AMD Fusion APU
- Thread starter vivekphadnis
- Start date
Congrats, Vivek! Nice pics too!
Could you comment on how quiet/noisy that CPU fan is, in a quiet room, under normal load?
Congrats, roc! When you get it up and running, could you say how quiet/noisy the CPU fan is, under normal load?
I was originally planning to use the Asus E350M1-M PRO for my build. It has more expansion slots, and an eSata port & a firewire port (that the Gigabyte & MSI boards don't have). And, from reviews, it seems this board can be run with passive cooling (just that heatsink), without issues under most conditions; In fact the non-PRO version does not even come with the fan.
Unfortunately this board does not seem to be available anywhere. It is listed on a few websites (Indian) but nobody is getting back to me with concrete availability. My local guy tried to order it, but he says it is not available now (He's pushing me to get an Atom board, so I'll take that with a grain of salt). I'll get concrete information about the available/not-available status tomorrow.
So it looks like I'll probably be choosing between the Gigabyte GA-E350N-USB3 or the MSI E350IA-E45 boards.
Could you guys help me with a couple of things?
1) I absolutely need to use an Asus Xonar Essence STX with the boards I choose. Are there any particular advantages/ disadvantages either of these boards have, keeping this in mind?
2) The Gigabyte and MSI boards are miniATX boards (actual size: 17cm x 17cm). The Asus board is listed as a uATX board (actual size: 24.4 cm x 18.3 cm). Are both miniATX and uATX the same standard? Will the Asus board fit into a Silverstone GD-04? The cabinet's specs say it will take Micro ATX, Mini-DTX, Mini-ITX boards. I've already ordered the cabinet, so I'll have to suit the board to it anyway (sigh!). I've been assuming all along that the Asus board will fit into this cabinet.
3) @Vivek & @roc, if it is not too much to ask, could you guys measure the height of the cooling fan (from the base of board to the top of the cooling fan)? I wanted to know this because the cabinet I've chosen has a height restriction of 70mm from the bottom of the motherboard to the top of the cooling fan. Any taller, and I'll have to do away with the optical drive.
Thanks
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vivekphadnis
Member
Kittu, yes. Heh heh!!!
Thanks Hydra. Like I said, it did not seem very loud. I was installing Win XP with the top cover off. Let me do some more testing and post the results here.
Thanks Hydra. Like I said, it did not seem very loud. I was installing Win XP with the top cover off. Let me do some more testing and post the results here.
reignofchaos
Well-Known Member
Congrats, Vivek! Nice pics too!
Could you comment on how quiet/noisy that CPU fan is, in a quiet room, under normal load?
Congrats, roc! When you get it up and running, could you say how quiet/noisy the CPU fan is, under normal load?
I was originally planning to use the Asus E350M1-M PRO for my build. It has more expansion slots, and an eSata port & a firewire port (that the Gigabyte & MSI boards don't have). And, from reviews, it seems this board can be run with passive cooling (just that heatsink), without issues under most conditions; In fact the non-PRO version does not even come with the fan.
Unfortunately this board does not seem to be available anywhere. It is listed on a few websites (Indian) but nobody is getting back to me with concrete availability. My local guy tried to order it, but he says it is not available now (He's pushing me to get an Atom board, so I'll take that with a grain of salt). I'll get concrete information about the available/not-available status tomorrow.
So it looks like I'll probably be choosing between the Gigabyte GA-E350N-USB3 or the MSI E350IA-E45 boards.
Could you guys help me with a couple of things?
1) I absolutely need to use an Asus Xonar Essence STX with the boards I choose. Are there any particular advantages/ disadvantages either of these boards have, keeping this in mind?
2) The Gigabyte and MSI boards are miniATX boards (actual size: 17cm x 17cm). The Asus board is listed as a uATX board (actual size: 24.4 cm x 18.3 cm). Are both miniATX and uATX the same standard? Will the Asus board fit into a Silverstone GD-04? The cabinet's specs say it will take Micro ATX, Mini-DTX, Mini-ITX boards. I've already ordered the cabinet, so I'll have to suit the board to it anyway (sigh!). I've been assuming all along that the Asus board will fit into this cabinet.
3) @Vivek & @roc, if it is not too much to ask, could you guys measure the height of the cooling fan (from the base of board to the top of the cooling fan)? I wanted to know this because the cabinet I've chosen has a height restriction of 70mm from the bottom of the motherboard to the top of the cooling fan. Any taller, and I'll have to do away with the optical drive.
Thanks
Hi Hydra
Don't have any decibel nos. All I can say is with fan control enabled in the bios, there's nothing audible from my listening position. My xtreamer was way way louder.
The heatsink on the MSI board is around one inch in height. You should not have any trouble. I fitted it inside a mini ITX antec so that case you selected will have acres of room.
miniITX is much much smaller than uATX. miniITX is almost half the size!
reignofchaos
Well-Known Member
Also my deinterlacing fears were unfounded. Tried a DVD in PowerDVD and don't see a reason to complain.
dkaile
New Member
Asus E35M1-M is available here - eBay India: AMD ASUS MOTHERBOARD 8CH LAN DDR3 E35M-M1 HDMI DVI HTPC (item 400215858505 end time 18-May-2011 03:44:27 IST) for 8.8k
On street prices at Nehru Place, Delhi is around 8k (at Computer Empire and Cost to Cost Computers) for the Pro version
It is uATX form factor, though bigger than mini itx but added advantage of passive cooling, lower power consumption, array of input/output ports and a powerful solution...
