the inside? 

 

Edit: nvm the last part. Fan is where it is supposed to be.  Did not realise it was covered by the front panel. 

Hello, thanks.

The 120mm fan is mounted with non standard mounting hardware on the outside.

The manual shows that 140mm fans must be mounted on the inside, or 120mm radiator must be mounted in between but the mounting hardware for this is not included.

 

About the cable, you make a good point, i didn't think about airflow being blocked. It's true that a few cm away there's the solid side of the psu, so it probably would not change much.