AMD Processor
$ 85.00
AMD A8-5600K APU 3.6Ghz Processor AD560KWOHJBOX
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3 thoughts on “AMD A8-5600K APU 3.6Ghz Processor AD560KWOHJBOX”
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I just love this APU!,
This is a great product, at a great price. If you are looking to build a decent machine on a small budget, this is a great choice. If you want to build a powerful gaming machine, this isn’t your guy. It won’t give you bragging rights, and it won’t run Crysis 2 at a bazillion fps, but it is fast.
My config is as follows:
MSI FM2-A75MA-E35 mobo,
Corsair DDR3 1600 (so I’m probably at the low end here)
SAMSUNG 830 Series 128GB SATA III SSD(not Samsung’s latest, greatest)
Seagate Barracuda 1TB SATA III drive
Windows 8
The SSD probably helps, and I think Windows 8 has also improved performance,
but I have never had a system this snappy. Not even my Macbook. Starts up quickly,
within 8 seconds after the Mobo splash screen(need to see if I can get a faster post on the Mobo)
Click on the browser, boom it’s up.
Start a game, instant response. No lag in any of the games I have run so far, but I haven’t
done much yet. Tried a DVD with Handbrake. Not very impressive, but I wonder if there are just certain limitations with decoding. Maybe I will update this review with some game specifics.
Installs easily, includes fan and thermal paste.
Stock fan is fine for me, but I haven’t checked temps while running games.
Haven’t tried overclocking.
I can supposedly add a GPU(this APU supports Crossfire)
So it runs great, room for upgrading, and all at a reasonable price.
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|Decent CPU, terrible cooler,
I bought this CPU as part of a new system to replace my older Core 2 Duo router that was beginning to show its age. This newer CPU performs much better than the older C2D part, but it’s still not going to win any speed award.
Despite AMD claiming this is a “quad core” APU, it really isn’t. It has two Piledriver “modules” that have some duplicate core functionality that allows each core to process two threads. It’s very similar to the Hyperthreading scheme from Intel used on the older Pentium 4s. In certain multi-threaded scenarios, the APU performs well, but single thread performance isn’t that great.
I did some brief testing with the 7550D IGP and it performs well for what it is. It will run older Source engine based games at medium settings well and float between 40-80 FPS at 1280×1024 depending on how much stuff is being rendered. I haven’t tested any newer games though; But using the Hybrid Crossfire with a discrete HD7xxx card should improve performance, especially on newer games.
The two problems that I’ve had with this APU are the high heat output and the awful heatsink/fan. While the APU is idle, the included cooling solution is fine, but under a moderate load and above, it can’t handle the heat output and the APU quickly starts overheating. The heatsink is this awful poor quality and fragile aluminum and weighs about as much as a small stack of paper. The fan is equally bad and is really noisy, even at low speeds. It reminds me of mid 1990s era SCSI hard drives with bearing noise. It also barely moves any air through the heatsink, further exacerbating the overheating problem.
While this APU has its flaws, I’d recommend it for building a cheap machine for the kids, office machines or media machines. Though I would recommend trashing the included cooler and getting something like a Hyper 101a/TX3, or a slim cooler for smaller cases. I’d also make sure you have plenty of airflow in your case, especially slim cases.
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|AMD Trinity APU – “Good-Enough” Computing,
AMD’s APU, short for accelerated processing unit, is a combination of desktop-class CPU and discrete-class GPU in a single chip. This approach allows for greater integration and brings forth a new class of computing platform with a phenomenal price-to-performance ratio. The A8-5600K is AMD’s upper-range APU, featuring a “quad-core” CPU and Radeon 7560D GPU. The CPU portion of the A8-5600K is more or less on par with the Intel Core i3-3225, but graphics portion is nearly twice as fast as the top-end Intel HD4000. (As of this writing the i3-3225 costs ~ $35 more than the A8-5600K)
The A8-5600K can handle all common computing workloads including web browsing with dozens of open tabs, playing facebook games, watching streaming HD video, Microsoft Office and other productivity software, etc. It even supports playing modern 3D games with acceptable frame rates using low to medium settings and older games with the settings turned up. While the APU won’t win any benchmark contests, it offers an unbeatable value for day-to-day general-purpose computing.
I built a computer around the A8-5600K for my grandparents and before giving it to them, I put this chip through its paces. My grandparents don’t need a powerful GPU, which is the primary reason why I did not step up to the more powerful A10-5800K, and I did not go with a lower-spec APU since I use this computer from time to time and I enjoy the occasional casual game in the company of family. So far, nobody misses the old Pentium D 805 with nVidia GeForce 8400gs that was replaced!
Overall, I’m impressed by the A8-5600K and I enjoyed my time with it. I installed Hitman: Sniper Challenge and Sonic Generations and tried playing them on a TV at 720P. The games were very playable even at medium settings! Of course, I could not leave well enough alone and I set off to overclock the graphics side to see how much more performance I could squeeze out. Overclocking the iGPU from 760MHz up to 950MHz was effortless and combined with overclocking the memory from 1600MHz to 1866MHz and boosting the memory controller from 1800MHz up to 2200MHz netted about ~10-15{b81fbfd19e1fca5890798868c0714c408bbd5ec471654b6f9630c0fffa6e7eb3} more performance.
The System:
AMD A8-5600K APU
Gigabyte GA-F2A85XM-D3H Socket FM2 A85X mATX Motherboard
Kingston Hyper X 8GB 1600MHz DDR3 CL9 DIMM KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX
Antec Minuet 350 MicroATX Slim Case
USB 2.0 3.5″ Card Reader
DVD Burner
OCZ 90GB Agility 3 Series SATA 6Gb/s SSD
500GB Western Digital Blue 2.5″ HDD
SILVERSTONE SDP08 3.5 to 2 X 2.5-Inch Bay Converter
Notes:
1) APU’s basically make $65 graphics cards redundant. However, if you’re going to buy a $150+ graphics card, it makes sense to get a more powerful CPU such as an i5 or FX.
2) The bundled cooler is pretty weak but adequate. I used a Promilatech Samuel 17 that I had lying around and put the bundled cooler in my spare parts bin.
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