Last month we brought you our in-depth review on the AMD A8-3850 'Llano' 2.9GHz APU, which is the flagship processor in AMD's new A-Series lineup. Today we will be looking at the more budget friendly AMD A6-3650 2.6GHz APU that costs $20 less at $119.99 shipped. We also spend some time overclocking this processor and managed to get it up to 3.8GHz with an AMD heatsink!
These Llanos are looking to be the go-to for HTPCs or for a nice budget build for pre-teens/teens and non-hardcore gamers. I agree with pwcmed (on the 3850 review thread), once they come out with mini-itx boards for this they will be great! I can't believe that they don't run very hot even on air, since they have quad cores AND such a strong GPU all sharing that die. Gotta love AMD for the budget conscious!
Will the new boards for these have a fall-back basic onboard video for troubleshooting? Even a basic 32-64MB onboard could be useful but non-intrusive when not needed. It would seem that any problems at all with the GPU makes it harder to troubleshoot if you can't see video, even if the cpu itself boots OK.
I have come to the conclusion that "FaceBook" should be renamed "FacePalm"
The real sell for these guys is when Dell, HP, Compaq, Gateway, Lenovo, Asus & Acer adopt these into small form factor PC's. As then you'll be able to have a machine that can do just about anything the normal user wants (and yes, normal users are Casual gamers; which some Casual games have lockups and issues with solutions like Ion or Intel's HD Graphics.)
Though, most of the manufacturers have yet to figure out that the All In One market is really where the sales can be. The "tower" market is dying, but desktop parts still have a home in these All-In-One machines. As people like the Apple look, just not the Apple price; and parts like these are perfect for such situations.
I do feel that the extra $20 is a no-brainer for the DIY-ers to get the 3850, but I guess the OEM branders will need a couple of different levels to spread out their price points.
I have come to the conclusion that "FaceBook" should be renamed "FacePalm"
These APUs seems to be really good for their cost ; good thing I was "too busy" to build a new HTPC .
The Gigabyte board acting weird...might want to get a replacement or a different one for future reviews. I'm pretty sure the overclocks/performance can probably go a bit further.
By the way, on the A8-3850 review, why didn't you guys bothered to overclock it further...i.e. add more voltage. If the A6-3650 can go as far as 3.8GHz, it would be interesting to see on how far the faster variant can go.
Cooler Master HAF 932 // Phenom II 1090T @ 4.1GHz (not 110% stable) // ASUS Crosshair V Formula 990FX // Thermaltake Frio CPU Cooler // Sapphire Dual-X HD 7970 @ 1150/1500 // 8GB (2X4GB) G.Skill RipJaws + 8GB (2X4GB) G.Skill RipJawsX @1600 8-9-8-21-1T // Corsair TX850 // Corsair ForceGT 120GB SSD // Kingston V200+ 120GB SSD // WD Caviar Black 1TB // LiteON DVD-RW // Windows 7 Ult. 64-bit
Well... Let me send you a processor and give you two days to do an 18 page review. That also includes setting up the test system, taking pictures, benchmarking, overclocking, making charts, laying out the article and writing it all. The answer to all the 'why didn't you' questions is always time. In the A8-3850 review I left many of the board settings at default and got stuck at the 117MHz wall due to the analog connection that I was using. When I first booted the board I have my DVI monitor connection on the board. I swapped to VGA and left it at that. I threw more volts at it, changed to liquid cooling, dropped the memory multiplier and NB divider and couldn't get it to budge... I found out later that the highest the analog video would work on this APU is 117MHz regardless if it's the 3650 or 3850. Dan also wasn't happy with the overclocking on his A8-3850, so I FedEx'd it back to me and overclocked it myself and found a frequency wall at ~3.3GHz. No matter what multiplier I was running or how many volts I couldn't reach much over 3.3GHz. This is on the same board I tested the A6-3650 on. So it appears to be hitting a wall at ~3.3GHz.
Apoptosis wrote:Well... Let me send you a processor and give you two days to do an 18 page review. That also includes setting up the test system, taking pictures, benchmarking, overclocking, making charts, laying out the article and writing it all. The answer to all the 'why didn't you' questions is always time. In the A8-3850 review I left many of the board settings at default and got stuck at the 117MHz wall due to the analog connection that I was using. When I first booted the board I have my DVI monitor connection on the board. I swapped to VGA and left it at that. I threw more volts at it, changed to liquid cooling, dropped the memory multiplier and NB divider and couldn't get it to budge... I found out later that the highest the analog video would work on this APU is 117MHz regardless if it's the 3650 or 3850. Dan also wasn't happy with the overclocking on his A8-3850, so I FedEx'd it back to me and overclocked it myself and found a frequency wall at ~3.3GHz. No matter what multiplier I was running or how many volts I couldn't reach much over 3.3GHz. This is on the same board I tested the A6-3650 on. So it appears to be hitting a wall at ~3.3GHz.
Two days?! GEZUS .
I see...surpised to see the wall stops this little APU at ~3.3GHz . Then again, it's not a "BE" model...
Heard there's a "Black Edition" version that's around the corner, looking forward to that!!
Thanks for the notice Nate.
Cheers,
Victor
Cooler Master HAF 932 // Phenom II 1090T @ 4.1GHz (not 110% stable) // ASUS Crosshair V Formula 990FX // Thermaltake Frio CPU Cooler // Sapphire Dual-X HD 7970 @ 1150/1500 // 8GB (2X4GB) G.Skill RipJaws + 8GB (2X4GB) G.Skill RipJawsX @1600 8-9-8-21-1T // Corsair TX850 // Corsair ForceGT 120GB SSD // Kingston V200+ 120GB SSD // WD Caviar Black 1TB // LiteON DVD-RW // Windows 7 Ult. 64-bit
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That also includes setting up the test system, taking pictures, benchmarking, overclocking, making charts, laying out the article and writing it all. The answer to all the 'why didn't you' questions is always time. In the A8-3850 review I left many of the board settings at default and got stuck at the 117MHz wall due to the analog connection that I was using. When I first booted the board I have my DVI monitor connection on the board. I swapped to VGA and left it at that. I threw more volts at it, changed to liquid cooling, dropped the memory multiplier and NB divider and couldn't get it to budge... I found out later that the highest the analog video would work on this APU is 117MHz regardless if it's the 3650 or 3850. Dan also wasn't happy with the overclocking on his A8-3850, so I FedEx'd it back to me and overclocked it myself and found a frequency wall at ~3.3GHz. No matter what multiplier I was running or how many volts I couldn't reach much over 3.3GHz. This is on the same board I tested the A6-3650 on. So it appears to be hitting a wall at ~3.3GHz. 
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. Then again, it's not a "BE" model...