I really don`t understand that .05ghz on the fastest Athlon. What is the reason for that 50mhz?

Looks like a great option for an HTPC. Impressive for the power draw.

Looks like a great option for an HTPC. Impressive for the power draw.

My thoughts exactly. Perfect torrent box/NAS. *starts saving*

I think, that platform is an awesome solution for older and/or non smart TVs. Can not wait to get one for the LG in my room 😀

I've seen reviews of the AM1 series on other websites and it took me a while to figure out exactly the reason AMD released it (this isn't as compact or power efficient as the E series, but not as fast or feature rich as the A series). But then I realized, the AM1 sockets seem to directly target the ARM HTPC devices. They both cost roughly the same and offer the same performance, but the major difference is these AM1 systems have many more features (more SATA ports, more USB 3.0 ports, PCIe slots, wider choice of OSes, etc.) while sacrificing physical size and power efficiency. Overall, I'd say this is a better value than the competing ARM HTPCs, as long as you have a place to hide the tower.

Looks pretty dam good for a HTPC/Media box or Server + i could run old OpenGL based games like UT easily.Can the Athlon 5350 be Overclocked?.

Looks pretty dam good for a HTPC/Media box or Server + i could run old OpenGL based games like UT easily.Can the Athlon 5350 be Overclocked?.

Based on an article I read on phoronix.com, no, it doesn't overclock that well. On the other hand, the guy who wrote the article isn't exactly a pro overclocker.

I just priced out a full AM1 setup on newegg using the Athlon 5350. $214. That includes mobo, proc, 2gb ddr3, case, psu and 32gb sataIII ssd. Hello bedroom HTPC! goodbye PS3! Does anyone know if the current linux AMD/ATI drivers are up to snuff on these yet as I will probably run openelec on it.

I just priced out a full AM1 setup on newegg using the Athlon 5350. $214. That includes mobo, proc, 2gb ddr3, case, psu and 32gb sataIII ssd. Hello bedroom HTPC! goodbye PS3! Does anyone know if the current linux AMD/ATI drivers are up to snuff on these yet as I will probably run openelec on it.

It depends on the driver you pick. Personally, I think you're better off with the open source drivers. They get noticeably faster every month to the point where depending on the GPU and task, the performance is (overall) equal to catalyst. I'm not too sure about hardware acceleration for video playback but I'm sure it can handle 1080p without any problems. Just wondering though, but why get an SSD for an HTPC? If you're running something as small as openELEC and you don't intend to use an optical drive, you're going to need the extra storage, and you don't need the extra performance.

Just wondering though, but why get an SSD for an HTPC? If you're running something as small as openELEC and you don't intend to use an optical drive, you're going to need the extra storage, and you don't need the extra performance.

He might have his stuff externalized/centralized.

Did you do any testing without shaders? Applying additional sharpening seems silly for 4K content. Minor error: 'meaning of you where to RAW decode video streams over the CPU' Should be 'Meaning if you were to'.

Based on an article I read on phoronix.com, no, it doesn't overclock that well. On the other hand, the guy who wrote the article isn't exactly a pro overclocker.

Yeah yeah, this thread is a couple months old now, I know.... Seems 2.5ghz is rather easy to achieve with an Asus motherboard. Anything beyond that and you have to increase the voltage quite a bit. There was an Athlon 5350 validated at 3.1ghz.....little over 50% OC but power draw goes through the roof at just over 1.6v

Looks like a decent every-day chip,Just got one for my kid yesterday posted now all I need is a new case. Very cheep to build around I am impressed so far.

THREAD NECRO! 😀 I use these as my set top boxes for Kodi and light gaming(like SNES emulation)

