Six A75-Based Motherboards For AMD’s A8 And A6 APUs
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Advanced on-board graphics put AMD’s Llano-based APU far ahead of Intel’s Sandy Bridge architecture, at least when it comes to 3D apps. But you’ll still need a new motherboard to support the Socket FM1 platform. Today we test six affordable contenders.
Six A75-Based Motherboards For AMD’s A8 And A6 APUs : Read more
Six A75-Based Motherboards For AMD’s A8 And A6 APUs : Read more
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dogman_1234
August 17, 2011 4:51:52 AM
dogman_1234Thank You for the Review. I am glad to see you guys taking this and pushing it to the limits. Can't wait until SB-E and Bulldozer reviews.Qne question, what does the APU,( either the A6 or the A8), have on F@H applications?
Since I haven't joined F@H, I can only recommend going to a F@H forum to find someone who's tried it.I know F@H is a great cause, might cure cancer etc, but wouldn't it be more geeky to search for radio signals of little green men?
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0
Related resources
- AMD A6 6400k dual core or AMD A8 6600k quad core - Forum
- Information about the AMD A4, A6, A8, and A10 - Forum
- AMD APUs: A10 5800k vs A8 5600k + Radeon 6670 - Forum
- A6, A8 AMD Llano Processor Use in Daily Life - Forum
- For watching movies/videos AMD A8 or AMD A6? (no gaming at all) - Forum
_Pez_
August 17, 2011 5:36:06 AM
_Pez_what about blue-ray playback? and power consumption when playing it. I'm planing a HTPC. And those small form factor are really appealing. especially Gigabyte’s A75M-UD2H, I will get that one.
SFF properly translates to DTX and Mini ITX. These are Micro ATX...I checked the CPU reviews and didn't see anything there either. You know it's going to be low utilization for these processors, which means it will be closer to the idle power than to the full-load power...
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0
I remember when the Gigabyte board first was launched, I though it looked pretty sweet then even posted a poll on it. I'd have to agree, it seems like the board to have for A8. Looks good too, although I a find Gigabyte's non-blue/white scheme offerings more attractive. Just ordered my 990FX UD5, can't wait!
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0
CrashmanSFF properly translates to DTX and Mini ITX. These are Micro ATX...I checked the CPU reviews and didn't see anything there either. You know it's going to be low utilization for these processors, which means it will be closer to the idle power than to the full-load power...
I think micro atx fits into plenty of SFF cases. Maybe we need to redefine..
I'd like to see a showdown of mini itx boards though, I think Anand did something like that recently. That's probably where the A8 CPU's need to go head to head with atom anyway, most reviews I've seen show the CPU's aren't all that cut out for desktop. Maybe the next batch that comes out in Q4/Q1 2012 will be better for desktop.
Score
-1
tacoslave
August 17, 2011 6:45:13 AM
buzznutI think micro atx fits into plenty of SFF cases. Maybe we need to redefine..I'd like to see a showdown of mini itx boards though, I think Anand did something like that recently. That's probably where the A8 CPU's need to go head to head with atom anyway, most reviews I've seen show the CPU's aren't all that cut out for desktop. Maybe the next batch that comes out in Q4/Q1 2012 will be better for desktop.
lol wut? Dude you got this QUAD CORE based on the phenom II architecture mixed up with the e-350 or the c-50 those are the ones that are going up against Atom.
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2
buzznutI think micro atx fits into plenty of SFF cases. Maybe we need to redefine.
That would make you part of the problem rather than part of the solution.1.) SFF originally stood for Shuttle Form Factor and was proprietary, using 2-slots.
2.) It was copied by companies like First International Computer and AOpen
3.) AMD established a standard for "open architecture" systems of similar design, called DTX.
4.) ITX is smaller than DTX and fits DTX cases.
Notice this has nothing to do with Micro ATX. People who claim that anything shaped like a cube is SFF need only be shown a full ATX cube before they start making excuses. People who point to horizontal cases and say SFF need only look at ancient AT desktops before they're forced to come up with excuses.
