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SiSoftware Sandra (the System ANalyser, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant) is an information & diagnostic utility. It should provide most of the information (including undocumented) you need to know about your hardware, software and other devices whether hardware or software.
Sandra is a (girl’s) name of Greek origin that means “defender”, “helper of mankind”. We think that’s quite fitting.
It works along the lines of other Windows utilities, however it tries to go beyond them and show you more of what’s really going on. Giving the user the ability to draw comparisons at both a high and low-level. You can get information about the CPU, chipset, video adapter, ports, printers, sound card, memory, network, Windows internals, AGP, PCI, PCI-X, PCIe (PCI Express), database, USB, USB2, 1394/Firewire, etc.
Native ports for all major operating systems are available:
- Windows XP, 2003/R2, Vista, 7, 2008/R2 (x86)
- Windows XP, 2003/R2, Vista, 7, 2008/R2 (x64)
- Windows 2003/R2, 2008/R2* (IA64)
- Windows Mobile 5.x (ARM CE 5.01)
- Windows Mobile 6.x (ARM CE 5.02)
All major technologies are supported and taken advantage of:
- SMP – Multi-Processor
- MC – Multi-Core
- SMT/HT – Hyper-Threading
- MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE 4.1, SSE 4.2, AVX, FMA – Multi-Media instructions
- GPGPU, DirectX, OpenGL – Graphics
- NUMA – Non-Uniform Memory Access
- AMD64/EM64T/x64 – 64-bit extensions to x86
- IA64 – Intel* Itanium 64-bit
The single channel memory on the Sapphire Pure Fusion suffers a little in the last test when compared to the other platforms however the Arithmetic test is strong for the new AMD APU. The Atom D525 is top with the Multimedia benchmark test.
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.