Is a VIA Epia enough for linux system ?!?
 

I was thinking about getting a small pc and i came across a VIA Epia V10000A (mini-itx)...

Here are the specs:
Features & Specifications:
# CPU: Includes embedded VIA C3 1GHz processor
# Chipset: VIA CLE133/VT8231
# System Memory: 2 PC 133 DIMM socket, Up to 1GB memory size
# Form Factor: Mini-ITX
# IDE: 1 x ATA DMA 100/66
# Slots: 1 x PCI
# Onboard LAN: VIA VT6103 10/100 Base-T Ethernet PHY
# Onboard Audio: VIA VT1612 2 channel AC'97
# Onboard I/O Connectors: 1 USB connectors for 2 additional USB 1.1 ports. CD Audio-in connector. SIR connector. CIR connector. Wake-on-LAN, Wake-on-Ring. CPU/Sys FAN/Fan. System intrusion connector.
# Back Panel I/O: 1 PS2 mouse port. 1 PS2 keyboard port. 1 Parallel. 1 RJ-45 LAN port. 1 Serial port. 2 USB 1.1 ports. 1 VGA port. 3 Audio jacks: line-out, line-in and mic-in.

I was thinking about using it as a normal desktop, no gaming or harduse... the most cpu intensive thing i would do is an watching videos (.avi)...

I was thinking about running a gentoo with X, mainly gnome (perhaps XFCE4)...

The main purpose would be multimedia (mp3 and video), web and office...

Do you think this board would be suitable for the job or perharps to weak to handle it ?!?

Thanks,
c0in.

It looks like everything should be compatible. I run Gentoo on a lesser system than that. I think I recognize those chipsets as comatible. Be sure to compile support for your VIA IDE controller into the kernel (and be sure generic IDE is not selected) and you'll be fine (you may find yourself getting a sound card, though. VIA's AC97 chips are the pits)

I have run Via for years now . Fully supported by linux . Dont expect fast anything ;-)

Even though it won't be fast (ex.: for gaming) do you think it will be able to play a xvid or dvd video and run gnome smoothly ?!?

I think that this VIA processor is slower than a PIII or AMD 1000Ghz ... does anybody knows to which pentium or amd processor it can be compared to ?!?!

I thought of gentoo because it compiles everything from source and would probably get me better results .... do u think of any other distro that would be more suitable ?!?!?!


Thanks,
c0in.

The Via can be compared to a Celeron. Its a hair behind it in performance, but not by too much. I've run both Gnome and KDE on a P-III 700mhz and a Duron 800mhz. Neither gave any problems with video playback, except during the peak of a super fast Bittorrent download (which was sucking the processor dry!). If you use VLC or Mplayer for playback, you're going to find that anything plays well:D

I have a Epia-800 C3 proc running gentoo and it runs better then any other os.. much quicker. Oh my proc is 800 mhz and i hear people say its has a comparable speed of a 400 p2

More like a Celeron 400, only has 64KB L2 cache. So the 1Ghz would be about like a Celery 500. Difference being the C3 uses about 10 watts and the Celeron uses 70 watts. :o A decent heatsink is really all the CPU needs. ;)

U could try one of these VIA boards, they use DDR RAM (so a faster FSB) and 'Integrated VIA Unichrome AGP graphics with MPEG-2 Accelerator' which u can use 'VIA enhanced Xine Player (VeXP)' available at sourceforge .

:)