750K, 4 threads on the cheap

R

runs2far

Gawd
Joined
Nov 7, 2011
Messages
937
Hi chaps.

I finally decided to upgrade PenPen from my aging E3300 to the AMD 750K (FM2).
I will post updates when I get time to play with the 750K in a couple of days.
I may be able to post a teaser image later today ;)

The 750K is basically a A10-5700 without the IGP or multiplier lock.
The TDP is set for 100 watts because AMD marks all the FM1 or FM2 chips that are unlocked as 100 Watt TDP.

My reason for buying this is better multitasking and a "cheap" toy.
I literally bough the 750K, ASUS F2A85-M motherboard and a Hyper 212 a little cheaper than an Intel 2500K.
I don't expect nearly the same performance as an Intel quad core, but the new system should handle my needs and struggle less when I have a million things running at the same time.

I am surprised this CPU isn't mentioned anywhere in [H]. I know it's not a top performer, but I think it's a good match for a budget minded OC setup, and you cannot get any current gen 4 thread CPU at that price.
I know there are some older FM1 Athlons available and Phenom II, but that's about it.

Unfortunately I just had to ship a good power meter back to the owner, my mom, and can't measure power draw for some time.

A couple of comparison price links (scan.co.uk)
AMD 750K (£57): http://www.scan.co.uk/products/amd-...o-quad-core-s-fm2-34ghz-4mb-cache-100w-retail
AMD A10-5800K (£93): http://www.scan.co.uk/products/amd-...38ghz-amd-radeon-hd-7660d-800mhz-100w-retail:
AMD FX4300 (£93): http://www.scan.co.uk/products/amd-...re-s-am3plus-38ghz-8mb-total-cache-95w-retail
Intel i3-2120 (£88): http://www.scan.co.uk/products/inte...00-igp-850mhz-3mb-cache-core-r-33x-65w-retail
Intel i5-2500K (£161): http://www.scan.co.uk/products/inte...-33ghz-hd3000-igp-850mhz-6mb-cache-95w-retail

Now I just have to wait for some Intel douchebag, who can't leave the AMD section alone.

EDIT:

Updated some info on the chip.

EDIT EDIT:
I added some pricing info after buttons posted, future updates will be posted later in the thread
 
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Looking to build a HTPC at some point. Interested in hearing how it meets your needs or fails to do so.
 
cageymaru said:
Looking to build a HTPC at some point. Interested in hearing how it meets your needs or fails to do so.
Click to expand...

I think Trinity is the best currently available choice for a HTPC ;) Slap a A10-5700 a mITX setup and you are set for a long time.
 
hopefully the 750k is cheaper then the FX4300. Let us know how it works out for you. i cant find the 750k for sale in the US either.
 
The FX4 models have been priced too high (IMO) for some time, They don't make a lot of sense as they are priced too near to the FX6 models.
 
oh wow, almost half the price but a mild overclock away from being same performance.
 
1st update :)

I promised some teaser images:

All the parts ordered, I got extra 8 GB of memory, it's just so cheap right now.
SL732537.JPG


The CPU box is surprisingly small.
SL732546.JPG


AMD bundles the 750K with a sticker, manual and a heatsink with a small screamer fan.
I will not test that tiny horrible cooler.
SL732553.JPG


I may put it together tomorrow in the evening.

EDIT:
Larger images.
 
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nicely done though i would of sprang for an fm2 board anyways congrats
 
The FX-4100 is not that much more. I got it on special for $90 (about £67).

Anyway, would love to hear your thoughts on the performance of the new rig.
 
Motherboard shots.

I am a little disappointed in the motherboard for 2 reasons.

Asus has cheaped out a lot:
The FM2 OCN thread mentioned final version would feature heatsinks. Asus decided this would be a PRO only feature.
The backplate does not have the nice foam Asus started using in the 775 days.
Asus did not include the universal something plastic header for the front panel wires. It's a small thing, but I love the fact that I can plug all the front panel headers into a piece of plastic and jam the assembled wire mess into the motherboard.

The "FCH", just call it southbridge, and PCI-E lanes.
Trinity has a total of 24 PCI-E lanes, 16 for GPU, 4 fed directly of the CPU and 4 bundled as the UMI interconnect for the FCH.
The FCH itself has USB & SATA + "low" priority stuff + it allows running 4 PCI-E lanes out of it.
My problem with this setup is:
a) Every motherboard manufacturer decides to run the sound card of the FCH, adding some latency. It's not noticeable in daily use, but reviewers still complaint.
b) Why would you want to put 4 PCI-E lanes after an interconnect that is 4 lanes wide and has to service USB & SATA?
Imagine saturating those four lanes, suddenly your SSD will loose transfer speed because you have mounted a physX card or something similar of the FCH lanes.
Obviously a 4x card will not saturate 4 lanes 100% of the time, but you will run into situations where the UMI link gets saturated and thing may start to stutter.

