Overview

Memory maestro Patriot has launched the Patriot Gamer 2 AMD Black Edition DDR3 4GB RAM kit specifically aimed at the AMD crowd. With the launch of AMD’s new Accelerated Processing Unit (APU), Llano, RAM is a vital performance component again.

Since the launch of Intel’s Sandy Bridge architecture, there has been a whole raft of memory modules launched claiming to be the ideal support for the new chipset. Indeed, Kingston’s HyperX Plug n Play claimed the same thing, but with, it has to said, a lot more justification than most.

Well now it’s the turn of the thorn in Intel’s side, AMD, to get some memory attention. It’s been a long time coming.

OK, compared to some of the blazingly fast modules that have been launched to support the Sandy Bridge platform, Patriot’s Gamer 2 AMD Black Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) PC3-12800 kit may seem, well, a bit conservative to say the least. At just 1600MHz, it’s a little slow.

But even so, it does make a nice change to see a company giving some component love to AMD. Even if – marketing spiel aside – the memory will work in any modern motherboard, be it made by AMD or Intel.

Benchmarks

We tested all the Patriot Gamer 2 AMD Black Edition memory in an Asus F1A75-V Pro motherboard using an AMD A6-3650 APU.

Once we finished testing at stock speeds, we gave it a tweak but just using its stock 1.65V voltage setting. A quick adjustment to the bus speed got us to the next step up – 1866MHz. While the system booted up Windows perfectly and ran SiSoft Sandra’s memory bandwidth benchmark without a problem, when we tried to run World in Conflict there were all sorts of issues with the game freezing.

Eventually we got it to boot and run both benchmarks without any problems at 1840MHz, which is still a pretty impressive boost over the stock speeds, especially without having to tinker with any voltages.

Verdict

It’s been a long time coming but the Patriot Gamer 2 AMD Black Edition and others suggest we should now see AMD platforms getting some dedicated love from memory manufacturers.

That’s mainly thanks to the new Llano platform, with its strong memory performance, and AMD’s 990FX chipset and Bulldozer combo. It’s been a very long time since AMD had a strong enough offering to entice manufacturers into putting its badge on their products.

Hopefully these new platforms will see the end of one of AMD’s annoying platform traits when it comes to overclocking – they used to be quite fussy when it came to memory running at high speeds. So the prospect of getting ultra-fast memory kits designed for AMD platforms is an interesting one.

We liked


You wouldn’t class Patriot’s Gamer 2 AMD Black Edition RAM as a world-beater, especially at its stock 1600MHz speed. That said, it has bags of potential – as we found out during testing.

Thanks to its fairly relaxed 9-9-9-24 latency settings it does overclock very nicely, even at the 1.65V stock voltage. Even though it will reach the next step up from 1600MHz – 1866MHz – we couldn’t get it to run stably while playing the game World in Conflict.

We also liked the fact that the modules are low profile. You may be wondering why that’s of any importance. Well, wait until you get a large third-party CPU cooler, which usually make the first memory slot redundant. Normally it’s impossible to get a stick of memory into the slot because of these coolers, but with the Gamer 2 AMD Black Edition module you stand a fighting chance of actually using the slot.

We disliked


There’s not much to dislike about the Patriot’s Gamer 2 AMD Black Edition. It does what it says on the tin and shows some good overclocking potential. Its stock speed out of the box is a little conservative, however.

Final verdict

It may not be the fastest memory out of the box but it does show plenty of potential for the current Llano platform and the upcoming Bulldozer technology.

Overview

Memory maestro Patriot has launched the Patriot Gamer 2 AMD Black Edition DDR3 4GB RAM kit specifically aimed at the AMD crowd. With the launch of AMD’s new Accelerated Processing Unit (APU), Llano, RAM is a vital performance component again.

Since the launch of Intel’s Sandy Bridge architecture, there has been a whole raft of memory modules launched claiming to be the ideal support for the new chipset. Indeed, Kingston’s HyperX Plug n Play claimed the same thing, but with, it has to said, a lot more justification than most.

Well now it’s the turn of the thorn in Intel’s side, AMD, to get some memory attention. It’s been a long time coming.

OK, compared to some of the blazingly fast modules that have been launched to support the Sandy Bridge platform, Patriot’s Gamer 2 AMD Black Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) PC3-12800 kit may seem, well, a bit conservative to say the least. At just 1600MHz, it’s a little slow.

But even so, it does make a nice change to see a company giving some component love to AMD. Even if – marketing spiel aside – the memory will work in any modern motherboard, be it made by AMD or Intel.

Benchmarks

We tested all the Patriot Gamer 2 AMD Black Edition memory in an Asus F1A75-V Pro motherboard using an AMD A6-3650 APU.

