AMD Fusion Llano Laptops, Notebooks, Motherboards, and CPUs! [Lynx/Prices]
UPDATES:
2011.09.11 DELL releases nice new Vostro 3555 laptop Llano laptop starting at $459…
2011.09.06 (33) sweet new BLACK unlocked edition Fusion APUs near release!!!
2011.07.12 (#2) added new Gateway’s NV55S in the laptop section…
011.07.12 (#1) some super low prices for desktop motherboards and some preliminary info on the triple core Llano chip! (see lower down the page for the X3 info…)
2011.07.05 retail availability of more Llano/Lynx desktop parts at Tigerdirect and NewEgg! See desktop section below…
2011.06.30 added more great articles on desktop Llano parts and OVERCLOCKING…
2011.06.29 added PRICES for the Desktop retail CPUs and estimated release date (July 3rd).
2011.06.28 added the first IN STOCK Llano laptop, available now! 🙂 and rumors of it being August before many other models hit the stores?! Scroll down to find out more…
2011.06.25 added new Asus Llano motherboard!
2011.06.24 new motherboards listed and OVERCLOCKING results! 🙂
AMD has a special spot in my heart as they are the underdog I love to cheer for! Now don’t get my wrong, I have nothing against Intel. Intel generally makes great CPUs. However, AMD has hung in there a long time and has even managed to occasionally beat Intel at their own game (like back in the Pentium 4 vs Athlon & early Xeon vs Opteron days). But Intel generally learns from their mistakes so AMD gets relegated back to the price/value segment (as opposed to keeping the high-end crown).
INTERESTING NOTES:
+AMD was founded in May of 1969, Intel was founded in July 1968. Source: Wikipedia, The Modern Historian.
+They also have a very long history of legal battles…
However, after decades of playing second fiddle to Intel, AMD did something a little different back in 2006. They bought ATI. ATI was a Canadian graphics chip maker and the classic competitor to NVIDIA. A lot of people wondered at the wisdom of AMD buying a video card company. The ATI name was eventually abandoned and the AMD has continued to make and market separate CPUs and video cards.
INTERESTING NOTES:
+ATI stood for “Array Technologies Incorporated”.
+The Wii uses an ATI chip and the Wii’s successor (Wii U) will be using an AMD chip.
Earlier this year, however, AMD introduced the Brazos “APU”. More info here:
But Brazos was simply the first entry in a line of “Fusion” APUs for AMD:
So, what the heck is an APU?! The APU is a combined CPU (central processing unit) and GPU (graphics processing unit). Instead of a computer manufacturer having to source a CPU (example: AMD Phenom) and a GPU (example: NVIDIA GTX 460) they can simply go to AMD and get an “all in one” package.
Why does this matter?! It matters because AMD is promising to bring decent CPU performance and good GPU performance together, all at a low-cost WITH low power consumption. This quadrouple threat, especially the low-cost aspect, is attractive to consumers as well as computer manufacturers.
What has Intel been up to?
At the mid to high-end, Intel has done something similar with their Core series CPUs and the “HD” graphics recently. However with the Core vs. Llano platforms, they are actually (my estimates) 20-50% ahead on the CPU performance front and 35-75% behind on the GPU front. They are also doing well in the power consumption arena but are generally significantly more expensive than AMD.
Conversely, at the low-end with Intel Atom vs AMD Brazos/Ontario, Intel doesn’t fair so well. CPU performance is better clock-for-clock on AMD, GPU performance is drastically better on AMD, and cost/battery life are similar.
So, with all that said, should I care about AMD’s Fusion APUs and specifically the new Llano combined CPU/GPU? Yes, read on to find out why!
Is it still Intel = high performance & AMD = low cost… Same as always?
No, there’s something different this time: AMD is offering much better graphics performance than Intel right out of the box and at a lower cost to boot. The reason this is important is that in 2011 an average new computer’s CPU is generally already sufficient for most tasks that regular users perform. The same cannot be said for graphics if someone wants to play games or watch HD (1080p) video with super-low CPU utilization. AMD finally offers the graphics performance that people need if they want to do more with their PCs.
So, AMD delivers “good enough” CPU performance and, for the first time, integrated graphics that are also good enough for a lot of games out there.
Is the Fusion/Llano AMD setup the ultimate solution for high-end computer users? Nope, but it’s not meant to be. It is meant to hit that “Sweet Spot” of performance and value so they can sell oodles of their new chips. I am hoping they are successful and to do my part to cheer the on I am listing all the AMD Llano systems that I come across, right here:
List of AMD Llano based systems:
Gateway Llano laptops:
Nice 15.6″ system at a good price:
Eleven HP Llano based notebooks
+Pavilion line: dv4, dv6, dv7, g4, g6, and g7.
