The Desktop Kabini Review Part 1: AMD Athlon 5350 (AM1) Tested
by Ian Cutress on April 9, 2014 8:00 AM ESTThe Competition
It is no secret that AMD is attempting to fire a shot across Intel’s Bay Trail. The low power x86 desktop space is almost all AMD vs. Intel (VIA still produces x86 parts), and the socketed direction for AMD’s Kabini is a new approach in this area. The claim of low power, quad core and low cost is something that entry-level desktop integrators might find hard to ignore – in fact AMD have stated that the feedback from their Latin America integrators for an upgradeable Kabini solution is very good.
While we have not necessarily looked at Bay Trail from a desktop perspective, there are products on the market today. In the UK for example, it is easy enough to purchase an Intel Celeron J1800-based motherboard and have it shipped next-day delivery.
AMD considers the Athlon 5350/5150 parts (quad core, 2.05 GHz and 1.6 GHz) in line with Intel's Pentium J2850/J2900, and the Sempron 3850 with the J1850/J1900 - all Silvermont based SoCs. In fact, I think the 5350 vs the J1900 is a better fit:
| AMD Athlon 5350 vs. Intel Celeron J1900 | ||||
| Athlon 5350 | Celeron J1900 | |||
| CPU Architecture | Jaguar | Silvermont | ||
| CPU Cores | 4 | 4 | ||
| CPU Frequency | 2.05 GHz |
2.0 GHz 2.4 GHz Turbo |
||
| GPU Cores | 128 SPs | 4 EUs | ||
| GPU Frequency | 600 MHz | 688 MHz | ||
| Memory Interface | 1 x 64-bit | 2 x 64-bit | ||
| Memory Frequency | 1600 MHz | 1333 MHz | ||
| L2 Cache | 2 MB | 2 MB | ||
| TDP | 25 W | 10 W | ||
| Price | $55 | $82 | ||
The big issue that AMD will point out is the price of the J1900. One of AMD’s big selling points will be the price of an APU and a motherboard, which as we discussed earlier should stretch from $56 to $90 depending on the APU/motherboard. On ark.intel.com, Intel does list the tray price of the J1900 as $82, however you can find a motherboard with integrated J1900 at Newegg for $92. Now either the motherboard manufacturer is getting a good deal on the CPU below tray price (most likely), or Intel is subsiding the cost, or the tray price is incorrect. We can only speculate, but it does mean that the Athlon 5350 and J1900 square off in terms of cost.
For CPU core counts and frequency, the 5350 and J1900 are closely matched with both being quad core parts at ~2.0 GHz, although the J1900 can boost up to 2.4GHz. AMD likely holds the GPU advantage with its R3 graphics/Radeon HD 8400 compared to Intel's 4 EU HD Graphics. With the Athlon there is a higher supported memory frequency, but only a 64-bit wide memory interface. That might hamper the IGP in our testing, and provide memory limited benchmarks an easy ride on the J1900. There's a pretty substantial TDP difference between the two as well, with Intel holding the theoretical power advantage. Intel does make a 20W Silvermont based SKU, the Atom C2750, although that is an 8 core module aimed at servers and costs $171.
The Test
Our AM1 Kabini coverage will be in two parts due to time constraints. This first part of the review is to explain the ecosystem with some Athlon 5350 numbers to compare against other platforms including a couple of Bay Trail and older Intel parts. We aim to publish a second review next week with more numbers, specifically a wider range of Kabini APUs and the key battle of the 5350 against the J1900. We were unfortunate to not be able to source a J1900 in time for this launch.
Our main Kabini Test Setup is as follows:
| Test Setup | |
| CPU |
AMD Athlon 5350 Quad Core, 2.05 GHz |
| Motherboard | GIGABYTE AM1M-S2H |
| Memory | 2x4GB DDR3-1600 9-10-10 |
| SSD | SF-2281 |
| Power Supply | Antec High Current Pro 1200 |
| Graphics | Integrated |
| Graphics Drivers | 14.3 Beta |
For other platforms:
| Test Setup | |||||
| CPU | Motherboard | Platform |
Cores / Threads |
Frequency | IGP |
|
AMD A6-5200 |
ASRock IMB-A180-H |
Kabini | 4 | 2.0 GHz | HD 8400 |
|
Intel Celeron J1800 |
GIGABYTE J1800N-D2H |
Bay Trail | 2 | 2.4 GHz | HD (Ivy) |
|
Intel Atom C2750 |
ASRock C2750D4I |
Avoton | 8 | 2.4 GHz | None |
|
Intel Celeron G1101 |
MSI Big Bang Fuzion |
Nehalem | 2 | 2.3 GHz |
Not Tested no IGP outputs |
|
Intel Celeron G465 |
ASUS Maximus V Gene |
Sandy Bridge | 1 / 2 | 1.9 GHz | HD (Sandy) |
|
Intel Celeron G2030 |
ASUS Maximus V Gene |
Ivy Bridge | 2 | 3.0 GHz | HD (Ivy) |
Other results in this review were taken from our AMD Kaveri launch review.
