AMD Launches Three Kaveri APU SKUs in February 2014 – Feature Set For A10 and A8 APUs Detailed

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Just wait till the horror stories of the burning hot VRM's and throttling on the Asrock in tiny cases start appearing.

Only the A75 ITX version had the issues due to the use of a 3+1 phase VRM,and IIRC it was under heavy IGP load the problems happened.

The A85 version used a 4+2 phase one with far better quality parts. My mate has two and so far they are fine with an A10 5800K and an Athlon II X4 760K.

The A88X version lacks the VRM cooling of the A85 version but the A8 7600 in 45W TDP mode consumes far less power for both the CPU and IGP than even 65W TDP and 100W A10 CPUs. Moreover,the lower peak power consumption of the ASRock board will be significant in a smaller case,and if you use a horizontal cooler,the VRMs will get cooling anyway.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18576384

Nice build!

 

[stulid]

No good can come from buying asrock. For me it would be one from giga or Asus (if it wasn't black+gold).

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I know plenty of people with ASRock FM2 and FM2+ motherboards. It was the ASRock A75M-ITX with its 3+1 phase VRM which was the problematic one.

My mate has a pair of FM2A85X-ITX motherboards with an A10 5800K and a Athlon II X4 760K for a while now,and they have been fine. He has even an older build with an ASRock FM2A75 Pro4-M with another A10 5800K,and that has been fine.

It was the only one model which had any issues,and that was since it used a 3+1 phase VRM.

The A85 version has an entirely different VRM design.

They are not MSI who repeatedly had problems with multiple AMD motherboard models - even on overclock.net it has a list of failed AMD and Intel motherboards. MSI comes top on that list:

http://www.overclock.net/a/database-of-motherboard-vrm-failure-incidents

It has not been updated since late 2012,but only one ASRock is on there and that is the A75M-ITX.

With an A8 7600 in 45W TDP mode I don't see the ASRock FM2A88X-ITX+ being any problem at all especially since smaller cases mean you will be using a horizontal cooler anyway,and at worst you are looking at no more than 80W power consumed under 3DMark at the wall using a large PSU.

The Gigabyte appears to be worse with peak power consumption, according to the Hardware.info review, which would make a smaller system less viable with it in the first place.

 

[stulid]

Its not just the cheap build quality of asrock that puts me off. The warranty is worse too.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Its not just the cheap build quality of asrock that puts me off. The warranty is worse too.

Which is not the case with all their motherboards,and no not all their motherboards are cheaply made.

The A85 based ITX motherboards my mate has had have been on 24/7 for yonks now.

One is a Minecraft server and the other is gaming box for the TV. Both have been on for months and have been fine in the Elite 120 cases he has them under his TV in cabinet.

Look at the review of ASRock FM2A85X-ITX:

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/ASRock-FM2A85X-ITX-Motherboard/1735

Hardware Secrets(the English language arm of the biggest hardware site in South America IIRC),does very extensive PSU reviews,and is one of the best sites for such things. They also do have a good knowledge of IC design and parts,and they say the ASRock FM2A85X-ITX uses "high-end components" in the VRM.

Moreover I am talking about the 45W/65W TDP A8 7600 and not one of the 100W TDP SOCs.

In 45W mode the A8 7600 is not going to be having any issues in the ASRock.

32W extra on heavy CPU load with the Gigabyte with an A10 6800K is a tad worrying for a compact build. I don't see an issue with something like an Elite 120 or Elite 130 but its as much as a full ATX overclocking FM2+ motherboard.

This is not the first time Gigabyte has had issues like this.

The Brazos E350 based motherboard had significantly higher power consumption than ANY E350 based motherboard.

Gigabyte has had VRM problems with some of their motherboards too - noticeably many of their earlier 900 series AM3+ motherboards with the Bulldozer CPUs which lead to massive throttling issues. My current system has a socket 1155 Gigabyte motherboard,so I do prefer them,but for AMD systems I tend to think that Asus has had less issues than anyone for hardware,although Gigabyte have been a bit quicker pushing out updated BIOSes for older motherboards.

 

[stulid]

I've had Asrock boards too. Night and day difference between them and the other manufacturers in terms of quality.

I find sinhardware a great site to see the VRM lists on boards.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I've had Asrock boards too. Night and day difference between them and the other manufacturers in terms of quality.

It seems you have no experience of many of the newer FM2/FM2+ ones,so no you you don't seem to be correct here,especially with the ASRock FM2A85X-ITX.

Have you actually owned the ASRock FM2A85X-ITX?? Used one in a build?

But of course Hardware Secrets must be wrong there too. What do they know??

 

[stulid]

It seems you have no experience of many of the newer ones,so no you you don't seem to be correct here,especially the ASRock FM2A85X-ITX.

You are incorrect.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

You are incorrect.

You are incorrect!

But still can we have an explaination about the VRM designs of the current FM2/FM2+ mini-ITX motherboards,to indicate which is higher quality and which is lower?? IC analysis and the like.

Prove Hardware Secrets wrong. They were pretty confident in what they say and they know what they are talking about.

 

[stulid]

You are incorrect!

Well no as I have sampled Z87 and A88 boards

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Well no as I have sampled Z87 and A88 boards

Yes and you are the only one has had experience of doing plenty of builds. Not really especially with the mates I have!

But honestly I want to see your VRM analysis of all the current ITX motherboards down to an IC level and prove what Hardware Secrets said is wrong. One of the world's formost PSU review sites with a very good knowledge of IC design and one of the few websites which bothers to to look at such things with motherboards are wrong.

