AMD Athlon 5350 APU and ASUS AM1I-A (Quick and Dirty Review)

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Athlon 5350 APU

This CPU/APU is quite a departure from what AMD has been doing in recent years, it's not power hungry, it doesn't have eleventeen cores, and it doesn't even have a completely crap stock HSF (the unit I played with got some damage in shipping). The basic idea behind this from what I can tell is that it's probably meant for HTPC, integrated, and other lower power situations. I have to give AMD props for pulling this off for the price they did (~$65 USD at time of writing). It's pretty hard to beat that price point, especially when you consider it has integrated graphics, four cores, and a decent speed of 2.05 GHz. Anyways, here are the specs:

  • Cores: 4
  • Frequency: 2.05 GHz
  • L2 Cache: 2 MB
  • Manufacturing Tech: 28 nm
  • TDP: 25 watts
  • Supported DDR3 Speed: 1600
  • Graphics: Radeon HD 8400
  • Graphics Base Frequency: 600 MHz
  • Graphics Cores: 128 Radeon Cores

All that was included in the box was the HSF, processor, and the manual/warranty pamphlet.

ASUS AM1I-A

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To go along with the new processor comes a new motherboard. No real reason why I picked this one, it just had the most reviews at the time and it was reasonably priced on Amazon (~$45 USD). It's mini-ITX, colored black and gold (the traces on the PCB are brownish), and appears to be built reasonably well. You'll also notice that there are only two mounting holes for the HSF on the AM1 platform, which I thought was an interesting direction, but if it works, it works.

In the packaging there were two SATA cables, the I/O shield (plain silver in color), the motherboard, manual, and driver CD. The actual packaging was nothing spectacular, the board was in an anti-static bag underneath a folded piece of cardboard. Everything else was kinda just floating around. Nothing good, but certainly not the worst packaging ever.

Specs, ya know?

  • CPU: AMD Socket AM1 (up to 4 cores)
  • Memory: 2x DDR3 up to 32 GB, Non-ECC, Un-buffered
  • Memory Speed: 1066, 1333, 1600
  • LAN: Realtek 8111GR
  • Audio: Realtek ALC877-VD

Internal I/O

  • 2x USB 2.0 connectors
  • 1x TPM header
  • 1x LPT Header
  • 1x COM port connector
  • 2x SATA 6 GB/s connectors
  • 1x CPU Fan connector
  • 1x Chassis Fan connector (4 pin)
  • 1x 24-pin EATX power connector
  • 1x 4-pin ATX 12v connector
  • 1x Front panel audio connector
  • 1x Internal speaker connector
  • 1x Front panel connector

External I/O

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  • 1x PS/2 Mouse
  • 1x PS/2 Keyboard
  • 1x VGA
  • 1x DVI-D
  • 1x COM
  • 1x HDMI
  • 4x USB 2.0
  • 1x LAN (Realtek 8111GR)
  • 2x USB 3.0
  • 3x Audio

Overall, I like the board. I do have a couple caveats though,

  • There's no USB 3.0 header on the motherboard. I don't personally own any USB 3.0 things, but it would've been nice to see.
  • PCIe slot is only x4, would've liked a x16, but I can understand size constraints.
  • Do people even use COM ports anymore?
  • Only one chassis fan connector. Wish there was even just one more.

Benchmarks

Enough of technical data, let's get down to the fun stuff. Nothing was overclocked for these benchmarks, everything is at stock settings. I also only did AIDA64, Passmark, and Unigine Valley for gits and shiggles, but I feel like those should give a rough guesstimate of how it will perform.

NOTE: These are using the integrated graphics using AMD Catalyst 14.4 drivers. The system appears to reserve 512 MB of RAM for the graphics, so your mileage may vary depending on RAM speeds and whatnot. Speaking of which, computer specs and stuff,

  • Processor: AMD Athlon 5350 APU
  • RAM: G.Skill Trident clocked down to 1600 MHz @ 9-9-9-28 (figured it's close to your average use scenario)
  • Graphics: Integrated Radeon HD 8400
  • Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 1 TB
  • Power Supply: Corsair VX450w
  • Case: None (did it on the kitchen table)
  • Monitor: Hell if I know, some old Westinghouse from when flat screen monitors were new technology. 1280x1024

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Final Thoughts

The numbers are nothing spectacular, but it should be perfect for things that I mentioned earlier, things like HTPC, imbedded, and other low power uses. I definitely wouldn't use this processor for a super high end gaming rig, but paired up with a low-mid tier graphics card I think it would work wonders. Pair it with a GTX 750 Ti and you could potentially have a rig that could play current games at medium to high settings while using less than 100 watts for the whole system. Or get a pile of them and rack up points in Folding@Home without wrecking your wallet. Or make a general use machine for your parents like this one is for. Regardless, I think it's a pretty good bang for the buck, bang for the wattage system. I should make a seal for reviews like this.

