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Mobo for Vertically Challenged Devices
An anonymous reader writes "VIA is shipping an ultra-low profile mini-ITX mainboard suitable for flat TVs, LCD-panel computers, and other vertically challenged devices. The Epia MS uses a minimalistic I/O backplate and SODIMM memory for a slimmer form-factor, and is VIA's first mini-ITX board available with a fanless 1GHz Eden embedded processor. The board has several processor options, but they all include the PadLock Ace hardware RNG and AES encrypt/decrypt features that are now supported by the Linux and BSD kernels."
now we can install computers in the most ungodly places!
What, like in the back of a Volkswagen?
For a board that concentrates on being thin, I find it surprising that that dimension isn't listed. It's not on Via's product listing for this board and it's not in the user's manual (pdf).
Visually, i'm guessing that it is thicker than the 0.75" base of my PowerBook, but I'd like to know the real size...
HIV Crosses Species Barrier... into Muppets
Aren't flat TVs depth challenged rather then vertically challenged? Unless of course you lay it on the ground and stand over it to watch it.....
It's so nice to see that you finally quit referring to them as "midget" devices and went with the much more PC "vertically challenged" devices.
This would be an excellent board for a quiet mini-system. Toss in something like a thumb drive or whatever and it would stay quiet. BTW Toms hardware said they will sell for around $180 too, which is pretty reasonable.
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
To a linux-y iMac? IE a very small, compact all in one computer that runs linux? Could make some serious inroads for linux on the desktop. A think the appeal of the iMac lies in that it is small, easy to hook up(no rats nest), and has astehtic value.
Making a cheap version of this could definatly have market potential(esp. since you can control the hardware, it makes plug and play linux even easier)
i love the small, quiet, cool boards, but why cant anyone make an EPIA board with two network interfaces? VIA, are you listening?
Theres plenty of room in a flat screen TV if you place the card verticly, am I missing something??
Yeup. The "al" in "vertically".
So this is a laptop mobo without the lap?
oh, you can put it sideways (as if the electrons would fall out)?
So it's a lap-side?
Am I missing something here?
I'm not a prophet or a stone-age man,
I'm just a mortal with potential of a super man.
Aren't flat-panel monitors and TVs *horizontally* challenged?
The CPU is barely equivalent to a Celeron 600, the video quality (s-video) is quite low, the control panel (Windows, sorry) for the surround sound is brain-damaged, and the tiny fan is much noiser than one would expect.
That board does not come with any sort of hardware monitor app, and I had to replace the CPU fan with a larger, slower one to cut down the noise to the originally promised "whisper" level.
Not a bad board, but if fails to meet any of the expectations it sets in its specs. Make sure to read the hardware reviews, and buy from a seller with a money-back guarantee.
While there are indeed fanless mini-ITX systems, this ain't one of them.
You were 80% angel, 10% demon. The rest was hard to explain. - Over The Rhine
"Math in a song is good."-Linford
Via needs to get rid of all onboard connectors and replace them all with handy-dandy pinouts on the mainboard instead. Would make for some WAY easier modifications, as you can mount the connectors wherever the hell you want them and then wire them to the mainboard, instead of trying to force the mainboard into some awkward angle just so you can plug in the mouse and keyboard...
Hate me!
It may come as a surprise to some, but there's quite a lot of interest in very small and very quiet PCs. Just check out this site as a for instance. And there's also this review on Tom's Hardware site.
The heisenberg uncertainty principle (which can be proved if you accept the postulates of quantum mechanics) means you cannot observe both position and momentum (velocity) of a particle exactly. If there are small errors in any measurement, it will be impossible to make a perfect prediction of the future motion - no matter how expensive your equipment is.
However, even if quantum mechanics is somedays proven wrong, statistical mechanics saves you, and this relies on basic mathematical properties rather than physical models: If you consider the 10^23 atoms in a gram of matter and take millions of random samples of their thermal noise (velocities) I think you'll agree that it's perfectly random for all intents and purposes - much more so than throwing a dice, which is considered random in normal life.
Nevertheless, in contrast to mathematics physics relies on models that might be incorrect, so you can never really "prove" anything in physics (apart from within the scope of a certain theory, like quantum mechanics).
Cheers,
Erik