AMD Sempron (Kabini) Quad Core AM1 @ $37

[Enigmoid]

Cheapest MB is around $42 here in Europe, so $32 in U.S. is quite likely. The $77 model comes with 4 SATA ports and every video output one can think of (VGA, DVI, DP, HDMI): it's pricey for an AM1 board but would make a good HTPC buy.

Baytrail should have been main competition, but in my case it failed from the spec sheet: with prices of $96 and $125, the two Gigabyte - Bay Trail embedded MBs offer only 2 SATA ports and no PCIe slots. Maybe that will change with other models, but for now this lack of features and flexibility is a no go for me. At $125 the quad core Bay Trail ain't cheap either.

The embedded IVB Celerons are indeed nice competition for the Kabini: nice CPU, enough SATA ports, PCIe x16 slot (some of them at least), likely cheaper overall. They lack USB 3.0 though. Because.... differentiation.

Had you even checked the retail price you (perhaps) would have come to a different conclusion.

The Gigabyte board you reference is $75.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128688

The AM1 board is much more feature heavy but the target market probably isn't going to use those features.

 

[shady28]

Had you even checked the retail price you (perhaps) would have come to a different conclusion.

The Gigabyte board you reference is $75.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128688

The AM1 board is much more feature heavy but the target market probably isn't going to use those features.

Not sure why anyone would go with the J18xx dual core Bay-Trail vs the 3850 Kabini Quad core.

The $37 Kabini AM1 is faster. When it comes to graphics, its a lot faster. The pricing seems to be on parity. It seems pretty ideal for use as a small file server + HTPC and maybe low-end TV gaming machine.

Note the PCMark7 score is slightly higher, but the 3dMark and BaseMarkCL are about 80% higher than the Cel J1850

 

[Vesku]

If the 4 core Sempron 3850 turbos to ~1.7 GHz as some have said and has available motherboards that support ECC for under roughly $70 then it would make a decent home server or, with a cheaper non-ECC motherboard, a non-gaming home entertainment PC.

 

[cbn]

Not sure why anyone would go with the J18xx dual core Bay-Trail vs the 3850 Kabini Quad core.

The $37 Kabini AM1 is faster. When it comes to graphics, its a lot faster.

I haven't tried the J1800 yet, but if Sempron 3850 has a clock of 1.3 Ghz it is going to be a lot slower in single thread tasks (like Firefox web browser).

 

[Enigmoid]

Not sure why anyone would go with the J18xx dual core Bay-Trail vs the 3850 Kabini Quad core.

The $37 Kabini AM1 is faster. When it comes to graphics, its a lot faster. The pricing seems to be on parity. It seems pretty ideal for use as a small file server + HTPC and maybe low-end TV gaming machine.

Note the PCMark7 score is slightly higher, but the 3dMark and BaseMarkCL are about 80% higher than the Cel J1850

Lets face it and say that for the target market ST performance is more important than MT performance.

Two fast cores are probably just as useful or more useful than 4 slow cores.

PCmark 7 is pretty relevant but OpenCL certaintly is not on these machines. Kabini is extremely weak for gaming anyway.

 

[shady28]

Lets face it and say that for the target market ST performance is more important than MT performance.

Two fast cores are probably just as useful or more useful than 4 slow cores.

PCmark 7 is pretty relevant but OpenCL certaintly is not on these machines. Kabini is extremely weak for gaming anyway.

I would have to disagree with that. Too many things either directly or indirectly use iGPU on typical user case scenarios now.

And the single thread is only marginally better.

This is Geekbench 3 of a J1800 / 2.4Ghz Bay Trail vs a 1.5Ghz a4-5000 Kabini.

J1800 / 2.4Ghz
Geekbench 3.1.5 Tryout for Windows x86 (32-bit)
Single-Core Score Multi-Core Score
993 1727

A4-5000 / 1.5Ghz
Geekbench 3.1.5 Tryout for Windows x86 (32-bit)
Single-Core Score Multi-Core Score
845 2654

 

[coercitiv]

Had you even checked the retail price you (perhaps) would have come to a different conclusion.

The Gigabyte board you reference is $75.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128688

The AM1 board is much more feature heavy but the target market probably isn't going to use those features.

Had you even read my post you (perhaps) would have come to a different conclusion.

The prices I mentioned are retail prices in a store in Europe. That means one adds at least a significant sales tax over the U.S. price, in this case 24%. Moreover, you might have noticed the low price for AM1 entry boards, around $42 in Europe and most likely around $33 in U.S. The more expensive model just shows how flexible the platform is.

Again, the IVB Celeron boards look very nice. This one for example even has passive cooling, and although I'm still put off by the lack of PCIe and USB 3.0, it is a nice little board for a really cheap system. Out here it's cheaper than the quad Bay Trail MB.

