View Full Version : Low-Power War, round 2: AM1 vs. Cherry Trail
Dirk Broer
06-03-2015, 10:46 AM
The first round of the low-power war seems to have gone to AMD. The AMD SOCs had more features (http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare_CPUs/AMD_AD5350JAH44HM,Intel_FH8065301614903/), CPU-wise (http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Pentium-J2900-vs-AMD-Athlon-5350-APU-R3/m12727vsm10020), and their boards had more features too -as I described in the previous Low-Power posting. Idle power consumption was on a par with Bay Trail and only under stress (http://www.techspot.com/review/882-intel-pentium-j2900-asrock-q2900-itx/page8.html) did the Intel SOCs have a lower power consumption.
Most motherboard vendors did not even bother bringing out a board with Intel's flagship Bay Trail SOC, the so-called 'Pentium' J2900 (but really an Intel Atom under another name), no doubt because for less than the price of a J2900 board you can buy a AM1 board, an Athlon 5350 plus 4 GB of RAM. Over here I can only get J2900 boards from Asrock, and searching for J2900 boards by ASUS, MSI or Gigabyte drew a blank.
But Moore's Law wasn't formulated by an Intel founder just for fun. Them at Santa Clara might as well be honorary members of motorcycle gang 'No Surrender': they just won't give up. So now we are at round two, and Intel has a new contender series. Gone is the Silvermont-based Bay Trail-D and in is the Airmont-based Braswell (sounds like Haswell), with an even lower TDP -though the value of that metric can be questioned- and a better IGP.
The waiting now is for AMD's new AM1 SOCs, based upon Mullins/Beema.
Dirk Broer
06-06-2015, 08:19 PM
As Asrock had their best AM1 and J2900 boards as iTX, I like to show these compared to their new N3700 iTX board. Note that Asrock seems to have circumvented the supposed 8GB memory limit that the J2900 (http://ark.intel.com/products/78868/Intel-Pentium-Processor-J2900-2M-Cache-up-to-2_67-GHz) and N3700 (http://ark.intel.com/products/87261/Intel-Pentium-Processor-N3700-2M-Cache-up-to-2_40-GHz) have, according to Intel themselves.
AM1H-ITX (http://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/AM1H-ITX/)
Q2900-ITX (http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Q2900-ITX/)
N3700-ITX (http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/N3700-ITX/)
Photo:
(click to enlarge)
http://www.asrock.com/mb/photo/AM1H-ITX(M1).jpg (http://www.asrock.com/mb/photo/AM1H-ITX(L1).jpg)
http://www.asrock.com/mb/photo/Q2900-ITX(M1).jpg (http://www.asrock.com/mb/photo/Q2900-ITX(L1).jpg)
http://www.asrock.com/mb/photo/N3700-ITX(M1).jpg (http://www.asrock.com/mb/photo/N3700-ITX(L1).jpg)
RAM
2x Single Channel DDR3 DIMM
1066/1333/1600
Max: 32GB*
2x Dual Channel DDR3/DDR3L SO-DIMM
1066/1333
Max: 16GB
2x Dual Channel DDR3/DDR3L SO-DIMM
1066/1333/1600
Max: 16GB
PS/2 Ports
1 combo
2
1 combo
USB 2.0 ext.
2
2
2
USB 3.0 ext.
2
2
4
USB 2.0 int.
4
2
4
USB 3.0 int.
2
2
2
Storage
4x SATA 6Gb/s
1x Mini PCI-e
2x SATA 6Gb/s
2x SATA 3Gb/s
1x Mini PCI-e
4x SATA 6Gb/s
1x Mini PCI-e
Audio
ALC892
ALC892
ALC892
LPT Port
No
No
No
COM Port
Yes
(header)
Yes
(header)
Yes
(header)
Expansion / Connectivity
1x PCIe 2.0 x16
(x4 mode)
1x Mini PCI-e
1x PCIe 2.0 x1
1x Mini PCI-e
1x PCIe 2.0 x1
1x Mini PCI-e
dSub
(VGA)
Yes
Yes
No
DVI-D
Yes
Yes
Yes
HDMI
Yes
Yes
Yes
Display Port
Yes
(1.2)
No
Yes
(1.1a)
Fan Ports
1x4pin CPU
1x4pin Chassis
1x3pin Power
1x3pin CPU
1x3pin Chassis
1x3pin CPU
1x3pin Chassis
LAN
RTL8111GR
10/100/1000 Mb/s
RTL8111GR
10/100/1000 Mb/s
RTL8111GR
10/100/1000 Mb/s
Overclockable?
