ASUS F1A75-I Deluxe Review – Llano and Mini-ITX
by Ian Cutress on October 1, 2011 5:30 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Asus
- A75
Test Setup
| Processor |
AMD Llano A6-3650 4 Cores, 4 Threads, 2.6 GHz |
| Motherboards | ASUS F1A75-I Deluxe |
| Cooling | Corsair H50-1 |
| Power Supply | Silverstone 1000W 80 PLUS Silver |
| Memory |
G.Skill RipjawsX DDR3-1866 9-10-9 28 2x4GB Kit 1.5V Patriot Viper Xtreme DDR3-2133 9-11-9 27 2x4 GB Kit 1.65V |
| Memory Settings | DDR3-1866 |
| Video Cards |
XFX HD 5850 1GB ECS GTX 580 1536MB |
| Video Drivers |
Catalyst 10.12 / 11.8 NVIDIA Drivers 280.26 |
| Hard Drive |
Micron RealSSD C300 256GB OCZ Vertex3 240GB |
| Optical Drive | LG GH22NS50 |
| Case | Open Test Bed - CoolerMaster Lab V1.0 |
| Operating System | Windows 7 64-bit |
| SATA Testing |
Micron RealSSD C300 256GB OCZ Vertex3 240GB |
| USB 2/3 Testing | Patriot 64GB SuperSonic USB 3.0 |
As part of our test setup, we are slowly migrating to newer drivers for our discrete GPU tests, as well as updating the tests appropriately. However, as it is only fair to test like for like, comparisons will only be made with results achieved with the same drivers.
Comparison to Other Reviews
Where applicable, the results in this review are directly compared to the following chipsets and boards which we have reviewed previously:
Note: The main comparison point for the ASUS F1A75-I Deluxe for us is the ASRock A75 Extreme6 we have already tested. As a result of that review, which was run with DDR3-1333 settings to compare to Sandy Bridge boards, I have been asked to run future Llano reviews at DDR3-1866, which Llano supports natively. For logistical reasons, there is also a CPU discrepancy, where today we are using an A6-3650 (2.6 GHz, 320 SP IGP), and in the A75 Extreme6, an A8-3850 (2.9 GHz, 400 SP IGP) was used. In analysing the results, these factors will be taken into account.
Power Consumption
Power consumption was tested on the system as a whole with a wall meter connected to the power supply, while in a dual GPU configuration. This method allows us to compare the power management of the UEFI and the board to supply components with power under load, and includes typical PSU losses due to efficiency. These are the real world values that consumers may expect from a typical system (minus the monitor) using this motherboard.
The only board to compare the F1A75-I Deluxe to is the A75 Extreme6 board I reviewed a few months ago. Both boards perform similarly.
CPU Temperatures
With most users running their boards on purely default BIOS settings, we are running at default settings for the CPU temperature tests. This is, in our outward view, an indication of how well (or how adventurous) the vendor has their BIOS configured on automatic settings. With a certain number of vendors not making CPU voltage, turbo voltage or LLC options configurable to the end user, which would directly affect power consumption and CPU temperatures at various usage levels, we find the test appropriate for the majority of cases. This does conflict somewhat with some vendors' methodology of providing a list of 'suggested' settings for reviewers to use. But unless those settings being implemented automatically for the end user, all these settings do for us it attempt to skew the results, and thus provide an unbalanced 'out of the box' result list to the readers who will rely on those default settings to make a judgment.
Compared to the board we have tested, the F1A75 Deluxe does well on CPU temperatures, even compared to the low powered Fusion boards with passive cooling, and the Sandy Bridge boards.
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51 Comments
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jensend - Saturday, October 1, 2011 - link
Glad to see at least one manufacturer put two usb3 ports on the back and included a header for the A75's other ports. ASRock's board wouldn't allow for any front usb3 ports or any internal usb3 devices (usu. card readers).But $145 is a bit steep for my taste. Hopefully they'll come out with a cheaper version sans remote.
Death666Angel - Saturday, October 1, 2011 - link
"this board has not been released"I can buy this board at 14 different online stores and they have it in store. Unless Europe/Germany has a different ASUS F1A75-I Deluxe, this thing is released as can be. :-)
Also, it costs 45€ more than the AsRock I got and the only difference I see is the AsRock has no WLAN, no remote and no DP. For me, I made the right choice. :D
Iketh - Saturday, October 1, 2011 - link
Why in the world is a 1000W PS being used for this system???? Use a 350w silver or even less.... I stopped reading when I saw thatAnandThenMan - Sunday, October 2, 2011 - link
The make Llano look bad, there is no other logical explanation. Well except gross incompetence to use such a PS for this platform.Death666Angel - Sunday, October 2, 2011 - link
It's the curse of a standardized test system:you save quite a bit of time and have overall the better comparison between tests, but you do end up making some things look worse than they are, since one size doesn't fit all.
I think you are reading too much into this. If you want to see how this (obvious HTPC board) fares with a HTPC setup, go look for another site that specializes in it. :-)
Intel Motherboards are tested with the same setup btw and they are looking about as good as Llano here, I think. And when you look at the initial SNB review, you have idle numbers for the i3 3100 of 73W (they don't list the used PSU in those reviews), which is quite a lot worse than Llano and some Athlons in that test.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4083/the-sandy-bridg...
:D
Soulkeeper - Saturday, October 1, 2011 - link
1.35 V is the lowest dram voltage it will let you select ?Any idea if future bios can/will allow lower ?
Soulkeeper - Saturday, October 1, 2011 - link
Does this keyboard function like a standard wireless usb keyboard ?IE: it doesn't need special drivers and will work in linux ?
hp79 - Saturday, October 1, 2011 - link
AMD really sucks. 50 Watt of power in idle with integrated GPU is really terrible.I have a intel i3-2120 with 8GB ram, 1 SSD, 1 HDD, GTX 460 1GB on a intel mini-itx board, which is housed in Lian Li PC-Q11 and that uses only 45W power on idle. When playing games, the case stays really quiet and takes around 100W to 140W. By the way, I have a Antec 380W 80 plus power supply.
Imagine what it'll look like if I take off that power hungry graphics card since intel HD2000 has no problem handling multimedia stuff.
50W idle for AMD Llano is really a shame. Especially since energy usage is directly related to heat, and space is a premium for HTPCs or mini-itx cases, 50W idle is really not a good choice.
One thing I have to thank AMD is for it wasn't for them, intel would have been less innovative, and who knows we might have been stuck with Pentium D's today. I don't expect much from AMD's but I hope they can continue to offer some mid-end, low-end competition so we can buy intel's good stuff for cheap. i3-2120 plus H61 motherboard for $110 is an amazing price.
nubie - Sunday, October 2, 2011 - link
Um, did you see the guy above you complaining about the 1000watt power supply?Maybe that is the cause of the power draw being so high.
These results only are comparable with a computer using the 1000watt power supply.
I would love to see a PC using the Xbox360 power brick for example, 203Watt was the highest spec they came in, newer ones are close to 100watt.
hp79 - Sunday, October 2, 2011 - link
Yes, I read his comment after reading the whole article. I also thought the 1000W power supply was awkward, but still shouldn't be the reason using that much power. It's a 80 Plus PSU, and an expensive one.I also have a AMD Athlon X3 435 which uses 55W on idle with nforece integrated graphics. Another reason I don't like AMD is that the performance was lower than a cheap ass $30 Celeron E3300 when I tested playing games with a GT240 graphics card on both of them. No more AMDs in my house.