Mini atx performance ?

fsarfino · Aug 25, 2003

Right now I'm thinking of doing a new project using an alternative case.
The form factor I'm considering is mini atx due to the exremely small size of the MB 17cm x 17cm. Has anyone here used this kind of MB here on one of your projects ? If you have please let me know what kind of performance your getting out of it. Heres the board I'm thinking of using
VIA EPIA 800 All In One Motherboard and here's the link
http://mini-itx.com/store/default.asp?c=2

BTW The fimished project will be for my wife and all she will be using it for it web browing e-mailing and maybe something like quicken.

UnseenMenace · Aug 25, 2003

The Mini-ITX has a size of 17 cm x 17 cm not the mini-ATX which is larger.
I currently own 9 of these and they are increasing in number

.. im also on a M1000 at the moment.

The Epia 800 benchmarks out about the same and a Celeron 400 (a bit lower on certain things) if your interested...
I find these perfectly acceptable systems for web browsing and mailing although I would suggest running at least 512 mb of memory as the onboard graphics take a lot of system resources.. I personally prefer the DDR based 'M' Series motherboards over the others models.
I run SuSE Linux on mine as I find that Windows performance is pretty poor by comparison and I run Quicken under crossover office perfectly fine.

Cjwinnit · Aug 25, 2003

UnseenMenace said:
The Mini-ITX has a size of 17 cm x 17 cm not the mini-ATX which is larger.
I currently own 9 of these and they are increasing in number .. im also on a M1000 at the moment.

UnseenMenace brought one over to the LAN and I have to say it's the coolest motherboard i've seen. I'm seriously contemplating getting one and shoving it in a drawer to act as a net/print/storage server...

UnseenMenace · Aug 25, 2003

The size is exceptionally small, I dont think you understand how small they are till you actually see one... The size is the biggest thing they have going for them. If you believe the performance is whats suggested by the Mhz rating then you are simply going to be dissapointed, if you accept and understand the limitations of the mobo they are fantastic.
However for high powered tasks and multi-tasking the simply do not make the grade which is why im building another traditional PC

fsarfino · Aug 25, 2003

UnseenMenace thanks for the replies Thats about all I was looking for performance wise (since its for my wife). what kind of cases do you have your boards in (mini-itx)

Thanks
Frank

UnseenMenace · Aug 25, 2003

I have a number of mine currently being fitted to trick cases (don't wantto provide to much information untill projects are finished and I can post pics on the forums.. sorry)

However if you are looking for a production case, I would look no further than the Cubid 2688R which is a great looking case and has a reasonable quality about it.. I have fitted all the boards to this case (very minor modifcations are required to fit the 'M' Series to this case) and rate it very hightly.

What OS are you considering running on this system ?

[OC]Lucifer · Aug 25, 2003

Yea..

If you want good performance and fairly small size, go with a micro-atx NForce2 board. Or a Canterwood if you are of the Intel persuasion.

cack01 · Aug 25, 2003

I'm in the middle of building a mini-ATX NForce 2 system. I am very happy with the board, and they are much smaller than normal ATX. If you research right, you will be able to find a few mini-atx boards that benches and overclocks as well as a normal ATX board.

I can't wait till the Epia line gets a little more power behind it.Size is important, but only when your trying to make a case out of a model car.

fsarfino · Aug 26, 2003

I am also planning a really cool mod with this, I'm pretty sure its never been done before so as soon as I get the funds for it I will also post a journal here. So size is a big factor.

I'm planning on running either win 98 or maybe xp if is not too slow.
I would like to run linux but that might be too hard for my wife to use

cack01 · Aug 26, 2003

XP will run fine as long as you have tons of RAM. I've ran it on a couple of 200 mhz Pentiums IIs, and they took a while to boot, but once they booted they ran fine.