2-slots. That's what makes Shuttle copies different from everything else. Cubes can be any "size", HTPC's can be any "size", if SFF is a size standard it can only be used to apply to two-slot cases.
Some competitors have been trying for years to expand the definition of SFF. They are, of course, wrong.
Nobody's perfect, one of Tom's old team members once said that barebones always refers to SFF systems (even though full sized barebones existed long before SFF). But at least Tom's tries to fix those types of errors rather than force them into the vernacular.
I'm just asking people to be specific. If you mean cube, say cube. If you mean desktop, say desktop. If you mean mini-tower, slim tower, or slim desktop, just say it. Then apply a form factor "Mini ITX slim tower" or "Micro ATX desktop". And if you're saying "SFF" rather than media center, well it's obvious that SFF can do other things so just be specific and say media center.
If you're not specific, you might find yourself in a discussion about what the meaning of "is" is.
Score
4
noob2222
August 17, 2011 7:54:18 AM
I have the gigabyte board and undervolted by .2 running stock speeds. Its used for my HTPC setup so for me making it silent and less power draw were the key points. I have an oversized fanless heatsink and never have issues. When I do run a game on it for fun, the case fan will kick up, but watching movies it stays silent.
Would love to see some benches on the gigabyte with those max overclock numbers as the GPU would benefit greatly from the memory oc.
Would love to see some benches on the gigabyte with those max overclock numbers as the GPU would benefit greatly from the memory oc.
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1
noob2222I have the gigabyte board and undervolted by .2 running stock speeds. Its used for my HTPC setup so for me making it silent and less power draw were the key points. I have an oversized fanless heatsink and never have issues. When I do run a game on it for fun, the case fan will kick up, but watching movies it stays silent.Would love to see some benches on the gigabyte with those max overclock numbers as the GPU would benefit greatly from the memory oc.
Good News! Tom's Hardware is working on a memory article using one of these boards, and has included games in the test!Score
1
ozonepilot
August 17, 2011 9:28:51 AM
I bought the Asus board reviewed here. Had nothing but problems with that and the AMD A8-3850 APU, and a Silverstone [Seasonic] Strider Plus 500W PSU. I had this built as an HTPC. I was using XBMC on my Win 7 64 but OS, and had it configured after a day of playing around with it, as XBMC would't let the 45GB+ .m2ts file play through, but only 3 minutes of play and then exit the movie. It didn't crash, but let me make a normal exit from the program itself. After some thought, I put in a {working] GPU from my desktop PC, an ATI HD 4870 GPU. This was worse....it played about 6 minutes of film and then the HTPC just shut down completly. a 500W PSU is more than enough to handle my GPU. I thought about updating the BIOS to 0802 [July 27th], and had the file on a flash drive. The Asus EZ flash BIOS utility read/copied over the file, and rebooted. Thee was no Asus splash screen and no POST, only went to a blue screen with no OS. Tried it a couple of times, same thing. Pulled one of the mobo jumpers, pulled the battery, disconnected the AC cord from the wall for a minute. Plugged everything back in, with the same results.. After spending $800+ [CDN] for all the components and the build, I'm not very happy with my POS purchase, and I RMA'd the whole works to the vendor to sort out. Sorry I didn't go with the Intel solution instead. Won't be using XBMC as well if/when I get my HTPC back, sinc it couldn't handle HD files. No problem with the file in my media player mind you, that and 4.5TB of other media I've never had a problem with.
