what are via processors?

[johnnyw]

I found VIA processors at ebay.com really cheap and of high clock freq at very cheap price. Are they able to be run from every mother?
What are it´s disadvantages?

[Skiing Squirrel]

They lack L1 cache, which makes them VERY slow. A one ghz via chip can maybe beat a celeron 500 chip. Maybe.

[Penguin4x4]

Originally posted by Skiing Squirrel
They lack L1 cache, which makes them VERY slow. A one ghz via chip can maybe beat a celeron 500 chip. Maybe.

That and they have no SSE or SSE2. They put out about a third less heat than say, a Celeron, and are ment to be 'quiet' because they don't require a HSF, just a Heatsink. :) Oh, and a Cyrix 1GHz should be about as fast as a 667 or 700 Pentium III, :D

[james.miller]

Originally posted by Penguin4x4


That and they have no SSE or SSE2. They put out about a third less heat than say, a Celeron, and are ment to be 'quiet' because they don't require a HSF, just a Heatsink. :) Oh, and a Cyrix 1GHz should be about as fast as a 667 or 700 Pentium III, :D

no unfortuatly they are not - id say celly 500 sound about right. at least in my case.

mabey it something to do with my INCREDIBLE 300mb/sec memory bandwidth, i dunno lol.

the chips are slow - but totally silent

[Oni]

If you're just looking for something quiet, and you're not planning on doing heavy . . . or new gaming, than Via is a good place to look. They were originally made for office use, 'cause of their low power draw/low heat output.

They use the Socket 370 standard that Intel uses for their FCPGA chips.

[johnnyw]

so I can use it in my qdi Advance 9?
can they run in SMP

[james.miller]

nope - no smp

[TheFrag]

Originally posted by johnnyw
what are via processors?

pieces of crap. 'nuff said

[Johnny Knoxville]

Originally posted by TheFrag


pieces of crap. 'nuff said

your sig says it better :D

[james.miller]

they arent that bad.

they are very good for totally silent system (a server of some kinda is the ideal application) just dont expect great performance from them

[TheFrag]

lol, yes my si does say it better

[LiGhTBoY]

Are they good for firewalls, routers, and the like ?

[DarkArctic]

Originally posted by LiGhTBoY
Are they good for firewalls, routers, and the like ?

I'd expect them to be. Routers and firewalls aren't really that demanding. I have a router/firewall that's a Pentium 233 with 32MB of RAM. I've heard that you can probably run a router on a 486 if you needed to. :)

-DarkArctic

[Breadfan]

Yeah and I think thats the market VIA wants to hit...the embedded market.

The socket370 standard is everywhere, the MiniITX boards are showing up in the oddest of places, and the VIA chips are cool cool cool.

I think VIA might start pushing them for embedded applications, like TV set-top boxes with more features. Rather than have a satellite receiver or TIVO with a palm-ish or pocketpc-ish MIPS or StrongARM processor, toss in a 1ghz VIA chip. Cooling wouldn't be hard, performance would beat those chips, plus you could claim to have a Satellite reciever with a "OMG!!! 1ghz CPU!" in it.

I know right now VIA is looking to get into the office machines, but I don't think they have the speed yet. You can keep higher performance chips cool enough quietly to not warrant VIA chips, and most users would prever a mini-ATX case with a 1ghz Duron or Celery compared to a Celery-500ish VIA chip in a smaller footprint case.

The point there is that users (atleast the ones I deal with) prefer speed over tiny size. And anyway, if your going that route, there are options such as those Shuttle systems...

I do think the mini-ITX boards are cool, mainly becuase of the possibilities for a board that small and the fact that they DO have TVout and supposedley decent sound on them. I love seeing those miniITX boards tossed inside the funniest things. But that doesn't mean I'm ready to toss out our 1600XP's at work in favor of fanless VIA systems.

Mike

[Oni]

Originally posted by TheFrag
pieces of crap. 'nuff said
Originally posted by Johnny Knoxville
your sig says it better :D

You guys need to broaden your horizons a bit. Just 'cause you can't play the latest and greatest games on a Via machine, doesn't mean that they suck. They're great for offices, 'cause they don't consume much power, and they can be run without fans, so they're silent. Can you say that about your furnaces of Athlon/P4 combos? I know I can't.

They're also great for HTPCs, home-brew TIVOs, and small servers/firewalls, 'cause they're cheep, and like I said earlier, silent.

