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Hardware VIA Announces EPIA EX-Series
Anh Tuan Huynh (Blog) - December 29, 2006 1:29 PM
Print E-mail del.icio.us 14 comment(s) - last by mindless1.. on Jan 3 at 7:01 AM
x86 EPIA Mini-ITX consumer electronics platform

VIA has announced its latest addition to its mini-ITX product lineup—the EPIA EX-series. The new EPIA EX series is powered by VIA’s CX700M2 single-chip chipset. The CX700M2 is paired with a VIA C7 processor to deliver a low power and small x86 consumer electronics platform with average operating power consumption hovering around 13.6 watts.

Delivering support for HDTV is an integrated VIA UniChrome Pro II graphics core. The UniChrome Pro II graphics core features hardware decoding acceleration for MPEG-2/4 and WMV9 video formats. It appears to lack hardware acceleration support for H.264 and VC-1 though. Nevertheless, the UniChrome Pro II graphics core is paired with an HDTV encoder too. The HDTV encoder supports resolutions of 720p and 1080i.

VIA has packed the EPIA EX-series with plenty of video outputs as well. Video outputs include composite, S-Video, component and DVI video outputs. There’s also an additional LVDS header for greater video output capabilities. Audio capabilities are limited with the EPIA EX-series though. While it features the 8-channel capable VIA Vinyl VT1708 high definition audio codec, VIA limits audio output to a single set of stereo RCA output jacks.  The EPIA EX-series features coaxial and optical S/PDIF outputs as well.

Other notable features of the EPIA EX-series include 1393a, two SATA 3.0Gbps ports and 10/100Mbps Ethernet with a Gigabit Ethernet option.

Expect the EPIA-EX series to arrive in two speed grades—1GHz and 1.5 GHz. The 1.0 GHz model will feature passive cooling while the 1.5 GHz model has an active cooling solution.

It is unknown when the EPIA EX-series will hit retail, though it will be on display at next year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada.

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HTPC?
By Alphafox78 on 12/29/2006 2:43:58 PM , Rating: 2
This would be good for a htpc if it has:
HDCP over dvi
VC-1 Acceleration (im sure the C7 or whatever its called lacks the horsepower to do it)




RE: HTPC?
By therealnickdanger on 12/29/2006 3:12:12 PM , Rating: 2
Well, VC-1 is part of the WMV9 family, so it could have the gonads to decode it without specifically stating it...

Even though I know that a properly coded 1080i output can be de-interlaced by 1080p displays, having native 1080p output via HDMI would have made this board much more appealing.


RE: HTPC?
By kidsafe on 12/29/2006 10:42:44 PM , Rating: 2
Hmm, why would anybody buy one of these over a Mac mini? I could see why modders would want a bare motherboard to work with, but you could gut a mini and toss the enclosure just the same...


RE: HTPC?
By adt6247 on 12/30/2006 12:59:50 AM , Rating: 3
Price, flexibility, power usage, reliability.

Once I complete my server closet, I'm planning on purchasing the parts for a couple EPIA-based systems. Each should be about $300. My file server is going to be running MythTV, which will manage my media. I'm going to have an app server that will service diskless terminals, that will boot, grab a boot image over the network, start the Linux kernel, run X, and mount the fileserver via NFS, and start MythClient. I can add any number of these I want -- zero configuration necessary.

No moving parts (any kind of disk drive) and peak usage of 20W means cheap to run and unlikely to break down.


RE: HTPC?
By StevoLincolnite on 12/30/2006 10:23:13 AM , Rating: 3
I have an old Via C3 1.0Ghz @ 1.3Ghz.
512Mb of ram
And a Geforce 6 6600 AGP card.
Its not a bad system, not allot of processing grunt, but the processor does consumer bugger all power.
If Via took a note of the way the Pentium M is Designed then they may produce quite a nice processor in the future.
As far as I know Via still base the processors off a Cyrix core (Thus the C3 may equal Cyrix Model 3?).
Anyhow it works perfectly fine as my HTPC and I even have it passively cooled, Now I'm looking for a newer Geforce card thats passively cooled and I'll be set.
I allways thought that when Via bought Cyrix that the processors wouldn't be anything special, But then I realized They aren't for Ultra l33t systems to play Doom 3 or what not. Rather for small and quite systems, that don't need allot of processing power.


RE: HTPC?
By m3rdpwr on 12/30/2006 10:15:28 AM , Rating: 2
Custom applications for one.

Modders love these to build custom PC's for cars...

