AMD Fusion advance HTPC market – GIGABYTE E350N-USB3 Performance and OC Guide

[windwithme]

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

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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

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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

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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

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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 :)