Thanks for reminding me about this article. I actually bought one of these (and an MSI board) a month ago for a home server. It was the only CPU that met all of my demands: * A system that runs below 30W when idle (currently, the whole PC uses 29W) * Can be passively cooled * RAID support * Cost effective * Preferably x86 (ARM works for most of the vast majority of my needs, but not 100% of them) I would've gone with the Athlon 5150, but it operates at the same voltage as the 5350 (which in itself has a higher-than-necessary voltage) and I wasn't aware of any motherboards that supported undervolting, so the 5350 became the more sensible choice. I'd have much rather bought an ARM platform but there aren't any reasonably priced ones that support RAID. I'd have been fine with getting one with a PCIe x1 slot and use a RAID card, but I wasn't aware of driver availability. There are x86 compatibility layers for ARM so in the event I needed to run x86 software, I wouldn't have been completely left out. Going Intel didn't have anything competitive unless I paid double what I already paid. For the same price point, Intel's offerings would have had a system with roughly equal CPU performance, would've lacked multiple PCIe slots, may have lacked USB 3.0, a worse IGP, roughly equal idling wattage, and slightly better load wattage. IIRC, the 5350 is Excavator based, but each core is independent rather than being in a module. As a result, it's actually really competitive against Intel, clock-per-clock. Still worse, but not much.

Media boxes for older TV's but why pay £100's when a £30 external HDD will do the same & in most cases a better job ? ? ?

Media boxes for older TV's but why pay £100's when a £30 external HDD will do the same & in most cases a better job ? ? ?

Because I wanted more than just tv shows. I wanted entertainment! These really don't need a whole lot either, I think I spent maybe $150 at the most on each box?

Thanks for reminding me about this article. I actually bought one of these (and an MSI board) a month ago for a home server. It was the only CPU that met all of my demands: * A system that runs below 30W when idle (currently, the whole PC uses 29W) * Can be passively cooled * RAID support * Cost effective * Preferably x86 (ARM works for most of the vast majority of my needs, but not 100% of them) I would've gone with the Athlon 5150, but it operates at the same voltage as the 5350 (which in itself has a higher-than-necessary voltage) and I wasn't aware of any motherboards that supported undervolting, so the 5350 became the more sensible choice. I'd have much rather bought an ARM platform but there aren't any reasonably priced ones that support RAID. I'd have been fine with getting one with a PCIe x1 slot and use a RAID card, but I wasn't aware of driver availability. There are x86 compatibility layers for ARM so in the event I needed to run x86 software, I wouldn't have been completely left out. Going Intel didn't have anything competitive unless I paid double what I already paid. For the same price point, Intel's offerings would have had a system with roughly equal CPU performance, would've lacked multiple PCIe slots, may have lacked USB 3.0, a worse IGP, roughly equal idling wattage, and slightly better load wattage. IIRC, the 5350 is Excavator based, but each core is independent rather than being in a module. As a result, it's actually really competitive against Intel, clock-per-clock. Still worse, but not much.

They're good little CPU's. I've got one in the PC I built for my 8yd old. She only watches Kodi / Netflix and does Mathletics and Reading Eggs so just needed something basic. Only cost me $75 AUD for the mobo & CPU and I already had everything else I needed for the build laying around. I could have gone with Intel's J2800/2900, etc but it would have cost almost double the AMD setup

Only cost me $75 AUD for the mobo & CPU and I already had everything else I needed for the build laying around. I could have gone with Intel's J2800/2900, etc but it would have cost almost double the AMD setup

Damn looks like you actually got a pretty decent deal (at least when you consider Australia tends to be more expensive, and that 1 AUD is 0.75 USD as of writing). I paid slightly over $100 USD for my build, though I also got 4GB of RAM. I probably don't even need 2GB, but I wanted this to be as power efficient as possible so I figured I may as well just buy 1 stick that has more than I'll ever need. I too pretty much had all the parts I needed lying around for this (including parts for RAID).

Damn looks like you actually got a pretty decent deal (at least when you consider Australia tends to be more expensive, and that 1 AUD is 0.75 USD as of writing). I paid slightly over $100 USD for my build, though I also got 4GB of RAM. I probably don't even need 2GB, but I wanted this to be as power efficient as possible so I figured I may as well just buy 1 stick that has more than I'll ever need. I too pretty much had all the parts I needed lying around for this (including parts for RAID).

Yeah, I managed to get it on a combo sale, wasn't a huge discount but it was still around 20% from memory. I threw in my old 8GB RAM kit, old 120GB SSD and old GTX 560 so it's a lot more than what she needs but should be enough to last her a few years. She's in year 3 at school and if this will last her until she gets to year 7 I'll be very happy, since they need laptops starting then.