windwithme Posted April 2, 2011 Share Posted April 2, 2011 These years, the Home PC becomes smaller and smaller. Formerly, Micro ATX was the mainstream of small form factor P. Now, you can see more and more ITX MB in the market and most users use it to build HTPC. HTPC full name is Home Theater Personal Computer and the advantage is smaller volume. Also users can have enough performance in multimedia applications. This is the main reason to make HTPC more popular. Two CPU companies are competing badly in Desktop PC. Intel owns Atom structure years and most been used in NetBook and AIO PC. It’s hard to find in retail channel. After then, some MB brands announced H55 or H61/H67 ITX products. They combine Intel CPU having very good performance. H55/H61/H67 are Intel mid-high end HTPC platform. AMD platform is hard to see in mainstream ITX segment. There are still some MB makers produce AMD ITX products, but the price is much higher. Recently, AMD launched latest Fusion structure to enhance own capability. It can use for HTPC and NoteBook. This time I would like to introduce AMD latest Fusion, GIGABYTE E350N-USB3. The packing size is similar to previous GIGABYTE H55N-USB3 ITX. They both use small package. Accessory Manual, Quick installation Guide, IO shield, driver CD and SATA cables. GA-E350N-USB3 Mini-ITX size is 17 x 17 cm Chipset is AMD Hudson-M1 FCH/AMD dual core E-350 processor/AMD Radeon HD 6310 Graphics Chip Backside The cooler is fixed by 4 screws. 1 X PCI-E X16 supports X4, It provides users to use chassis which supports the Low Profile VGA spec. 4 X Blue SATA, provided by Hudson-M1 FCH and supports SATA3 Realtek ALC892 supports 7.1 channel and High Definition Audio technology 2 X DIMM DDR3 support 1066/1333(OC) and DDR3 max capacity is 8GB Next is 24-PIN power connector Central is the black active cooler Below is the AMD APU, CPU integrates with GPU Chipset includes Hudson-M1 FCH and CPU AMD dual core E-350 processor IO D-SUB/DVI/HDMI 1 X PS2 KB/MS 4 X USB 2.0(Black) 2 X USB 3.0(Blue) 1 X RJ-45LAN 1 X S/PDIF Output USB 3.0 chip is NEC D720200AF1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
windwithme Posted April 2, 2011 Author Share Posted April 2, 2011 3 phase PWM is enough for this low power consumption platform Test Configuration CPU: AMD E-350 MB: GIGABYTE GA-E350N-USB3 DRAM: CORSAIR CMX8GX3M2A1600C9 VGA: AMD Radeon HD 6310 HD: CORSAIR Force SSD 60GB POWER: Antec HCG 400W Cooler: GIGABYTE built-in Cooler OS: Windows7 Ultimate 64bit Default Performance Test CPU 100 X 16 => 1600.2MHz DDR3 1333 CL6 6-6-18 1T GPU 500MHz Hyper PI 32M X2 => 40m 52.730s CPUMARK 99 => 127 Nuclearus Multi Core => 3122 Fritz Chess Benchmark => 3.27/1567 CrystalMark 2004R3 => 77537 CINEBENCH R11.5 CPU => 0.63 pts CPU(Single Core) => 0.32 pts PCMark Vantage => 3646 AMD E-350 spec is X2 1.6GHz and 1MB L2 cache. It’s no L3 Cache. CPU performance is similar to Intel Atom. Even though AMD launch later, at least this is a big step to enter HTPC and NetBook market Temperature (Room is 20℃) System Standby - 51~52 CPU Full Speed - 65~66 Intel Burn Test v2.4,Stress Level Maximum 40nm is more advance than normal AMD 45nm CPU, however, the temperature is still not big different. E-350 full speed and standby temperature are almost same. This could be kind of strength. Power Consumption Test System Standby - 25W Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
windwithme Posted April 2, 2011 Author Share Posted April 2, 2011 CPU Full Speed - 34W Intel Burn Test v2.4,Stress Level Maximum OCCT POWER SUPPLY Mode - 41W As per 40nm, standby power consumption is pretty good in PC. If it’s in NB, the value is too high. When CPU full speed is 34W and CPU/GPU simultaneous operation is 41W. The difference is only 7W, not much. Main BIOS Tuning Menu called M.I.T. CPU Host Clock 100~120 Memory Clock X5.33/X6.66 Voltage Items DDR3 Voltage 1.200~2.100V FCH Voltage 1.100~1.600V PCIe PLL Voltage 1.800~2.200V CPU NB VID Control -0.600~+0.600V CPU Voltage Control -0.600~+0.600V Built-in AMD Radeon HD 6310 GPU Items UMA Frame Buffer Size 256/512/1024MB VGA Core Clock 300~2000MHz Advanced DDR3 Setup Page The setting below is DDR3 1333 CL6 6-6-18 1T PC Health Status GIGABYTE E350N-USB3 BIOS still provide very rich items. It doesn’t simplify BIOS menu as it’s ITX MB or AMD Fusion OC capability. Since then, user can adjust by your free mind and also OC some portion. OC Performance Test CPU 107 X 16 => 1712.3MHz DDR3 1426 CL6 6-6-18 1T GPU 760MHz Hyper PI 32M X2 => 38m 01.798s CPUMARK 99 => 136 Nuclearus Multi Core => 3356 Fritz Chess Benchmark => 3.57/1711 CrystalMark 2004R3 => 86639 CINEBENCH R11.5 CPU => 0.67 pts CPU(Single Core) => 0.35 pts Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
