"Another argument AMD had is that providing more AMD branded products makes it easier for novice PC builders to pick the parts because the buyer does not have to go through the trouble of deciding between dozens of products and making sure the parts are compatible with each other."
This is just B.S. AMD marketing. I've never had a situation where my video card was incompatible with my system RAM, or my video card was incompatible with my SSD. All AMD is doing is throwing their own sticker on it. They have nothing to do with the innovation, development, build quality, or support of these products. So calling it an "AMD-only experience" like it's something special is just silly.
Hello buddy. It's not BS. Following the R7 brand name will lead you to select a suitable gaming system without much hassle, knowing well and good that the parts perform to expections. The problem with APU's is that their speeds are contingent on the installer using quality parts. There is a significant increase in performance when using 2400mhz memory versus 1600mhz. That doesn't make as much of a difference when your CPU and graphics card are separated, but it's night and day with an APU. When you couple it the Radeon Gamer Memory, you can bet the house that it's compatible on any board that supports the APU. Try buying a random 2400mhz spec memory and see how well that works. Spoiler alert: 50% chance of crashing towers. Remember 9/11. Buy AMD.
If you have never built a PC before and are not that familiar with computers, compatibility can be a concern. Of course, anyone with experience knows that pretty much any GPU, RAM and SSD/HDD will work as long as the interface is correct.
"If you have never built a PC before"—this is the key phrase when it comes to the kind of marketing AMD is doing here. They know perfectly well that they will not win "hardcore" users over with anything less than topping all the benchmark and having a good price to go with that. But the other 90% of the (potential) market they very well might. And if they can provide a good experience to boot, the next generation of games will go with AMD (since they’ve had good experience building their first gaming rig with AMD-only components).
I don’t even know why anyone who knows how to build PCs would get upset at this, it has nothing to do with them.
I have a hard time buying that 90% of the components market is first time builders. I think it's far more likely these SKUs are targeted at OEMs looking to throw more branding on there component selections to dazzle prefab buyers with.
Products inside the PC work (at worst with a driver). But i have a D-Link router that has a USB slot intended for a USB modem with a SIM slot. If i find a D-Link USB it will work while anything else might work. The brand is to help novices. They have just started to look at the products inside the PC. Until now they dealt with things like my example. Finding same brand components is easy and as the article said, for novices.
Never heard of anobody picking DDR-1333 RAM or slow SSD that doesn't work? In case you didn't get it, AMD is picking which SSD and RAM you should take in the gazillion on brands and product numbers available.
More to the point it's marketing, but not B.S. AMD are trying to build a brand that has components that work well together, so when people buy those components and they work well, they will be more likely to buy more into the brand. You may not like branding and may not buy into it, but many people do. They are a large resource to be tapped into.
So this AMD SSD is just like their memory sticks, the controller is by another company, the NAND is by a different company, almost no engineering (but the sticker design I guess?) came from AMD. Meh.
I don't think compatibility is that big of an issue these days... Besides CPU and Motherboard, all PCs use (or can use) the most commonly available components... SATA is backwards compatible, DDR3 is the only type of memory you can practically buy, PCI-e is backwards compatible (both ways), power supplies are common. You actually have to go out of your way and put in effort, if you want to find products that are not compatible with each other. I don't see that as a legitimate argument at all.
Perhaps not. Still, there is the price argument which is a little harder to ignore - buy a (nearly) full system with AMD components which could potentially cost a lot less than the Intel equivalent. If you opt for the SSD at the very least, you remove the most noticable performance barrier in computing, no matter how cheap and nasty it is.
I see bad components all the time. Just look at reviews on Newegg. You will see many issues that you wouldn't normally think about pop up in reviews. Usually because of either poor parts used, bad controller boards, bad design, bad drivers, etc.
AMD's strategy of bundling is laying the foundations for full gaming PC bundles in the near future. AMD's 2016 APUs with a new x86 architecture and HBM (High bandwidth memory) will bring APUs with performance which will satisfy the vast majority of casual and mainstream gamers. The enthusiasts would still want discrete GPUs and custom PC builds. Eventually AMD needs to have their own branded motherboards and power supplies to provide complete bundles to OEMs and system integrators.
And a case. AMD all the way baby!!! But they should brand more "brands". They should have products from more then one company with AMD brand on it or they won't get traction. AMD will otherwise become a competitor and fall apart. That's what happened to 3dfx. When they started making their own boards they became competition so others stopped using their designs. Who would buy a product from a different company, if they can get it from the creating company.
I mind that it is called Radeon. Radeon should remain a GPU brand. RAM and SSD should have a different name. The AMD logo and red color is enough to link the products.
Intel and ARM is like Microsoft and tablets. They did it way before it was cool and at the time it didn't work. The switch to ARM might work now, since Android doesn't have x86 or Windows compatibility and it still works for most people.