Oh well, enough ranting, time for some pictures.

The included content is very very sparse, manual, pamphlet, driver cd, back plate and 2 SATA cables.
SL732559.JPG


The motherboard is said to be black, but it is actually a rather dark brown.
It seems proper white and black is hard to get and expensive.
SL732563.JPG


Backplate shot, nothing interesting to see here.
Going to examine if I can use the VGA port, it's doubtful because I do not have an IGP, but the VGA DAC is embedded in the FCH.
SL732569.JPG


Hopefully I can assemble tonight.

EDIT:

Availability seems to be spotty or random with these chips. I could only get the 750K, one guy on OCN got the 740 and I can't find any shop offering it in the US.
I know you get a Trinity CPU for the IGP, but Llano based Athlons was/is not hard to find and buying them has made just as much sense as buying the Trinity based Athlons.
Looking forward to bench this setup, not going to compare with the current E3300 from Penpen, as the CPU has already been donated to GIR.
I expect it will perform the same as an A10-5700 at stock and OC to the same level as the A10-5800, that is around 4.5 GHz.
 
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Just put the system together, unfortunately Windows is throwing a lot of spasms, claims to be an illegal copy, blue screen etc.

I will probably have it sorted out tomorrow, have to call support and remove remains of Intel AHCI drivers.

Funny thing, I booted into Linux, got a few boot errors due to the kernel having/lacking a few a few tweaks and the HDD's being recognised in a different order, but it is running solid.
I will look into getting the phoronix suite before going to sleep and leaving the computer to run memtest for the night.
 
I installed windows 7 on a system I built for a friend with an ASrock FM2A75 atx board. The only troublesome thing is it asked for drivers but that was the only thing that worked without any problem was an A10-5800.

If your system is throwing fits while installing from a medium try and copy it to the harddrive itself .
 
I did not care to reinstall windows, that OS is secondary to me and has to figure out the new hardware or die.

MS stupid lock willl have to go when I call support, I have payed for a windows license and it should not lock up when I change the motherboard.

Found a dead stick of memory, that may be the cause of the problems.
I had 2x4GB in Penpen already and wanted to upgrade to 4x4GB, unfortunately I made a screw up in my order and got 1x8GB.
The dead stick was one of the old ones forcing me to run with a 8GB and a 4GB stick right now.
 
Will update proper when I get the time, but here's the first performance metric WEI:
CPU: 7.3
MEM: 7.3
GPU: 2 x 7.9
HDD: 8.1
 
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I have had time to run a few performance test, and it's what you would expect.
At stock with DDR1600 memory, the 750K scores a little below an A10-5800K.

I have started to OC, but without a lot of luck. I have only hit 4 GHz so far and I am reluctant to go any further.
It seems like I cannot get any really reliable readings from the onborard sensors, check the voltage reading.
woot.png

I have changed the voltage ofset to +0.075, multi to 40 and really nothing else.

As long as I can't get good reading, I can't push the chip very far without a risk of permanent damage.
 
Something like this would be good for my sister as she wants a HTPC with one of the cablecard boards in it. They can't decide if they want to invest in a videocard or not so it's still up in the air. Glad to read your experiences with this build. Especially hearing about the problems and what you had to do to rectify them. Keep posting as I'm sure others are curious about how it turns out.
 
great work at least you have the second x16 slot i really hate the way some board manufactures put a 1x pcie slot right under the x16 slot... makes it a pain to install 1x devices if using a dual slot gpu lol
 
cageymaru said:
Something like this would be good for my sister as she wants a HTPC with one of the cablecard boards in it. They can't decide if they want to invest in a videocard or not so it's still up in the air. Glad to read your experiences with this build. Especially hearing about the problems and what you had to do to rectify them. Keep posting as I'm sure others are curious about how it turns out.
Click to expand...

No problem.

I'd wish I had actual numbers, graphs and comparisons, but I do not have anything to compare with and little to no heavy modern games to bench
+ there really isn't anything surprising in the performance per clock department of this model.
The thing I expected could have been better was max OC, but this unit seems to behave the same as the 5800K units send to reviewers.
I can run some of the Phoronix test suite if requested, but my numbers seem to be a little below their 5800K results: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=amd_5800k_linux&num=1

Request something and I will reply with results or lack of possibility.

