KitGuru KitGuru.net – Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards
To test the Fusion platform today, we are using a wide selection of real world and synthetic tests, clearly labelled. If you are only interested in video quality and hardware performance we advise you to shift forward in the review to the real world and image quality sections.
We also felt it would be interesting to compare some of our findings against the Intel Atom platform, in the shape of the 1.8GHz D525 processor. We have also included results from a previous generation AMD Turion 64 X2 L510 clocked at 1.6ghz.
Sapphire Pure Fusion Mini 350 system build:
CPU/GPU: AMD Zacate APU – E350 (HD6310 graphics)
Motherboard: Sapphire Pure Fusion Mini 350
Chassis: Thermaltake Element Q
Memory: Samsung 4GB DDR3 SO-DIMMs (2x2GB) @ 1066mhz
Hard Drive: Samsung 2.5 inch 250GB
Supplemental Hardware:
Solid State: Kingston Hyper Max 3.0 x 2
Optical: Asus USB 2.0 BluRay Drive
Graphics Card: Sapphire HD6850 (via the 4x PCIe Slot)
Monitors: Sharp 50 inch 1080p Aquos LCD TV, LaCie 730 (IQ testing) and Dell U2410
Comparison processors:
Atom D525 @ 1.8ghz
Turion X64 X2 L510 @ 1.6ghz
Software:
Windows 7 64 Bit
Aida 64
SiSoft Sandra
Cinebench R11.5 64 bit
Cyberlink Media Espresso
Cyberlink PowerDVD Ultra V10
3Dmark Vantage
HQV Benchmark V 2.0
Left4Dead
Resident Evil 5
Technical Monitoring and Test Equipment:
Keithley Integra unit
Thermal Diodes
Raytek Laser Temp Gun 3i LSRC/MT4 Mini Temp
Extech digital sound level meter & SkyTronic DSL 2 Digital Sound Level Meter
Kill A Watt Meter
All results are gained from multiple test runs to ensure any abnormalities are removed before publication.
Very nice, I think these will work well in low powered laptops. whenever they make an entrance here in the UK
Well I would say this is a great board, but why on earth are they using SODIMMS? eh? say what?
Quality Sapphire product, but my big question is,. do these systems feel as sluggish as ATOM systems? people who use them will know what I mean. everything you do takes about 2 seconds for the system to take action, even when you are only answering an email.
Good reading, I too am wondering why sapphire opted for SODIMMS on this board. its a bizarre choice.
I think this is $110 bucks, for the board alone. I think it might end up nearer £100 when it hits the rip off UK shores. everything is going up in price with this fucking VAT garbage.
Why are none of the retailers stocking fusion boards in the UK yet? can anyone see them anywhere? OCUK dont even have a category for them at all. I thought the official release was january? anyone?
Ah the mysterious fusion, which is as yet, no where in the UK for sale. AMD really have tried hard to maximise their name and product range while intel was reeling with the sandybridge fiasco. yes, im being sarcastic.
The boards ARE TOO EXPENSIVE. AMD, get your finger out. no one will pay £90 for one of these. they need to drop to £60 inc vat! madness.
Thanks for the review, Zardon. I’m happy to see more Fusion reviews appearing.
@Brian Crucnsnans, huh? Why wouldn’t people pay £90 for a board that’s better specced than a higher cost Atom/Ion one? Not to mention that it’s a Sapphire product, so why are you pointing the finger at AMD? I’m sure someone will come out with a cheaper board without Bluetooth and other goodies, which might fit better into your price range.
I tend to agree with ET. The board is very well specified. USB 3, SATA 6Gbps, bluetooth, esata. You name it, the sapphire board has it. I am sure cheaper versions of these boards will be released with cut down specifications. Also very interesting to see the ram performance on this product isn’t any less than the higher rated MSI product.
Why wouldnt it be worth £90? seems a really good bit of kit with loads of connectivity. Im waiting on the new sony netbook to hit the UK.
Not sure about that case, but the board seems solid. I have a lot of DDR3 dimms here from older laptops. which would come in handy for a build like this.
One BIOS screen I’d love to see is the GFX configuration.
Stop complaining about cost. The ASRock is on sale on both sides of the Atlantic for $110 here and I’ve seen it for 95P/E here. If want a board that will be dirt cheap and still have HDMI, wait for the Jetway NC85. Still dual core, still HDMI 1.3 and everything else legacy ports, likely to be under $100US, and under 90E.