AMD 3870K has landed @ the 'egg

[Soulkeeper]

Should email Asrock, at least get your concerns noted. Historically there haven't been many ITX boards I would call OC friendly.

last time I emailed asrock they charged me $20 and emailed me a virus

I guess it's my fault for wanting ITX boards to be enthusiast/overclocker friendly
we just aren't there yet 🙁

 

[Rvenger]

last time I emailed asrock they charged me $20 and emailed me a virus

Did they seriously email you a virus?

 

[Soulkeeper]

Did they seriously email you a virus?

It wasn't from their internal email, but soon as they said they'd mail it with USPS I received a USPS delivery failure email with a virus in it. Could just be a coincidence or their systems were compromised.
I suppose it's wrong of me to jump to conclusions, but maybe i'm just bitter that I had to pay $20 for them to mail me a replacement bios on a motherboard I had only owned for less than 1hr.

I should remain on topic
sorry for nonsense posts

 

[Soulkeeper]

I'd love to see info on anyone else's
3870/3670

ie: voltages/clocks that you settle on

 

[gbeirn]

My parts will be here Monday will let you know what happens.

 

[micrometers]

last time I emailed asrock they charged me $20 and emailed me a virus

I guess it's my fault for wanting ITX boards to be enthusiast/overclocker friendly
we just aren't there yet 🙁

I don't get why anyone would want a full sized ATX Llano, over clocked. Its graphical performance wouldn't meet a $100 graphics card. It only makes sense in ITX machines.

 

[Soulkeeper]

yeah, this is my second FM1 itx motherboard (asus then asrock)
zotac also makes one, but from what i've read the bios is the least overclocking friendly of the 3

Originally I was hoping gigabyte would release one, but they canceled it at the last minute.
My hope was it would have near identical bios/features as their matx version which got glowing reviews.

Ohh well
I'll likely stick to around 3.2GHz on my llano setup at least until trinity comes out

I have my cpu fan set to adjust speed based on cpu temp
it completely turns off when the cpu temp is below 45c
my case fan adjusts based on "mb" temperature
but I keep it with a minimum speed of around 1000rpm
I like it this way

 

[Zap]

Originally I was hoping gigabyte would release one, but they canceled it at the last minute.
My hope was it would have near identical bios/features as their matx version which got glowing reviews.

mATX wouldn't be too terrible if more companies made super small cases that took mATX motherboards, such as the Cooler Master Elite 100.

 

[cphelps]

I got a 3870K in the mail yesterday, and build up a new HTPC unit with a Gigabyte A75-UD2H board, 16GB of 1333MHz DDR3, and a 450GB Velociraptor that I had left over from previous projects.

The raptor drive came out of an AMD FX-8120 rig that I am also testing, and was installed with Windows 8 Developer Preview. Initial benchmarking last night with PassMark Performance Test showed a rating of 7451. If you search for "3870" in the PassMark DB, you can find this result. I was not overclocked.

There is a picture here also:
http://operationcsquared.com/tech/?p=29


There were a few driver issues initially, so I decided to re-install Windows 8 and start clean. During this period I also update the bios to rev F5, which is the latest, and the only one that claims support for the 3870K. After that I received some seriously poor benchmark performance. Like instead of Integer performance around 3500, it is now 600.

I have tried going back to the F4 bios, but that did not gain me back any of the PassMark score I saw previously. I've also now gone to stock Windows 7, and a fresh set of the latest drivers - no improvement there either.
PassMark is no longer running on the system due to a CMOS clear (it thinks I messed with the clock), so I can't get a new picture of the current scores, but I can report that it's just over 4000, which is pretty abysmal.

I used Windows 8 for the FX-8120 due to the addition of the Bulldozer-friendly scheduler improvements, but now I am wondering if there was something in those changes that also made things better/different for this Llano CPU as well. It's was strange to see it scoring so high to begin with, but even stranger now to see it scoring below the previously released 3850's.

Consider me perplexed.

Chris

 

[cphelps]

SUCCESS!

After reviewing my original PassMark results, I saw that the BIOS version that my motherboard originally had was F2 from back in June, not F4 as I had assumed. I flashed back to there, and re-ran PassMark (had to purchase to get it working again, oh well). New score is ~7200, which I can accept as a reasonable difference for Windows 7 vs 8.

I saw a number of other really poor scores out there on the PassMark list, so if any of you run into some crap Integer and Prime Number performance, it might be worth looking at downgrading your BIOS version.