Seems okay to me even if it is a rebrand. Fairly good specs for a Sata 3 drive and 4 year warranty seems higher then normal, probably comparable to the crucial mx100 line which gets a lot of love. They just need to deliver on price
OCZ is just fine. Listen to hojnikb. OCZ used mostly Sandforce controllers and that's where the problems laid. Their barefoot controllers are ok (they got them when they bought Indilinx).
I just wish more companies would work on bringing consumer-grade PCIe M.2 drives to market. Plextor is the only one bothering with its M6e and Samsung refuses to sell its XP941 to individual consumers even though they're ready to throw money at them. It's stupid that a MBP gets to use faster storage than a custom desktop.
Agreed - if AMD starts this at all they might do *something* interesting as well. Push the boundaries somewhere, offer us something nobody else does. A value M.2 SSD is something I might want to put into my Intel PC even if it has an AMD sticker on it.
Overpriced AMD branded SSD for a saturated SSD market, there are 256gb SSD's some good ones like crucials mx100 which is a lot of sites like pcper liked and recomended that start at 115$ even under 100 if catch it on sale.
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RaistlinZ - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link
"Another argument AMD had is that providing more AMD branded products makes it easier for novice PC builders to pick the parts because the buyer does not have to go through the trouble of deciding between dozens of products and making sure the parts are compatible with each other."This is just B.S. AMD marketing. I've never had a situation where my video card was incompatible with my system RAM, or my video card was incompatible with my SSD. All AMD is doing is throwing their own sticker on it. They have nothing to do with the innovation, development, build quality, or support of these products. So calling it an "AMD-only experience" like it's something special is just silly.
zmeul - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link
at least they're not directly competing against nVidia .. yetdonbvonb - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link
Hello buddy. It's not BS. Following the R7 brand name will lead you to select a suitable gaming system without much hassle, knowing well and good that the parts perform to expections. The problem with APU's is that their speeds are contingent on the installer using quality parts. There is a significant increase in performance when using 2400mhz memory versus 1600mhz. That doesn't make as much of a difference when your CPU and graphics card are separated, but it's night and day with an APU. When you couple it the Radeon Gamer Memory, you can bet the house that it's compatible on any board that supports the APU. Try buying a random 2400mhz spec memory and see how well that works. Spoiler alert: 50% chance of crashing towers. Remember 9/11. Buy AMD.willis936 - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link
Is this the real life?Tams80 - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link
Or is this just fantasy?Charleaux - Monday, August 25, 2014 - link
Caught in a land slide?Kristian Vättö - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link
If you have never built a PC before and are not that familiar with computers, compatibility can be a concern. Of course, anyone with experience knows that pretty much any GPU, RAM and SSD/HDD will work as long as the interface is correct.xype - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link
"If you have never built a PC before"—this is the key phrase when it comes to the kind of marketing AMD is doing here. They know perfectly well that they will not win "hardcore" users over with anything less than topping all the benchmark and having a good price to go with that. But the other 90% of the (potential) market they very well might. And if they can provide a good experience to boot, the next generation of games will go with AMD (since they’ve had good experience building their first gaming rig with AMD-only components).I don’t even know why anyone who knows how to build PCs would get upset at this, it has nothing to do with them.
Tetracycloide - Friday, September 5, 2014 - link
I have a hard time buying that 90% of the components market is first time builders. I think it's far more likely these SKUs are targeted at OEMs looking to throw more branding on there component selections to dazzle prefab buyers with.AmdInside - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link
I just came back from Bestbuy and nothing surprises me about end users or sales people anymorewillis936 - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link
Did you just find a time machine to travel 20 years into the future and post this?SleepyFE - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link
Products inside the PC work (at worst with a driver). But i have a D-Link router that has a USB slot intended for a USB modem with a SIM slot. If i find a D-Link USB it will work while anything else might work. The brand is to help novices. They have just started to look at the products inside the PC. Until now they dealt with things like my example. Finding same brand components is easy and as the article said, for novices.Da W - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link
Never heard of anobody picking DDR-1333 RAM or slow SSD that doesn't work? In case you didn't get it, AMD is picking which SSD and RAM you should take in the gazillion on brands and product numbers available.Tams80 - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link
And how does this negatively affect you?More to the point it's marketing, but not B.S. AMD are trying to build a brand that has components that work well together, so when people buy those components and they work well, they will be more likely to buy more into the brand. You may not like branding and may not buy into it, but many people do. They are a large resource to be tapped into.
