G1217 AMD AM1 SFF quad core Mini ITX desktop build / business machine

[Jhelms]

Bought a new 5350 today to see if it is the CPU with the USB3.0 issue. Will see tonight and with luck, that will be resolved. Or somehow I received two mobos with the identicle issue.

Besides that, I think this has been my fav build as it does everything I want except game. It is TINY and cost less than the first SSD I purchased!

 

[newtekie1]

I wonder if the USB3.0 issue might be power related. Like those ports aren't active when using a laptop power supply or something.

 

[Jhelms]

newtekie1 - That has been on the back of my mind as well and a worry as I can definitely make use of the ports. If so, it would be an epic fail. Will know for sure here soon!

 

[agent00skid]

The rear USB 3 works on mine. Never tested with windows. But ran a Linux based OS off a USB 3 stick in the USB 3 port for some time. Also charged my phone on them.

 

[Jhelms]

That was it - it was the 5350. Hunch paid off! Put the new chip in and the USB 3.0 ports fired right up. Put the old chip back in just to make sure, and USB 3.0 was dead. Now for the RMA process as it is past 15 days with newegg.

 

[Jhelms]

Agent00skid - Installed the bios and it is working like a charm, thanks!

But... I used it for evil

Overclocked her a bit and with only maybe 30 minutes of playing I ended up at....
2.436ghz
Bus: 116
Memory: 1854

Memory does not seem to be the limiting factor as I can drop it down but cannot increase the core. 1mhz more on the bus and she crashes. Funny enough at 116 I can run any test / software / prime and she is stable.

Only thing I think that keeps it from 2.5ghz is the core voltage while set at 1.3V never reaches more than 1.27V on my mobo.

I see guys on the asus AM1 board hitting 3ghz with good cooling and 2.5ghz pretty standard with stock cooling! - nuts for the AM1!

Anyways, very happy with the quick results and no voltage increases needed

 

[Nordic]

I am curious how far you can undervolt also. I have a intel ivy bridge celeron and I can undervolt it to .8v at stock clocks. This cuts the power used by 6v.

 

[Jhelms]

Will have to give the undervolt a try! For now, having fun with the overclock

Since this is an APU and overclocking changes a lot more thingies than just a cpu overclock, I ran passmark just to get an idea of all the changes. Quite a difference for no voltage increases

 

[red_stapler]

I decided to build mine using the box that it came in:

 

[TRWOV]

I decided to build mine using the box that it came in:

so ghetto

 

[red_stapler]

Since this is an APU and overclocking changes a lot more thingies than just a cpu overclock, I ran passmark just to get an idea of all the changes. Quite a difference for no voltage increases

I have mine at 120 bus speed and only got 3000 on my CPU Mark score. :-/

 

[Jhelms]

back it down to 115 or 116 and see what happens.

What is your ram set at? What other software is running in the background at startup?

 

[red_stapler]

back it down to 115 or 116 and see what happens.

What is your ram set at? What other software is running in the background at startup?

I'll give that a try. Ram (old OCZ reaper I had lying around) is only 1066, so I'm certain that is not helping. OS is clean 8.1 install + drivers. No additional software is installed.

*edit* re-checking the BIOS showed that the ram was only clocked at 930! I set the ram speed to like 1280 manually, so we'll see how it does now.

 

[Jhelms]

Ouch, yeah I would say the ram is the weakest link... I can definitely see it holding everything back

 

[Jhelms]

Found these little dual micro SD mini PCI-E adapters. I see no reason it would not work in the onboard adapter as it can utilize a wifi module? Guess I would have to try it out and see.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/151399644569?ru=http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=151399644569&_rdc=1

Since this is a business machine, having 2 extra memory devices onboard would make for awesome backup. Could possibly even do a software raid 5 all in a compact unit vs more external drives. For my needs, dual 64gb cards would be more than enough

Trying to see how much functionality I can reasonably cram into this little guy.

 

[Nordic]

Mico sd is really small and they just seem impractical and expensive. You could do an external harddrive which for cheaper. One drive, but surely more reliable and faster than a microsd.

 

[Jhelms]

Agreed.... but luckily I already have the micro SD cards. Also already have 4 externals and a NAS setup. This is more of a... nice to have on board sort of thing.. and a... wonder if it would work sort of thing.

 

[brandonwh64]

That device is not bootable tho

 

[Jhelms]

I can see where the confusion is, when I spoke about a backup I meant file backup only, not OS or not raid 5 off the primary drive. Just software raid of two micro SD cards for file backup only. Doh - sorry for the confusion!

But overall yeah, with the backups I already have and the speed of the drives I have, it is quite pointless. Just seemed cool to add in extra drives onboard

 

[Jhelms]

Nothing new really - which is awesome. System is rock solid and easily recommended on the mobo and combo. Starting to get the itch to PC game again someday... May need to build a new thingy.

 

[Jhelms]

Update on AM1 processors:

USB3 speed has always been terrible and most of the time, it ran at 2.0 speed. Reading some more recent reviews on AM1 systems, I found that overclocking even 1-2mhz on the bus freaks out the onboard USB 3 controller and it reverts to USB 2 or worse. It can also cause the primary sata controller to be finicky or shut down which leaves you with only the asmedia controller which is slow in comparison. So to make everything finally play nice, I had to back things off to stock and add a little bit back with the multiplier setting - and all is actually working as well as it did when overclocked with only a slight noticeable difference in software loading. However USB 3 is finally working properly again! Hope this helps other AM1 mini systems.

While I love this tiny business machine, looking forward to a big new build at the end of the year.

 

[TRWOV]

Haven't got problems with my USB3 ports.... yet *knocks wood*

 

[cdawall]

How strange I never had that issue with mine either and I'm on the same board

 

[Jhelms]

How strange I never had that issue with mine either and I'm on the same board

Run a speed test on your USB 3.0 ports. Also go to devices and printers and see if your attached device is actually showing connected at 3.0 speed. I am not the first to document this with the AM1 processors! They work - just at 2.0 speeds

 

[cdawall]

I was getting 150 mb/s from my flash drive that's the only thing I plug in 3.0