Chris

 

[VirtualLarry]

That's interesting that you get a higher score with a prior BIOS. Could there be latent bugs in LLano that newer BIOSes contain a workaround for? (I recall the TLB bugfix for Phenom I CPUs.)

 

[Soulkeeper]

SUCCESS!

After reviewing my original PassMark results, I saw that the BIOS version that my motherboard originally had was F2 from back in June, not F4 as I had assumed. I flashed back to there, and re-ran PassMark (had to purchase to get it working again, oh well). New score is ~7200, which I can accept as a reasonable difference for Windows 7 vs 8.

I saw a number of other really poor scores out there on the PassMark list, so if any of you run into some crap Integer and Prime Number performance, it might be worth looking at downgrading your BIOS version.

Chris

You are recommending that people use the F2 bios for the A75-UD2H ?

what about gaming performance, or other benchmarks ... did they suffer too ?
Is it possible that the old bios is setting the CPU to the wrong speed maybe (ie: running bclk or mem faster) ?

 

[gbeirn]

I have the A8 3870k and the FM1a75 I mini ITX Asus board with 8gb of 1866mhz ram. It was a pain to get the ram to the right speed and timings. Finally got it set correctly. I believe D.O.C.P is the right setting that will allow you to change the ram speed? I forget. But I know it wasn't like anything else I've been familiar with (Gigabyte boards FTW).

I haven't seen any bios settings to clock the GPU over the 600mhz mark. If you find some, please share!

I love this little machine. I built it for the wife so she can play a few games on a budget (and so she can stay off of my i5 2500k / GTX 560 ti rig 😀 )

Just got my parts in. Updated to the latest BIOS 0602 and there is now an option for GPU overclocking. Normal, turbo and manual where you can select the GPU frequency.

 

[cphelps]

That's interesting that you get a higher score with a prior BIOS. Could there be latent bugs in LLano that newer BIOSes contain a workaround for? (I recall the TLB bugfix for Phenom I CPUs.)

Higher is a bit of an understatement. We're talking nearly 5x on the Integer and Find Prime Numbers scores. To me, they still look too high, but in their low state, the overall score was much lower than any of it's Llano siblings as well, so that is strange. I'm pretty busy with work, but I will by trying to figure this out over the coming weeks.

Chris

 

[cphelps]

You are recommending that people use the F2 bios for the A75-UD2H ?

what about gaming performance, or other benchmarks ... did they suffer too ?
Is it possible that the old bios is setting the CPU to the wrong speed maybe (ie: running bclk or mem faster) ?

All of the settings appeared to be correct in the monitoring software (HWINFO) and in the BIOS itself. I've currently got it undervolted by 0.075v and running really well at the stock 3GHz clock. It idles down to 30W with all the power saving features turned on.

I've been running SiSoft Sandra a bit, and I don't think the old/new BIOS changed the performance scores in there, which are below an i5-2300 :-(. I don't game at all, so no info I can give you there.

Chris

 

[sm625]

I'm really questioning passmark nowadays. There is this Penryn quad core 9650 @ 3.2GHz on there that outscores my i5-750 @ 3.8GHz in the cpu mark. Most of the other penryn and conroe quads score far below mine. But there's just this one that is way up there. I see the same type of thing with several phenoms. Some scores are jsut outrageous, others really low. It makes no sense. It's like the 2D graphics score. Sometimes its higher on a 4670 than on a 5870. I understand why that is, but the cpu thing has me miffed.

edit: I already make sure I compare apples to apples with OS, I run win7-32 and compared only with other win7-32.

 

[Vesku]

From what I've seen Passmark is pretty bad about collecting the correct settings from a tweaked system. This seems especially true for overclocks. Regarding the 3870, anyone able to get stable near the 3.8-4.0GHz mark?

 

[gbeirn]

Well 3.4GHz CPU and 800MHz GPU seem completely do-able. 1.4V but some tweaking is needed for sure.

Soulkeeper: I saw from another thread you were looking at the Scythe SCSK-1100. I have the exact same setup as you, did you get that cooler? Did it fit well? Are you happy with it?

 

[Vesku]

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums...apu-a8-3870k&p=5026045&viewfull=1#post5026045

Even disabling the GPU doesn't seem to get it beyond C3 and Thuban clocks. That thread seems like good reading for 3870BE owners.