Score
0
ozonepilot
August 17, 2011 9:32:22 AM
ozonepilotI bought the Asus board reviewed here. Had nothing but problems with that and the AMD A8-3850 APU, and a Silverstone [Seasonic] Strider Plus 500W PSU. I had this built as an HTPC. I was using XBMC on my Win 7 64 bit OS, and had it configured properly after a couple of hours of playing around with it, as XBMC wouldn't let the 45GB+ .m2ts file play through, but only 3 minutes of play and then exit the movie. It didn't crash, but let me make a normal exit from the program itself. After some thought, I put in a {working] GPU from my desktop PC, an ATI HD 4870 GPU. This was worse....it played about 6 minutes of film and then the HTPC just shut down completly. a 500W PSU is more than enough to handle my GPU. I thought about updating the BIOS to 0802 [July 27th], and had the file on a flash drive. The Asus EZ flash BIOS utility read/copied over the file, and rebooted. There was no Asus splash screen and no POST, only went to a blue screen with no OS. Tried it a couple of times, same thing. Pulled one of the mobo jumpers, pulled the battery, disconnected the AC cord from the wall for a minute. Plugged everything back in, with the same results.. After spending $800+ [CDN] for all the components and the build, I'm not very happy with my POS purchase, and I RMA'd the whole works to the vendor to sort out. Sorry I didn't go with the Intel solution instead. Won't be using XBMC as well if/when I get my HTPC back, since it couldn't handle HD/SD files. No problem with the files in my media player mind you, that and 4.5TB of other media I've never had a problem with.
Score
-7
monkeysweat
August 17, 2011 1:40:47 PM
i can hardly wait till they come with a real stripped down motherboard, just some USB connectors, HDMI & optical output, basically enough to connect motherboard, an external hard drive, a TV and a Stereo, no other "frills" connectors and just 1 PCI ex 16 slot and 1 1xPCI ex slot and quite a few of SATA ports (6-10) - would allow this platform to do what it is intended to be, a great HTPC & media server - with the capability to do a little gaming and office work. And the future possibility of adding a little more storage with the 1x slot and a little more gaming power with the x16
Score
1
ojas
August 17, 2011 1:50:36 PM
CrashmanI know F@H is a great cause, might cure cancer etc, but wouldn't it be more geeky to search for radio signals of little green men?
I used to run SETI@home for a while, but then thought that using up resources on earth to look for little green men, after which me may or may not find them (most likely will not), rather than address issues closer to home (disease research, weather prediction, etc) is kind of a waste, no matter how geeky the LHC and SETI projecs are.
On the topic:
They're selling the A8-3850 for around Rs.10,000 ($220)in India, when the Core i3-2100 sells for around Rs.5500. What's the point? I'd rather get a Core i3 + Radeon 5770 in almost the same price....
Score
2
cknobman
August 17, 2011 1:52:13 PM
torque79
August 17, 2011 1:59:46 PM
ozonepilot, I am wondering if the first problem (failing to play large .m2ts files after a few minutes) could have been video player/codec related. I found for example I had some hidef .m2ts files that kept having stuttery video when played in vlc media player, and they were not nearly as large as yours. I updated VLC to the newest version, and it was fine.
Now if only I could figure out how to force VLC to default to HD audio output to SPDIF instead of having to select it every time I play an .m2ts file.
Now if only I could figure out how to force VLC to default to HD audio output to SPDIF instead of having to select it every time I play an .m2ts file.
Score
1
Yuka
August 17, 2011 2:19:13 PM
I'm an A8 + Asus F1A owner, for HTPC duty. I have 4 modules used (8Gb total) and 1GB for graphics (fixed, not dynamic if I recall correctly) with un-ganged mode and running at 1650Mhz. I put the PhII 965's cooler on the A8, cause AMD was really cutting costs when providing the stock cooler; that thing isn't remotely trust worthy, lol.
Anyway, great article Tom's. You could add more "stream" games in there as well (WoW, CS Source, LoL, etc). Also a good Video playback review would make the chip show it's colors.
Cheers!
Anyway, great article Tom's. You could add more "stream" games in there as well (WoW, CS Source, LoL, etc). Also a good Video playback review would make the chip show it's colors.
Cheers!