Honestly . . . I thought you guys would be more open-minded to things like this. Intel/AMD are not the be-all-and-end-all of processors. There are others out there, too.

[Jawsome]

30 dollar duron


VIA wha...?

[Oni]

Originally posted by Jawsome
30 dollar duron


VIA wha...?

$30 heatsink/fan for your Duron

$5 ghetto heatink/no fan for Via.

[johnnyw]

what type of server has one server and aparte from that with such an l2 cache?
this processors must be the ones used at supermarkets

[james.miller]

obviously you have never used one.....

file servers can be practically anything. we are not talking about mega coperate sever's here.

plenty of people use bare-bones systems (pII and k6's) without any problems. so why not a cyrix.

hell, if i can play max payne on mine, then i'll ill east my own keyboard if it isnt suitable for a server

Oni- it's sad, isnt it?

[johnnyw]

If they are so damned cool, they must be able to be oced high speeds?

[james.miller]

says who? i dont know about mine. the problem is they are multi locked, and their multy are low. even an oc from 133fsb to 150fsb gains me less that 100mhz

[TheFrag]

Originally posted by Oni



You guys need to broaden your horizons a bit. Just 'cause you can't play the latest and greatest games on a Via machine, doesn't mean that they suck. They're great for offices, 'cause they don't consume much power, and they can be run without fans, so they're silent. Can you say that about your furnaces of Athlon/P4 combos? I know I can't.

They're also great for HTPCs, home-brew TIVOs, and small servers/firewalls, 'cause they're cheep, and like I said earlier, silent.

Honestly . . . I thought you guys would be more open-minded to things like this. Intel/AMD are not the be-all-and-end-all of processors. There are others out there, too.

Calm down, its just an opinion. I think they are useless for anything that I am ever gonna want for or from a PC. And I stand by my opinion Its just an opinion.........

[james.miller]

mabey - but it isnt an educated opinion, is it? and that is the problem. You dont know - 'ever had a c3 system?

no? shouldn't say thing like "peices of crap - 'Nuff said" then

[RedDeathDrinker]

There are more processors around than just AMD or Intel.

Why don't we all broaden our horizons?

There's Via/Cyrix, em....., er.......

Oh, how about a nice SunSparc III processor? SunBlade 2000 workstations have up to 30% off just now. New pricing starts at only $7595 (U.S.)!

There's also Apple.........:)

Happy CPU hunting!

[johnnyw]

there aren´t much cpu choices but we should be so stubborn as to say , ok intel and amd are nice and the rest are crap .....

[james.miller]

Originally posted by reddeathdrinker
There are more processors around than just AMD or Intel.

Why don't we all broaden our horizons?

There's Via/Cyrix, em....., er.......

Oh, how about a nice SunSparc III processor? SunBlade 2000 workstations have up to 30% off just now. New pricing starts at only $7595 (U.S.)!

There's also Apple.........:)

Happy CPU hunting!

lol

well im happy with my via for the time being. it does what i want (mp3 and films) and plays the odd game as well.

my horizons are broad, and id rather use the road less travelled when it comes to hardware. very few people have via cpu's. so i got one me one:D

[Penguin4x4]

You forgot about the Thompson's, reddeth, :D

[johnnyw]

Thompson's, reddeth don´t get the joke :-(

[Johnny Knoxville]

Originally posted by johnnyw
I found VIA processors at ebay.com really cheap and of high clock freq at very cheap price. Are they able to be run from every mother?
What are it´s disadvantages?

IMO Via are the the crappiest hardware company in the world, look at their motherboard chipsets and all their problems with conflicts and the like (probably AMD's biggest problem is Via chipsets sucking so much). There's no way I would even consider a Via processor, I rate Via along side Aopen and Acer as the worst hardware companies (with Via being the worst), they hardware is crap quality and gives crap performance and that's being objective.

[james.miller]

c3's have to run on intel chipsets johnny. what do you have to say about intels chipset quality?

[JDXNC]

a lil reference for anyone interested:

http://www.theforumisdown.com/uploadfiles/1102/ref.jpg

But I think it actually runs at about the smae temps as the slow P2's which can be very important. I'd like to have for for my HTPC, no fan required!