Also, a 120mm fan for size comparison:

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Wow, thats barely larger than the manual for it.

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Good stuff thanks for sharing!

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Thanks for posting this little review. I'm planning to build an HTPC / In-home steam streaming machine very soon using this APU and an ITX motherboard. Seems to be a growing popular choice for this type of system.

Cool stuff. :)

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Very interesting, thanks!

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I used it's big brother, the AM1M-A mATX mobo, nice little board, running the 0602 BIOS, [email protected], (APU freq 105, multi locked to 21, DDR3 1680Mhz) as thats where I hit a wall before I had to drop the SATA to legacy mode, which Linux doesn't like one bit, so I'm stuck there.

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If anybody wants more benchmarks I'm open for suggestions. I just chose those three because I knew they existed and are free.

I'm also going to see if I can change the amount of RAM the integrated graphics uses. I have a feeling the graphics scores will probably go up a little if the integrated graphics used more than the 512 MB that Windows is telling me it uses. I'll also check to see how much RAM speed effects everything as well.

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This APU really got me interested. The iGPU part is too weak though. Not because of just 128 SP but because of only 64 bit Memory Controller.

 

So I´ve read that the PCI-E slot only runs at 4x. The question is, what is the fastest possible graphics card, it will be able to run without bottlenecking?

I´d think that anything above a HD 7750 / R7 250E (which is a rebranded HD 7750) would be bottlenecked by the 4x slot.

So, my idea was to build a system with the AMD Athlon 5350, + 8 Gb of RAM (2 + 4Gb) and a HD 7750 with 1 Gb GDDR5 + one SSD with 256 Gb and an additional one with 120 Gb.

I just wanted to build a very low power system which would allow me to surf the internet without lag, do some office work and play old 3d games and maybe newer 2d games.

Examples are, GTA III, GTA San Andreas, the Oddworld collection, but only the 2D games, maybe emulators up to the PS1 and N64. I think my build should be able to run these with playable fps, as in at least 35 fps.

Nope I don´t want to use the iGPU because it´s just too weak and the worst part is, it´s an APU and does not support Dual Graphics. Why make an APU that doesn´t support it with say an R7 240 and R7 250? For that, however, they´d have to include a 128 Memory Controller ... .

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You'd be surprised how much of a GPU will not be bottlenecked by a 4x slot. Sure an R9-290/GTX 780 will be choked, but something more like the low power GTX 750/Ti is a great choice and won't be held back by the 4x slot. PCper did some testing with that exact combo and it returned some pretty decent results. Much better than what you'd get from a 7750.

The 5350's iGPU isn't anything to blink an eye at and isn't really suited for gaming, but for in-home streaming or other HTPC tasks (HD video playback etc.) it's plenty capable. 

I was running Metro last light via in-home streaming with this APU and it ran surprisingly well. frame rates were in the 50's mostly and it was actually playable. Setting were ultra 1080p (on the host gaming PC). 

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No NVIDIA for me, thanks. Simply out of principle due to built in bias against non-NVIDIA cards in some games by asking for the GPU Vendor ID String etc. etc. . May be the past now but if a company has to resort to such dirty tricks to beat the competition then they won´t get my support aka money and I certainly don´t recommend buying products from NVIDIA.

Aside from that. I guess that I´ve found an answer which is this: http://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/992460-what-does-x4-bandwidth-mean-on-a-pcie-20-x16-slot/

and this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSfifE2Domo#t=227

Pretty much tells me that I will be able to run the HD 7750 without any bottleneck except for, maybe the APU (CPU part) itself.

When it comes to the iGPU in it, I was wondering though as to how well it does in at least 720p and 1080p youtube videos and blue ray movies.

Since my question is answered concerning the possible bottleneck caused by the 4x slot I am most likely going to build such a system.

I´ve also read that AMD will soon release the desktop variant of the Beema laptop SoC known as A6-6310 or so.

According to several websites the max clockspeed of the fasted SoC will be 2,4 GHz on 4 improved Jaguar cores and all that at a 15 Watt TDP which is amazing.

Some website could already show first benchmark results and there´s definetely a significant gain in performance. Also, the iGPU will be clocked at 800 MHz whilst the current Athlon 5350 iGPU has only 600 MHz.

It will still have only 128 SP but it will support 1866 MHz RAM. At least the top SoC. The others will have to deal with 1600 MHz and the slowest will only support up to 1333 MHz.