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0
TeraMedia
August 17, 2011 3:13:54 PM
Rather than spending so much time on charts where these boards are (nearly) the same, how about spending more time on where they differ? For example:
- analog audio SNRs and distortion levels
- data rate performance for included features such as extra USB 3.0 ports
- bandwidth and latency for ethernet connections
- gaming performance when overclocked
As far as the target resolution goes, I would assume that most HTPC builders would connect one of these up to a 1080p LCD or plasma display via HDMI, and would therefore try to match that native resolution during game play. So the question then becomes, "Both OOTB and optimally configured and O/Ced, what are the maximum settings that a gamer might hope to achieve in a given game, at 1080p?"
- analog audio SNRs and distortion levels
- data rate performance for included features such as extra USB 3.0 ports
- bandwidth and latency for ethernet connections
- gaming performance when overclocked
As far as the target resolution goes, I would assume that most HTPC builders would connect one of these up to a 1080p LCD or plasma display via HDMI, and would therefore try to match that native resolution during game play. So the question then becomes, "Both OOTB and optimally configured and O/Ced, what are the maximum settings that a gamer might hope to achieve in a given game, at 1080p?"
Score
6
stingstang
August 17, 2011 3:16:52 PM
nezzymighty
August 17, 2011 4:53:57 PM
I don't know if the ATI RAID XPERT is built into the A75 chipset, and responsible for the available RAID configurations or if it is the motherboard manufacturers' decision to incorporate that availability independently... At any rate, I was hoping to create an A6-3650 Windows Home Server and not have to purchase any additional add-on card for the RAID 5 capability... The intent for me would have been to have the lowest cost solution, utilizing AMD's new architecture... Why did you take that capability out AMD or MOBO makers? I'm wondering what kind of cost savings there are having eliminating that feature either at the CPU or motherboard level...
Score
-1
noob2222
August 17, 2011 5:14:23 PM
ozonepilotI bought the Asus board reviewed here. Had nothing but problems with that and the AMD A8-3850 APU, and a Silverstone [Seasonic] Strider Plus 500W PSU. I had this built as an HTPC. I was using XBMC on my Win 7 64 but OS, and had it configured after a day of playing around with it, as XBMC would't let the 45GB+ .m2ts file play through, but only 3 minutes of play and then exit the movie. It didn't crash, but let me make a normal exit from the program itself. After some thought, I put in a {working] GPU from my desktop PC, an ATI HD 4870 GPU. This was worse....it played about 6 minutes of film and then the HTPC just shut down completly. a 500W PSU is more than enough to handle my GPU. I thought about updating the BIOS to 0802 [July 27th], and had the file on a flash drive. The Asus EZ flash BIOS utility read/copied over the file, and rebooted. Thee was no Asus splash screen and no POST, only went to a blue screen with no OS. Tried it a couple of times, same thing. Pulled one of the mobo jumpers, pulled the battery, disconnected the AC cord from the wall for a minute. Plugged everything back in, with the same results.. After spending $800+ [CDN] for all the components and the build, I'm not very happy with my POS purchase, and I RMA'd the whole works to the vendor to sort out. Sorry I didn't go with the Intel solution instead. Won't be using XBMC as well if/when I get my HTPC back, sinc it couldn't handle HD files. No problem with the file in my media player mind you, that and 4.5TB of other media I've never had a problem with.
sounds like an issue with Asus board overheating or just a bad board VRM. I play All my content through WMC, just save the HD files to a .MKV and windows will hanlde it with just the codec.
I didn't like the .m2ts format because of all the extra software required to play them. The biggest issue is the lack of "uninstall" most software companies are going to. One example is cyberlink. Installs 9 programs in control panel to remove one at a time if you decide to get rid of it.
Score
1
halls
August 17, 2011 5:41:37 PM
TeramediaRather than spending so much time on charts where these boards are (nearly) the same, how about spending more time on where they differ? For example:- analog audio SNRs and distortion levels- data rate performance for included features such as extra USB 3.0 ports- bandwidth and latency for ethernet connections- gaming performance when overclockedAs far as the target resolution goes, I would assume that most HTPC builders would connect one of these up to a 1080p LCD or plasma display via HDMI, and would therefore try to match that native resolution during game play. So the question then becomes, "Both OOTB and optimally configured and O/Ced, what are the maximum settings that a gamer might hope to achieve in a given game, at 1080p?"