+ProBook line: 6465b, 6565b, 4535s 4435s, and 4436s.
One of them is available at Best Buy now! Reports indicate they are in Best Buy stores and also available for shipping:
Toshiba new Llano systems in a range of screen-sizes (from 13.3″ all the way to 17.3″)
AnandTech – Annual Toshiba Refresh Brings Llano…and Some Stylehttp://www.anandtech.com/show/4449/annual-toshiba-refresh-brings-llanoand-some-styleToshiba’s Satellite is broken down into three different lines: the budget-minded C-series, the mainstream L-series, and the performance-oriented P-series. Starting from the bottom, we have the C-series, which launched earlier this year and currently offers AMD’s Zacate processors, from the C-50 up to the E-350. The only major update here is that Toshiba will now be shipping a 17.3″ model, putting a large desktop replacement notebook in the reach of more budget-oriented consumers.
13.3″ series starts at $499.99 and up
14″ L745 series starts at $449.99 and up
15.6″ L755 series starts at $483.99 and up
17.3″ L775 series starts at $579.99 and up
NOTE: AMD is using the “low-end” C series Brazos in some systems and the higher end Llano system in others… but these systems are all using Fusion. 🙂
AMD Llano Desktop Motherboards and CPU Prices
The Llano platform may prove to be a popular choice for system builders who want a low-cost rig capable of some decent gaming!
2011.07.05 Retail availability NOW!
TigerDirect:
NewEgg:
(and another link for even more AMD Llano/Lynx/Fusion/FM1 parts @ NewEgg)
2011.06.30 AnandTech articles on Llano Desktop Parts, make sure to give these a read!
Triple Core Llano info:
See here.
Initial desktop CPU pricing info ($115-$135 released on July 3rd)
AMD’s Llano A8-3850 to cost US $135 & A6-3650 priced at $115http://www.fudzilla.com/processors/item/23237-amds-llano-a8-3850-to-cost-us-$135We managed to get our hands on what appears to be an official price for the upcoming quad-core desktop Llano part that should hit retail/e-tail just a day before the Independance […] The 2.9GHz A8-3850 has a US $135 price tag that is pretty much on par with what we saw in early listings. In case you missed it, the A8-3850 APU has a 100W TDP, 4MB of L2 cache and features Radeon HD 6550D graphics. The lower clocked A6-3650 quad-core APU should hit retail/e-tail on the same day with a price tag set at US $115. It has the same 100W TDP, 2.6GHz clock and features Radeon HD 6530D graphics.
Note: earlier reports (see below) indicated $150 or less… so $135 could definitely be legit!
ASUS F1A75 Series Llano motherboards (F1A75-V EVO & F1A75-V PRO)
ASUS usually makes solid motherboards that perform well, so it will be fun to see how these benchmark!
Other features include four DDR3 memory slots, seven SATA ports, three PCI-E x16 slots, 7.1 channel audio, GbE LAN, eSATA, D-Sub, DVI, and HDMI.…
Gigabyte launches A75 series Llano motherboards (which according to reports* should all be under $120)
*the A75-UD4H. At launch, this will be their most feature-rich FM1-based product but it should retail for under $120 Source: hardwarecanucks.com
Gigabyte is fully onboard with Llano, there are a number of motherboards they are releasing:
- GA-A75-UD4H
- GA-A75-D3H
- GA-A75-DS3P
- GA-A75M-UD2H
- GA-A75M-D2H
- GA-A75M-S2V
- GA-A75N-USB3
And here are the links and photos… make sure to checkout the source articles, they have lots more great info!
Preliminary overclocking results, for both processing and graphics, look great too!
![[overclocking!] GIGABYTE A75M-UD2H with upcoming AMD APU breaks IGP world record :: TweakTown USA Edition](http://www.jdhodges.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/20019_1_gigabyte_a75m_ud2h_with_upcoming_amd_apu_breaks_igp_world_record.png)
I wonder how Starcraft 2 will run on Llano, especially overclocked? It will be an interesting matchup vs Intel since SC2 is so CPU intensive… so how about we find out!!!
Here are preliminary Llano gaming results and benchmarks:
Link to page 4 of review (Llano vs. Sandy Bridge graphics performance)
More articles about Llano performance etc.:
AMD isn’t ready to disclose pricing or the entire product matrix for Llano on the desktop, but what we do have is the high-end desktop Llano SKU: AMD’s A8-3850.
(to be continually updated)
Its like you learn my thoughts! You appear to know so much approximately this, like you wrote the book in it or something. I feel that you just can do with some % to force the message home a little bit, but other than that, that is excellent blog. A great read. I will certainly be back.