Hi.
I'm interested in buying a VIA EPIA m 9000 mobo, but only if it'll work in a system with ZERO fans.

Has anyone removed the cpu fan from one of these yet? If so, did you use a different heatsink? What were the results?

I'm thinking of using this board for occasional DVD playing, MP3 playing, and as a file server.

Any other ideas about using one of these boards without a case fan using an external power supply brick like in this case
http://www.computergate.com/products/item.cfm?prodcd=HDRCM2677B
, and having a case with lots of air holes instead of fan?

Thanks for any replies.

Fanless on a 9000 is not recommended. Go with a 6000 if you want fanless; that one works similarly but w/o a fan.

Thanks for the quick reply. I realize that they sell the 6000 fanless, but after watching the video called 'Beat the Heat' from VIA (located here:)
http://www.via.com.tw/en/Products/movie.jsp
where they show a C3 800 with no fan OR heatsink running Q3 for 24 hours, I was wondering if anyone had done fanless on the 933 (EPIA M 9000) yet?

Since you brought up the 6000 though, has anyone used that to play DVDs with any success?

No & Yes. The 6000 is fine for DVD playback.

I wouldn't do it if I were you. Believe it or not but the bugger gets HOT. It reaches around 60° from time to time *with* that pathetic little heatsink and seriously noisy fan.
What I did is chop a volcano7 into a little 40x40mm piece, removed the stock fan and heatsink and put it on with thermal adhesive. Mind you, my case does have a decent exhaust fan.

Gandalf, tasban's point is that as the C3 withstands 24 hrs of gaming without even a HS, perhaps the CPU on the EPIA can tolerate being run w/o a fan. It is a valid point.

I personally still wouldn't go fanless with the stock HS it even though it might be perfectly safe for the CPU. When the temp is allowed to go that high -- let's say into the 70s & 80s Celcius, the stress on all the other components (including stuff like plastics, insulation, etc) is higher. In the long run, surely it is going to mean shorter lifespan & higher fire risk.

I did reduce the fan speed on the M9000 to ~7V & found cooling was still OK and the noise much more tolerable. You could probably do better with a different HS and/or a larger quieter fan, but that is more work.

The HSF setup in VIA EPIA M 9000 - airflow of 7 CFM is very marginal and the HS has too little heat exchange area. Could the HSF be insulating the CPU about as much as it is cooling it ?
A taller heatsink running fanless in a Morex 2677 case, which has twin case fans may not be a bad alternative.
I am under the impression that VIA C3 933s generally run cooler than the older 533s and 600s.
The embedded nature of the CPU may also not fit easily with conventional heatsinks.

can the EPIA be underclocked? i've seen the fanless versions for sale here in the UK but the price i've got is more than i can get the 900mhz version for.

if the cpu can be underclocked in the bios, i'd run it at a slower speed and remove the fan.

I dont see why the Epia 9000 can not be run fanless.

There is a HS that states it can be used to passively cool up to a via c3 933. Surely the Epia chip does not produce more heat than that.

Couldnt this HS be used with the Epia 9000 ?

just a non-relevant question.... how reliable are via boards (say c3 for fanless sake)? i can see myself getting one in the future to consolidate all the home entertainment and tv web surfing into one silent machine.

i mean i can run xp all year long with my intel chipset. would via board measure upto that?

Many people are running VIA C3 cpu with HS and no fan in regular size ATX cases and on regular ATX or micro-ATX form factor boards.

The VIA EPIA M 9000 raises the following concerns:
It is likely to be used in a tiny case like the Morex mini-itx cases. The heat generating component are crowed together on a small EPIA board. The on-board audio and video components have higher perpformance than the Trident/codec 97 in the integrated Socket 370 boards. Lastly, is there sufficent room to fit a bulky fanless heatsink like the Zalman and others ?

Elevated case temperature may shorten the life of the M/B and HDD. This is a high price to pay for fanless HS.

I run a via c3 933 in a morex cubid case fanless. Its up 24/7 and had no problems with it.

But no you cannot fit a bulky HS inside these cases.

The question is how long your CPU is going to live like that. In theory silicium can only take 60-70°C before it starts acting funny. I like my PC's to be silent but I also do like them to live a bit longer than 24 hrs.

Generally speaking running a CPU at a hot, yet stable temperature does shorten its expected life.

But do you really care if your CPU lasts 3-5 years instead of 10-15? How many of us are running 5 year old CPU's?

And if you take Moore's Law into consideration 3 years from now our current machines will be even more out of date than a 3 year old machine is to us now.

So I say if it'll do everything you want stabily, go for it.

I still use a Commodore64, an old 8088 and a 386. I'm one of those people that likes his stuff to last. I sell my (more modern) hardware before it fails on me.
I doubt a C3 at 60° will last even 3 years. I give it a year and a half tops. Epia's are usually used for small things, such as home network servers or divx players and such. I use mine as a divx player and a fileserver. It's in the living room on top of our VCR. I don't want this thing to die after a year. I mean do you buy a new VCR every 2 or 3 years? I know I don't!

The CPU has never been above 40 degrees. runs most of the time at 30. It is used mainly for playing DVD/Divx without any hardware decoder so the CPU is getting a fair old workout.

So dont assume that I have heat problems without the facts. And I have had the machine running for 2 months not 24 hours as you suggest.