Most people of any group would try to do something unreasonable before giving up and trying something more reasonable.Most low-end discrete graphics cards are too weak to play most modern games at 1080p, so nobody truly expects an integrated GPU to do it. On the other hand 720p looks good on a 1080p display, so 720p becomes the new goal after people get over the fact that 1080p gaming was an unreasonable expectation.
As for desktop users, the $100 motherboard market roughly intersects with the 1600x900 display market. So 720p or 1600x900 would be reasonable 3D gaming goals depending on whether you're a desktop or HTPC user.
Score
1
ecrenshaw
August 17, 2011 6:36:26 PM
I agree with Teramedia above. In addition to gaming on an 1080p tele, what about how the videos look? I think these new boards can send the HDCP over the HDMI, but does it work on most AV equipment? ATI had issues with it in the past.
Also, can it handle 3D blu-ray? I think the reviewers at Tom's need to remember that there are enthusiasts out there that do other things than game with hardware. Yeah, games are a big driver, but what about more HTPC stuff...especially since that is mentioned in the article.
Also, can it handle 3D blu-ray? I think the reviewers at Tom's need to remember that there are enthusiasts out there that do other things than game with hardware. Yeah, games are a big driver, but what about more HTPC stuff...especially since that is mentioned in the article.
Score
0
ozonepilot
August 17, 2011 7:22:53 PM
TeraMedia
August 17, 2011 7:39:08 PM
(off-topic) @nezzymighty: You can create a RAID-5 array at the O/S level inside WHS 2011 (Vail). I'm doing that now. This will also give your array full portability from one system to the next, as long as they are both running some incarnation of Windows that supports RAID 5.
I too find it odd that they would strip away something that is basically implemented in software anyway. AFAIK, the 890GX platform doesn't have XOR circuitry, but it supports RAID-5 just fine. Perhaps it's because these are supposed to be for smallish / desktop systems anyway.
I too find it odd that they would strip away something that is basically implemented in software anyway. AFAIK, the 890GX platform doesn't have XOR circuitry, but it supports RAID-5 just fine. Perhaps it's because these are supposed to be for smallish / desktop systems anyway.
Score
1
ecrenshawI agree with Teramedia above. In addition to gaming on an 1080p tele, what about how the videos look? I think these new boards can send the HDCP over the HDMI, but does it work on most AV equipment? ATI had issues with it in the past.Also, can it handle 3D blu-ray? I think the reviewers at Tom's need to remember that there are enthusiasts out there that do other things than game with hardware. Yeah, games are a big driver, but what about more HTPC stuff...especially since that is mentioned in the article.
Tom's tries to cover the most important aspects of a new CPU and chipset in its CPU and chipset reviews. Don and Chris both have articles on Llano, is there anything there?
Score
2
gsxrme
August 17, 2011 7:59:55 PM
alextheblue
August 17, 2011 11:42:10 PM
ozonepilot@torque79 If it was a codec problem, the file would have not even opened and played for 6 minutes.....rather XBMC in itself contains all the codecs necessary to play these files. I don't use vlc on an HTPC, but only on my desktop pc.
You didn't even try VLC to see if that helped? Did you test any of the components before you shipped it all back and blamed it on AMD? Sounds like you should leave building boxes to the pros.
Score
1
goinginstyle
August 18, 2011 3:25:45 AM
Thomas,
I routinely run the Asus F1A75-M Pro board at 26x138 with a cheap Hyper 212+ cooler on a A3850. It appears something might be amiss with your results as I could also max a Mushkin 2133 8GB kit at 2200+, granted with loose 9-10-9 settings but so far this board has been rock stable when overclocking around 3600 and probably could do better if my cooling improved.