[Johnny Knoxville]

Originally posted by james.miller
c3's have to run on intel chipsets johnny. what do you have to say about intels chipset quality?

they're stable, but then i wouldn't trust the processor ;)
i don't trust anything made by Via, Aopen and Acer (or Compaq) unless reviews say otherwise.
If the Via processors have no problems unlike their ass motherboards then it's ok. ;)

[james.miller]

well they dont - i know because i have one

[Penguin4x4]

Originally posted by Johnny Knoxville


they're stable, but then i wouldn't trust the processor ;)
i don't trust anything made by Via, Aopen and Acer (or Compaq) unless reviews say otherwise.
If the Via processors have no problems unlike their ass motherboards then it's ok. ;)


This coming from an Intel guy.....:D:D:D`

[Oni]

Uh . . . I've been running a Via chipset w/ my Athlon processor since the first board I bought: An Asus A7V133. I've recommended them to friends, and built a lot of systems based on them. Nothing wrong w/ them here. They're fast and stable.

While Via processors may not be the fastest things on the face of the planet, they're still good for offices, HTPCs, Home-brew TIVOs, and small servers/firewalls/routers. I've stated this above and been ignored. They're good because they're silent and don't consume much power. I know I wouldn't wanna be in an office w/ 30+ computers at about 60 dB each . . . that'd drive me crazy! I know I wouldn't wanna watch a movie w/ a loud computer going in the background, that'd take away from the film.

It seems to me like people just have a phobia of things that don't go blazingly fast. So what? If you're just running something simple (like listed above) then what do you need a 3.06Ghz P4/ 2700+ XP for?

reddeathdrinker: Ever seen a group of MCSE's around a Sun server? It's like the opening scene of 2001: A Space Odessey, w/ all the monkeys around the monolith :D

[james.miller]

my thoughts exactly, oni. but people dont want to know

[johnnyw]

about intel? I can say that they are pretty expensive

[Penguin4x4]

Originally posted by Oni

reddeathdrinker: Ever seen a group of MCSE's around a Sun server? It's like the opening scene of 2001: A Space Odessey, w/ all the monkeys around the monolith :D

:D:D:D:D

[RedDeathDrinker]

Originally posted by Oni
reddeathdrinker: Ever seen a group of MCSE's around a Sun server? It's like the opening scene of 2001: A Space Odessey, w/ all the monkeys around the monolith :D

Funny you should mention that - I have!

I used to do hardware and network asset managent for Shell Expro in Aberdeen (the exploration and development side of Shell UK). While I worked there, I was doing a check of the routers and switches in all the comms rooms, and got to see some MCSE's dribbling over the new Sun Servers that had just been installed:D You've never seen anything quite like it......

[johnnyw]

I don´t get a **** of what you are talking

[JML]

Originally posted by Oni



You guys need to broaden your horizons a bit. Just 'cause you can't play the latest and greatest games on a Via machine, doesn't mean that they suck. They're great for offices, 'cause they don't consume much power, and they can be run without fans, so they're silent. Can you say that about your furnaces of Athlon/P4 combos? I know I can't.

They're also great for HTPCs, home-brew TIVOs, and small servers/firewalls, 'cause they're cheep, and like I said earlier, silent.

Honestly . . . I thought you guys would be more open-minded to things like this. Intel/AMD are not the be-all-and-end-all of processors. There are others out there, too.

I agree. You have to consider the applications they would be great for. If I wanted a really small SILENT computer for playing DVD's, MP3's, and Arcade/Console Emulators, one of these would be perfect

[james.miller]

is it - i know. mine works a treat

[johnnyw]

I´ve got quite interested in these processors , is there any complete refernce guide available on inet?
which is the fastest via?
is there any way ( by touching the bridges) to make ´em smp compatible? Have you ever heard of someone who ever was able to do such a thing?

[james.miller]

no - they are locked like p4's - there are no bridges. currently the fastest available is the 1ghz

[specific]

I used to have a laptop with a cyrix 233MHz. It was pretty slow, but functional for basic tasks. I wouldn't use one to encode video or record multitrack audio, but they have their uses.

ALSO
I've used VIA chipsets for athlons since the KT133's. The KT series chipsets have always been the ones to beat for athlon boards.

[mbentley]

Originally posted by Oni
Can you say that about your furnaces of Athlon/P4 combos?

there is nothing wrong with having intel processors as heaters... as a matter of fact, my roommate and i are just using our computers to heat the room. it's about 27 F outside which is a little below freezing (for the rest of the world out there) ;) when it gets cold, i just turn on folding@home hehe. :D