The point I was trying to make is you shouldn't dismiss the AM1 platform because it seems more expensive. It shows every sign of matching Intel in price and may offer better I/O options and upgrades (CPU and even dGPU).

 

[ShintaiDK]

I would have to disagree with that. Too many things either directly or indirectly use iGPU on typical user case scenarios now.

And the single thread is only marginally better.

This is Geekbench 3 of a J1800 / 2.4Ghz Bay Trail vs a 1.5Ghz a4-5000 Kabini.

J1800 / 2.4Ghz
Geekbench 3.1.5 Tryout for Windows x86 (32-bit)
Single-Core Score Multi-Core Score
993 1727

A4-5000 / 1.5Ghz
Geekbench 3.1.5 Tryout for Windows x86 (32-bit)
Single-Core Score Multi-Core Score
845 2654

The J1850 is 4 cores. The J1800 is 2. And the part AMD aims at the J1850 is a 1.3Ghz Kabini part with whatever reduced GPU clock follows.

 

[Enigmoid]

Had you even read my post you (perhaps) would have come to a different conclusion.

The prices I mentioned are retail prices in a store in Europe. That means one adds at least a significant sales tax over the U.S. price, in this case 24%. Moreover, you might have noticed the low price for AM1 entry boards, around $42 in Europe and most likely around $33 in U.S. The more expensive model just shows how flexible the platform is.

Again, the IVB Celeron boards look very nice. This one for example even has passive cooling, and although I'm still put off by the lack of PCIe and USB 3.0, it is a nice little board for a really cheap system. Out here it's cheaper than the quad Bay Trail MB.

The point I was trying to make is you shouldn't dismiss the AM1 platform because it seems more expensive. It shows every sign of matching Intel in price and may offer better I/O options and upgrades (CPU and even dGPU).

I'm sorry. Your baytrail links are too the gigabyte site. I don't see any pricing on them.

The $77 asrock board doesn't have any price.

Motherboards, AMD or Intel seem to have a lower price limit around $40.

 

[coercitiv]

I'm sorry. Your baytrail links are too the gigabyte site. I don't see any pricing on them.

There you go then. (1$ = 3.3 RON)

 

[ShintaiDK]

Remember the Baytrail comes WITH the CPU in that price.

J1800 with board can be had for 45euro without sales tax:
http://geizhals.at/eu/gigabyte-ga-j1800n-d2p-a1082508.html

Thats 61-62$. And the Baytrail is faster and got 40% the TDP.

 

[coercitiv]

Remember the Baytrail comes WITH the CPU in that price.

J1800 with board can be had for 45euro without sales tax:
http://geizhals.at/eu/gigabyte-ga-j1800n-d2p-a1082508.html

Thats 61-62$. And the Baytrail is faster and got 40% the TDP.

Is this AM1 board 20 Euro ($27) without VAT? Add the $37 Sempron and you get $64.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Is this AM1 board 20 Euro ($27) without VAT? Add the $37 Sempron and you get $64.

Isnt this what you wanna compare with rather than the MC price:
http://geizhals.at/amd-sempron-2650-sd2650jahmbox-a1082997.html

And the J1800:
http://geizhals.at/eu/asrock-d1800b-itx-90-mxgrf0-a0uayz-a1089504.html

55$ with board. Plus as mentioned, 40% the TDP.

 

[johnny_boy]

Is this AM1 board 20 Euro ($27) without VAT? Add the $37 Sempron and you get $64.

Nice find! I may pick this up for an upgrade to my HTPC (an old Macbook).

EDIT: Actually the Asrock and Asus boards offer a better deal if you're looking to have USB 3.0 for a few extra euros.

http://geizhals.at/eu/asrock-am1b-itx-90-mxgt50-a0uayz-a1079579.html
http://geizhals.at/eu/asus-am1i-a-90mb0ia0-m0eay0-a1080718.html

 

[AtenRa]

Isnt this what you wanna compare with rather than the MC price:
http://geizhals.at/amd-sempron-2650-sd2650jahmbox-a1082997.html

And the J1800:
http://geizhals.at/eu/asrock-d1800b-itx-90-mxgrf0-a0uayz-a1089504.html

55$ with board. Plus as mentioned, 40% the TDP.

Biostar AM1ML = €23.00

AMD Sempron 2650 = €25,50

Total = €48,5
http://geizhals.at/amd-sempron-2650-sd2650jahmbox-a1082997.html
Or

Biostar AM1ML = €23.00

And
AMD Quad Core Sempron 3850 = €32,5

Total = €55,5

The first is cheaper than the Intel Celeron J1800 on your link but you get the socket and you may upgrade up to 2GHz Quad core Athlon 5350 later on.
The second is 5.00 euros more expensive but you get a Quad core + better graphics. Again you may upgrade to Athlon 5350 later on, something you cannot with BGA Celerons/Pentiums.


http://geizhals.at/amd-sempron-3850-sd3850jahmbox-a1082987.html

 