Captain Slug · Aug 26, 2003

I have alot more fun with Flex ATX boards which offer just enough punch to emulate all kinds of games and do graphical work. I just finished building a Celeron 600 powered 18dba mini machine and I love it to bits.

The C3 based machines I've toyed with have performance just too reminiscent of Apple G4s for my tastes. My K6-2 machines felt faster.

Ravsitar · Aug 26, 2003

UnseenMenace - I was thinking about using the VIA M1000 as teh basis for a tivo/emulator box to use in my entertainment system. Have you tried any emulators (specifically for the NES, SNES and SEGA) with yours? If the VIA M1000 doesn't have enough horsepower i'll go with one the Shuttle ones and throw in the Celeron.

Captain Slug · Aug 26, 2003

Ravsitar said:
UnseenMenace - I was thinking about using the VIA M1000 as teh basis for a tivo/emulator box to use in my entertainment system. Have you tried any emulators (specifically for the NES, SNES and SEGA) with yours? If the VIA M1000 doesn't have enough horsepower i'll go with one the Shuttle ones and throw in the Celeron.

If that's what you're worried about...
They'll emulate SNES, NES, and SEGA just fine. The games they had trouble with are 10mb-80mb Neo-Geo ROMs which I enjoy far more.

LiGhTBoY · Aug 27, 2003

cack01 said:
I can't wait till the Epia line gets a little more power behind it.Size is important, but only when your trying to make a case out of a model car.

Actually I'm building a model car (1/8 scale impreza) to house a full atx mobo....hope I can succeed =P

Ravsitar · Aug 27, 2003

Thanks Captain Slug. Now to decide which VCR to canabalize for the case. I think I still have an OLD top loading one around here somewhere.

james.miller · Aug 28, 2003

Captain Slug said:
If that's what you're worried about...
They'll emulate SNES, NES, and SEGA just fine. The games they had trouble with are 10mb-80mb Neo-Geo ROMs which I enjoy far more.

well, my c3 @ 1.05ghz could run snes games at 100%.

mario kart ran at around 85-90, while stunt race fx was terrible.

Axle · Aug 28, 2003

I just got my Via board today

533MHz fanless, I'll also be putting it in a car. This thing is so cool- it's just hard to describe just how TINY they are. For the money ($50 ebay), it's just awsome! I have a laptop HD comming, then I'll get on the case part. Anyway, some pictures?

Edit// maybe not?

fsarfino · Aug 30, 2003

Axle said:
I just got my Via board today 533MHz fanless, I'll also be putting it in a car. This thing is so cool- it's just hard to describe just how TINY they are. For the money ($50 ebay), it's just awsome! I have a laptop HD comming, then I'll get on the case part. Anyway, some pictures?

Edit// maybe not?

Pics not working

Ffats · Aug 31, 2003

Whoo, Naperville! I live about a half-hour from ya!

I wish TigerDirect (ever head on over to their warehouse?) carried the Mini-ITX boards! They've got the C3s, but no ultra-small boards to go with.. Have to settle for a 370 board.

UnseenMenace · Aug 31, 2003

Axle said:
I just got my Via board today 533MHz fanless, I'll also be putting it in a car. This thing is so cool- it's just hard to describe just how TINY they are. For the money ($50 ebay), it's just awsome! I have a laptop HD comming, then I'll get on the case part.

I personally would never advise someone to buy under the 933 mhz Via motherboards as these benchmark out around the performance levels of a 500-600 mhz Celeron while the mobo's under this have performance which can only be described as terrible... I have a 533 (not being used) and it bechmarks out around the same as a 60-120 mhz pentium according to SI-Sandra. People forget that these are resource hungry mobos and everything is robbed from the system memory so its best to get the high performance 'M' series DDR mobos as the increased memory bandwith helps a great deal, while the 'M' series multimedia improvents helps with things such as music playing and flash websites...

Ive just got one of the new CL motherboards which is reasonable, im building a fileserver with this baby

Mini atx performance ?

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