So again,prove them wrong. How about the ASRock FM2A85X-ITX and FM2A88X-ITX+ specifically??

Where is your longterm testing over six to 12 months??

My experience of the 5 ASRock FM2A85X-ITX based builds I have observed over the last 7 months have been positive.

3 of them used as servers(two for games) 24/7 and two used as LAN boxes.

One was fine during a 5 day LAN. No throttling,no burn outs,nothing.

So what is your experience then with that motherboard. Or is it zero??

 

[stulid]

I don't have "all the itx" boards. Only the ones I've tried and returned as samples.

Why ask for something you know I can't do.

The asrock A85 and A88 itx I have sampled didn't clock as high as alternatives and even struggled to get certain heatsinks to fit due to the backplates and the rear components.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I don't have "all the itx" boards. Only the ones I've tried and returned as samples.

Why ask for something you know I can't do.

The asrock A85 and A88 itx I have sampled didn't clock as high as alternatives and even struggled to get certain heatsinks to fit due to the backplates and the rear components.

But they are more efficient which is why I was talking about in the first place and reliability is fine on the FM2A85X-ITX based systems I have seen over the last 7 months.

Gigabyte has tuned their motherboards more towards overclockability and ASRock has moved more towards lower power consumption. Like I said not all ASRock motherboards are poor,some use decent components(just as Hardware Secrets said for the FM2A85X-ITX).

It does not mean the ASRock is worse quality it is just more optimised towards power consumption,which is of more interest for me. I am far more interested in the A8 7600 in 45W TDP mode TBH than an A10 7850K. For me the GA-F2A88XN-WIFI is now a total non-starter due to its power consumption characteristics,unless of course the review is an anomaly. Load power consumption is too near a G1 Sniper for my liking.

I still don't know why Asus has not made an FM2+ mini-ITX motherboard. Looking at the power consumption of their A88X based ATX motherboard they will most likely wallop ASRock and Gigabyte,and have the best of both worlds.

Edit!!

The worse thing is that some of the ATX and mATX FM2+ motherboards post better power characteristics than the mini-ITX ones.

That is just a tad depressing.

 

[Legion]

ASRock FM2A88X-ITX+ review

http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/mainboard/65397-asrock-fm2a88x-itx/

Not as frugal in power as some people think it is!

 

[stulid]

Just tested my Sniper with the A10-7850K at stock, 2400MHz RAM (2x4GB), Two SSD's in RAIDO, 2TB HDD and a blu-ray drive, Single Noctua heatsink+fan.

Max power consumption with Cinebench R15 - 112W.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

ASRock FM2A88X-ITX+ review

http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/mainboard/65397-asrock-fm2a88x-itx/

Not as frugal in power as some people think it is!

Note the lack of the Gigabyte A88X ITX motherboard in there(plus an Corsair AX760i is being used).

So still the only comparison of the Gigabyte and ASRock directly is this:

The hatred towards ASRock is getting a bit illogical it seems and my main system has a Gigabyte motherboard.

I am going to ask Tarinder if he can get the Gigabyte board in and do some direct comparisons.

Just tested my Sniper with the A10-7850K at stock, 2400MHz RAM (2x4GB), Two SSD's in RAIDO, 2TB HDD and a blu-ray drive, Single Noctua heatsink+fan.

Max power consumption with Cinebench R15 - 112W.

Any figures for the ASRock and Gigabyte A88X based mini-ITX motherboards??

 

[Legion]

Indeed, my point is there just aren't enough reviews with either board using Kaveri atm to be making solid judgements or wild claims.

If Asus made an ITX FM2+ board it would be a different story, but sadly for all of us they don't
I can only assume they don't think it's worth their time to put the R&D into one for the volume they'd sell.
When you ask their reps about it on various forums it's just the wall of 'We have no plans to make an FM2+ mITX board at this time', that's all you get.

 

[stulid]

Any figures for the ASRock and Gigabyte A88X based mini-ITX motherboards??

I can ask and probably would get them, but it would take time to come and is it really necessary for something I have absolutely zero interest in.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Indeed, my point is there just aren't enough reviews with either board using Kaveri atm to be making solid judgements or wild claims.

Your the one making wild claims. I seem to have more real world experience with the FM2A85X-ITX and I don't see them exploding or throttling. But then I did not realise people hated ASRock so much here.

People should be avoiding Gigabyte then as their AM3+ motherboards had tons of issues with throttling with the Bulldozer CPUs,which the Asus ones generally avoided. But that was then and this is now.

However that review just reinforced what I said before and was seen in the Hardware.info review - FM2+ mATX/ATX motherboards can be more efficient than either of the FM2+ ITX motherboards you can get now which is depressing.

If Asus got a FM2+ mini-ITX motherboard out soon that would be interesting. However,it seems Gigabyte has been more proactive with FM2/FM2+ than Asus has.

If Asus made an ITX FM2+ board it would be a different story, but sadly for all of us they don't
I can only assume they don't think it's worth their time to put the R&D into one for the volume they'd sell.
When you ask their reps about it on various forums it's just the wall of 'We have no plans to make an FM2+ mITX board at this time', that's all you get.

Its a shame. I do wonder whether AMD has started to shift closer to Gigabyte more recently though. The AM3+ tested kits were usually based around Asus motherboards,but most of the FM2 and FM2+ test kits have either Gigabyte or ASRock. That includes the ones shipped for the AMD consumer test program in the US.