AMD Kabini AM1 Athlon 5350 APU (FS1b) Review

Power Consumption and Thermals

Power consumption is where Kabini really comes into its own. We didn’t see it go any higher than 31W, and that was at maximum load! You could quite easily run a Kabini AM1 system as a home file server, HTPC, media streaming device or surveillance system and you’d not have to worry about power bills. The Athlon 5350 would make an absolutely ideal solution for someone who has expensive power bills. The low power demand also looks suited for emerging markets where power is of a lower intensity, is unreliable or is provided by low current solar panels.

AMD’s temperature readouts have always been a bit dubious but I still think the results still look about right. Considering the really low power consumption I think these temperatures look realistic. I don’t expect Kabini will ever encounter heat problems and we should probably even expect to see passive versions hit the market. AMD’s AM1 APUs currently have some bulk heat sink fan (HSF) options available, as shown below, but there’s are fairly basic with whiney fans. I hope to see some cooling vendors step up to the mark with low cost passive and active AM1 cooling solutions.