No (http://www.ocinside.de/review/mainboard_asrock_am1h_itx/2/)
No (ftp://europe.asrock.com/manual/Q2900-ITX.pdf)
No (ftp://europe.asrock.com/manual/N3700-ITX.pdf)
WiFi?
Optional
(separate bracket included)
No
Optional
(separate bracket included)
19V DC in option?
Yes
No
No
*=Yet-to-be 16 GB modules required...
Dirk Broer
06-08-2015, 10:01 PM
In the case of ASUS in this category it is hard to decide whether the iTX board is better than the mATX board or vice-versa.
This holds true for both their AM1 and their Bay Trail offerings, so I show you their two best J1900 boards along their two AM1 boards
(ASUS has no J2900 boards and as yet no N3700 boards either. Looks like ASUS has decided that AMD has the best offering in this segment and that the extra cost of the better Intel products is too much for the consumer, compared to other ASUS products. So: see AMD shine in this ASUS presentation...).
AM1I-A (https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AM1IA/)
AM1M-A (https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AM1MA/)
J1900I-C (http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/J1900IC/)
J1900M-A (http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/J1900MA/)
Photo:
(click to enlarge)
https://www.asus.com/media/global/products/BDasNTuxC8rXk3JB/GbFYTLA20e9SYApP_setting_fff_1_90_end_500.png (https://www.asus.com/media/global/products/BDasNTuxC8rXk3JB/GbFYTLA20e9SYApP_setting_fff_1_90_end_1000.png)
https://www.asus.com/media/global/products/lE2qeQLBYs7UGtEq/805j7WHreAVIHU5h_setting_fff_1_90_end_500.png (https://www.asus.com/media/global/products/lE2qeQLBYs7UGtEq/805j7WHreAVIHU5h_setting_fff_1_90_end_1000.png)
http://www.asus.com/media/global/products/5rnsvYYTM1gHoT4t/GEXpEXGzBSsCdJtZ_setting_fff_1_90_end_500.png (http://www.asus.com/media/global/products/5rnsvYYTM1gHoT4t/GEXpEXGzBSsCdJtZ_setting_fff_1_90_end_1000.png)
http://www.asus.com/media/global/products/GjZVky2pjWZthsYY/xrfH76l3jBIP3PtF_setting_fff_1_90_end_500.png (http://www.asus.com/media/global/products/GjZVky2pjWZthsYY/xrfH76l3jBIP3PtF_setting_fff_1_90_end_1000.png)
RAM
2x Single Channel DDR3 DIMM
1066/1333/1600
Max: 32GB*
2x Single Channel DDR3 DIMM
1066/1333/1600
Max: 32GB*
2x Dual Channel DDR3/DDR3L SO-DIMM
1066/1333
Max: 8GB
2x Dual Channel DDR3 DIMM
1066/1333
Max: 16GB
PS/2 Ports
2
1 combo
1 combo
2
USB 2.0 ext.
4
4
4
2
USB 3.0 ext.
2
2
1
1
USB 2.0 int.
4
4
2
4
USB 3.0 int.
0
2
0
0
Storage
2x SATA 6Gb/s
2x SATA 6Gb/s
2x SATA 3Gb/s
1x Mini PCI-e
2x SATA 3Gb/s
Audio
ALC887
ALC887
ALC887
ALC887
LPT Port
Yes
(header)
Yes
(header)
Yes
(header)
Yes
COM Port
Yes
(port+header)
Yes
(header)
Yes
(port+header)
Yes
(header)
Expansion / Connectivity
1x PCIe 2.0 x4
1x PCIe 2.0 x16
(x4 mode)
2x PCIe 2.0 x1
1x PCIe 2.0 x1
1x Mini PCI-e
1x PCIe 2.0 x16
(x1 mode)
2x PCIe 2.0 x1
dSub
(VGA)
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
DVI-D
Yes
Yes
No
No
HDMI
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Display Port
No
No
No
No
Fan Ports
1x4pin CPU
1x4pin Chassis
1x4pin CPU
1x4pin Chassis
1x4pin CPU
1x4pin Chassis
1x4pin CPU
1x4pin Chassis
LAN
RTL8111GR
10/100/1000 Mb/s
RTL8111GR
10/100/1000 Mb/s
RTL8111G
10/100/1000 Mb/s
RTL8111H
10/100/1000 Mb/s
Overclockable?