I have to say that I am very happy with this CPU, and it is a good upgrade from my old dual core.
I do not think single thread performance has changed a lot, but having 4 threads is great.

The CPU is very cool under the hyper 212. Speedfan shows it in the low 30 C under normal use and I can push it into mid 40 C under load, not synthetic.
I trust the temperature reading because I have tried touching the heatsink base, and it is only a little above ambient when the CPU is idle.
I have tried going further with my OC endeavours and was surprised when the CPU fan actually had to speed up when I loaded all the cores.
The hyper 212 fan isn't silent, but it stays at very low rpm despite my 4 GHz OC. Unfortunately fan speed readings are off as well.

My only problems seems to be based on the motherboard and the software ecosystem not having caught up with the FM2 socket.
Trinity really shines in HTPC applications and the IGP in the A10 models is plenty for a lot of people.

My negative words on the stock cooler would have been the same with an Intel CPU, I find that stock coolers are incredibly noisy.
Hell the hyper 212 and my current GPU are a little to noisy for my taste, even when set to lowest RPM.
I will probably replace all those fans with some freakishly expensive Notua fans later on.
First I have to sort out the memory I bought.

maxius said:
great work at least you have the second x16 slot i really hate the way some board manufactures put a 1x pcie slot right under the x16 slot... makes it a pain to install 1x devices if using a dual slot gpu lol
Click to expand...

I have a 1x Xonar card in that slot right now, works fine and guess what there is a 1x slot under the 16x >.< They should place the unused PCI slot there in stead.
I would not load the second 16x slot with anything bandwidth heavy due to it hanging of the UMI link. Furthermore, the only heavy thing I can think of is SLI/Crossfire and I would not go for that with a Trinity CPU.
 
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Good lord that voltage is off the charts... Is that a misreading on CPU-Z's part? I'm actually undervolting my 3.8GHz 5800k to 1.2875v...
 
Centauri said:
Good lord that voltage is off the charts... Is that a misreading on CPU-Z's part? I'm actually undervolting my 3.8GHz 5800k to 1.2875v...
Click to expand...

misreading I am sure of it :) I can only get proper temperature readings at the moment.
Maybe I just haven't found the right program.

Check out Speedfan:
sf.png


I only have the hyper 212 running around 600 RPM and a 12 cm noctua running at even less RPM.
I have no idea where Speedfen finds a 5000+ RPM fan.
The BIOS can actually report proper readings, but it is a little difficult to visit the BIOS during a stress test :D
 
Just an update.

Finally got some proper readings.

Using the obvious choice.... AMD Overdrive.

I still don't have fan speed readings and OverDrive reads about 7C lower than SpeedFan. But I finally have proper clock and voltage readings.

I have only reached 4.2GHz at 1.45V so far but.....

Loading up all cores with BOINC, 3xCPU + 1CPU/GPU only brings the cpu to 43-47C in OverDrive.
I have plenty of temperature headroom and I can hear the fan isn't running much above minimum speed.

Time for some happy clocking.
 
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Another update.

If I should complain about anything in this build, it's the motherboard.
The BIOS is riddled options, most of them poorly described and I miss some options that should be there.

My big case in point is turbo core.
I got no help from any official Asus documentation on figuring out "CPU CPB" mode is the switch to enable/disable turbo core >.<
To top it off, I have to enter Windows and use AMD OverDrive to change turbo multi values.

I only figured the CPB crap out yesterday and I fear my CPU has been jumping to the default 4.1 GHz "turbo" clock in an attempt to boost performance.
Jumping to 4.1 Ghz would be great if I had not passed that speed already, thereby downclock the CPU when there is thermal headroom for overclocking >.<
Of course there's the option of setting a higher turbo clock, but the BIOS does not have an option for that.
I have to use AMD OverDrive to set the max turbo multiplier, why would you not have that option in the BIOS?
 
Faethon said:
Off topic, but i couldn't not notice the odd window colour combination. Is that a skin for Win98 or XP? Did you use Windowblinds, UxTheme Multipatcher or what?
Click to expand...

That close button, isn't it Win8?
 
xorbe said:
That close button, isn't it Win8?
Click to expand...

Hmm, i googled around and it seems like Win8. Although i found some other images that the full screen button looks different. And the weird is the grey colour. It looks like skin (i 've seen themes that can change buttons), but i guess you 're right... Thanks.
 
One more overclock update.

