Via EPIA Mini-ITX motherboard

[Matthew Dillon]

:> With no mechanical parts left inside the computer, it should also be
:> robust enough, to be tossen around in the kitchen by children.
:
:I haven't disconnected the two tiny fans inside yet.  I think Matthew
:indicated the cpu and chips might need some airflow, so I'm not in any
:hurry -- they're very quiet and the noise isn't unpleasant or whiney
:like disks can.

    Yes, there are two options there.  You can pick up one of those
    little fan speed controllers that goes inline with the fan power
    connector, or you can solder a 47 Ohm 1W resistor inline with
    each of the two 'red' wires (using heat shrink tubing to shield any
    bare copper).  This will make the fans spin more slowly and thus
    be far quieter (possible because the insides generate a lot less
    heat relative to a typical Intel or Amd box.

    But if you are going to have an internal HD it might be a good idea
    to leave the two tiny fans running at normal speed.

    I also had to seal the air vents on the left hand side of the case
    so the fans would pull in air across the cpu and chipsets from the
    right hand side of the case.

:> Another possible use would be as multimedia centre in the living
:> room, but I suspect you would need the 1GHz version then (or what
:> about the newer chipsets?
:
:Dunno, but that's one of the reasons I wanted to try one out.  If it's
:fast enough for audio and video, put a box in the stereo and another
:with the TeeVee.   Matthew's way ahead of me here.

    It's certainly fast enough for audio, but I suspect DVD or MPEG2-Video
    needs an asist from the on-board hardware mpeg2 decoder to be viable on
    an EM-6000, and the driver doesn't support that yet (though the
    via-supplied Linux driver probably does).

    I definitely like the compact flash boot idea.  I just ordered a couple
    of compact flash IDE adapters for just that purpose.

    Mozilla runs fine on an EM-6000 though of course it will be noticeably
    slower verse running on a P3 or P4, especially when it is being run for
    the first time.  The trick with these Mini-ITX boards is, as always,
    to stuff them full of ram.  I recommend 512M minimum. 

					-Matt
					Matthew Dillon 
					<dillon at backplane.com>