VIA EPIA-M10000 Mini-ITX board Review

[Jan]

I found a comparison between DVD standalone player and a TV-out
card at http://tvtool.info/index_e.htm.
In the archives look at TEST: TNT2-Graphics card vs. DVD-player.
TV-out slightly better than standalone player.
There is also a chip comparison which show big differencies.
My conclusion is that TV-out can be well performing.It will require the
right chip,the right drivers and some tweaking.
VIA probably must improve their drivers or change chip.
I am not giving up my plans for a HTPC based on the Nehemiah board.
If the result is dissapointing I still can use it for surfing and mail.

My youngest daughter use to say "If you don't try, you will never know".

[tfield1974]

Thanks Mike

But no, I don't just want a computer with a good TV-out. I've already got one of those.

I want to purpose-build a digital video recorder/media-player box with output to TV, and the only solution I've heard of so far that sounds viable (from all perspectives - cost, power consumption, noise levels etc) was one based around the Epia-M. The combination of a tiny, cheap board which has an Mpeg2 decoder built in is just right for this.

But it's supposed to have a very high quality TV-out chip! I don't suppose it might not have been configured properly (in BIOS etc)? I've read other reviews praising the output quality (and comparing it favourably with output from dedicated a DVD player). Maybe it's better at PAL than NTSC? You are on NTSC aren't you?

If this solution is a no-go, I don't think what I want to do is viable at all - the last thing I want in my living room is a chunky P4 monstrosity. Besides which I've already got one of those (or near enough) with a Matrox G400 which gives me more or less perfect TV-out. What I want is a small, quiet, cheap machine which is just powerful enough to do the media stuff and no more.

Maybe back to the drawing board...


regards

Mark

Mark,

I'm also planning to build a home entertainment system with the EPIA-M10k. I was planning to run Linux with freevo.

Despite the mixed tv-out reviews, I think I'm going to try it. Worst case scenario I end up with a decent desktop file server to replace an ancient 300MHz Dell.

I'm interested to hear if there are others planning to use this motherboard for a similar purpose, and what their plans are.

As for the performance gains of the Nehemiah vs. the Ezra T, it seems that performance improvement over the Ezra T is not the priority for the current version, but that it is instead the fact that this system will be the foundation for faster C3 processors. Ezra T was maxed out at 1GHz, Nehemiah is just starting out there. That there is a gain at all is probably the only reason they released the Nehemiah at 1GHz.

That being said, I'm probably going to try to get my hands on a Nehemiah instead of an Ezra. Does anyone know where in Canada (Toronto ideally) I can get one?

[markino]

tfield,

Let us know how you get on. The freevo project sounds like a good one and it would be interesting to hear how easy you find the whole thing to set up.

Unfortunately I don't think the DigiTV board I want to use is supported under Linux.

Which brings up another point, actually: Can you get Linux drivers for the M10000? Even for surround sound etc?

Mark

[Gandalf]

viaarena.com offers linux drivers as well yeah .

The only thing I still need to find is a decent console video player. I detest graphical desktops and the like for a dvd player!

[markino]

I think that anyone looking to run a media box on an Epia-M using Linux should have a look at this thread first (from Via's own Linux forum):

http://forums.viaarena.com/messageview. ... adid=33324

The consensus is that Via's support for Linux on the Epia-M is patchy at best, but be very aware - as of now MPEG2 hardware decoding is NOT SUPPORTED.

---------
Mark

[tfield1974]

I hear you, and I really appreciate the tips regarding the poor MPEG2 decoding support.

However, there is some good news!

http://www.freevix.org/

This guy has built a very small linux distro that comes with freevo on it, specifically for an epia-m board. He hasn't tried the dvd playback yet (which is a big thing) but as soon as he does I'll let you know (I've asked him for an update).

One very cool feature of this distro is that it is so small it can run on a 32MB compact flash card, and can mount remote file systems. So nuke the hard drive, put your videos on your file server and run this baby on a totally silent (and very small) system.

He only started working on it three weeks ago, but he plans to keep it up-to-date with support for all epia systems.

I'll keep you posted on any news as to my success or lack thereof.

