AMD Brazos e350 powered Laptop

[Mau1wurf1977]

[glenpinn]

ok thx for the video, great demo for the celery cpu.

will go try out a few of these different notebook cpu's on thursday.

how would the E350 + hd6310m graphics handle full HD mp4 or bluray playback, i would assume this would be a pretty easy task for them, especially given the asus notebook has hdmi.

edit: actually that was a pretty dumb question as my asus Eeepc 1205N played bluray pretty well (well m2ts files ripped from bluray) and that was a Dual Core Intel Atom D330 @ 1.6ghz with nVidia Ion graphics.

[Jonchilds]

You're also comparing a 35W CPU + GPU (Celeron B820) to an 18W CPU+GPU (Fusion E-450). So apart from the price point comparison, they're really intended for different market segments.

With the same battery, you'll get much more usage on the go and when plugged in it should also be much cooler on your lap.

I've plugged my E-450 in to a 23" 1080p screen and it works fine, although a few of the heavier web sites like facebook and news.com.au can slow down a little when scrolling quickly, but they do that at times on my i7 720 at times also.

As far as media playback goes, the E-450 will play back HD media well enough. If you're having trouble, it may help to use the right software (eg, VLC, Media Player Classic) which has hardware acceleration.

[glenpinn]

hi guys, where did the E450 cpu come into this discussion ???

i thought we were talking about the E350 in that 14" asus notebook my SIL wanted to buy.

anyway, i went to DSE today, had a go of a 14" CQ43 with the amd E300 1.3ghz + hd6310m graphics + 2gb ram + 320 hdd ( identical to the asus notebook im referring to except it only had the E300 cpu)

it (the e300) seemed ok for general use, and it had win 7 HP 64bit, but i have to say, those newer model Compaq laptops really are the PITS in laptop build quality, and based on that, i would never buy one regardless of its price, the asus shits on them for quality (they all have shitty flat chicklet type keys on the keyboards tho)

here are 2 i got in emails today.

free shipping on this asus X54C-SX035V $389 but only has the celeron B815 cpu but it has HD2000 graphics (the centrecom spec list says HD3000) making it a pretty reasonable deal i think.

http://www.centrecom.com.au/catalog/...9.html?sort=2a

MLN has a HP Pavilion G6-1315TU for $448 + $29 post and it has the i3-2350M 2.3ghz cpu, 4gb ram and HD graphics, but i vowed i will never buy another pavillion laptop after some of the problems many people are having with them.

http://www.mln.com.au/product/?itemI..._to_07-08_2012

the asus laptop from centrecom is very tempting.

EDIT: strange how Notebookcheck says that the celeron B815 has HD2000 graphics but the asus specs state that it has HD3000 graphics.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-C...r.64413.0.html
http://www.asusnotebooks.com.au/note...7-premium.html

[Mau1wurf1977]

Originally Posted by Jonchilds

So apart from the price point comparison, they're really intended for different market segments.

I disagree because the customer sees a 14" notebook, the clockspeed and the price.

As I said several times already, the 11" machine makes sense, but not in a 14" machine. It's simply a nasty and misleading trick.

With the same battery, you'll get much more usage on the go and when plugged in it should also be much cooler on your lap.

Not in real life as it's not just about the Watts, but performance per watt and here Intel is simply leaps ahead. The E-450 machine will be under load most of the time and battery life cut in half. Yes watching a movie, it will do the 5 or so hours, but use it for work and things are different.

HD Media playback is no feature anymore IMO. They all can do this and Intel's video decoding support is very good.

[glenpinn]

Originally Posted by Mau1wurf1977

HD Media playback is no feature anymore IMO. They all can do this and Intel's video decoding support is very good.

this is why the celeron with the HD2000/HD3000 graphics will kill the AMD setup, especially if your encoder utilizes quick sync.

anyway, any thoughts on those other 2 notebooks i posted up.

[Mau1wurf1977]

Originally Posted by glenpinn

this is why the celeron with the HD2000/HD3000 graphics will kill the AMD setup, especially if your encoder utilizes quick sync.

anyway, any thoughts on those other 2 notebooks i posted up.

