AMD Athlon 5150 Kabini - cat, Jaguar or more fun?

[Abwx]

Ya I think my post is more for just the lowest cost setup I can get that will still reasonably work. I know over here though this is an enthusiast forum so OCing/performance is far more valued at a premium. I was just wondering what the 3850 was capable of in general since lets be real, you aren't getting a system like this to play games. It's an HTPC. Webbrowsing, video watching, that's what I'd use something like this for. The 3850 combo is a $100 combo. The 5150/Asus mobo is $100 by itself before we add the better ram, and a case as well.

Just was interested in how the 3850 performed but ya, I know this is an OC thread and OCing/performance in general is very important to users on here.

Actualy i personaly prefer the 5150 or 5350 to not have to overclock, only eventualy to downclock...

 

[monstercameron]

right now the 5350 seems/is a bit overpriced on newegg and amazon...~$60USD and it loses its value perspective.

 

[cbn]

Phoronix just did an overclocking review of various am1 chips.
It seemed like he was only able to get about 50+ MHz
This had me wondering if the 2 channel VRM setups common on these motherboards is the limiting factor.

I bet those mosfets will get toasty

Actually, according to the Phoronix article I found he did use the same ASUS motherboard FlanK3r used:

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=amd_am1_overclocking&num=1

 

[coercitiv]

Actually, according to the Phoronix article I found he did use the same ASUS motherboard FlanK3r used:

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=amd_am1_overclocking&num=1

I think the main reason Phoronix could not get past 105Mhz BCLK was the BIOS version the MB came with. Flanker's motherboard has BIOS version 403, while my board came with version 404. I could not get past 105Mhz either, no matter what I did (disabling power saving features, lowering cpu/ram multiplier, increasing voltage etc). The system would POST, but Windows would crash.

However, after updating BIOS to version 505, it simply started to work.

 

[coercitiv]

Actualy i personaly prefer the 5150 or 5350 to not have to overclock, only eventualy to downclock...

Right now I'm testing a -120mV undervolt at 2100Mhz and it looks stable in Prime 95. I doubt any downclocking would be necessary. From a noise perspective, the stock cooler is dead silent when configured properly. It only needs to operate in the 1000-1300RPM range to keep the CPU cool (max RPM is 3300)

I'm a bit concerned by coil whine noise, but I won't give any details on that before I change my PSU this week.

 

[FlanK3r]

undervolt is not problem too with Kabini . Dont worry guys, little cat from AMD is good cat

 

[Abwx]

Right now I'm testing a -120mV undervolt at 2100Mhz and it looks stable in Prime 95. I doubt any downclocking would be necessary. From a noise perspective, the stock cooler is dead silent when configured properly. It only needs to operate in the 1000-1300RPM range to keep the CPU cool (max RPM is 3300)

I'm a bit concerned by coil whine noise, but I won't give any details on that before I change my PSU this week.

Nice, this should reduce dynamic power comsumption by 20% or so , should be about 5-6W at high loading, that s halfway from Beema..:thumbsup:

 

[Infraction Jack]

I just ordered a 5350 and the Asus MITX board. It should be a nice little system.

 

[ibex333]

Can someone please explain to me whats so special about Kabini?

[Please note, I am talking about it's merits in something like an entry level gaming/productivity computer - NOT an HTPC where it's merits are obvious]

1)Speed wise, my e6300 Conroe overclocked to 3.20GHz will murder this. And it can be had used for $10-20.

2)Quad core? Nice... But exactly how many apps/games an average joe uses in his day will take advantage of all four?

3)Onboard Graphics? Nice, but, a GeForce 610 only cost me $20 after rebate. ($30 otherwise). Could have used something even cheaper.

4)I suppose low power is probably the only merit that I can clearly see. But what else is there?

I built a Trinity machine a short while ago. Now that, was worth it.. It only cost me about $200 to build(already had a case, PSU, and hard drive). It's a solid performer in low to mid range gaming, and it handles word, excel, windows, internet, mail like a champ. Kabini in comparison seems too slow to be worth it.

 

[Abwx]

Can someone please explain to me whats so special about Kabini?