I have lost faith in the F2A85-M motherboard BIOS being able of anything beyond basic settings.
The only voltage control available in the BIOS is offset based, and I had to go to extreme length to get the CPU stable above 4.0 GHz when using offset voltage.
One example is that the CPU would be 99% stable at 1.45 Volt.
Or I should say the offset claimed the voltage would be at 1.45 Volt, I could go into the BIOS and get readings above 1.5 Volt.

I noticed the BIOS had a bad habit of reporting different a different CPU Vid depending on the settings I used or how hard I was pushing the CPU.
This led me to give up on getting any significant OC using the BIOS, it's just not up to the task, or I am to stupid to use a modern BIOS with offset and LLC options.

Currently the BIOS is set for stock voltage, 100 fsb and 40x multi with extreme LLC. This seems stable.

In windows I use the AMD Overdrive utility to OC, and the CPU has been folding all night at 4.4 GHz and 1.325 Volt without any problems.
I am pretty sure I can go higher, but I probably have to start looking at the VRM temperature and power usage soon.
 
Thanks for reviewing this. I can't find the 750k for sale either, not even at shopblt (which usually has everything).

I'm very interested in linux benchmarks @ stock. A kernel compile for example with a stock kernel from kernel.org w/ a config from Ubuntu or another distro, esp with -j1, -j2, -j4 , -j6
 
Robstar said:
Thanks for reviewing this. I can't find the 750k for sale either, not even at shopblt (which usually has everything).

I'm very interested in linux benchmarks @ stock. A kernel compile for example with a stock kernel from kernel.org w/ a config from Ubuntu or another distro, esp with -j1, -j2, -j4 , -j6
Click to expand...

Yeah, availability of this CPU seems to be very random and the US is cut out entirely

I am running Arch linux as my regular OS.

I can do a kernel compile if I can find a guide for it or it's part of the benchmarks I already have installed, will update tonight.

UPDATE:

Damn this benchmark takes time to run.

I have used the standard Phoronix test suite pts/build-linux-kernel benchmark.
I modified the script to use my -j level, not all cores available.

System Information

Hardware:
Processor: AMD Athlon X4 750K Quad Core @ 3.42GHz (4 Cores), Motherboard: ASUS F2A85-M, Chipset: AMD Family 15h, Memory: 16384MB, Disk: 256GB M4-CT256M4SSD2 + 2000GB Western Digital WD20EARS-00M, Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 7800 2048MB (860/1200MHz), Audio: C-Media CMI8788, Monitor: FS2332, Network: Realtek RTL8111/8168B

Software:
OS: Linux, Kernel: 3.7.4-1-ARCH (x86_64), Desktop: KDE, Display Server: X Server 1.13.2, Display Driver: fglrx 9.1.11, OpenGL: 4.2.12002, Compiler: GCC 4.7.2, File-System: ext4, Screen Resolution: 1920x1080

I do not have any -j6 results, as performance decreases when going above -j4, and my test with -j6 showed slightly worse results than -j5.

All results are average from 3 runs.

stock, no turbo:
-j5 - 188.50 Seconds
-j4 - 188.01 Seconds
-j3 - 223.49 Seconds
-j2 - 298.99 Seconds
-j1 - 545.41 Seconds
Click to expand...

stock, with turbo:
-j5 - 180.38 Seconds
-j4 - 179.83 Seconds
-j3 - 210.73 Seconds
-j2 - 273.17 Seconds
-j1 - 477.97 Seconds
Click to expand...

4.0 GHz, with turbo
-j5 - 164.65 Seconds
-j4 - 164.16 Seconds
-j3 - 195.11 Seconds
-j2 - 258.69 Seconds
-j1 - 473.33 Seconds
Click to expand...

4.0 GHz, no turbo
-j5 - 164.16 Seconds
-j4 - 163.83 Seconds
-j3 - 194.07 Seconds
-j2 - 256.41 Seconds
-j1 - 472.12 Seconds
Click to expand...
 
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Probably one of my last updates.

Currently testing at ~4.2 GHz.
I though 4.4 GHz was stable, but I would get a random reboot here and there or a game would freeze after hours of gameplay.
The motherboard VRM components got really toasty at 4.4 GHz and the lack of stability may be caused by the MOSFETs overheating.

I am currently enjoying Borderlands 2 with this thing and a 7850, I have everything except AA (2x) and physics (low) maxed at 1080P getting 60+ fps with some stutter on fast travel :)
Settings physics to medium Loads all four threads, reduces GPU load to ~50% and the fps hovers in the 20-60 area depending on what happens on screen :)
 
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