Handbreak doesn't support Quick Sync and I doubt any of these budget machines do either

It's actually AMD that promotes the "GPU acceleration stuff" with their APU, yet when I tried it it's SLOWER compard to what the CPU has. So what's the point of having a technology that is slower than not using it?

Here is a GPU-Z image of my Celeron B820 machine:



Well that i3 looks nice, comes with extra RAM already aswell. If it feits the budget it will do a fine job.

[glenpinn]

i use handbrake most of the time because it does the best quality encode to mp4 out of any encoder out there (hands down) and it only uses CPU and thats fine for me because i can rip a bluray (m2ts) to my hdd, use handbrake to output to mp4 audio copy @ RF:22 and my 3770 only works at 70 to 80% and therefore puts no strain on my system.

i use MediaConverter 7.5 for quick sync encoding to mp4 and it shits on nvidia cuda and Amd APP to the point where its embarrassing to cuda and APP technology.

the point is, if using software that utilizes graphics based encoding, the celeron + intel HD graphics combo will be the best option by far with any of these cheaper laptops.

if encoding isnt needed, then the $300 asus laptop my SIL wanted would still be a reasonable buy, and if the E300 cpu i tried today on that CQ43 was any indication, the E350 will be fine.

Originally Posted by Mau1wurf1977

It's actually AMD that promotes the "GPU acceleration stuff" with their APU, yet when I tried it it's SLOWER compard to what the CPU has. So what's the point of having a technology that is slower than not using it?

Amd APP encoding is a dog, any decent cpu based encoder will encode faster than most APP applications.

BTW, should note that on my 3770 sff encoding pc, MediaConverter cpu only encoding is faster than handbrakes cpu encoding, but mediaconverter cpu is running at 90% or a bit more, where handbrake runs the cpu at about 75% average.

mediaconverter is the best overall tool if you want one that offers a choice of being able to do cpu and graphics based encoding (you can select) but its audio output selection sucks, unless you like AAC because thats the only audio it offers, and for me, im not bothered by that.

handbrake when setup right is brilliant for mp4 and mkv (thats all it does) because it has a normal and high profile output, plus tons of audio presets.

[mAJORD]

Originally Posted by glenpinn

hi guys, where did the E450 cpu come into this discussion ???

i thought we were talking about the E350 in that 14" asus notebook my SIL wanted to buy.

anyway, i went to DSE today, had a go of a 14" CQ43 with the amd E300 1.3ghz + hd6310m graphics + 2gb ram + 320 hdd ( identical to the asus notebook im referring to except it only had the E300 cpu)

it (the e300) seemed ok for general use, and it had win 7 HP 64bit, but i have to say, those newer model Compaq laptops really are the PITS in laptop build quality, and based on that, i would never buy one regardless of its price, the asus shits on them for quality (they all have shitty flat chicklet type keys on the keyboards tho)

here are 2 i got in emails today.

free shipping on this asus X54C-SX035V $389 but only has the celeron B815 cpu but it has HD2000 graphics (the centrecom spec list says HD3000) making it a pretty reasonable deal i think.

http://www.centrecom.com.au/catalog/...9.html?sort=2a

MLN has a HP Pavilion G6-1315TU for $448 + $29 post and it has the i3-2350M 2.3ghz cpu, 4gb ram and HD graphics, but i vowed i will never buy another pavillion laptop after some of the problems many people are having with them.

http://www.mln.com.au/product/?itemI..._to_07-08_2012

the asus laptop from centrecom is very tempting.

EDIT: strange how Notebookcheck says that the celeron B815 has HD2000 graphics but the asus specs state that it has HD3000 graphics.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-C...r.64413.0.html
http://www.asusnotebooks.com.au/note...7-premium.html

Because the E-450 is almost the same.. only 1.66Ghz vs 1.6

the E-350 is 23% higher clocked than an E-300 though

[Mau1wurf1977]

Yea the E-350 was the original chip. Then AMD's marketing people had to do something because they had no new chip ready.

So they just changed the clocks a bit and called it E-450 and also added an even slower chip, the E-300.

The E-450 I believe does have some sort of turbo mode for the graphics part though.

Actually that makes we want to benchmark some game. Anything that jumps to mind? Preferably some demo or something like that.