-Mario


RE: HTPC?
By masher2 (blog) on 12/30/2006 1:48:16 PM , Rating: 2
I have two of these built into the walls of my house. One controls the house lighting, hvac, and security system...I have plans for the other one, but so far its just sitting idle.


RE: HTPC?
By Chillin1248 (blog) on 12/30/2006 1:55:53 PM , Rating: 3
Out of curiousity, aren't you a bit worried trusting your security to a computer that can crash/fail? What are your redundency options?

-------
Chillin


RE: HTPC?
By masher2 (blog) on 12/30/2006 2:07:01 PM , Rating: 1
The computer interfaces to the security panel...the system runs independently of it. All it really lets me do is download the alarm log, remotely turn on or off the system, override a zone etc.


RE: HTPC?
By StevoLincolnite on 12/30/2006 10:29:05 AM , Rating: 3
Mac? Like the ones you eat? 'sif they need to come in a "mini" form. :P
I personally wouldn't even touch a mac with a barge pole, But thats my opinion.


RE: HTPC?
By mechwarrior1989 on 12/30/2006 1:18:17 PM , Rating: 2
Mac Mini's aren't as flexible and it also doesn't have optical out for audio or as many connectivity options in terms of video. You also loose the experiance of designing and building your own system.


RE: HTPC?
By psychobriggsy on 12/30/2006 7:51:01 PM , Rating: 2
The optical output on the Mac Mini is combined with the headphone output.

I guess this means you need a custom cable or adapter from Apple, that may or may not exist.

I think you're better off putting the Mac Mini in the computer room with an EyeTV for recording TV, and using the forthcoming iTV device in the living room.

But yes, it isn't as fun or flexible as doing it yourself.


RE: HTPC?
By JeffDM on 12/31/2006 10:11:29 AM , Rating: 2
I don't think Apple sells that adapter. The minijack TOSLink adapter is available just about anywhere that sells optical audio cables. I've had a few included with some of my optical cables.

I'll probably try both the mini route and some Windows computer route for a project I'm working on. Both will require custom programming anyway so I hope to get a good idea of which is easier.


What a waste of silicon
By mindless1 on 1/3/2007 7:01:02 AM , Rating: 2
Problems

- open flipchip on a board that's likely subject to more stressful environments or odd mounting / chassis

- uses via chipset, codecs, etc. They always seem 3rd rate, with possible exception of the Envy24 sound cards.

- C7 CPU just too anemic, if you underclock an Intel or AMD CPU you have have very low power consumption too but a lot more muscle to get jobs done. When they cite an average power consumption it's presumed not at full load constantly, but with this slower CPU it's actual load doing anything is a larger % of average utilization, erasing much of the marketed savings.

- For the target market, it's kind of ignorant not to integrate a step down supply onboard so you could use a smaller ~ 12V input PSU. It's 1/2 there already, a couple extra inches of board space versus multiple cubic inches of PSU. I know there are now tiny external pseudo-ATX PSU but that's just an ugly solution for what's supposed to be a highly integrated platform.

On a postive note, at least now they're putting reasonable through-board mounting holes on the board, but they always supplied crap heatsinks with poor interfaces, claiming passive cooling but then you still had to engineer a cooling subsystem around it (might as well have just used a very low RPM fan on a smaller, shorter, lighter metal 'sink (but taller than what they kept using with their tiny higher RPM fan which wears out).

Nice port selection on the back of the board, but VT6107? Via, this board is not THAT cheap, quit taking up space with mere 100Mb network adapters. Make it gigabit (but, LOL, not the crap VT6120/6122) or even a tiny riser card for 802.11g (but really, I'd rather than be integrated too, if you did it right instead of cheapo design like you did with the 100Mb adapter. Some things are worth a couple dollars, especially when not much % increase in total cost.

Overall, I can see this has a niche, but the biggest problem is most ironically the one that can't be overcome- it has Via silicon on it. Somebody else make similar but no C7 CPU, no Via chipsets. A SFF board can have limited expansion capability but shouldn't be crippled in what it CAN do!

Get your support right too Via, when someone goes to Viaarena.com with a technical issue it's like stepping onto planet Mars where there are late breaking tech articles about crude basic concepts, and even then dumbed-down to the point where only the most obvious of things is covered. More like a "put some content up just so we can claim we have something taking up space".

Via is not a tiny little upstart, they're going to have to put their nose to the grindstone if they want to compete in the future. We're very close to the point where super-tiny mainboards with similar feature sets are being released by many other companies and Via, you don't have a chance against them with your current offerings.




We don't know how to make a $500 computer that's not a piece of junk." -- Apple CEO Steve Jobs

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