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1 2 3 4 5 NextMay 28, 2006 by Devon
Cooke
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Product
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VIA EPIA EN12000E
Mini-ITX Mainboard with embedded 1.2 GHz VIA Eden processor |
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Manufacturer
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VIA
Technologies, Inc. |
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Market Price
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~US$270 |
Few people are aware that there is an alternative to the mainstream processors
made by Intel and AMD. VIA sells a number of x86 processors, called
C3, Eden, and C7. Why aren't they better known? The main reason is performance.
No matter what benchmark is used, VIA's processors take a beating compared to
even low-end offerings from Intel and AMD.
On the other hand, even the lowest-performance offerings from Intel and AMD are overkill
for many — perhaps most — computing tasks, which is why VIA's
offerings are viable at all. Performance alone is no longer king, and
performance-per-watt is increasingly important. In this arena,
VIA is a pace or two ahead of both of the big boys. The original C3 processor
was designed with power efficiency as a primary design goal.
VIA's power-miserly approach has continued with the Eden and the latest C7 processors.
The Eden is designed with a thermal envelope of just 7.5 watts — which only Intel's limited edition Ultra Low Voltage processors can match. By comparison, both
the Pentium M and the Turion 64 are designed with a thermal envelope of around
30 watts.
VIA processors are most commonly embedded in a Mini-ITX motherboard. VIA's
own series is called EPIA, but other manufacturers also make VIA-processor embedded M-ITX motherboards. SPCR
has looked at several EPIA
boards in the past. Both SPCR and EPIA have evolved considerably since the last review in 2003, so
it's time to take another look. VIA was kind enough to supply a sample of the
EPIA EN12000E, a fully passive board featuring a VIA Eden processor clocked
at 1.2 GHz. A more powerful version with a 1.5 GHz C7 processor is also available,
but it is less suitable for a low noise system as it requires active cooling. We're told that the cores of these processors is identical; the clock speed is the only difference. (Then why call them by different names?)
The low power consumption and small footprint of the EPIA makes it a good candidate
for a home theater PC or any other application where space and power are limited.
VIA knows its market and has integrated just about everything an A/V nut could
want into the constraints of the tiny 17cm × 17cm Mini-ITX form factor.
The result is a system that promises to be small, silent and power efficient.
The big question mark is performance: Is it fast enough to work flawlessly in
a "digital" home?
The EPIA is only a little larger than the CD that its drivers come on.
SPECIFICATIONS
The EN-series is built around DDR2 memory and a host of other updates designed
to improve performance. It comes with integrated graphics, and can support
simultaneous TV output via composite or S-Video. With an appropriate add-in
card, it can drive a separate DVI monitor, and component video output can be
added with a simple adapter. The component outputs are capable of driving a
720P or 1080i HD signal. Only two output devices can be driven simultaneously.
Perhaps to make up for the performance of the processor, hardware MPEG 2 decoding
is a feature of the integrated graphics. This should guarantee that DVDs play
back properly, but it does little to ensure that more Internet friendly formats
— typically based on MPEG 4 — are decoded adequately.
On the audio side of things, S/PDIF is available through the same jack as composite
video — a jumper on the board selects between the two. If the composite
jack is needed, there is an internal header that can connect to an appropriate
adapter. Three 1/8" mini jacks support 5.1 channels of analog sound,
which should satisfy those who don't use S/PDIF.
Moving away from A/V connections, there are ports for two SATA devices and
two IDE channels. Only a single stick of DDR2 RAM is supported (Max. 1 GB),
and even that is limited to 533 MHz modules. Support for higher speed RAM seemed
spotty at best; the EN12000E would not boot or boot inconsistently
with 800 MHz memory installed. Only a single PCI slot is included, so
a PCI-splitter is needed to connect more than one extra card. AGP and PCI Express
are not supported at all, so upgrading the integrated graphics is not an option.
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Model Name (Processor)
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• 1.5GHz VIA C7 nanoBGA2
Processor (VIA EPIA EN15000)
• 1.2GHz VIA Eden nanoBGA2 Processor (VIA EPIA EN12000E) |
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Chipset
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• VIA CN700 North Bridge
• VIA VT8237R-series South Bridge |
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System Memory
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• 1 DDRII 400/533 DIMM
socket
• Up to 1GB memory size |
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VGA
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• Integrated VIA UniChrome™
Pro AGP graphics with MPEG-2 acceleration |
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Expansion Slots
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• 1 PCI |
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Onboard IDE
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• 2 UltraDMA 133/100/66
Connectors |
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Onboard LAN
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• VIA VT6122 GLAN Controller
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Onboard Audio
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• VIA VT1618 8 channel
AC'97 Codec |
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Onboard TV Out
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• VIA VT1625M HDTV Encoder |
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Back Panel I/O
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• 1 PS2 mouse port
• 1 PS2 keyboard port
• 1 Serial port
• 1 VGA port
• 1 RJ45 port
• 4 USB 2.0 ports
• 1 RCA port (S/PDIF or TV out)
• 1 S-Video port
• 3 Audio jacks: line-out, line-in and mic-in (Horizontal, Smart 5.1
Support) |
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Onboard I/O Connectors
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• 1 USB connector for
2 additional USB 2.0 ports
• 1 1394 connector for 1 1394 port
• 2 SATA Connectors
• 1 LPC connector
• 1 Front-panel audio connector (Mic and Line Out)
• 1 Serial port connector for a second com port
• 1 CIR connector (Switchable for KB/MS)
• 1 SIR pin header (IrDA 1.0)
• 2 Fan connectors: CPU/Sys FAN
• 1 SMBUS connector
• 1 S/PDIF in connector
• 1 S/PDIF out connector
• 1 LVDS/TTL/DVI module connector (an add-on card is required)
• 1 Component (YPbPr) video pin header
• ATX Power connector |
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BIOS
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• Award BIOS
• LPC 4/8Mbit flash memory |
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Operating System
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• Windows 2000/XP, Linux, Win CE, XPe
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Software Application
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• VIA FliteDeck™
Utility
• MissionControl-H/W Monitoring, Remote SNMP Management
• FlashPort-Live BIOS Flash
• SysProbe-Live DMI Browser |
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System Monitoring & Management
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• CPU temperature reading,
CPU voltage monitoring
• Wake-on-LAN, Keyboard-Power-on, Timer-Power-on, Watch Dog Timer,
FAN control
• System power management, AC power failure recovery |
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Operating Temperature
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• 0~50°C |
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Operating Humidity
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• 0% ~ 95% (relative humidity;
non-condensing) |
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Form Factor
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• Mini-ITX (6 layers)
• 17 cm x 17 cm |
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