Once we finished testing at stock speeds, we gave it a tweak but just using its stock 1.65V voltage setting. A quick adjustment to the bus speed got us to the next step up – 1866MHz. While the system booted up Windows perfectly and ran SiSoft Sandra’s memory bandwidth benchmark without a problem, when we tried to run World in Conflict there were all sorts of issues with the game freezing.

Eventually we got it to boot and run both benchmarks without any problems at 1840MHz, which is still a pretty impressive boost over the stock speeds, especially without having to tinker with any voltages.

Verdict

It’s been a long time coming but the Patriot Gamer 2 AMD Black Edition and others suggest we should now see AMD platforms getting some dedicated love from memory manufacturers.

That’s mainly thanks to the new Llano platform, with its strong memory performance, and AMD’s 990FX chipset and Bulldozer combo. It’s been a very long time since AMD had a strong enough offering to entice manufacturers into putting its badge on their products.

Hopefully these new platforms will see the end of one of AMD’s annoying platform traits when it comes to overclocking – they used to be quite fussy when it came to memory running at high speeds. So the prospect of getting ultra-fast memory kits designed for AMD platforms is an interesting one.

We liked


You wouldn’t class Patriot’s Gamer 2 AMD Black Edition RAM as a world-beater, especially at its stock 1600MHz speed. That said, it has bags of potential – as we found out during testing.

Thanks to its fairly relaxed 9-9-9-24 latency settings it does overclock very nicely, even at the 1.65V stock voltage. Even though it will reach the next step up from 1600MHz – 1866MHz – we couldn’t get it to run stably while playing the game World in Conflict.

We also liked the fact that the modules are low profile. You may be wondering why that’s of any importance. Well, wait until you get a large third-party CPU cooler, which usually make the first memory slot redundant. Normally it’s impossible to get a stick of memory into the slot because of these coolers, but with the Gamer 2 AMD Black Edition module you stand a fighting chance of actually using the slot.

We disliked


There’s not much to dislike about the Patriot’s Gamer 2 AMD Black Edition. It does what it says on the tin and shows some good overclocking potential. Its stock speed out of the box is a little conservative, however.

Final verdict

It may not be the fastest memory out of the box but it does show plenty of potential for the current Llano platform and the upcoming Bulldozer technology.

MSI has released the Classic Series CR650, the company’s first notebook with AMD Fusion technology.

The 15.6-inch MSI CR650 includes the AMD E-350 APU, incorporating dual CPU cores at 1.6GHz, the Radeon HD 6310 graphics and UVD 3 HD video decoder. Other specifications include DDR3 RAM, up to 500GB of storage, a DVD burner, 1366×768 LED-backlight screen, and Windows 7 Home Premium OS.

MSI’s Fusion-based laptop sports a 720p webcam, stereo speakers, 802.11n wireless, Gigabit LAN, HDMI and VGA outputs, three USB ports, and a 4-in-1 media card reader.

The notebook weighs around 5 pounds and has a new gradient color design.

There’s no word on pricing and availability.

The Asus Eee PC 1015T 10.1-inch netbook, powered by the latest AMD Ultrathin platform, is now available for pre-order in the US.

ExcaliberPC offers the Eee PC 1015T in black, white, blue, and red color. The 2.7-pound netbook comes with the AMD V105 single-core CPU at 1.2GHz, ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4250 integrated graphics, 1GB DDR3 memory, a 250GB hard drive with Windows 7 Starter pre-loaded, and a 6-cell battery for up to 6 hours of run time.

The 1015T has a 0.3MP web camera, stereo speakers, 802.11n Wi-Fi, three USB ports, an MMC/SD(SDHC) card reader, and a VGA connector.

Asustek’s AMD-based netbook is priced at $349 and is expected to start shipping on October 20th.

Dell UK has released the 11.6-inch Inspiron M101z ultraportable laptop, based on AMD’s technology.

The 3.44-pound Dell Inspiron M101z features the AMD Athlon Neo K125 single core or K325 dual core processor, ATI Radeon RS880M integrated graphics, up to 4GB of DDR3 memory, up to 320GB hard disk capacity, and a 6-cell battery which provides up to 6 hours and 36 minutes of work time. There is no optical drive.

Its 11.6″ LED-backlit display has a resolution of 1366×768 pixels.

Dell’s M101z also includes a full-width keyboard, 1.3M web camera, stereo speakers, microphone, 802.11n wireless, Ethernet LAN, Bluetooth 3.0, a SIM card slot, three USB ports, a 3-in-1 media card reader, and VGA and HDMI outputs.

The laptop comes in four colors: pink, blue, red, and black.

The Dell Inspiron M101z runs Windows 7 Home Premium OS and is available via Dell UK site for the starting price of £379 ($586). We have no info on its availability in the US.

UPDATE: The laptop is available now in the US for $449.99 at Dell.com.

Besides the 11.6″ LT32, Gateway has released the LT22 10.1″ mini-laptop featuring AMD’s 2010 Ultrathin Platform.