You may contact Asus on their hotline no. 1800-2090-365 for local dealer details in your city
Service Centre - ASUS Service Center - Delhi 404 - 405 , 4th Floor , Padma Place , Building no. 86 , Nehru Place New Delhi 110019 1-800-2090-365
Kerala Service Centres here - http://support.asus.com/ServiceCenter/List.aspx?SLanguage=en&r=1&c=11&a=278&p=3
On street prices at Nehru Place, Delhi is around 8k (at Computer Empire and Cost to Cost Computers) for the Pro version
It is uATX form factor, though bigger than mini itx but added advantage of passive cooling, lower power consumption, array of input/output ports and a powerful solution...
You may contact Asus on their hotline no. 1800-2090-365 for local dealer details in your city
Service Centre - ASUS Service Center - Delhi 404 - 405 , 4th Floor , Padma Place , Building no. 86 , Nehru Place New Delhi 110019 1-800-2090-365
Kerala Service Centres here - http://support.asus.com/ServiceCenter/List.aspx?SLanguage=en&r=1&c=11&a=278&p=3
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Thank you very much for the effort, @dkaile!
I actually ordered the MSI board within a few minutes of making my earlier post. I actually preferred the Gigabyte board (for no logical reason, heh heh) but the Gigabyte was not in stock anywhere online (though it is listed in a couple of places).
Also I think it would be safer to keep with the miniITX form factor. I checked the size of the uATX form factor (which my cabinet supports), but the Asus E350M1-M and the PRO version are bigger than uATX by a few cms. All I need is one PCI-E slot for the Xonar STX, which the MSI board has.
Now I've got everything I want on order except the Xonar STX. None of the S. India based websites seem to have stock (though they have listed it). Delta Page will get back to me today about whether they can get it for me. Else, I have identified a source in Mumbai, which I will tap tomorrow.
I've been a bit on the fence about whether I should get an SSD (30GB/40GB) as a boot drive, but the cost is keeping me back from taking a decision. I was thinking of an Intel 40GB SSD (about 5.4K I think) but today I saw Kingston has a 30GB SSD at about 3.6K. Tempting
I actually ordered the MSI board within a few minutes of making my earlier post. I actually preferred the Gigabyte board (for no logical reason, heh heh) but the Gigabyte was not in stock anywhere online (though it is listed in a couple of places).
Also I think it would be safer to keep with the miniITX form factor. I checked the size of the uATX form factor (which my cabinet supports), but the Asus E350M1-M and the PRO version are bigger than uATX by a few cms. All I need is one PCI-E slot for the Xonar STX, which the MSI board has.
Now I've got everything I want on order except the Xonar STX. None of the S. India based websites seem to have stock (though they have listed it). Delta Page will get back to me today about whether they can get it for me. Else, I have identified a source in Mumbai, which I will tap tomorrow.
I've been a bit on the fence about whether I should get an SSD (30GB/40GB) as a boot drive, but the cost is keeping me back from taking a decision. I was thinking of an Intel 40GB SSD (about 5.4K I think) but today I saw Kingston has a 30GB SSD at about 3.6K. Tempting
vivekphadnis
Member
Tried the system for the first time today. 720p files play okay but there is jerky video in some scenes. I wanted to play around with the hardware acceleration settings. But overall, it looks good.
vivekphadnis
Member
I used MPC-HC but it happened sometimes.
just reinforces what I always believed.. You need a half-decent CPU to handle HD videos, just cant offload it all to a low to mid-range GPU..:indifferent14:
500W SMPS may sound like an overkill, but I guess silent power supplies are not easy to come by in lower wattages. Anyways the quiescent power of a well designed 500W vs a 150W SMPS is not going to be hugely different.
Not sure what you meant by the above. 1080P playback is flawless on Fusion APU's as many reviews report.
@ Hydra: Since your's is planned primarily as a music player, how are you planning to control the media playback? Any IR/RF remotes or Touchscreens planned?
reignofchaos
Well-Known Member
Yup 1080p plays flawlessly. I even tried a 45GB dump of transformers. It played without trouble. I think something is wrong with vivekphadnis' setup and its not using hardware acceleration if it stutters at 720p.
Yup, it is indeed overkill. But, as digitalv pointed out, I could not find a silent and efficient enough PSU under 430W.
Also, My cabinet has provision for a ATX sized PSU, which I wanted to utilise. One other important consideration was that I wanted to have enough headroom for later upgrades. Another 3 years down the line, I might need to put in a board (and other cards) that need more power than a typical Fusion board needs.
This just came in a few minutes back
As for the screen, I will be using my TV.
reignofchaos
Well-Known Member
Where did you order that one from hydra? Whats the model no?
Ordered from Amazon.com via ICCWorld.com. Got here in 4 days of making the order. Cost me only Rs.700.00-odd more than the list price on Amazon (Amazon had free shipping, heh heh).
This is the product URL: Amazon.com: Lenovo Multimedia Remote with Keyboard: Electronics
The model no. is N5901.
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