1)Speed wise, my e6300 Conroe overclocked to 3.20GHz will murder this. And it can be had used for $10-20.

Athlon 5350 score in CB 11.5 is 2...

How much watts to do this score :

Core 2 Duo E6300 1,86 ghz OC 3,50 ghz - 1.88 - W7 64 bits

http://www.overclocking-pc.fr/forum...Cinebench-11-5&p=407762&viewfull=1#post407762

The only thing that is murdered is your claim...

 

[Bolshoi Booze]

Can someone please explain to me whats so special about Kabini?

I built a Trinity machine a short while ago. Now that, was worth it.. It only cost me about $200 to build(already had a case, PSU, and hard drive). It's a solid performer in low to mid range gaming, and it handles word, excel, windows, internet, mail like a champ. Kabini in comparison seems too slow to be worth it.

agreed.. you can find some great deals on athlon x4s right now, this cpu is stil far too slow for my needs, even though its very cheap..
I couldnt care less about power difference here, except if passive cooling was possible

http://www.overclocking-pc.fr/forums...l=1#post407762

The only thing that is murdered is your claim...

do you always spend 24/7 defending AMD on internet forums and calling out everyone that doesnt agree with you? man thats sad

 

[ibex333]

Athlon 5350 score in CB 11.5 is 2...

How much watts to do this score :

http://www.overclocking-pc.fr/forum...Cinebench-11-5&p=407762&viewfull=1#post407762

The only thing that is murdered is your claim...

I'm talking about processing speed not watts used.

 

[coercitiv]

Can someone please explain to me whats so special about Kabini?

It is a low power socketable SOC that is strong enough to drive a SFF PC meant as a inexpensive office machine, NAS and/or router, HTPC.

It's strong points are price and flexibility. It does seem to win against the Silvermont embedded boards, but Haswell Celerons are giving it a hard time due to clearly superior IPC and the capacity to reach similar power consumption with properly chosen mainboards. The Haswell Celeron systems do end up more expensive in the end though. (the price difference is small for mATX boards, but increases for low power mITX systems)

It also allows around 30-40% overclocking, which really adds to the value of lower Kabini SKUs.

 

[monstercameron]

Can someone please explain to me whats so special about Kabini?

[Please note, I am talking about it's merits in something like an entry level gaming/productivity computer - NOT an HTPC where it's merits are obvious]

1)Speed wise, my e6300 Conroe overclocked to 3.20GHz will murder this. And it can be had used for $10-20.

2)Quad core? Nice... But exactly how many apps/games an average joe uses in his day will take advantage of all four?

3)Onboard Graphics? Nice, but, a GeForce 610 only cost me $20 after rebate. ($30 otherwise). Could have used something even cheaper.

4)I suppose low power is probably the only merit that I can clearly see. But what else is there?

I built a Trinity machine a short while ago. Now that, was worth it.. It only cost me about $200 to build(already had a case, PSU, and hard drive). It's a solid performer in low to mid range gaming, and it handles word, excel, windows, internet, mail like a champ. Kabini in comparison seems too slow to be worth it.

RTFAs, there are plenty of articles to help you decide whether this products is for you, the main advantage imho is cheap mini-itx builds for htpcs and offices., in this configuration, it seems no other system can compete.

 

[pw257008]

2)Quad core? Nice... But exactly how many apps/games an average joe uses in his day will take advantage of all four?

Chrome

 

[Infraction Jack]

These might be decent for low power/cost render farms also.

 

[VirtualLarry]

These might be decent for low power/cost render farms also.

As much as I like the idea of Kabini, I don't know if I would go that far. When you get around to buying HDDs and PSUs for the rigs, I would think a single 4770K would be more cost-effective performance.

 

[FlanK3r]

Full version of review with some video playing, older games etc

http://pctuning.tyden.cz/hardware/p...ma-amd-am1-athlon-x4-5150-a-deska-asus-am1i-a

 

[coercitiv]

I'm a bit concerned by coil whine noise, but I won't give any details on that before I change my PSU this week.

New PSU arrived, the coil whine was coming from the old PSU, not the mainboard.

 

[cbn]

2)Quad core? Nice... But exactly how many apps/games an average joe uses in his day will take advantage of all four?

