Mini itx VIA EPIA EX15000G strong enough for 720P?

Hi,

I have bought the following mini itx board a while ago: http://via.com.tw/en/products/mainboards...ard_id=450

I plan on using it for the linux xbmc build on 720p. Will that be enough to play mkv'ed 720p movies (probably x264)?

Bonus Question: Can anybody recommend a good Mini itx case? It must be quiet, preferably passively cooled. ir remote support would be a nice plus.

Thank you in advance.

Regards,

Dennis
The Netherlands

flxfxp Wrote:Will that be enough to play mkv'ed 720p movies (probably x264)?

Probably not. XBMC currently only uses the CPU for video decodering and a 1.5GHz VIA C7 is just not very powerfull.


Others have asked about VIA EPIA motherboards/processors before, please read this:
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=31466
and
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=31777

Quote:for smooth playback of native 720p H.264 encoded video you need at least single-core 2.8Ghz or a 1.8Ghz dual-core

VIA C7/C7-M CPUs are no good for XBMC unless you are satisfied with standard-definition playback

oops, thanks for the heads up. Guess what will end up on ebay

Anyone interested? 120 euros

You could otherwise take that EPIA motherboard and build a pretty nice NAS (Network Attached Storage) Server from it if you just fit it into any normal computer chassi.
http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=NAS

For building your own NAS I recommend FreeNAS for beginners who just want file-storage (Samba, FTP, UPnP), and ClarkConnect Community Edition for more experinced computer users who also want a little more out of it (like a router, firewall, VPN, mail-server, web-server).

I have configured several of these for friends with FreeNAS and software RAID (3 harddrives or more in a RAID-5, the more harddrives the less procentage goes to parity for redundacy). Easy to setup booting from a (32MB or bigger) CompactFlash memory card with a CF to ATA (or SATA) adapter, for the storage disk I use CoolerMaster four-in-three bay (fits four harddrives in three 5,25inch bays and comes with a large quiet fan).

My freenas is also built around an epia mobo... a little 600mhz via and only 128MB ram... been up for about a year with absolutely no problems...

Thanks for the suggestions guys, but I already have a nice +1TB NAS running, I was just hoping to use this as an alternative for my xbmc xbox. I'm looking for a solution which supports DTS audio and is especially very quiet

flxfxp -
I have several via epia based itx motherboards running;

Jetway J7F41G5D running FreeNAS

VIA VB7001G + GeForce 6200 running winXP with XBMC; Casetronic C137B (supports 2 PCI cards)

VIA MII 1200 + VisionTek X1300 running winXP with XBMC; Serener GD-L01 (fanless+PCI)

For both cases, check http://www.logicsupply.com

Agree that the VIA motherboards onboard S3 Unichrome does not support OpenGL, hence the added PCI cards; Both are experimental - Performance is marginal....had thought of picking up an EX15000G as well for another experiment, but have not convince the wife yet

flxfxp Wrote:Bonus Question: Can anybody recommend a good Mini itx case? It must be quiet, preferably passively cooled. ir remote support would be a nice plus.

I'd go for the mCubed M2 White looks more clean than the Black one.

Thanks for the options guys, I appreciate it
freezer, if you would like to have my EX15000G, let me know, I can make a nice price for you.

Those cases look very nice loosec, I will consider one of those if I'm ever going to replace my current NAS.

flxfxp - pm me with the details.