Question 1

Does this come with thermal paste pre applied?

Accepted Answer

Yes , more like a tape pre applied to the heat sink
Very easy install.

Stock heat sink works great quiet and cool.  I use it in a HTPC and I am very satisfied

Question 2

Is the 50mm fan on the heatsink easily replaceable?

Accepted Answer

Yeah its a very simple screw on Mount. I was going to replace mine when I saw how tiny it was. However under full load playing games like left4dead the apu still wasn't getting all that hot so I left it alone for now. At least till we get some neat heatsinks for all the fm1 socket.  I found no reason to replace the fan its self.

Question 3

does this box have the heat sync included?

Accepted Answer

Yes, it has a ridiculously tiny heat sync. There is a singular after market cooler for it and it has worse temps that the tiny stock one BUT I have never run this thing over 40c because it's very low power intake and heat out put.

Question 4

is this for massive gaming processor.?

Accepted Answer

i used it to power quad core motherboard for home theater computer in a mini form factor.  I'm pleased with the quiet low power package.  haven't used it for gaming.  It powers my mother board's on board video and its faster than my other computers.  I say go for it.

Question 5

how good is the stock fan and heatsink ? can i add my own fan and heatsink and what would you suggest ?

Accepted Answer

Since this is a relatively low power CPU, the fan and heatsink are smaller in size but of high quality. I think the fan is a 50 or 60mm in diameter and about 10-15mm thick. The fan is more than adequate and is really quiet. I have not tried to over clock the processor, so do not know how hot the processor is likely to get...probably not very hot since this is low power CPU.

I would say don't bother to get a bigger heat sink, since a typical  one would probably cost 50% or more the cost of the CPU.

Question 6

I read a review, but only one, saying that this CPU only supports 2 SATA cables. Does it actually only support 2? I would be using this as a NAS build, and wanted to know before hand since i was planning on cramming in a bunch of HDD's in a RAID format. Thank you!

Accepted Answer

yes the apu only has 2 sata ports, i have this board am1b-itx by asrock
it has 2 more ports and i also have a 4 port sata pcie card
for a total of 8 sata

Question 7

is this processor is use for massive gaming?
#asking

Accepted Answer

This CPU will work for games but I wouldn't use it for a gaming machine...instead I would use one of the new AM3+ processors like a overclockable 4.0 ghz..A10 series processor with the GPU'S BUILT IN "you don't need a high-end graphics card then" and add to that a new AM3+ motherboard ( Asus or Gigabyte) my proven choices and put 32 Gb of fastest Ram DDR3 in that board and add to that at least a (double rail- proven very reliable) 500 watt 24 pin+ power supply that is energy saver power supply rated.

And you will have a very fast and awesome game machine -a very close to top end system without the price.  I use this same system as my system alot for playing games and have not ever been let down...by performance issues or graphic/sound issuesw

take care,
David

Question 8

What motherboard would I want if I was going to by this processor and would I want a video card with this?

Accepted Answer

It depends on what you plan to use it for.  I built my wife a small form factor PC and myself an HTPC with this processor and the ASRock AM1H-ITX mobo.  I chose this proc because of the low power consumption and this particular mobo because it has a DC power input.  As a result, we have much quieter and cooler machines.  The only reason I would get a video card is if I was a gamer.  This is a great proc with plenty of horse power to handle anything I can through at it.  I liked it so much I built my wife her computer with the same components.

Question 9

Are there any am1 mini itx motherboards that will support 4 drives out of the box?

Accepted Answer

ASRock AM1H-ITX. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157491&FM=1 It has two SATA 3.0 ports that connect to the processor and another two that connect to the motherboard's chipset. I've seen all four SATA ports on my own motherboard, so I'm sure it's accurate. There are probably others motherboards too.

Question 10

Have you tried this with Steam In Home Streaming? How did it perform at 1080p resolution?

Accepted Answer

I have built small gamers with this little guy with a gtx750.
It runs games decently as a stand alone. I'm not sure how streaming will preform. Sorry I couldn't be to much help. (As a reference this proccesor is about as powerful as a high end quad core laptop processor if that's any help)

Questions & Answers