 

Looks like I´m sold there but I will wait for the desktop variant of Beema. There´s one thing that bothers me. What PSU should I use?

I´ve read about how people are using PSU for Notebooks which deliver 90 Watt or so. With a 15 Watt Chip, 55 Watt graphics card, two SSDs, two DDR3 Ram @ 1600 / 1866 MHz my system certainly wouldn´t consume more than 90 W or would it?

Still, how would / should I connect a Notebook PSU to a desktop motherboard? O_o

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great writeup.

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Still, how would / should I connect a Notebook PSU to a desktop motherboard? O_o

picoPSU. The yellow ones are 12v only, the red ones are 12-25v, the blue ones are designed for an automotive environment. I'd personally go for at least 100 watts just to be safe simply because you're already at 70 watts with just the CPU and graphics card, let alone SSDs, fans, RAM, and the motherboard itself.

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Hmm, I´ve switched to SSDs thinking that they only consume a fraction of what a standard HDD (7200 rpm) consumes.

Like this? http://www.ebay.de/itm/picoPSU-120-DC-DC-120-Watt-/160961657841?pt=PC_Netzteile&hash=item257a0ffbf1

Now, all AMD has to do is release that new APU.

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Most SSDs can use up to 3 watts at full load compared to a regular HDD's 10 watts. 

  • CPU -15 watts
  • GPU -55 watts
  • RAM -2.5 watts per stick
  • Fans -1 watt each
  • SSD -3 watts each

So if you use two fans, two sticks of RAM, and two SSDs it comes out to 83 watts before the motherboard power consumption is factored in. So I'd personally go with 100 watts just to be safe.

 

And yes, that's the picoPSU I was talking about (and kinda want to get to play around with). The only problem is that it is 12v input only and 12v laptop chargers are hard to find for whatever reason. It also doesn't have the 4-pin plug for CPU power, but a 15 watt CPU might not need one.

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Well, in that case I could just as well get me a regular PSU. Some 200 Watt PUS 80+ Platinum, in case there is any. Should do fine and should also have all necessary power connectors.

 

Haha, saving power isn´t that easy so it seems ... .

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I don't know about 80+ Platinum, but Seasonic and FSP Group make 80+ Gold TFX 300 watt power supplies for pretty cheap. Here in the United States the FSP unit costs about USD $55, the Seasonic just a few dollars more.

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Hmm, look at this http://www.ebay.de/itm/HP-110-305ng-PC-Komplettsystem-AMD-A6-5200-4-x-2-0-GHz-4GB-Ram-500GB-HD-/400732453742?pt=DE_Technik_Computer_Peripherieger%C3%A4te_PC_Systeme&hash=item5d4d83fb6e

No, I don´t want to buy the whole thing but it´s got the A6 5200 APU which is also clocked at 2 GHz and has got 4 cores.

This, however, is a Richland APU and its TDP is also just 25 W.

Since Richland APUs support Dual Channel RAM, this one would be a much better alternative, don´t you think? They also support dual graphics mode on top of that and they fit into the socket FM2 and FM2+.

Problem is that I can´t find one. It´s only available in those stupid OEM machines ... .

EDIT: What are the tempratures on the APU when it´s maxed out? I mean, AMD´s stock coolers have never been good imo. Afaik the max temprature for this APU is 70°C or so.

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Sorry for the late reply, I've been busy for the past few days.

Anyways, the highest temperature I saw when I was running the benchmarks was about 55-60C, I don't remember specifically. I think the stock cooler should suffice for most situations even though it's pretty horrible for a cooler.

As for graphics, I've used a Radeon HD 5550 in the past that worked actually rather well for less demanding games, so a Radeon HD 7750 should work even better. Pair it with a full fledged APU and it should work well in my opinion.

Another option might be a low-power Intel route. I know the i3-4130T is 35 watts and Socket 1150 mini ITX motherboards aren't too hard to find. The i3-4130T is dual core, but has hyperthreading, and even has ECC RAM support. It also generally has benchmark scores quite a but higher than the Athlon 5350.

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I'm running the ASRock AM1H-ITX motherboard with a Cooler Master NA90 90w 19V laptop/notbook universal PSU.

No need for a Pico PSU since this motherboard has the external notebook PSU power socket built in and SATA power output on-board. 

As far as I know,  this is the only motherboard for this platform that can use an external notebook power brick. If you're just using the APU, you could saturate all the SATA ports (4 of them) with mechanical drives and still not need more than 90watts. Keeps the cost down and the build simple. :)

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No need for a PicoPSU. This board: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157491

with this PSU: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834991150&cm_re=cooler_master_na90-_-34-991-150-_-Product

That's what I'm running. 

Note: I only paid $35 for that PSU at a local retailer. ;)