[glenpinn]

Originally Posted by mAJORD

Because the E-450 is almost the same.. only 1.66Ghz vs 1.6

the E-350 is 23% higher clocked than an E-300 though

ahh ok i see it now, well the e300 seemed ok at MS word and excell, and seemed snappy enough with win 7 HP 64bit going thru windows explorer and i opened several firefox pages and it seemed fine, so me thinks the e350 will be ok, but it all depends on money, $300 for the 14" asus seems ok, given its brand new still in the box.

Originally Posted by Mau1wurf1977

Actually that makes we want to benchmark some game. Anything that jumps to mind? Preferably some demo or something like that.

sorry im not a gamer, i cant help you on that one.

[glenpinn]

Update on the Asus laptop

i had a look, tried it out, all was good, it still had the plastic seals on the screen and console, and even the power brick was still sealed in its plastic bag, but battery was only at 10% so obviously it has only ever been on battery power since purchase.

warranty is valid till may 17 2013 (manufacture date) as the guy didnt have the receipt from his aunty.

i decided to buy this for my own family mobile unit, was too good to pass up for $280 cash (Good Guys and JB has it for $399 at the moment)

so far im pretty happy with it, obviously the cpu ramps up when doing more than 1 task at a time (watching my desktop cpu/memory gadget shows this) and i will upgrade to 4gb ram and pop in a 640gb hdd and do a custom install soon.

a battery test will be done soon.

some pics.


Click to view full size!

Click to view full size!

Click to view full size!

EDIT: and now one of my usual sources of laptops has this laptop for $349 http://www.mln.com.au/product/?itemI..._to_08-08_2012

[glenpinn]

seems these asus and toshiba budget laptops are going for a song these days, here is another toshiba 15" c655 celeron notebook for $339

http://www.centrecom.com.au/catalog/...1-p-52388.html

not bad value for the $$$ and when u see all these 2nd hand laptops selling for the same price and are probably well over 1 year old, you have to wonder whats happening out there in the 2nd hand market, way too many but sellers asking too much for them.

i have also just now bought a 1 year old barely used toshiba C650 (celeron 2.1ghz) with 2 more years extended warranty (harvey norman) + full MS office 2010 for $325 from another local seller in gumtree, only issue is these low end toshiba budget laptops only have 2x usb ports, which can be a pain if your using it away from home with a mouse, mobile broadband and need to access files on a portable drive, but its not really that bad.

this will be my mums new laptop that will replace my 2nd toshiba A350 that she has been using, and has suddenly started having graphics problems.

[Mau1wurf1977]

These cheap notebooks come in waves. Lat year just before xmas I was looking for one at around the $400 mark and there was nothing decent.

That's why I got that $298 E-300 machine from JB.

Note that AMD has refreshed the APUs with new model numbers. They are the same chips however with only tiny bit higher frequency (1.7 GHz I believe). They also renamed the graphics side of things (7000 series) but again, nothing has changed.

A 2+ GHz 20nm APU, that's what AMD should release next

[glenpinn]

Originally Posted by Mau1wurf1977

These cheap notebooks come in waves. Lat year just before xmas I was looking for one at around the $400 mark and there was nothing decent.

That's why I got that $298 E-300 machine from JB.

Note that AMD has refreshed the APUs with new model numbers. They are the same chips however with only tiny bit higher frequency (1.7 GHz I believe). They also renamed the graphics side of things (7000 series) but again, nothing has changed.

A 2+ GHz 20nm APU, that's what AMD should release next

yes i notice more and more when MLN start flogging off budget laptops other sellers like centrecom (who are a pretty big player in laptops) also start doing some pretty good deals as well, even offering free post on asus or toshiba notebooks.

it seems to me that asus and toshiba are definately the 2 big players in budget type notebooks, because they are the only ones i see offered in these cheap price deals.

HP compaq notebooks are there as well, but i dont see too many of these being offered these days, and after trying the celeron one last week in DSE (before i bought that 14" asus one for $280) i certainly wouldnt bother buying one over a budget asus or toshiba based on build quality.

and i agree, AMD need to produce some slightly better cpu's as you mentioned.