AMD Llano - FM1 - A series APUs?

Was curious if anyone could help me undertsand the purpose behind the new AMD Llano APU/Mobos........

So as I understand it, these first chips are 4 CPU cores + GPU cores. Mobos have onboard HDMI outputs, but they also have PCIe slots.

So my question is: Since I want a mATX form factor that will do SLI, would I be happy with one of these mobo's with the fastest chip they have + say a GTX 560 or a Radeon 6950. In a month or 2 I would add a second 560/6950 for crossfire/SLI.

I get 6gb/sec, USB 3, mATX etc - is there a downside to my thinking?
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K-SWISS Power cologne. Who knew you could bottle the scent of boner?

I wouldn't recommend them as a gaming machine. They are designed to be an Intel atom killer. They do that just fine but they just aren't a beefy cpu. They would easily choke down trying to keep up with the GPU.

They are for light duty computer tasks....think average computer user.....OMG it does facebook and can listen to music! omg that is like so totally awesome
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Core I7 4790K @ 4.7 Ghz
Corsair H115i AiO 280mm Water Cooler
EVGA GTX 1080 TI

Ahhh yeah, I am figuring that out.

It seems my mATX SLI dream machine is not meant to be.

No one seems to make a CURRENT (990x or 1155/56 full SLI (2 x16 pipe) boards. So am going ATX I guess.
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K-SWISS Power cologne. Who knew you could bottle the scent of boner?

Brules, why are you needing SLI? Spend the same money on 1 big card rather than 2 small ones and you'll have less issues to deal with, less space needed in the case, theoretically less heat and power usage, and the same performance.

Cause most reviews I have seen, 2 560's in SLI beat any single cards like the 580 etc.....

http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-560-ti-sli-review/9

But my 23" monitor maxes at 1920x1080 - so SLI may be moot yes?
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K-SWISS Power cologne. Who knew you could bottle the scent of boner?

It's a question of do you want to be able to skimp on the graphics at first with the option to add another one later. Or swallow the increased initial cost and hope its enough to get you through to the next upgrade cycle. I have run single cards all the way up to tri-sli and all of them have never given me that many issues. They have it pretty streamlined and optimized.

As for the mATX sli issue....mostly I would put that on the target audience. most mATX are the simple "vanilla" builds that most people go for. Since Sli is an "enthusiast" market most of them are going for the full up ATX with it's added room and functionality.

And yeah I am running 1080p and a single 580. It chews every game up at max with no exceptions so far.
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Core I7 4790K @ 4.7 Ghz
Corsair H115i AiO 280mm Water Cooler
EVGA GTX 1080 TI

I'm skimping....getting a good mobo that will allow me to upgrade for a long time. Trying to keep total cost around $700. With a 560 I am at that.....so I think I will do a 560 and then SLI a second one down the road. Should last me a good 5 years easily. 990x mobo, 16gb RAM, AMD 955 and a gtx 560. I can go SLI, bulldozer etc so its got head room. Thanks guys!
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K-SWISS Power cologne. Who knew you could bottle the scent of boner?

Sounds like a good plan to me....you shouldn't have to worry about new directX or tech invalidating the 560 for a long time. The importance of a good motherboard and PSU cannot be understated.

I have one question though....why 16gb of RAM. I have never needed more than 6gb so unless your doing some serious shit that might be an area you can cut back on.
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Core I7 4790K @ 4.7 Ghz
Corsair H115i AiO 280mm Water Cooler
EVGA GTX 1080 TI

My bet is that you can get 16GB of ram for less than a good steak dinner these days.

Yeah, I figure what the hell on the RAM - though I could drop it to 8 and be just fine I suppose. At $50 per 8gb - its pretty dang cheap.

My main thinking was why not? And get all 16gb matching at one time...
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K-SWISS Power cologne. Who knew you could bottle the scent of boner?

when you can effectively max the board* for $100, i say go for it.

it's not like when I bought my Pentium D and 2 x 1GB DDR2-800 was $370. Maxing the board then would have been $740.

RAM is dirt cheap right now, and even the golden-tits OC RAM is just 5-10% more.

* I know these boards will do 8GB DIMMs, but those are so scarce and outrageously expensive that I ignore them for the purposes of this statement.

That is true it makes sense....guess I am just out of the loop and jaded by the reduced overclocking that plagues MB that are maxed on ram
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Core I7 4790K @ 4.7 Ghz
Corsair H115i AiO 280mm Water Cooler
EVGA GTX 1080 TI

Explain what you mean by that? And I probably won't OC. I think the last time I seriously OC'd was when you could use a pencil to create a trace line on the AMD chips to unlock them lol. That was some epic fun haha.
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K-SWISS Power cologne. Who knew you could bottle the scent of boner?

More RAM = more draw and occasionally more voltage necessary even at stock settings = less stability. For example, I'm running 12gb right now and even underclocked by 200mhz I have to run the memory at 1.68v when stock is 1.65v. At stock timings they require 1.69v and with all 6 sticks in I have not had great luck overclocking although that has more to do with these specific modules than the fact that there is 6 of them.

I should really have just stuck with my better set of 6gb Corsair that overclocked like a dream because I have yet to actually use more than 6gb except for the time I was working in Premier, Photoshop, Illustrator all at once and that was admittedly just being lazy. I got a good deal on the 12gb set and made a profit selling my 6gb but it wasn't worth it
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Failure is just success rounded down.

Last edited by Nikola on Mon Oct 10, 2011 9:58 am; edited 1 time in total

But if I don't OC it is no worry though correct?
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K-SWISS Power cologne. Who knew you could bottle the scent of boner?

Nope, just want to make sure you stress test and actually run at voltages the RAM likes when you max out the board.
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Failure is just success rounded down.

I've not pushed my 16 with any O/C or "used" it either. That said, I have 8 gig in my development machine at the office and a couple VS2010 and SSMS windows open and I'm easily over 6 gig. That said, I just checked tasked manager and I'm using 7.4 with a couple Chrome windows and a VM running...

So I was waffling back and forth on going with a lower cost AMD board and a PII 955 chip, and set myself up for a bulldozer upgrade down the road......but it looks like BD is a flail at this point and needs lots of lots o work to even equal the intel chips.

So looks like I am definately going intel with a GTX560 that I will SLI at some point.
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K-SWISS Power cologne. Who knew you could bottle the scent of boner?

I would recommend that very much so at this point....will make a kickin computer man
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Core I7 4790K @ 4.7 Ghz
Corsair H115i AiO 280mm Water Cooler
EVGA GTX 1080 TI

Yeah - my only thing left to decide is case.....I want tiny mATX like a Apevia Q-pack (with a real power supply - 700w modular). My only concern is SLI and heat.....
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K-SWISS Power cologne. Who knew you could bottle the scent of boner?