Chrome

I have the E1-2100 BGA Kabini (1.0 Ghz dual core Jaguar with 300 Mhz 128 stream processor GCN iGPU). It is actually surprisingly good with Chromium web browser under ubuntu 14.04. (You tube appears to be a different story, but I am still testing that)

So I am wondering how much better the low power quad cores like the 1.3 Ghz Sempron 3850 could be with Chromium or Chrome browser compared to a faster dual core like the 1.45 Ghz Sempron 2650 or even the slower E1-2100 dual core?

I am referring to typical web browsing only. (Not tests like opening lots of tabs simultaneously....which I understand will definitely stress multiple cores at the same time using Chrome)

 

[monstercameron]

I have the E1-2100 BGA Kabini (1.0 Ghz dual core Jaguar with 300 Mhz 128 stream processor GCN iGPU). It is actually surprisingly good with Chromium web browser under ubuntu 14.04. (You tube appears to be a different story, but I am still testing that)

So I am wondering how much better the low power quad cores like the 1.3 Ghz Sempron 3850 could be with Chromium or Chrome browser compared to a faster dual core like the 1.45 Ghz Sempron 2650 or even the slower E1-2100 dual core?

I am referring to typical web browsing only. (Not tests like opening lots of tabs simultaneously....which I understand will definitely stress multiple cores at the same time using Chrome)

well the last time I was messing with ubuntu on my netbook, both flash and htm5 video weren't usable for hd video. My solutions were:

1. with the foss driver, and the oibaf ppa use minitube to stream it.
2. with any driver use latest VLC beta that has the hardware accel enabled and stream there
3. just download the video and play it locally via vlc or mplayer

 

[coercitiv]

What is the stock voltage of the 5150? 1.3V?

 

[itsmydamnation]

As much as I like the idea of Kabini, I don't know if I would go that far. When you get around to buying HDDs and PSUs for the rigs, I would think a single 4770K would be more cost-effective performance.

if i was going to use these as a render farm, i would boot off flash(your data will be on shared storage) and use a DC power setup.

 

[Abwx]

I have the E1-2100 BGA Kabini (1.0 Ghz dual core Jaguar with 300 Mhz 128 stream processor GCN iGPU). It is actually surprisingly good with Chromium web browser under ubuntu 14.04. (You tube appears to be a different story, but I am still testing that)

So I am wondering how much better the low power quad cores like the 1.3 Ghz Sempron 3850 could be with Chromium or Chrome browser compared to a faster dual core like the 1.45 Ghz Sempron 2650 or even the slower E1-2100 dual core?

I am referring to typical web browsing only. (Not tests like opening lots of tabs simultaneously....which I understand will definitely stress multiple cores at the same time using Chrome)

Better to get a Sempron 3850, not only you ll have a slightly better perf/core than the E1-2100 but you also have two spared cores if ever the requirements where to increase notably, besides given its low frequency and obviously exagerated supply voltage you could always downvolt it to get the same TDP as the regularly voltage supplied 2C E series, so far a member at Hardware.fr got a fully stable at stock frequency 5350 with 0.2V lower voltage so i guess that s it s litteraly the norm for the Sempron 3850.

 

[coercitiv]

Just got a wattmeter so I have some fun power data to share about my Kabini system.

Idle load:
17-18W, the same as silentpcreview

Prime 95 load:
28W with CPU @ 1.6Ghz (-275mV offset, RAM @ 1.35V 1600Mhz)
62W with CPU @ 2.7Ghz (+205mV offset, RAM @ 1.65V 2288Mhz)

I also tested the stock radiator without fan (CPU @ 1.6Ghz undervolted), it can handle moderate loads as long as there's minimum airflow inside the case. (eg. power supply fan or a case fan at very low rpm).

When I have some spare time I'll change the thermal paste on the stock cooler and gather more/proper power&thermal data.

System config consists of: Athlon 5350, Asus AM1I-A, 2 x 4GB Kingston HyperX Beast, 128GB Kingston V180+ SSD, Fortron FSP350 60EGN 350W (Gold Rated, 88% efficiency at 20%load, likely to keep it up at 80% even at lower loads).