I think IDC already noted it but I think some people who ragged on AMD for adopting the K moniker as a copy of Intel have to eat some crow. But more so the rumor sites, had everyone including me using the K for a while now. No sign of K on the box just AMD's Black Edition label.

 

[Soulkeeper]

Well 3.4GHz CPU and 800MHz GPU seem completely do-able. 1.4V but some tweaking is needed for sure.

Soulkeeper: I saw from another thread you were looking at the Scythe SCSK-1100. I have the exact same setup as you, did you get that cooler? Did it fit well? Are you happy with it?

I did get that, ended up replacing it with a GeminII S and a DELTA AFC1212D-F00 fan

the Gemini is a much better heatsink, although a bit larger
I have the fan setup to change rpm based on temperature
at idle the fan is mostly off, spins to around 1400rpm from time to time (which I can't really hear)
during heaving usage the fan gets around 2000rpm (gaming or compiling)

with the SCSK-1100 the temperatures were at least 10c higher

 

[gbeirn]

Thanks! How does it all fit in the PC-Q11? I thought the maximum heat-sink height was 80mm and that heat-sink (according to Newegg) is listed as being 62mm and then the fan as 25mm. 87mm total? Do you have a smaller than ATX power supply?

 

[Soulkeeper]

Thanks! How does it all fit in the PC-Q11? I thought the maximum heat-sink height was 80mm and that heat-sink (according to Newegg) is listed as being 62mm and then the fan as 25mm. 87mm total? Do you have a smaller than ATX power supply?

it barely fits, I actually have to apply a few pounds of force on the psu to get it in place
contact is made
which is ok since my psu is fanless (SS-400FL)... might not work with others

 

[kbirger]

I did get that, ended up replacing it with a GeminII S and a DELTA AFC1212D-F00 fan

the Gemini is a much better heatsink, although a bit larger
I have the fan setup to change rpm based on temperature
at idle the fan is mostly off, spins to around 1400rpm from time to time (which I can't really hear)
during heaving usage the fan gets around 2000rpm (gaming or compiling)

with the SCSK-1100 the temperatures were at least 10c higher

Out of curiosity, did you change because the Scythe couldn't handle the 100W output, or another reason? I ask because I just got my scythe in the mail today but haven't opened it since I'm still waiting for other parts. If it's not going to work, I'll try to see if I can return it.

Anyone know what newegg is gonna charge me to ship it back unopened?

 

[notty22]

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums...apu-a8-3870k&p=5026045&viewfull=1#post5026045

Even disabling the GPU doesn't seem to get it beyond C3 and Thuban clocks. That thread seems like good reading for 3870BE owners.

I think IDC already noted it but I think some people who ragged on AMD for adopting the K moniker as a copy of Intel have to eat some crow. But more so the rumor sites, had everyone including me using the K for a while now. No sign of K on the box just AMD's Black Edition label.

Well somebody has newegg listing the name: as 3870K

Learn more about A8-3870K Unlocked

ModelBrandAMDSeriesA-Series APUModelAD3870WNGXBOXCPU Socket TypeCPU Socket TypeSocket FM1Tech SpecCoreLlanoMulti-CoreQuad-CoreNameA8-3870K UnlockedOperating Frequency3.0GHz

Also I found a new review today : referencing this model as a K.
I'll cut to the chase, they got 3600mhz at 1.4625V

AMD A8-3870K: Black Edition Llano

 

[Soulkeeper]

Out of curiosity, did you change because the Scythe couldn't handle the 100W output, or another reason? I ask because I just got my scythe in the mail today but haven't opened it since I'm still waiting for other parts. If it's not going to work, I'll try to see if I can return it.

Anyone know what newegg is gonna charge me to ship it back unopened?

The temperatures were higher than I wanted at stock, and I knew I wanted to overclock a bit.
So I just spent the $30 for the other heatsink locally.
The problem with the scythe is it can't take a 120/140mm fan and the fins are poorly attached to the heatpipes. The fins literally just sit ontop the heatpipes they just have a small amount of solder to keep them from falling off. The scythe heatsink works, just not for overclockers at all. I suppose 100W is not a problem assuming you don't have extreme temperatures in your area (ie: 90F ambient) and you have good case airflow. "Newegg, will be refunded less any shipping charges and a restocking fee of 15%."
That's what $6 ?

The Scythe is still better than the retail HSF that ships with llano. It's absolutely quiet also.
Not counting the upper fins the Scythe's lower heatsink is about the same size as the retail HSF.