[NTMBK]

Biostar AM1ML = €23.00

AMD Sempron 2650 = €25,50

Total = €48,5
http://geizhals.at/amd-sempron-2650-sd2650jahmbox-a1082997.html
Or

Biostar AM1ML = €23.00

And
AMD Quad Core Sempron 3850 = €32,5

Total = €55,5

The first is cheaper than the Intel Celeron J1800 on your link but you get the socket and you may upgrade up to 2GHz Quad core Athlon 5350 later on.
The second is 5.00 euros more expensive but you get a Quad core + better graphics. Again you may upgrade to Athlon 5350 later on, something you cannot with BGA Celerons/Pentiums.


http://geizhals.at/amd-sempron-3850-sd3850jahmbox-a1082987.html

That BioStar board doesn't even have a single digital video out, it's VGA only D: How do you even dig up a board that bad?!

 

[AtenRa]

That BioStar board doesn't even have a single digital video out, it's VGA only D: How do you even dig up a board that bad?!

I used the board from the link coercitiv gave earlier. For 2-3 Euros more you get a much better board with loads of features (see johnny_boy links above)

 

[coercitiv]

I used the board from the link coercitiv gave earlier. For 2-3 Euros more you get a much better board with loads of features (see johnny_boy links above)

And I used that board as an example since there seems to be a race here about which platform is cheaper, no matter what it offers. Invoking the lack of PCIe or USB 3.0 (on IVB Celerons) earlier did not seem to matter for example.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Nice find! I may pick this up for an upgrade to my HTPC (an old Macbook).

EDIT: Actually the Asrock and Asus boards offer a better deal if you're looking to have USB 3.0 for a few extra euros.

http://geizhals.at/eu/asrock-am1b-itx-90-mxgt50-a0uayz-a1079579.html
http://geizhals.at/eu/asus-am1i-a-90mb0ia0-m0eay0-a1080718.html

You should really get a Haswell Celeron instead. Any Atom/Kabini will be very short lived. And any codec that isnt hardware accelerated puts them to death.

 

[VirtualLarry]

You should really get a Haswell Celeron instead. Any Atom/Kabini will be very short lived. And any codec that isnt hardware accelerated puts them to death.

It would obsolete the Haswell Celeron too, if it didn't have a PCI-E slot for a new video card. Dual-cores really don't handle advanced codecs well either.

Edit: To that point, Haswell Celeron / Pentium lack AVX / AVX2, which would (likely) be useful for doing software decoding of advanced codecs.

Edit: Newegg has boards!
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2377334

 

[ShintaiDK]

It would obsolete the Haswell Celeron too, if it didn't have a PCI-E slot for a new video card. Dual-cores really don't handle advanced codecs well either.

Edit: To that point, Haswell Celeron / Pentium lack AVX / AVX2, which would (likely) be useful for doing software decoding of advanced codecs.

Edit: Newegg has boards!
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2377334

The Haswell Celeron is several times faster that the netbook style crap Kabini and Baytrail is for the desktop. And unlike Kabini/Baytrail, the Haswell can actually handle most codecs without full support. And it wouldnt be a turd to use for daily usage.

 

[VirtualLarry]

The Haswell Celeron is several times faster that the netbook style crap Kabini and Baytrail is for the desktop. And unlike Kabini/Baytrail, the Haswell can actually handle most codecs without full support. And it wouldnt be a turd to use for daily usage.

Ok, give me a list of codecs that aren't supported in hardware, that the Haswell Celeron can run in software, but the Kabini quad-cores can't? Don't forget, Kabini quad-cores have AVX, Haswell Celeron doesn't. (A bit of delicious irony from Intel's product segmentation efforts there.)

 

[grimpr]

I would choose the Core architecture Celeron/Pentium cpus anytime instead of Atom/Jaguar for Desktop/HTPC usage, no contest, the performance delta is big they can handle anything and they age more gracefully.

 

[grimpr]

The Haswell Celeron is several times faster that the netbook style crap Kabini and Baytrail is for the desktop. And unlike Kabini/Baytrail, the Haswell can actually handle most codecs without full support. And it wouldnt be a turd to use for daily usage.

I agree 100%, for the info i was more than impressed to find out that a Pentium G3420 can handle 720p/1080p 60fps frame interpolation software such as SVP, can handle OpenCL and has Quicksync enabled too with Intels latest graphics drivers, a beast for the money.

 

[AtenRa]

I agree 100%, for the info i was more than impressed to find out that a Pentium G3420 can handle 720p/1080p 60fps frame interpolation software such as SVP, can handle OpenCL and has Quicksync enabled too with Intels latest graphics drivers, a beast for the money.

I agree the G3420 is very nice CPU but, have you seen what the 25W 2GHz Quad core Jaguar can do at its TDP ???

Also, nobody here said that Haswell/Richland entry level SKUs are not faster, but they cost more and have higher power consumption.