I routinely run the Asus F1A75-M Pro board at 26x138 with a cheap Hyper 212+ cooler on a A3850. It appears something might be amiss with your results as I could also max a Mushkin 2133 8GB kit at 2200+, granted with loose 9-10-9 settings but so far this board has been rock stable when overclocking around 3600 and probably could do better if my cooling improved.
Score
0
goinginstyleThomas,I routinely run the Asus F1A75-M Pro board at 26x138 with a cheap Hyper 212+ cooler on a A3850. It appears something might be amiss with your results as I could also max a Mushkin 2133 8GB kit at 2200+, granted with loose 9-10-9 settings but so far this board has been rock stable when overclocking around 3600 and probably could do better if my cooling improved.
Different BIOS? A setting that needs to be changed? The problem with this sample (as tested) was that a high reference clock couldn't be reached.Score
0
Anonymous
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Motherboard
August 18, 2011 8:41:33 AM
There is one more thing this review should address. It's the V core setting for the Llano processors.
I recently purchased a Asrock A75M and a A6-3650 and I'm not happy with the default settings.
As in the picture from this review the stock voltage is about 1.36V that means more than 60°C under heavy load (Linpack) with stock cooler.
With a bit of working I found my rig could work well undervolted at 1.05V at the same frequency (Linpack + an hour of ME2
). APU temp never goes higher than **50°C**.
I didn't invest too much time to found the limit, but I suspect that you can achieve better results.
I don't have a power meter but I expect about 20W less on the power at full load.
I recently purchased a Asrock A75M and a A6-3650 and I'm not happy with the default settings.
As in the picture from this review the stock voltage is about 1.36V that means more than 60°C under heavy load (Linpack) with stock cooler.
With a bit of working I found my rig could work well undervolted at 1.05V at the same frequency (Linpack + an hour of ME2
). APU temp never goes higher than **50°C**.I didn't invest too much time to found the limit, but I suspect that you can achieve better results.
I don't have a power meter but I expect about 20W less on the power at full load.
Score
0
4lph4There is one more thing this review should address. It's the V core setting for the Llano processors.I recently purchased a Asrock A75M and a A6-3650 and I'm not happy with the default settings.As in the picture from this review the stock voltage is about 1.36V that means more than 60°C under heavy load (Linpack) with stock cooler.With a bit of working I found my rig could work well undervolted at 1.05V at the same frequency (Linpack + an hour of ME2 ). APU temp never goes higher than **50°C**.I didn't invest too much time to found the limit, but I suspect that you can achieve better results.I don't have a power meter but I expect about 20W less on the power at full load.
Yes, I too was a bit disappointed to see the default voltage this high. We can see how far the Gigabyte motherboard overclocked at 1.40V, and some of the boards were hovering around there at stock. Score
0
HMRkingpin
August 19, 2011 12:37:48 AM
ojasI used to run SETI@home for a while, but then thought that using up resources on earth to look for little green men, after which me may or may not find them (most likely will not), rather than address issues closer to home (disease research, weather prediction, etc) is kind of a waste, no matter how geeky the LHC and SETI projecs are.On the topic:They're selling the A8-3850 for around Rs.10,000 ($220)in India, when the Core i3-2100 sells for around Rs.5500. What's the point? I'd rather get a Core i3 + Radeon 5770 in almost the same price....
Man that is a steep price. In the U.S., the price is $140. I hear you on going with the intel (I like AMD myself, but I know Intel is awesome
), but I would say more or less this APU is for people or business that do not want a discrete graphics card. Having a fast enough processor with very capable graphics solution for everyday tasks is economical. It uses less power than cpu/discrete combo. It can go into slim cases and such that a discrete would not fit. Less components to go bad inside the computer. I do see your point though. At the price point in India, it may b cheaper or more bang for your buck, to go with the Intel/ATI solution. Score
0
HMRkingpin
August 19, 2011 12:47:33 AM
beenthereIt's no surprise that the Gigabyte mobo is excellent and the Asus is problematic. History does repeat itself over and over with Asus issues.
