AMD Fusion APU

[reignofchaos]

In the bios, I've seen temps in the 50's but in windows coretemp normally shows only around 40.

Looks like either the heatsink or cpu have packed up.

 

[hydra]

Thanks for the quick response, RoC!

In a way it is a relief to know this, as I had been fretting over last few days wondering which of the HW components went wrong.

I guess I'll put in an RMA request tomorrow.

 

[hydra]

I'd uploaded the snap of the BIOS screen yesterday via Tapatalk on my phone. I just saw the post (#120 here) on my computer and realized that the snap was resized to such an extent that it was not readable. I'm uploading a more legible version now:



@RoC, what have you set the CPU target temp in your PC as? 40 degree C?

 

[hydra]

Somewhat OT from a Hifi perspective.

I picked up a HP ultraportable that runs on the AMD E350 Fusion platform 2 days back.

I'd been planning to pick up an Android Tablet (WiFi only) in the 20K-25K range, or get a B&N Nook Color and mod it to run CM7. The Nook would have come to around 15K after shipping & duties.

Last saturday, a friend picked up a HP dm1-3210AU with a 4GB RAM upgrade (making the total 6GB) and a free digital camera for 23K. I saw it and felt it was far more VFM (and sensible) than a 15K Nook or a 25K Tablet. I picked one up under the same deal 2 days back.

We both sold the cameras for 3K each (They were 4.7K on ebay). I then swapped the additional 4GB RAM module in mine for my friend's OE 2GB RAM module for 1.2K. So he now has 8GB RAM, and I now have 4GB RAM. Effectively, I got the notebook with a 2GB RAM upgrade for 18.8K

The notebook is excellent -- quite light and very sturdy, 1366x768 res 11.6" screen, excellent graphics performance, 320GB (5400rpm HDD), full size chicklet keyboard, and a battery that has lasted me 8+ hours of browsing per charge over Wifi over the last 2 days. It runs very cool, and it is also a modder's dream -- the back of the notebook can be snapped off (like a mobile phone) giving full access to the internals. It runs a lot faster than a run of the mill netbook, and it can probably manage to give an i3 notebook a run for its money as far as daily tasks like browsing, multimedia playing and basic image editing are concerned.

It will make a pretty nice and cheap portable "HTPC", considering its graphics capabilities. It is also pretty quiet (the fan can barely be heard in a very silent room even in the "performance" setting). I've got it doing music duty now (USB > Rega DAC) since the MSI E350 motherboard of the Music PC has been sent for replacement.

 

[baijuxavior]

^^. Which HP model and from where? Does it have HDMI and support 1080p videos?

 

[hydra]

It is the HP dm1-3210AU.

I bought it from CyberPark (on the RHS, after Janata Jn., before St. Martin's Church when you're moving towards Pvtm from Deshabhimani). They also run the HP showroom in the Oberon Mall.

Yep, it has a HDMI out (and a D-Sub out). It does 1080p. I haven't tested 1080p personally as I don't have any 1080p files. But it runs 720p files without breaking a sweat. I'll check with my friend if he tried 1080p files. He might have tried that out. There are some YouTube vids showing its phoren cousin the dm1z (with a 7200rpm HDD) playing 1080p MKVs.

 

[sam9s]

I use an MSI E350-IA-E45 mobo.

I've been getting system freezes/crashes every 1 hour of running or so since the last 3 days. The system continues getting power, but the signal to the TV (via HDMI) is lost. The OS apparently freezes. The system fans stay on. I have to lean on the power switch or the reset switch to switch the system off.

Since there were no software updates/installs or driver updates/installs or hardware changes, I didn't suspect Win 7.

I have never been a Fusion Supporter, before building my HTPC, as usual I did an extensive research which included the upcoming APUs, but reading loads n loads if threads and experience I never was able to build the confidence to build an HTPC, around the AMD APU. Sure in a short run they perform, infact with SD hardly any problem. But when we start to push the setup with 1080 20mbps+ bit-rate or 3D or BRISOs, things do not shine that much. Its also correct that there was never a concrete evidence what could be the bottleneck, but it definitely didnt give any better impression.

