DailyTech - VIA Introduces New pc3500 Mainboard

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Hardware VIA Introduces New pc3500 Mainboard
Anh Tuan Huynh (Blog) - August 21, 2007 1:55 PM

17 comment(s) - last by herrdoktor330.. on Aug 23 at 11:05 PM

VIA pc3500 motherboard (Source: VIA)

New micro-ATX board consumes less than 24 watts during idle

VIA today announced its latest energy-efficient motherboard – the pc3500. The new VIA pc3500 consumes a mere 1.09 watts in sleep and 0.68 watts in standby modes. VIA claims that OEMs and system integrators can build systems running Windows Vista that consume less than 24 watts of power during idle with the pc3500 which helps meet Energy Star 4.0 Category A requirements. VIA pc3500-based systems can draw less than 35 watts of power during DVD playback.

“With the launch of VIA pc3500 mainboard we are leading the way in developing innovative low power platforms that enable our OEM and SI customers to meet the growing worldwide demand for energy-efficient PCs,” commented Richard Brown, Vice President of Corporate Marketing, VIA Technologies, Inc. “Consumers and business users who purchase PCs based on the VIA pc3500 mainboard will not only be able to significantly reduce their energy costs but also minimize their environmental impact while running all the latest software applications.”

VIA’s pc3500 motherboard features the CN896 chipset with integrated Chrome9 HC integrated graphics. The integrated VIA Chrome9 HC IGP delivers DirectX 9 compatibility with the Chromotion 3.0 video processing engine. VIA pairs the CN896 with an embedded, nanoBGA2 VIA C7-D processor. Two speed grades of the pc3500 are available – 1.5 GHz and 1.8 GHz.

Additionally, the board features two DDR2 DIMM slots for up to 2GB of DDR2 400/533/667 MHz memory, four USB 2.0, two SATA 3.0 Gbps, two PATA 10/100 Ethernet and onboard eight-channel high-definition audio. Gigabit Ethernet, S-Video and S/PDIF outputs are optional. PCIe x16 and PCI slots are also available for additional expansion.

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Only two SATA ports?

By Chris Peredun on 8/21/2007 2:23:56 PM , Rating: 2

This is almost a perfect basis for a file server - low power consumption, onboard gigabit - but only two SATA ports puts a damper on that quickly.

The presence of the PCIe x16 slot does make me wonder if this could play h264 or VC-1 with a hardware-accelerated card though.

RE: Only two SATA ports?

By deeznuts on 8/21/2007 2:45:17 PM , Rating: 2

Interesting. How much does this cost. I would only need like two HDDs and possibly a couple of externals at MOST.

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RE: Only two SATA ports?

By bongobear on 8/21/2007 2:55:52 PM , Rating: 2

Wonder how cheap this'll be, liked the idea of one of the miniITX as an under the set type box but the boards and cases were expensive.

Now this looks handy, should have plenty of oomph with a hardware tv card. I'm with the top poster would be interesting to see if it can play any of the HD formats even if it needs to use something like an ATI HD2400.

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RE: Only two SATA ports?

By herrdoktor330 on 8/23/2007 11:05:29 PM , Rating: 2

Hopefully they have this around the $200 price point. I think that would be very fair considering the newest micro-ITX mobo offerings from VIA are around the same price. Jetway makes clones of the VIA hardware for cheaper prices. I was eyeing up an older, slower, ITX CN700 chipset with a 1ghz Eden chip for about $130 which had all the features I'd like for a low rent file server w/PCI SATA RAID adapter. (I know... poor PCI performance. I don't care. It's going to be a 100mb file server serving wireless clients. Blazing fast transfers really aren't a concern.)

To be honest, I'm really starting to like the offerings coming from the VIA camp these days. I know the performance of these chips are underwhelming when compared to a C2D. But mom and pop who want to e-mail, IM, bittorrent, and generally want to leave a PC on can get alot of value out of this kind of setup. Any fileserver slugs I build in the future will be using this chipset and any "media" computers that play music, movies, and whatnot will be using VIA C series processors. Even though I love AMD, I really think that VIA could gain a ground in more "consumption concious" circles. Pair this motherboard with an 80%+ efficient power supply and a Western Digital EE hard drive and you have a pc that is about as green as you're going to get. It won't play FEAR, but dang is it cheap to keep up 24/7/365.

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RE: Only two SATA ports?

By MGSsancho on 8/21/2007 3:00:00 PM , Rating: 2

install a 4/6/8/12/16/24 port raid card into that pci-e slot. granted prices range from $100 to $750. however if you really want storage.... or you can install lots of external drives and use ZFS or software raid. if you wanted hardware raid, pay for it and stop moaning. im sure these boards will end up in tivo system or DVRs.

