Test System

Initial Setup

Getting my test system set up with the AMD A10-7860K went fairly well. I did, however, run into issues with my standard 1275W Thermaltake Toughpower XT Platinum PSU, which would turn itself off at low loads. Adding a discrete VGA into the mix stopped that, so the problem wasn't due to anything other than the PSU not truly supporting the FM2+ platform. So be sure you get a PSU that is pre-approved. It is also worth noting that I used a motherboard I received from ASRock nearly two years ago. Talk about making old hardware relevant.

Once I figured out the PSU problem and dealt with it, things went great. Using an AMD APU allows you to build a complete system with around 100W total power draw thanks to the A10-7860K's low 65W TDP, which should in theory leave 35W for the rest of the system, which is more than enough for most builds without a discrete VGA.

When I first powered up the system, I was quite shocked to hear... well, nothing! Truth be told, I could hear the case fans, but I had to put my head right into the case after removing the door close to the cooler in order to be able to hear a faint high-pitched whine coming from its fan's motor. Although it did emit a high pitch, the pitch was so quiet as to be inaudible with the case closed, or with the case's side panel open under my desk. This cooler truly fits the "virtually silent" rating AMD gives it. The cooler is most definitely a job well done!

Power Consumption

We measure CPU power consumption since one of our first tasks is to truly verify system stability. I isolate the power coming through the 8-pin ATX connector using an in-line meter that provides voltage and current readings, and total wattage passed through. While this may not prove to isolate the APU's power draw in all instances, it does serve as a good general indicator of the total power consumed by the APU while eliminating any power drawn by other devices, such as the motherboard, RAM, drives, and coolers. I used Futuremark's 3DMark Firestrike test to simulate a situation of normalized power draw, one where both the CPU and GPU portions of the A10-7860K APU are utilized.

Measured power consumption proved to be right in line with AMD's reported TDP, which is better than I had expected. Intel and AMD rate their TDP in different ways, making it hard to compare the two, but seeing numbers below the reported TDP definitely put a smile on my face.