Anyway; a 1TB version would be appreciated.
tipoo - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link
So this AMD SSD is just like their memory sticks, the controller is by another company, the NAND is by a different company, almost no engineering (but the sticker design I guess?) came from AMD. Meh.xype - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link
If it’s sticker _and_ certification/testing it might very well be worth the money to anyone building an AMD-based system. *shrug*dishayu - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link
I don't think compatibility is that big of an issue these days... Besides CPU and Motherboard, all PCs use (or can use) the most commonly available components... SATA is backwards compatible, DDR3 is the only type of memory you can practically buy, PCI-e is backwards compatible (both ways), power supplies are common. You actually have to go out of your way and put in effort, if you want to find products that are not compatible with each other. I don't see that as a legitimate argument at all.silverblue - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link
Perhaps not. Still, there is the price argument which is a little harder to ignore - buy a (nearly) full system with AMD components which could potentially cost a lot less than the Intel equivalent. If you opt for the SSD at the very least, you remove the most noticable performance barrier in computing, no matter how cheap and nasty it is.Dug - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link
I see bad components all the time. Just look at reviews on Newegg. You will see many issues that you wouldn't normally think about pop up in reviews. Usually because of either poor parts used, bad controller boards, bad design, bad drivers, etc.raghu78 - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link
AMD's strategy of bundling is laying the foundations for full gaming PC bundles in the near future. AMD's 2016 APUs with a new x86 architecture and HBM (High bandwidth memory) will bring APUs with performance which will satisfy the vast majority of casual and mainstream gamers. The enthusiasts would still want discrete GPUs and custom PC builds. Eventually AMD needs to have their own branded motherboards and power supplies to provide complete bundles to OEMs and system integrators.SleepyFE - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link
And a case. AMD all the way baby!!!But they should brand more "brands". They should have products from more then one company with AMD brand on it or they won't get traction. AMD will otherwise become a competitor and fall apart. That's what happened to 3dfx. When they started making their own boards they became competition so others stopped using their designs. Who would buy a product from a different company, if they can get it from the creating company.
Tams80 - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link
Yeah, maybe having their own brand isn't the best idea. Maybe 'AMD certified' would work better.jtgmerk - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link
solid marketing. amd could one day promote system based on R5, R7 and R9. and ppl will buy them.SleepyFE - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link
I mind that it is called Radeon. Radeon should remain a GPU brand. RAM and SSD should have a different name. The AMD logo and red color is enough to link the products.blackmagnum - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link
Good luck AMD. You're always 1 step behind Intel.xype - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link
To be fair, they do have ARM products (in the pipeline), though.TheWrongChristian - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link
Two steps behind, then. Intel has been there, done that, got the postcard and disposed of the unit already (XScale).nathanddrews - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link
... and replaced it with something better: X86.SleepyFE - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link
Intel and ARM is like Microsoft and tablets. They did it way before it was cool and at the time it didn't work. The switch to ARM might work now, since Android doesn't have x86 or Windows compatibility and it still works for most people.SleepyFE - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link
Everyone is always 1 step behind Intel. They are pushing hard to adhere to Moore's observation. It's the only way they can stay relavant.silverblue - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link
"all that's left is for AMD to begin offering Radeon branded motherboards, power supplies, and cases to provide the ultimate AMD-only experience"I guess, but as regards PSUs, if we're talking value then could you possibly trust them? Perhaps... OCZ PSUs? ASRock motherboards? CoolerMaster cases?
Kristian Vättö - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link
OCZ no longer makes PSUs as their PSU division was bought by Firepower when OCZ filed for bankruptcy (Toshiba only bought the SSD portion).silverblue - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link
Good point; I think you can still buy them, though - remaining stock and all that.atticus14 - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link
Seems okay to me even if it is a rebrand. Fairly good specs for a Sata 3 drive and 4 year warranty seems higher then normal, probably comparable to the crucial mx100 line which gets a lot of love. They just need to deliver on pricehojnikb - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link
Another day, another rebrand. Well, atleast its not Sandforce.ArthurG - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link
but it's OCZ the worst brand -by far- in SSDSleepyFE - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link
OCZ is just fine. Listen to hojnikb. OCZ used mostly Sandforce controllers and that's where the problems laid. Their barefoot controllers are ok (they got them when they bought Indilinx).r3loaded - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link
I just wish more companies would work on bringing consumer-grade PCIe M.2 drives to market. Plextor is the only one bothering with its M6e and Samsung refuses to sell its XP941 to individual consumers even though they're ready to throw money at them. It's stupid that a MBP gets to use faster storage than a custom desktop.MrSpadge - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link
Agreed - if AMD starts this at all they might do *something* interesting as well. Push the boundaries somewhere, offer us something nobody else does. A value M.2 SSD is something I might want to put into my Intel PC even if it has an AMD sticker on it.arbit3r - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link
Overpriced AMD branded SSD for a saturated SSD market, there are 256gb SSD's some good ones like crucials mx100 which is a lot of sites like pcper liked and recomended that start at 115$ even under 100 if catch it on sale.jabber - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link
So as per usual go with the cheapest of the three then."Ohhh but that one says its 5MBps faster!!!" Yeah right.
Tikcus9666 - Tuesday, August 19, 2014 - link
Since this is R7 branded, I expect to see a Higher performance part R9 brandedthe same as their memory
Also all for AMD Memory, in a AMD system, in bios select AMP (AMD Memory Profile) and that's it, no hassle setup
yannigr - Thursday, August 21, 2014 - link
AMD rebadging SSDs I'm fine with. But OCZ? That one just leaves me uneasy.