Unlike the Intel Atom-based LT21, the Gateway LT22 includes the Athlon II Neo K125 1.7GHz single core processor, ATI Radeon HD 4225 graphics, DDR3 memory, a 250GB hard disk drive, a 6-cell battery providing up to 6.5 hours of run time, a 1024 x 600 LED-backlight screen, and Windows 7 Starter OS.

The ultraportable also sports a webcam with microphone, HDMI port, two USB 2.0 connectors, 802.11n wireless, Gigabit LAN, a multi-in-1 media card reader, and a multi-gesture touchpad.

The Gateway LT22 has a honeycomb chassis design and comes in either matte silver or brown.

The laptop is available in Canada with a base price of CAD $349.99 ($339 U.S. dollars). We have no info on pricing and availability in the U.S.

The Samsung X125 11.6-inch AMD Ultrathin-powered ultraportable notebook is now available in the UK.

The 0.96-inch thin Samsung X125 weighs 3.33 pounds and features the AMD Athlon II Neo K125 1.7GHz single-core processor, ATI Radeon HD 4200 integrated graphics, 3GB of DDR3 memory, 320GB of hard disk space, and Windows 7 Home Premium OS.

Its LED-backlit glossy display has a resolution of 1366×768 pixels.

Samsung’s new ultraportable also includes an integrated web camera, stereo speakers, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Ethernet LAN, Bluetooth 3.0, three USB ports, a 4-in-1 media card reader, and HDMI and VGA outputs.

The Samsung X125 is available via Amazon U.K. and LaptopsDirect.co.uk for about £435 ($680). We have no info on its availability in the U.S.

At Computex 2010, AMD has demonstrated the Fusion Accelerated Processing Units (APUs) that combine CPU, GPU, video processing and other capabilities in a single die.

The APUs support DirectX 11 gaming and HD video content.

In a Fusion whitepaper, AMD has disclosed that its first APUs, code-named “Llano” and “Ontario,” are designed for mainstream desktop and notebook platforms, “thin and light” laptops, netbooks, and tablets. Both of these APUs will combine multiple superscalar x86 processor cores with an array of programmable SIMD engines leveraged from AMD’s discrete graphics portfolio.

“The key aspect to note is that all the major system elements – x86 cores, vector (SIMD) engines, and a Unified Video Decoder (UVD) for HD decoding tasks – atach directly to the same high speed bus, and thus to the main system memory. This design concept eliminates one of the fundamental constraints that limits the performance of traditional integrated graphics controlers (IGPs),” AMD says.

The launch of the AMD Fusion Family of APUs is planned for the first half of 2011.

Hewlett-Packard has updated the HP Pavilion dm3z 13.3″ ultraportable consumer notebook, which is now based on new 2010 AMD processors and graphics.

The Pavilion dm3z CPU choices include the AMD Athlon II Neo K125 at 1.7GHz, K325 at 1.3Ghz, or K625 at 1.5GHz. The dm3z features the ATI Radeon HD 4225 integrated graphics only or a switchable solution including both the IGP and the Radeon HD 5430 512MB dedicated GPU. The laptop has up to 8GB of DDR3 memory, up to 640GB of hard disk space or a 128GB sold state drive, a 6-cell battery for up to 6 hours run time, and optional external DVD burner or external Blu-ray combo.

Its LED-backlit BrightView display has a resolution of 1366×768 pixels.

HP’s dm3z also includes a HP TrueVision web camera, digital microphone, Altec Lansing stereo speakers, HDMI and VGA outputs, 802.11n WiFi, Gigabit LAN, optional Bluetooth, optional mobile broadband powered by Gobi, four USB ports, and a 5-in-1 digital media reader.

The 4.17-pound laptop is “less than one inch thick” and has a stylish “Modern Argento” brushed aluminum chassis.

The HP Pavilion dm3z runs Windows 7 Home Premium or Professional edition and can be purchased at the HP online store for a base price of $499.99.

The Acer Aspire One AO721 (721) 11.6-inch AMD-based ultraportable netbook is now on sale in the US.

The first model offered is the Aspire One AO721-3574. It features the AMD Athlon II Neo K125 processor at 1.7GHz, ATI Radeon HD 4225 graphics, 2GB of DDR3 memory, a 250GB hard drive with Windows 7 Home Premium OS pre-installed, a LED-backlight display with a resolution of 1366×768 pixels, and a 6-cell battery for up to 5.5 hours of run time.

The 3.1-pound 721-3574 also includes a built-in 1.3MP web camera, HDMI and VGA outputs, microphone, 802.11n WiFi, Gigabit Ethernet, three USB ports, a multi-in-1 card reader, and a multi-gesture touchpad.

Th Acer Aspire One AO721-3574 is available via Amazon.com for $480.94.