I would always suggest to go for a dedicated CPU, Mobo, GPU. Be it Mini ITX, Mid ATX or Full ATX does not matter, but going with dedicated hardware would always be beneficial in future, specially if one takes the 3D route.

Anyway to the OP, did the problem resolve. What other measures you took to get this resolved ...???

BTW : You temp is not that I would be too careless about, its not hard summers, and that temp 68C is usually under full load in summers.

 

[reignofchaos]

I have never been a Fusion Supporter, before building my HTPC, as usual I did an extensive research which included the upcoming APUs, but reading loads n loads if threads and experience I never was able to build the confidence to build an HTPC, around the AMD APU. Sure in a short run they perform, infact with SD hardly any problem. But when we start to push the setup with 1080 20mbps+ bit-rate or 3D or BRISOs, things do not shine that much. Its also correct that there was never a concrete evidence what could be the bottleneck, but it definitely didnt give any better impression.

I would always suggest to go for a dedicated CPU, Mobo, GPU. Be it Mini ITX, Mid ATX or Full ATX does not matter, but going with dedicated hardware would always be beneficial in future, specially if one takes the 3D route.

Anyway to the OP, did the problem resolve. What other measures you took to get this resolved ...???

BTW : You temp is not that I would be too careless about, its not hard summers, and that temp 68C is usually under full load in summers.

What bull! If you have no clue, don't spew BS.

The fusion platform plays all you said perfectly and after the 11.7 catalyst update, the frame rate is a straight line. I dumped quite a few BD ISOs recently on my fusion htpc and every single one of them plays perfectly. I can't comment about 3D since I do not have a 3DTV but everything else you throw at it is played back beautifully.

What happened here is that his board died. You mean to say that boards with discrete CPUs don't die? This is probably the first one that died out of a dozen builds using fusion that I've seen being built over the past few months. It is simply a one off.

 

[sridhar-v]

This is a question for all of you running Windows (either XP or 7) on the Fusion APU system.
How do you find Windows performance? Any issues with speed or stability? In my office we have windows 7 (all legal) on I5 machines & networking gives us hell. Any experience on wireless networking & bluetooth?

Thanks

Sridhar

 

[hydra]

@sam9s, I've given the board to MSI for replacement. As RoC said, it is just that I was unlucky to get a bad piece. I'm very happy with the Fusion setup and I'd recommend it wholeheartedly to anybody looking to build a HTPC.

@baijuxaviour, I hadn't connected the notebook to my TV yet. I connected it via HDMI to my TV yesterday night after I made my earlier post. I was quite surprised to see that the video quality on the TV via the notebook E350 Fusion platform was not as good as the video quality from the E350 Fusion desktop board in my Music PC. If the desktop board is a 10, the notebook board would be a 7. The notebook does a great job on its own, with its own screen.

Another difference between the desktop and the notebook is that the desktop takes nearly half as much time to boot up, using the same OS and same amount of RAM (Win7 Home Basic, 4GB RAM). But then, the desktop is a clean install with just Foobar and VLC Player installed, with no antivirus, with network disabled, and a 7200rpm HDD. The notebook came with a boatload of crapware installed, has antivirus running, has a 5400rpm HDD and a few million processes running all at once (because of all that crapware). I've only installed Foobar, VLC Player & Chrome so far, though.

Once the notebook boots up and gets running, it feels just as fast as the desktop.

So, I'd like to modify my earlier statement about using the notebook as a HTPC, and say that it makes a great portable media computer that does decent duty as a HTPC when at home. If we are looking for a stay-at-home HTPC, the desktop version of the Fusion E350 makes more sense (as compared to the notebook version).

As a portable solution, I think this notebook is exceptional value at this price point.

 

[reignofchaos]

This is a question for all of you running Windows (either XP or 7) on the Fusion APU system.
How do you find Windows performance? Any issues with speed or stability? In my office we have windows 7 (all legal) on I5 machines & networking gives us hell. Any experience on wireless networking & bluetooth?

Thanks

Sridhar

I use Win 7 and haven't had a single crash to date. No trouble with networking either. Have copied 40/50GB dumps of Bluray discs without any issues.