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RE: Only two SATA ports?

By Dactyl on 8/21/2007 11:47:09 PM , Rating: 2

Moaning? He said the board didn't have the features he wanted, so he wouldn't buy it. That's not moaning.

Why would you recommend an expensive PCIe raid card for a home user who could buy an NVidia-based motherboard with enough SATA ports and RAID support for his file server?

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RE: Only two SATA ports?

By Samus on 8/22/2007 3:29:13 AM , Rating: 2

Because he wants the board that uses 1-watt at idle. Not the nVidia board that has a northbridge running hotter than hell.

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RE: Only two SATA ports?

By Performance Fanboi on 8/21/2007 3:02:28 PM , Rating: 2

For use as a file server just pop in your favorite PCIe raid (SATA or SAS) card and you're good to go.

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RE: Only two SATA ports?

By MDE on 8/21/2007 3:08:41 PM , Rating: 2

Since speed isn't a big concern for a file server, there's always external USB drives, or you could add a PCI FireWire card and have your speed and the flexibility to move your drives around at will.

you also have to think about where VIA's target market is, small systems. You aren't going to fit much more than two drives into a small case, although you can still use six internal drives (max of four IDE, two SATA). Most people are going to be hard pressed to fill six drives up.

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RE: Only two SATA ports?

By PCDestroyer on 8/21/2007 5:53:51 PM , Rating: 2

You'll most likely have to use a PCI or PCI-E RAID card if you want multiple drives in the first place.

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Okay...

By larson0699 on 8/21/2007 3:24:21 PM , Rating: 2

HAH! Are they serious? Vista on VIA?

Now I like the concept of a low-power processor with graphics/RAID expansion, but VIA has a looooong way to go in the IPC (instructions per clock) department before they can assume a spot in the Vista HTPC market. I don't think you can throw any amount of RAM at that board to please the V.

The color scheme and font used for the model name on the board peculiarly resemble the work of Gigabyte, though to my knowledge, only VIA and Jetway are in business for VIA processing platforms. It would be awesome to see the other board makers take off with this and really market low-power PCs (preferably with Windows FLP or a lighter Linux) to home users as was probably meant to be from the beginning. I see Dell's already headed in the right direction here, and with excellent backing. But it's just ridiculous when you consider that all these behemoth X2's and Cores (albeit more efficient in recent times, still nowhere near VIA) chew idle Watts for those who simply check their email or author the occasional essay. And they don't care because they're unaware that a better solution exists for them. </rant>

The title caught my attention because I thought VIA was finally making the move to DDR-433 (PC3500). Oops!

RE: Okay...

By Joz on 8/21/2007 3:29:27 PM , Rating: 2

Actualy, the C7-M (mobile C7) has better performance then the Celeron M and is on par or a little better then the Pentium M. While being at a 100-200mhz lower clockspeed.

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RE: Okay...

By erwos on 8/21/2007 4:09:17 PM , Rating: 2

The benchmarks sure don't show that. The C7-M routinely has a 50% clockspeed disadvantage against the P-M, if not more. That is to say, a 1.5ghz C7-M is comparable to a 1ghz P-M.

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RE: Okay...

By East17 on 8/21/2007 6:16:01 PM , Rating: 1

Some benchmarks to prove that would be nice ...

Can you provide a link ?

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RE: Okay...

By East17 on 8/21/2007 6:12:11 PM , Rating: 1

quote:
HAH! Are they serious? Vista on VIA?

I have a similar VIA system with 2 Gb or RAm and a fast 320 GB Seagate HDD and Vista is fully functional with ok performance for browsing , DVD playing , media server , music player etc.

And yes , Aero is working ok .

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review has been done for this

By leexgx on 8/21/2007 9:15:42 PM , Rating: 2

reviews have found this device to be pointless for media use as it has 0 HD hardware in it only does dvd and some other things that an Low powered AMD Dual core cpu + an msi mobo and an vido card with HDMI

it sutes more for low powered pcs

RE: review has been done for this

By deeznuts on 8/22/2007 2:50:01 AM , Rating: 2

There's a PCIe 16x slot,that'll take care of the media requirements.

It's perfect for a low power media server, which I don't think requires HD hardware, it streams to other machines if I am not mistaken (I don't use those functions so I dont' know).

I would think, the machine I am actually playing the stuff On needs that hardware, but not a file server stuck in some room feeding me the data.

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