windwithme Posted April 2, 2011 Author Share Posted April 2, 2011 PCMark Vantage => 4094 E-350 CPU FSB rise from 100 to 107MHz. The CPU performance increase about 7%. Adding on OC GPU clock, some media benchmark scores are more than 7%. AMD Fusion OC range is not much and no need to adjust too many BIOS items. However, less OC is still better than none. Temperature (Room is 18℃) System Standby - 48~49 CPU Full Speed - 66 Intel Burn Test v2.4,Stress Level Maximum No matter OC or not, the temperature is the same. Even it’s lower 1~2℃ due to room temperature. The main reason is still the OC range is small. DRAM Performance Test ADIA64 Memory Read - 3936 MB/s Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 3900 MB/s MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 4331 MB/s DDR3 1333 CL6 6-6-18 1T DDR3 1426 CL6 6-6-18 1T ADIA64 Memory Read - 4232 MB/s Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 4313 MB/s MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 4629 MB/s DDR3 performance increase 6~8% after OC. Also AMD Fusion only supports single channel. Users cannot expect too much the memory performance. The right way should be increasing the DDR3 capacity. GPU Test Default 500MHz 3DMARK VANTAGE => P800 CPU SCORE => 2057 GPU SCORE => 665 StreetFighter IV Benchmark 1280 X 720 => 30.07 FPS DEVIL MAY CRY4 1280 X 720 => 25.65/21.33/30.04/19.75 fps FINAL FANTASY XIV 1280 X 720 => 502 AMD Fusion structure is built-in latest Radeon HD 6310 GPU, supports DirectX 11. Comparing to own 890GX chipset, HD4290 GPU, it’s still higher. In 3D performance, E350 enhance a lot. Maybe it dues to AMD suffer vert hard push from Intel Sandy Bridge built-in GPU? OC to 760MHz 3DMARK VANTAGE => P891 CPU SCORE => 2187 GPU SCORE => 744 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
windwithme Posted April 2, 2011 Author Share Posted April 2, 2011 StreetFighter IV Benchmark 1280 X 720 => 33.23 FPS DEVIL MAY CRY4 1280 X 720 => 29.10/23.52/34.55/20.80 fps FINAL FANTASY XIV 1280 X 720 => 558 OC GPU from 500MHz to 760MH, the 3D performance only increases 10%. According to source, AMD will lock GPU clock in following revision. It’s a pity news for all users. You can know AMD Radeon HD6310 OC is not big help to performance. CPU is another factor to impact the performance. Vedio Decoding Test I use 2 original video to test. 1 is blue-ray, Inception, and the other is DVD, Taiwan Puppet Show. The video copyright is owned by the published company. Openning Menu Software is PowerDVD 10 Resolution is 1920 X 1080 CPU utilization rate is only 1~5%. Playing Video CPU utilized rate is 18~29% DVD resolution is 720 X 480 Software is Windows Media Player CPU utilization rate is only 1~8%. Play Video File Directly Resolution is 1280 X 720 CPU utilized rate is 38~83% and most time is 40~50% Video resolution is 1440 X 1080 CPU utilized rate is 40~94% and most time is 45~62% If using playing video, no matter DVD or BD, the utilization rate is very good. If play video file directly, the CPU utilization rate rise a lot. I don’t know it’s caused by format decoding or transfer rate issue. But final result is playing smoothly. Video decoding is a great strength of AMD Fusion. GIGABYTE E350N-USB3 Good 1.GIGABYTE Ultra Durable 3 design. 2oz copper PCB, 100% Japanese made capacitors and Ferrite core choke. 2.Active cooler and support SATA3 and USB 3.0 latest spec. 3.Built-in AMD Radeon HD 6310 GPU 3D performance is improved a lot and it can play BD/DVD very smoothly. 4.AMD latest 40nm CPU Bad 1.It could also add on wifi card, but the price will go higher. 2.CPU OC range is less and GPU OC doesn’t improve performance much. Performance ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆ Components ★★★★★★★★☆☆ Specification ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ Outlook ★★★★★★★★☆☆ C/P Value ★★★★★★★★☆☆ Currently, GIGABYTE E350N-USB3 market price is 4700NTD, around 160USD. Even though it’s ITX, but BIOS menu and components are same level as own M-ATX/ATX. Plus AMD Radeon HD 6310 GPU, the 3D performance or video decoding are increasing a lot. AMD dual core E-350 CPU is same level as Intel Atom, the performance is only so so. For components, spec and performance, E350N-USB3 C/P value is quite good in AMD ITX market. For AMD market, AMD Fusion provides one more fair price option for ITX or NetBook market. This should be the main target for Fusion structure. Now, many MB makers all launch their related ITX product. From the price point, if your HTPC budget is 7000NTD, you can choose Intel 55/H61 ITX MB with i3 CPU. If you don’t fix in IXT, your budget can have Micro ATX 880G and AMD X2 CPU. Of course you need bigger chassis. Due to HTPC market is growing, in the future, users can see more ITX MB in the market and it can reduce the PC dimension. I provide 2 more option for mid-end performance combo. Users can pick the right option by yourself. Later on, if I got time, I will share Toshiba NB520 latest NetBook. It uses Intel Atom N550 1.5GHz and I can make the comparion with AMD Fusion. This review also post in my blog WIND3C Welcome 3C lovers to visit and advise. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XPOWER-Orange Posted April 6, 2011 Share Posted April 6, 2011 good job!Wind Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flanker Posted April 28, 2011 Share Posted April 28, 2011 like Brazos! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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