Hi Michael, When I was assembling my APU2 I though to myself some sort of template would be very useful. :-)
Keep in mind the heat-spreader placement is slightly different for the APU2 vs. the APU1. Though, it would seem a template that would lay in the case bottom would be easier, not exactly the process PC Engines documents, but I don't see why that would not work. Lonnie On Apr 15, 2016, at 11:01 PM, Michael Knill <michael.kn...@ipcsolutions.com.au> wrote: > Hi all > > I made up a template for the heat spreader. It makes it much easier. See > below: > > https://www.yawarra.com.au/tutorials/easy-way-attach-heat-spreader-apu-board/ > > Regards > Michael Knill > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Lonnie Abelbeck <li...@lonnie.abelbeck.com> > Reply-To: AstLinux List <astlinux-users@lists.sourceforge.net> > Date: Friday, 15 April 2016 at 10:07 PM > To: AstLinux List <astlinux-users@lists.sourceforge.net> > Subject: [Astlinux-users] PC Engines apu2c2 / apu2c4 > > A newly released hardware description and configuration has been added to the > AstLinux documentation: > > PC Engines APU2 Quad Core AMD GX-412TC > http://doc.astlinux.org/userdoc:board_pcengines_apu2 > > The APU2 comes in two versions: > > apu2c2: 3 i211AT LAN / AMD GX-412TC CPU / 2 GB DRAM > USD $123.40 (board/case/power) mSATA SSD and shipping extra > > apu2c4: 3 i210AT LAN / AMD GX-412TC CPU / 4 GB DRAM with ECC (ECC not yet > enabled in BIOS) > USD $136.40 (board/case/power) mSATA SSD and shipping extra > > Either APU2 will run AstLinux equally well, though for $13 more the apu2c4 > offers extra RAM and ECC for the future. > > I personally purchased the PC Engines apu2c4 directly from PC Engines in > Switzerland, I added the $17 msata16d SSD and shipping was $30.50 ("lowest > cost" using "UPS express saver"). Incredibly, I ordered on a Monday and > received the package on Thursday of the same week, delivered to the middle of > the United States ! > > Of special note, some assembly is required, the heat spreader needs to be > attached between the CPU and case, not difficult but tedious for the first > time since the instructions are for the older APU1. > > I added an optional push button power switch, this item is not currently > offered by PC Engines. It fits perfectly in one of the pre-cut antenna holes. > > Total system power at idle is only 6 Watts. The case is only slightly warm > to the touch. The CPU temperature is around 59 C at room temperature and > idle. > > > I performed a standard iperf test (client-iperf -> LAN-apu2c4-WAN -> > server-iperf), the apu2c4 will route at near Gb line speed (902 Mbps) at 80% > idle (via top), much better than the APU1. > > Though surprisingly, single-core processes seem to execute somewhat slower on > the apu2c4 for a given clock speed than other boards, one benchmark took 77 > secs. vs. 61 secs. (normalized to 1 GHz). Future BIOS tweaks may address > this observation. Though multi-threaded applications like Asterisk will use > the APU2's 4-cores to it's advantage. > > The OpenVPN test took 77.3 seconds, which implies an upper-limit of 41 Mbps > throughput. The AES-NI instructions help here. > -- > openvpn --genkey --secret /tmp/secret > time openvpn --test-crypto --secret /tmp/secret --verb 0 --tun-mtu 20000 > --cipher aes-256-cbc > -- > > The current shipping apu2_160307 BIOS is fully functional, though missing ECC > support and performance tweaks. > > Clearly there is no one best AstLinux hardware solution, but in my limited > testing, the PC Engines apu2c4 is a great fit for AstLinux. > > > Finally, the next release of AstLinux 1.2.7 is required to fully support the > APU2, until that time I have uploaded a pre-release AstLinux Install ISO to > test: > https://abelbeck.com/lonnie/share/astlinux-1.0-7638-genx86_64-serial.iso > > Install an mSATA SSD, boot with a USB flash drive inserted containing the > bootable AstLinux Install ISO, then interacting via the serial console at > 19200 baud, install to the mSATA SSD. > > Lonnie ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Find and fix application performance issues faster with Applications Manager Applications Manager provides deep performance insights into multiple tiers of your business applications. It resolves application problems quickly and reduces your MTTR. Get your free trial! https://ad.doubleclick.net/ddm/clk/302982198;130105516;z _______________________________________________ Astlinux-users mailing list Astlinux-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/astlinux-users Donations to support AstLinux are graciously accepted via PayPal to pay...@krisk.org.