Yes
Yes
No
No
WiFi?
No
No
No
No
19V DC in option?
No
No
No
No
*=Yet-to-be 16 GB modules required...
P.S.: The ASUS AM1I-A supports ECC RAM (as in makes use of the features of it)
Dirk Broer
06-10-2015, 10:10 PM
Though MSI has -like ASUS- no J2900 board they do have a new N3700 board for us. I wil compare both their iTX J1900 and N3700 with their AM1 offerings.
AM1I (http://www.msi.com/product/mb/AM1I.html#hero-overview)
AM1M (http://www.msi.com/product/mb/AM1M.html#hero-overview)
J1900I (http://www.msi.com/product/mb/J1900I.html#hero-overview)
N3700I-ECO (http://www.msi.com/product/mb/N3700I-ECO.html#hero-overview)
Photo:
http://asset.msi.com/resize/image/global/product/five_pictures10_3058_20141105094134.png62405b38c58 fe0f07fcef2367d8a9ba1/600.png
http://asset.msi.com/resize/image/global/product/five_pictures1_3275_20140930160653.png62405b38c58f e0f07fcef2367d8a9ba1/600.png
http://asset.msi.com/resize/image/global/product/five_pictures5_3107_20140408182611.png62405b38c58f e0f07fcef2367d8a9ba1/600.png
http://asset.msi.com/resize/image/global/product/five_pictures1_3422_20150507150348554b0e54b2988.pn g62405b38c58fe0f07fcef2367d8a9ba1/600.png
RAM
2x Single Channel DDR3 DIMM
1066/1333/1600
Max: 32GB*
2x Single Channel DDR3 DIMM
1066/1333/1600
Max: 32GB*
2x Dual Channel DDR3/DDR3L SO-DIMM
1066/1333
Max: 16GB
2x Dual Channel DDR3/DDR3L SO-DIMM
1333/1600
Max: 8GB
PS/2 Ports
2
1 combo
2
2
USB 2.0 ext.
2
4
2
2
USB 3.0 ext.
2
2
1
2
USB 2.0 int.
4
4
2
2
USB 3.0 int.
0
2
0
2
Storage
2x SATA 6Gb/s
1x Mini-PCIe
2x SATA 6Gb/s
2x SATA 3Gb/s
2x SATA 6Gb/s
Audio
ALC887
ALC887
ALC887
ALC887
LPT Port
No
No
No
No
COM Port
Yes
(header)
Yes
(header)
No
Yes
(port+header)
Expansion / Connectivity
1x PCIe 2.0 x16
(x4 mode)
1x Mini-PCIe
1x PCIe 2.0 x16
(x4 mode)
2x PCIe 2.0 x1
1x PCIe 2.0 x1
1x PCIe 2.0 x1
dSub
(VGA)
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
DVI-D
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
HDMI
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Display Port
No
No
No
No
Fan Ports
1x3pin CPU
1x4pin Chassis
1x3pin CPU
1x4pin Chassis
1x4pin CPU
1x4pin Chassis
1x4pin CPU
1x4pin Chassis
LAN
RTL8111G
10/100/1000 Mb/s
RTL8111G
10/100/1000 Mb/s
RTL8111G
10/100/1000 Mb/s
RTL8111G
10/100/1000 Mb/s
Overclockable?
No
No
No
No
WiFi?
No
No
No
No
19V DC in option?
No
No
No
No
*=Yet-to-be 16 GB modules required...
Dirk Broer
07-09-2015, 11:00 PM
It will probably not be related to this posting, but they've pulled back all Pentium J2900 boards over here....you can only buy OEM systems with them now (some for less than 200 Euro's actually).
ANd as N3700 boards are still as scarce as hen's teeth over here, it is the Celeron J1800 and J1900 against AMD's AM1 SOCs now in the low-power niche!
There's even some extra AMD A4-5000 boards now, at only 15 Watt TDP -Socket BGA769, also known as Socket FT3- that have their SOC soldered-on, like with Intel's Bay Trail-D SOCs.
My own AM1 system is currently running -fine- Windows 10, which I find better at this stage than Windows 8 -and far better than Windows 8.1.
Integer MIPS values under BOINC are only half of those under Linux though....no doubt an Intel compiler or Intel-biased library related artefact.
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