Never had a problem with asus products. Every time I bought a different brand MoBo, I had problems
I even have some other stuff like an Asus router and netbook. I'm not in love with them or anything, just saying from my own experience. It is funny how that goes sometimes. Kinda like how some people have had some crappy Chevy's and hate them and some people had some good ones and continue to buy them. Score
0
HMRkingpin
August 19, 2011 1:01:39 AM
I really liked this article. My only problem is..... Stop crying about the SATA cables!!!! They give enough to get you going. I'm sure the motherboard manufactures were not thinking you would buy a mATX board and hook up 4 HDD's and 2 blu-ray drives. I mean if you are gonna do that, buy some damn cables.
Score
0
HMRkingpinI really liked this article. My only problem is..... Stop crying about the SATA cables!!!! They give enough to get you going. I'm sure the motherboard manufactures were not thinking you would buy a mATX board and hook up 4 HDD's and 2 blu-ray drives. I mean if you are gonna do that, buy some damn cables.
It's cheap. SATA cables are even cheaper for them than they are for us. If they cut back on SATA cables it makes one wonder what else they might be cutting corners on.Really, 3 drives (including DVD) is average, why wouldn't 3 cables be average?
Score
1
HMRkingpin
August 19, 2011 12:58:12 PM
Why is three drives average. Maybe for a toms user. I would say average is one media drive and one 500gb - 1tb HDD. Your average user is not going to raid their drives. These are basically VALUE boards. To keep the value, they will exclude some minor things. These chips and these boards are not meant for high end systems in my opinion.
Score
0
ozonepilot
August 20, 2011 1:05:13 PM
sounds like an issue with Asus board overheating or just a bad board VRM. I play All my content through WMC, just save the HD files to a .MKV and windows will hanlde it with just the codec.
I didn't like the .m2ts format because of all the extra software required to play them. The biggest issue is the lack of "uninstall" most software companies are going to. One example is cyberlink. Installs 9 programs in control panel to remove one at a time if you decide to get rid of it.
Well prior to buying this HTPC, I was using a dedicated media player on my network, so it would play any type of media file, no need to download anything. Since then, I decided to go with the HTPC, so I wasn't going to go through 4.5TB of media and re-encode all my files but in XBMC, there is no need to download 3rd party codecs............as they're all built into XBMC..it did play, but not for very long, or with the GPU, the HTPC just shut down on me after a short time. I'm not a big fan of WMC or any other Windows related software but I'm going to look into other media software for playback that I've seen lately if/when I get my HTPC back from the vendor. I know they tested my build before shipping it out, so I'll find out soon enough what the problem is.
I didn't like the .m2ts format because of all the extra software required to play them. The biggest issue is the lack of "uninstall" most software companies are going to. One example is cyberlink. Installs 9 programs in control panel to remove one at a time if you decide to get rid of it.
Well prior to buying this HTPC, I was using a dedicated media player on my network, so it would play any type of media file, no need to download anything. Since then, I decided to go with the HTPC, so I wasn't going to go through 4.5TB of media and re-encode all my files but in XBMC, there is no need to download 3rd party codecs............as they're all built into XBMC..it did play, but not for very long, or with the GPU, the HTPC just shut down on me after a short time. I'm not a big fan of WMC or any other Windows related software but I'm going to look into other media software for playback that I've seen lately if/when I get my HTPC back from the vendor. I know they tested my build before shipping it out, so I'll find out soon enough what the problem is.
Score
0
ozonepilot
August 20, 2011 1:16:51 PM
@goinginstyle
@torque79 If it was a codec problem, the file would have not even opened and played for 6 minutes.....rather XBMC in itself contains all the codecs necessary to play these files. I don't use vlc on an HTPC, but only on my desktop pc.
