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Sneak Preview of VIA's next-gen mini-ITX mobo

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the its-so-adorable dept.

An anonymous reader writes "VIA will preview its next-generation mini-ITX board for the consumer electronics market at next week's Computex 2004 in Taipei. The EPIA SP features a new graphics and memory controller hub (GMCH) supporting faster front-side bus (FSB), memory, and southbridge interconnect speeds. It also features a C3 processor clocked at 1.3GHz, integrated PadLock Hardware Security Suite, and MPEG-4 acceleration. Oh, and like the current top-end MII 12000 VIA board, the whole board probably draws under 20watts running flat out."

6 of 218 comments (clear)

  1. For anyone interested... by Mz6 · · Score: 5, Interesting
    These boards make for a great use in the car. I have used several of these boards to create a carputer for movies, music, and navigation inside my car.

    I have one myself and I love it :)

    --
    Hmmm.
    1. Re:For anyone interested... by legoburner · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Screw cars... think supercomputing cluster. VIA have been talking about a dual CPU mini-itx board with 2ghz (esther core) processors for a while now. I'll leave finding info about them up to you (mini-itx.com and via's site for starters)

      You can get 1U cases which let you put in 2 mini-itx boards (there are quite a few if you [g|fr]oogle.

      Here are some specs for a rack full of them...
      336GHz total power. 84GB RAM, up to 22.5 TB HDD space, total power usage < 15kW (60W per machine).

      Costs:
      fixed:
      42U rack: $150
      Cables/Power supplies: ~$100

      per-unit:
      case: $200
      mobo (guess): $200
      ram (512GB*2): $120
      HDD (300GB): $250

      ttl per machine: 200+2(200)+2(120)+2(250)=$1340
      42 machines=$56280
      + rack bits=$56530

      in GBP=30584 (I am British)

      that's a spicy-a meat-a-ball.. still 22TB and 336Ghz cluster... hmmmm... Might get 5fps on Doom 3!

      15kW/h
      To be extra geeky... cost per day to run in London, England (electricity only, excluding air conditioning)...
      15kW/h per hour * 24 = 360kW/h per day
      * 8p per unit + VAT = 2880 + 504
      = GBP 33.84 per day
      = GBP 12351.60 per year.... ouch, that's a new rack every 3 years if you leave it turned off though

      Damn I cant wait for the 2ghz dual cpu mini-itx boards... and a bunch of rich, obscure relatives to pass on and give me money >:)

      And since this is slashdot... cue the 50 posts to correct and nit pick this post since it contains (bad) maths.

      --
      Warhammer forums
    2. Re:For anyone interested... by Amgine007 · · Score: 5, Informative

      Here are some specs for a rack full of them...

      A proof of your concept: the Mini-ITX Cluster

  2. Still waiting for the nano-itx.. by Amgine007 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The Nano-ITX board that they announced last year still seems to be the coolest thing around in terms of potential for off-the-shelf, single board computer projects.

    I mean, it's only 4.7 inches by 4.7 inches! Of course I've never seen a price, but sell this thing in the $100 range and I'll take 3...

  3. Well... by Kjella · · Score: 5, Informative

    ...if you're an electrical engineer, no. The motherboard is probably reactive/inductive in some way, not purely resistive like a lightbulb. This means that the phase angle will be non-zero, and the true and apparent power of the circuit will be different.

    ...if you're talking about your electricity bill, then for all you could care, they're equal. 20W will be extremely close to 20W, regardless of what I said above. Personally I don't care much, since I live a place where most of the year have a space heater on...

    Kjella

    --
    Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
  4. EPIA mini-ITX boards by anakog · · Score: 5, Informative
    These are great. My home server is running on a fanless EPIA 5000 and I have never been happier about my choice. The whole machine cost me $300 (case, mobo, 256MB RAM, 120GB, extra NIC) over a year ago and has been sitting quietly under the table in my living room ever since.

    It is extremely quiet (only audible humming comes from two small fans on the case) which is important to me. It is also very low on energy consumption. I got an APC Back-UPS ES-350 (just a couple of days before the big black-out here, in North-East USA --- could not have been wiser :) The UPS is rated at 8 minutes under 100W load and 2 minutes under 200W but it lasts over 40 minutes powering my server and my DSL modem.

    Another thing I am really happy about is the fact that VIA seems to be doing a good job supporting Linux. Personally, I have never had trouble running Red Hat on mine (although, I hear FC2 had issues with it that were only recently fixed --- but that was FC2's problem).

    Overall, I feel that this has been a really great product and would wholeheartedly recommend it. I am also very happy to see that VIA has been constantly improving them. I am looking forward to seeing the upcoming nano-ITX boards.