 

[hydra]

This is a question for all of you running Windows (either XP or 7) on the Fusion APU system.
How do you find Windows performance? Any issues with speed or stability? In my office we have windows 7 (all legal) on I5 machines & networking gives us hell. Any experience on wireless networking & bluetooth?...

I run Win 7 Home basic in my Music PC (desktop) with 4GB RAM. No issues whatsoever with speed or stability. I use the Music PC only for playing music via Foobar, and for the occasional movie via VLC. Both happen without any lag or stutter. In fact it boots up so fast and the programs load so fast, a friend thought it has an SSD in. I have networking disabled on the Music PC,and it does not have a BT/Wifi radio.

The Fusion E350 notebook is also running Win 7 Home Basic, and has 4GB RAM installed. It has WiFi and BT and both work flawlessly. Connections happen almost instantly and there have been no drop-outs.

The battery life is also exceptional. I started using the notebook yesterday with a full battery. I used it for 5 hours, 30 minutes at a stretch browsing via Wifi, then one hour playing music, then another 1 hour 30 minutes of browsing via Wifi, and when I quit, the battery stood at 21%, promising 2 hours 8 minutes more.

 

[sam9s]

What bull! If you have no clue, don't spew BS.

The fusion platform plays all you said perfectly and after the 11.7 catalyst update, the frame rate is a straight line. I dumped quite a few BD ISOs recently on my fusion htpc and every single one of them plays perfectly. I can't comment about 3D since I do not have a 3DTV but everything else you throw at it is played back beautifully.

What happened here is that his board died. You mean to say that boards with discrete CPUs don't die? This is probably the first one that died out of a dozen builds using fusion that I've seen being built over the past few months. It is simply a one off.

I merely stated my opinion and you take it as a personal attack on your setup as you own one .... ???? Whats wrong with you????..... Ans yes I have not seen boards die just like that ..... anyway carry on with the discussion .....

 

[reignofchaos]

For anyone still having doubts about whether the fusion platform can play bluray content, here's proof

1080p, 40GB avatar m2ts being played at a perfect 24p with 10 bit output

 

[buxx]

how much of a difference is there between the HD 5450 & the Fusion GPU part?

 

[mandeep]

I'm very happy with the Fusion setup and I'd recommend it wholeheartedly to anybody looking to build a HTPC.

hello hydra and others

Can you please confirm whether these Fusion E350 based Motherboards support all HD audio sound formats or not. Recently i was also looking to base my HTPC setup on these E350 BRAZO's. I am getting Gigabyte GA-E350N motherboard for Rs 7500-00 here in chandigarh, is this price OK.

Thanks in advance

 

[reignofchaos]

^^Yes it passes through every sound format E-AC3, Dolby TrueHD, DTS MasterHD and obviously DD and DTS with the right libraries and players.

 

[gobble]

Does Win7 have a parametric EQ that is reputedly audiophile quality? I can't find one for Linux that is standalone or works with a simple media player and that comes with good algorithms. For ex: the one with Amarok is supposedly awful sounding. If so I won't mind paying for Windows and the s/w and skip linux.

--G0bble

 

[vaibhavyagnik]

hello hydra and others

Can you please confirm whether these Fusion E350 based Motherboards support all HD audio sound formats or not. Recently i was also looking to base my HTPC setup on these E350 BRAZO's. I am getting Gigabyte GA-E350N motherboard for Rs 7500-00 here in chandigarh, is this price OK.

Thanks in advance

Try this for 6600 + shipping. its equivalent to gigabyte board
Msi E350IA-E45--AMD Fusion Platform

 

[gkrishn]

I have been using the GIGABYTE GA-E350N-USB3 AMD E-350 APU for few months now.
Using win7, tried wmc, xbmx, mpc-hc. mostly I run 720p rips, and didn't find any issues with them. It takes about 30% of cpu.

Few issues...
One can clearly hear the fan, in night. it is quite audible.
It struggles a little with some 1080p contents. The game of throne, was getting weird, when i try to FF. Normal playing, if i dont touch any controls, was fine. Avatar 1080p didn't have any such issues though.