You didn't even try VLC to see if that helped? Did you test any of the components before you shipped it all back and blamed it on AMD? Sounds like you should leave building boxes to the pros.
Well you know, I actually did leave the building of the box to the pros. I picked out the compenents and left it to the vendor to assemble/test/ship the product to me. Strike 1. VLC I didn't have the chance to use on the HTPC[I know my files work fine with VLC on my desktop], but decided to upgrade the BIOS...yes and it _was_ the correct file on the Asus site, before I started playing with other software. I was determined to use XBMC in the build as my media player. Once the BIOS choked after it reboot, I was left with nothing. I believe I know somewhat about the hardware as I went through some recovery methods to re-coup the original BIOS, but it didn't work. It's not really my concern to test out the problem. Even if I did, I still had no POST screen to go to the OS. That's why we have warrantys.
@torque79 If it was a codec problem, the file would have not even opened and played for 6 minutes.....rather XBMC in itself contains all the codecs necessary to play these files. I don't use vlc on an HTPC, but only on my desktop pc.
You didn't even try VLC to see if that helped? Did you test any of the components before you shipped it all back and blamed it on AMD? Sounds like you should leave building boxes to the pros.
Well you know, I actually did leave the building of the box to the pros. I picked out the compenents and left it to the vendor to assemble/test/ship the product to me. Strike 1. VLC I didn't have the chance to use on the HTPC[I know my files work fine with VLC on my desktop], but decided to upgrade the BIOS...yes and it _was_ the correct file on the Asus site, before I started playing with other software. I was determined to use XBMC in the build as my media player. Once the BIOS choked after it reboot, I was left with nothing. I believe I know somewhat about the hardware as I went through some recovery methods to re-coup the original BIOS, but it didn't work. It's not really my concern to test out the problem. Even if I did, I still had no POST screen to go to the OS. That's why we have warrantys.
Score
1
ozonepilot
August 20, 2011 1:21:34 PM
hjominbonrun
August 21, 2011 10:36:06 AM
Is it possible to give a recommendation which excluded overclocking? I know a lot of people talk about it but I don't know anyone in my circle of techies who overclock anything. As such, I would like Tech recommended on its standard operating requirements, and not on a rarely implemented metric,i.e. overclocking. btw, these peeps are Devs and DBA's, so if they are not overclocking, who is??
Score
0
hjominbonrunIs it possible to give a recommendation which excluded overclocking? I know a lot of people talk about it but I don't know anyone in my circle of techies who overclock anything. As such, I would like Tech recommended on its standard operating requirements, and not on a rarely implemented metric,i.e. overclocking. btw, these peeps are Devs and DBA's, so if they are not overclocking, who is??
Are you looking for awards or just skipping over the conclusion? It's fairly easy to see that ECS is recommended for price and Asus for features when you take out the overclocking comments. Score
0
aoommen
October 19, 2011 12:12:55 AM
Thinking of a HTPC build based on the Llano platform (planning on the A4-3400 CPU) - just a glorified media player (blu-ray and DVD playback, also ripped movies majorly in MKV) with no intention of running any Games or CPU intensive applications on it. I have Core-i5 OC'd for all that. So no discrete graphics card for this build!
Budget is the main concern as far as the HTPC build goes and I'm planning on using the ECS A75F-M2 for this build. I've had no previous experience with ECS, never used them for any of my previous builds, I noticed they have a 3 year warranty, which is great for the price and they are priced unbeatable low @ around $60 now.
So just wanted to ask here, whether this would be a good idea for my build - reliability and quality wise? Or is this one of those too good to be true deals?
Budget is the main concern as far as the HTPC build goes and I'm planning on using the ECS A75F-M2 for this build. I've had no previous experience with ECS, never used them for any of my previous builds, I noticed they have a 3 year warranty, which is great for the price and they are priced unbeatable low @ around $60 now.
So just wanted to ask here, whether this would be a good idea for my build - reliability and quality wise? Or is this one of those too good to be true deals?
Score
0
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