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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StormyParis - Saturday, October 1, 2011 - link
Mobile Llanos use a different socket I think ? For cheap mini-itx nettops, I'd rather have that, especially because desktop llanos need 65W and up, which is a lot.Taft12 - Sunday, October 2, 2011 - link
At idle, these desktop parts draw about the same amount of power as laptop parts. Also, please observe the difference between TDP and actual system power drawCharonPDX - Monday, October 3, 2011 - link
For cheap systems, you don't want to use more expensive mobile chips. A little extra heat on the desktop is possible to exhaust more easily.Z Throckmorton - Saturday, October 1, 2011 - link
Thank you very much for the very informative review, Ian. I've been waiting way too long for ITX FM1 boards to appear, and there's finally some proliferation in the field. Hopefully the field will continue to widen both in terms of APUs and boards.Any word on why OC'ing in AHCI is abysmal and in IDE, very impressive? Is this an issue with this board in particular, or this chipset in general?
Taft12 - Sunday, October 2, 2011 - link
I'm with you on the need for ITX FM1 boards. I'd argue that there's really no need for *ANY* FM1 system to be larger than micro-ATX (and only then for the benefit of 4 memory slots). If you need more video processing power than Llano integrated, you should be buying AM3+mariush - Saturday, October 1, 2011 - link
Read all the article...In my opinion that bit about being unable to overclock shouldn't be on the first page, it may put off the reader and stop him from reading further.
On the page where you actually discuss about overclocking, you should remind people that it's a beta BIOS and just maybe they won't have to switch to IDE mode in final versions of the motherboard to get good overclocking.
Maybe it's just me but I would have appreciated a test showing the power consumption of the system with just plain 2 GB of memory, with wireless disabled and a simple budget ssd drive or a 5900 rpm drive - probably the configuration people would use for htpc or for an office machine.
I see the system uses 122 watts of power when playing Metro but how about the case when there's no additional video card - would I be able to run it from let's say a 120w pico-psu combined with a 19v laptop brick?
It would also be nice to see how low the voltage of the CPU can go and still keep the system stable, just in case someone would like to make the system as cool as possible and make it silent
You also say the power is measured at the wall but you're using a 1000w power supply - this is ridiculous.
The Silverstone Strider Plus 1000w is reported to have only about 80.8 efficiency at 100 watts, see jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story2&reid=180
just4U - Saturday, October 1, 2011 - link
As an enthusiast.. this would likely go into a small formfactor for the TV.. I don't even see why Overclocking would be a deal breaker at all.mdk777 - Saturday, October 1, 2011 - link
"The Silverstone Strider Plus 1000w is reported to have only about 80.8 efficiency at 100 watts, see jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story2&reid=180 "correct: It is really much worse for the idle !
Most likely at half this wattage the efficiency is closer to 70 %
Hence that 50 watt idle at the wall translates into 35 watts direct.
With a proper 400 watt gold rated PSU you would pull 38 to 39 watts.
Hence a horrible reporting error of what ? over 24%
What a joke. Why didn't you just use a 1500 watt bronze unit to try and skew the results even more.????
Arnulf - Sunday, October 2, 2011 - link
Yup, undervolting would be interesting, not the silly 1.5V on 32 nm chip.tecknurd - Sunday, October 2, 2011 - link
If the computer consumes 122 watts and the power supply rating is 120 watts, this is will hurt the power supply trying to use more power than the power supply is rated for. It is best to select a power supply that has more power than the device is trying to use. There are 160 watt pico power supply units that will be better suited for the setup. Using a pico power supply is best to use with lower power processors like an A6-3600 or A4-3400.Yes, using a 1000 watt power supply for this setup is over kill. Probably this is the power supply that author has in their junk box. Sure jonnyguru.com might be good, but where is the ripple voltage or quality of the power that the Silverstone power supply is providing at the low power. Efficiency is part of a good power supply, but the quality of the power matters more when caring for stability of the computer.
Increasing the voltage over than the stock voltage of the processor can hurt the processor. Some motherboards may do this already and increasing voltage just adds more problems. Use a multimeter to check the voltage. If you do not know what you are doing where to place the probes for the multimeter, just do not do it.