Just bought a HP mini PC with a Carrizo APU

[blae]

In January I searched for a new box I could use as a HTPC, and I thought that a computer with a top of the line Carrizo APU should be a top notch choice for this use case. But it seemed like the FX-8800P/Pro A12-8800B didn't exist in any computers out there, except for one HP mini PC. So I ordered one back in January, and it arrived today!

Back in January when I stumbled over that computer, I sent a mail to Michael wondering if he thought about benchmarking it, but I guess the mail got lost in the noise. I just wonder if Phoronix has any interest in getting benchmarks of this PC before I start using it as an HTPC, considering that it seems to be few Carrizo benchmarks out there (I found these articles: A10-8700P and A8-7410).

[duby229]

Just for the informational value I'd be interested in seeing some PTS benchmark runs. You don't have to do anything fancy, just install your preferred distro and then let PTS run a few bench suites. And post the openbenchmarking.org link here so we can see the results.

[blae]

OK, I'll do that when I get it up and running! Give it a few days, I'm installing Gentoo :P

[DragonDaddyBear]

Long time lurker, first time poster. I registered because I was looking at a Zotac with the FX-7600p as a Stream box but I had a hard time navigating open benchmark. I would love to see what kind of FPS that posts on TF2 and DOTA2 vs an Intel CPU with a 4600HD GPU. If you could run those I would be grateful.

Another thing I am having difficulty finding is if AMDGPU sports video decide in Kodi.

[juno]

Cool, looking forward for your reports.

Do you know how the APU's cTDP is set (12-35 Watts)?
Can you upgrade RAM for dual-channel (this helps the APU a lot) on this one?
If you happen to open it, could you take a pic from the inside?
How is the cooling, a radial fan, I guess? Is it loud under full-load?

Seems quite expensive, though, and not really advertised. How did you even find that?

[blae]

I googled after A12-8800B if I remember right - they have other models with a lower specced APU which are cheaper. But you're right, I have not seen this advertised anywhere, it's a bit strange.

Right now it's compiling KDE plasma, but I might be able to open it up and take some pictures afterwards, provided they haven't made it excessively difficult.

About that cTDP, is that something I can check in /sys or /proc? It supports the module fam15h_power if that helps...

[blae]

You can hear it under full load, yes, but it's completely silent during idling (as is normal, I guess).

I'm not that bothered by it, but I guess I should hear how it sounds during gaming before I say my verdict

[juno]

Thanks for the info.

The cTDP (configurable thermal design power) is something the device manufacturer sets, typically in the bios. Maybe you even have the option to align it in the bios but I'm not aware of any case where the manufacturer gave the customer this opportunity. TDP is a property used for dimensioning the cooling and the power supply, obviously.
It is configurable for Carrizo from 12 up to 35 Watts. Depending on the cTDP the clocks are lower, this becomes especially noticeable when CPU and GPU are used simultaneously.

I don't know if you can read it at run-time. It might be in the tech specs/handbook or something like that.

[blae]

Here it is: http://imgur.com/a/Lnxyc

Didn't dismantle it any further, but on the last image you can just barely make out that there's two RAM slots, and only one is occupied.

[juno]

Nice, thanks for the pics.
Then you know what to do if you want to upgrade it at some point and squeeze more graphics power out