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Via Debuts Mini-ITX 2.0
DeviceGuru writes "Via Technologies has launched the second generation of its signature mini-motherboard standard. Mini-ITX 2.0, an evolutionary update to the seven-year-old 170×170mm form-factor, introduces new and emerging buses and interfaces such as PCI Express, SATA, Gig-E, and HD A/V, while preserving backwards-compatibility with the original standard. Mini-ITX has been a popular form-factor for a range of space-constrained hobbyist and commercial applications."
I have one at home not because I'm "space-constrained" - but because it really nice and small Linux server which does everything I nee from it.
Thanks to fanless design, loudest part of the rig is hard drive. That, along with minimalistic power consumption, makes it very suitable for always-on system. I use it for back-ups and some performance-oriented development and it is just bliss.
The only downside of buying Mini-ITX, is that it's very hard to find suitable components as well as good case. Selection isn't very wide and prices often bite.
All hope abandon ye who enter here.
Are they all 3D renderings?
meh, excuse me... I just found it amusing... "VIA Debuts Mini-ITX 2.0"... and its just some 30 minute 3D model...
Back on topic though, looks pretty kickass, if only it came with more PCIe slots, even just one more would do... 6.75"x6.75"... 3 of them could fit in the space your average keybaord takes (minus PSU)
I'm a bit nostalgic too. I missed the old turbo button from the clone war days, so I spliced together a few case wires and velcroed my leaf blower in there.
Go directly to VIA's website.
Seriously, there's no ads on deviceguru's page so what's the fucking point?
I'm doing just fine with MythTV on a 1.0Ghz fanless board. I can record two SD shows at once while watching a third, all from a single hard drive. Just be sure to use the Openchrome video driver if you want playback to be watchable.
This was announced on the 5th of this month, and already been featured on some news sites.
Asides from that I like that we're getting an easy option for hdmi-out - it's one of the things that have been holding me back from using this in my sitting room :)
What is the point in shipping it with a PS/2 keyboard and mouse port. Complete waste of time. The space would be far more usefully be taken up with some more USB ports.
Also how about some BIOS serial redirection on these things, so you don't have to plug in a monitor to configure these babies.
www.logicsupply.com
AverMedia M780 is a dual-tuner PCIe X1 card whose driver allows it to be used as a hardware MPEG decoder for DVD or Blu-Ray. Coincidentally, it gives the best reception of any card I've ever used. Unfortunately, as of right now it does not work under Linux, but a 1.5GHz C7 w/ 2GB of RAM and the onboard Via graphics is powerful enough to run Vista Ultimate edition with Aero turned on at S-Video or component video 480p resolution. Not that you'd actually use that particular OS. (Well, my HTPC is running it, but I got a free copy through my work MSDN subscription.) It's probably not powerful enough for 1080p, but you can install a discrete graphics card if you prefer.
If you believe everything you read, you'd better not read. - Japanese proverb
Amazing. At first I was wondering if the 45-degree offset component would allow good airflow, thinking it is the processor, but it is not.
After downloading the Image Kit I noticed that the processor is actually the little tiny component with "nano" stamped on it near the top right side of the board.
Kriston
Remember to get a TV Tuner that does MPEG encoding onboard. For recording two shows at once, you'll need something like the Hauppauge WinTV PVR 500. With a card like this, your processor will hardly get used at all in the encoding process.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
an evolutionary update
For definitions of Evolution that include 10,000 hours of Creation and Design...
Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
The small form factor is all very well, but the previous generation of boards simply didn't do what they claimed to. HDTV and H.264 decoding in hardware are supposed to work, but are unsupported, for example.
When you look at the high cost of these boards and the special cases and PSUs for them, combined with terrible performance (both CPU and components like gigabit ethernet or SATA) I can't see why anyone would want one. You can build a faster, cheaper and just as low power system using a cheap underclocked and undervolted Sempron and mATX mobo, with only a slightly larger (and much cheaper) case.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Agreed. I'm running KnoppMyth on a 700 MHz Celeron. Encoding is fine - the Hauppauge PVR-150 handles it without a hitch. The machine can just barely handle playback, but my MacBook makes a nice, fast frontend.
I'll have to try your suggestion of video driver to see if it improves playback performance.
"Anyone who [rips a CD] is probably engaging in copyright infringement." - David O. Carson
That's frightening. that you need the openchrome video driver to get SD video playable. These things have no chance in hell to play any HD video on them then.
Why are they offering HD outputs whn the board cant ever hope to play HD content?
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Well, it's a good question, actually. While VIA has long touted their support for Linux and open source, Real World results have often lagged behind. For example, various Linux drivers they have released have been one or more of buggy, closed source, and tied to forks of popular open-source projects. So, while Linux does actually run on all boards I have tried, not all hardware is _fully_ supported in practice.
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.