• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

Portable APU build?

S

SixStrings

n00b
Joined
May 3, 2015
Messages
5
Hey guys,

I'm trying to configure the best build that meets the minimum requirements:

1. Two internal 2,5" drives
2. internal PSU
3. sub 15 liter, the less the better
4. as quiet as possible

Would-be-nice-requirements:

5. A third internal 2,5" drive
6. ... to run OSX on
7. being able to play Dark Souls 1+2 as well as the new Divinity properly

The computer has to travel with me at least 8 times via plane and around 20 times via train in my luggage, so each pound I can shave off helps.

I got a Lian Li PC Q12 off of ebay at an amazing price, and at around 7 liters, this seems like the perfect case. The full-metal contruction should also help keeing the internals save. I figured that if I didn't put a GPU in there and opted for a flat cooling solution, like the Noctua NH9a, this computer shouldn't mind being chugged about a bit.

That's as far as I've gotten in my own considerations but I need your help when it comes to internals.

I considered getting an A10-7800 because it runs at 65w and should have enough CPU power for easy tasks like web-browsing and light music production, as well as enough GPU power to play older games at 720p. It's also a fair bit cheaper than the i3. I could get a bundle with the Gigabyte FM2+ Mini ITX Mainboard for 200 €. The 7850k would be 15 € more, and I would spend that for an extra FPS or two, if I knew i could cool it with the Noctua fan. The I'm afraid a 95w APU in such a small case would cause too much heat.

Do you think that's a viable option? I'm really hesitant going with AMD, but money is an issue and I don't think I want to lug around a case that's big enough to carry a dedicated GPU all the time.

Thanks for taking the time to read my ramblings and thanks for any and all suggestions.

Oh, and please recommend RAM to me. I understand that I should aim for 2133 MHZ to get the best out of the APU, but I don't understand what timings are and what voltage I have to aim for. Do I need 16 GB, given that the RAM has to act both at system RAM and vRAM?

Cheers!
 
What I did when traveling for work frequently was purchased a mid level laptop with a discrete GPU and a backpack. Then I bought an inexpensive 24" monitor, mouse and keyboard. If I knew I was going to be the site for more than two days, I would ship the monitor, keyboard and mouse to the hotel. I only used the laptop screen during the actual travel portions, like on the plane/train and only in the hotel if I was staying a day or two. I bought a used MSI laptop for about 500 and the other stuff was around 200 total. When I got done traveling after a few years, I just gave the stuff to my son for him to play with.
 
i have a 7850k and mine using the stock heatsink generates nearly nothing by way of heat so dont worry about the 95w

that said they are refreshing the desktop apu one last time with godavari might want to put off for one of them.

there is also the lenovo thinkpad e555 with the fx-7500 that is a a10-7300 and a r7 m260dx 2gb they run in crossfire as well comes out to 639. the z51-70 is also looking good with a i7 5500u and r9 m375 2g or 4g

also as for the ram speed you should aim at 2400mhz with good timings....
 
Last edited:
I don't know what 'good timings' are. Can you recommend a specific ram model that's normal height, so I can opt for a larger heat sink at some point?
 
I use g.skill ares in mine. You are going to want low profile though there are some offers of that good Samsung ram that over clocks like nobody's business.

And honestly the difference between 2133 and 2400 is not that big but dropping down to 1600 is a big difference benches go up steeply to 1866 then sorta flatten out towards 2400 with 2400 being the highest and 2133 being within 5fps.

https://youtu.be/_WsfeuWI7mU
 
Last edited:
For 2133, CL9 is a good timing, for 2400, CL10 is a good one. There are even faster modules with tighter timings but you'll have to pay a premium for them.

The higher the number behind CL the slower the module, but the higher the number after DDR3-, the faster the module. DDR3-2133-CL9 and DDR3-2400-CL10 are very marginally different, but the latter is indeed faster.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top