Tony

[Gandalf]

I really do hope he decides to migrate to the 2.5 kernel somewhere in the near future. Such a big performance difference!
This thing is pretty much what I was looking for. Now all I need is the money for an Epia M .. I doubt the regular 800s are good for divx playback ;

[Gandalf]

Just downloaded freevix .. gonna install it now as a matter of fact. It looks pretty promising really .

[samhdaniel]

There's still the unanswered question about the FPU performance. Has anyone asked VIA about it?

I'm really interested in the M10000, but only if it really has a full-speed FPU.

[Gandalf]

I guess we'll never know until they actually become available :/

[Gandalf]

Say Mike .. do you have any idea whether the Nehemiah can be used to *record* videos? (using a tv card that is)? Or does it still lack the power for such a heavy task?

[axle]

I'm more interested in the silent aspect of it.. HS with a fan? No, thank you.

15w is more than I would have expected, but not bad at all. I mean a GF4 Ti4200 probably puts out 13,15, right? This HS mounts like a regular sized NB? In which case, I don't think Zalman's NB cooler would do it (ehh it's pretty whimpy), but certinally one of their "Flower" HSs modded, or even just thermal epoxied on, should cover that, right? No fans needed. Anyone agree?

[MikeC]

one of their "Flower" HSs modded, or even just thermal epoxied on, should cover that, right? No fans needed.

most likely, assuming some airflow through the case. The issue is usually that in the tiny cases the board is used in, airflow is a challenge, and any other heat producers (PSU, HDD) are all packed very closely together. It may be hard to get a flower HS mounted in a standard mini-itx case. Often no space for larger fans so you see 60mm, even 40mm case fans. Which are very hard to run silently.

So the fanless CPU cooler is not as much of an issue as you might think, cos if other fans are noisy and there is no way to decouple-mount the HDD... It's the whole system/case you need to think through. So far there are very few (if any) cases that are ideal silent boxes in mini-itx, other than home-brews. The custom system builders like HUSH and NOHRTEC are the only fanless boxes AFAIK.

[DJNUBZ]

Well I have been looking at the ITX boards for a custom car computer for my car. I am currently studdying to be an audio engineer so this car is going to be an anudio project for me with the hopes that I can compeate with it. I was wondering a few things.

1. I have seen some 12V power adaptors for the ITX boards. Can I pick one of these up and just use that to power it in my car?

2. Even though I have seen and been told there is a pci slot I want to make sure that there is. I also have seen riser boards and double riser boards. If I use a double riser board can I use both a better sound card and video card(PCI card)

3. How hard would it be to put a larger fan on this board? I would think that a large fan running at a slow speed would be quieter and work better then just slowing the orig fan.

Some of you guys may be going "why go through all this trouble" while I'll tell ya even though I know someone is going to steal my idea. I plan on setting up my car for 6.1 surround. Some of you may be saying to yourselves I've seen dvd movies in cars before. Well I planing on not using this for video but for DVD-AUDIO. My only problem is that to get the level of audio quality I need I have to have a PCI slot available. If anyone has any questions, comments, or suggestions let me know.

[Gandalf]

The sound quality on the epia M's is fairly decent and is 6.1.
But to answer your question: Yes, you can use a dual riser card and run a pci graphics card and a soundcard.
And yes, if you can modify the the 12v power supply (by Morex) you can plug into your car . All you need is a conversion cable thinger .

[Krokosaur]

IdotPC (www.idot.com) added systems with EPIA-Ms with the Nehemiah core (all this in a Morex case). On their site, they are in the "ibox mini pc" - "slim PC PRO" section (just 10$ over the Ezra-T version).
They have also for sale just the board itself, for 175. Let the fun begin... and make sure to post back any interesting findings...

[Gandalf]

Really? Kewl! I hope other stores follow this trend!

[Spare Tire]

Sorry for raising the dead but i've got a question.
I just got this board (i think it's this one) second hand. And the guy provided me with a firewire backplate but it doesn't fit the header on the board, the header looks like it's backward (with the hole of pin 10 placed like those COM header). Where can i go to get firewire backplates that actually fits this? Did via change back to the same firewire header configuration as everyone else for more recent boards or are they still backward like this?