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macs - Wednesday, April 9, 2014 - link
I know it's only part one. Anyway it's pretty much useless. I think that on low cost platform like this power consumption for a file server and htpc quality are way more relevant than playing tomb raider or borderlands...DudemanX - Wednesday, April 9, 2014 - link
I don't disagree with any of that but then why have the game benches at all? Even if they just show us how they get unplayably crushed at 1920x1200xHigh quality settings at least we would be able to see how the IGP power is relative to the discrete chips. I'm just wondering for whom these 1280x1024 numbers are for.hero4hire - Saturday, April 12, 2014 - link
Bought a H81 for $60, haswell g1830 Celeron for $30. There were cheap $40 boards available. I'm not sold on this chip as graphics performance are rapidly increasing while cpu not. Why hamstring myself to graphics target in upgrades (socketed) when any $20 graphics "accelerator" will be better. Plus I know have a real upgrade path graphically if needed.azazel1024 - Wednesday, April 9, 2014 - link
For a really cheap, low power system, the AMD Kabinis might work.However, looking at what they offer, they can't replace my server with a lower power version. Only 2 SATA3 slots, which means I'd need to throw a RAID card on there of some sort, even a lot end one would add a lot to the price and a lot more to the power consumption.
My G1610 based system ran $92 for CPU+board ($42 processor, $50 board on sale). It can run rings around even the best Kabini here. Yes, it is 55w versus 25w. That is one of the big things I see missing from this review, was actual power consumption of those Sandy/Ivy celeron systems and the J1800 and the Kabini. What are we talking practical power consumption? I use my server as a file server, itunes server, calibre server and download server. It doesn't need a ton of grunt...but in some use cases, I could see it being bogged down with something like a Kabini (or even the Bay Trail based ones) pretty badly. Like updating iTunes library entries and such forth.
TDP isn't the only story though, idle power consumption is probably lower on the Kabini than mine...but my TOTAL system power consumption is 21w at idle, 33w streaming video and only 51w under max CPU load (with HDD spun up too, which add around 12w of load for them when not parked). So between idle and max, the CPU has only a dW of 20w, and possibly a little less as the network cards are somewhat more active to, which might be accounting for a watt or so there.
I know that the CPU is pretty power efficient at idle, though I am sure it could be better...so the CPU itself might be consuming 6-10w at idle and only hitting maybe 30w max under load.
Now if the board itself that Kabini goes in to can also reduce power consumption a fair amount...
Back to needing a RAID card though....sigh.
I am really hoping that Cherry Trail Pentium and Celeron systems include RAID on the boards and also 4 SATA2 slots (or 1/2 SATA3 and 2/3 SATA2). Might just be a good shot to replace my server with one. Especially if it has onboard dual NICs.
Probably be a Haswell or Broadwell Celeron/Pentium that replaces my server in a year or two though. Sigh.
mrdude - Wednesday, April 9, 2014 - link
You may want to take a look at something like this:http://www.servethehome.com/Server-detail/supermic...
Provided you don't need IPMI, it seems a solid deal for under $180. Twice the cost of the best Kabini combination above, but it's lower power, passively cooled, has dual Intel NICs with 6 SATA ports.
I'd love to see AMD compete in that segment of the market since Kabini has a lot to offer there, but they seem to have completely abandoned the x86 server segment. A Kabini NUC-like form factor would be great to see too if they can maintain the socketability. NUCs are wasteful and idiotic in that you have to throw them away if you want to upgrade. An AM1 SFF with swappable motherboards and SoCs would certainly be interesting.
Shivansps - Wednesday, April 9, 2014 - link
@ NeweggG1820 $54
Asrock H81M-DGS $49
=$103
Athlon 5350+AM1 mb = +/- $90
im sorry, but i dont see why the G1820 is not incluided here... I whant to see that comparison.
YuLeven - Wednesday, April 9, 2014 - link
Because Haswell G1820 would put Kabini's performance to shame and arguments like power comsumption wouldn't cut as excuses to it. Well... that would hurt "AMD Center".jospoortvliet - Thursday, April 10, 2014 - link
Could you keep that nonsense to yourself please?JDG1980 - Wednesday, April 9, 2014 - link
You'll be paying more for the LGA 1150 solution if you want a Mini-ITX form factor. In contrast, AM1 has Mini-ITX boards as low as $35.Torashin - Wednesday, April 9, 2014 - link
"For non-GPU intensive tasks, on paper, the J1900 for $92 and 10W TDP would seem to be the choice if upgradability is not a concern."WHAT????
I'm starting to understand why some people call this place Inteltech. How can you justify what you just said? The CPU with half the power - yeah you're keen to point out they're similar in single threaded, but it has half the core count and it shows - and also more expensive, is somehow the better choice!