VIA Epia M10000 Mini-ITX Motherboard

Reviews: Hardware

Motherboards | Power Supplies | Memory | Systems | Video Cards

Author:
Editor:
Sponsor:
Published:

Brian Kristensen
Kurtis
VIA
Oct. 10, 2003

<< Previous

Next >>

Board Layout & Features

The VIA Epia M10000 is based on the Mini-ITX standard with a board size of 17x17 cm. That is roughly 40% smaller than the average ATX motherboard in most computers. Even with this small size, the M10000 is able to have audio, graphics, tv-out and Ethernet integrated into the board.

The C3 Nehemiah CPU is built into the board, and requires active cooling due to the 1.4v allowing for a speed of 1 GHz. The fan pushes 7.87 CFM at a noise level of 29.0 dB and rotates at 6200 rpm. The heatsink is epoxied to the chip, so replacing the active heatsink with a larger passive one would require some work.

The VIA Apollo CLE266 chipset is composed of VIA's VT8623 and VT8235 north and south bridge chips use a shared passive heatsink. The VT8235 has been used on several other boards from KT333 to KT400a based motherboards. The VT8623 north bridge chip is rather new and features VIA's CastleRock integrated graphics. The onboard graphics support 128-bit 2D and 64-bit 3D graphics engines. Don't expect to play too many games on this board. The CastleRock's most important feature is it's integrated MPEG-2 decoder which will take some of the load off the CPU during movie and DVD playback. This is a feature not found in previous Epia boards.

With so much stuff crammed into such a small space, You can be sure the expansion slots are limited. The first thing I noticed is the single PCI connector. That's it, no AGP. Seeing as this board isn't meant for heavy duty graphics applications, I can live with the onboard graphics, or even a PCI graphics card. ATI even makes PCI version of their All-In-Wonder cards for your multimedia pleasure. Another limitation is the single memory slot. This board supports a single stick of DDR memory (up to 1 GB) running at 100 or 133 MHz (pc1700 or pc2100).

Interestingly enough, despite it's old age and uselessness, VIA has included a floppy connector in the middle of the board. Personally, I would like to see the room taken by the floppy connector set aside for something more useful. Besides the floppy connector, there are two IDE connectors located on the edge of the board. They are easily accessible and out of the way, which will keep the inside of most cases a bit more manageable. There is no Serial ATA port, but the extra chip and traces to the connector would require more board real estate, which is not available (Hmm, floppy or SATA? Which would you choose?)

Despite the small size of the board, VIA leaves nothing out in terms of I/O ports. There are the standard PS/2 ports for a keyboard and mouse, a VGA port for connecting a monitor to the onboard graphics controller, a single Ethernet port with two USB ports located below, a parallel and a serial port, an S/PDIF port for digital output, S-Video out, and three analog audio ports (mic, line in, speaker) which support port sharing for a 5.1 speaker setup. VIA also included a PCI bracket which contains two additional USB ports along with two Firewire ports.

The M10000 uses VIA's VT1622M TV encoder for the TV out port. The VT1622M (which is a step up from the VT1621 used in previous Epia boards) is capable of outputting NTSC and PAL signals at 640x480, 800x600, and 1024x768. The VT1622M is only an encoder, so an additional capture card will be required to do any video recording or playback on the computer.

The M10000 uses VIA's onboard "Vinyl Audio" which uses the VT8235's (south bridge) internal 6 channel audio controller with VIA's VT1616 codec chip. The VT8235 does provide very clean analog output but there is no digital support. Personally, I couldn't notice a difference between the onboard Vinyl Audio and my SB Live! although it probably can't compare to the latest 24-bit sound cards on the market today.

Vinyl Audio is the new name for VIA's recently licensed surround sound software technology from Sensaura. The latest Audio drivers are the first to include the DirectSound3D Sensaura technology called "Stylus."

The M10000's onboard 10/100 Ethernet support is provided by VIA's VT6103 Networking Controller which is used on all Epia boards.

<< Previous

Page 3 of 7

Next >>

Page 1: Introduction & History
Page 2: From Erza to Nehemiah
Page 3: Board Layout & Features
Page 4: Accessories
Page 5: BIOS
Page 6: Workstation & Office Performance
Page 7: Conclusion

Subscribe to Motherboards [more info]

View All

Related Reviews

Gigabyte GA-P31-DS3L Motherboard

Motherboards April 14, 2008

ASUS P5K-E WiFi-AP Motherboard

Motherboards February 19, 2008

Gigabyte GA-MA69GM-S2H AMD Motherboard

Motherboards December 3, 2007

MSI K9AGM2-FIH AMD Motherboard

Motherboards November 26, 2007

Add Comment

9 User Comments

1 - Posted by Kurtis on October 10, 2003 - 6:01 pm

i love that thing. can't wait to see what you do with it soon :)

2 - Posted by handrail on October 11, 2003 - 12:45 pm

yeah, put it in a dukes of hazzard lunchbox. that would be cool! i had this one when i was 7!!!!

http://www.cybermad.com/culture/wobble/duke1.gif

http://www.cybermad.com/culture/wobble/duke2.gif

3 - Posted by Kurtis on October 11, 2003 - 1:29 pm

lolol.

4 - Posted by A Person on October 25, 2003 - 2:16 am

Hey Brian, I got a question about the onboard video. I was reading a review of this board on another site http://www.techseekers.net/modules.php?name=Review... and they said that they could boot using the tv output but once the os loaded it switched back to vga. So they had to have a monitor around to switch back to tv. The thing that confused me was that they said, "Once I switched over to TV out, I could remove the monitor from now on." I was wondering if this meant that they could remove the monitor untill they rebooted or if they didnt need a monitor forever after that. Do know anything about this? (The peeps over there didn't respond to my email)

I am working on a project (in the planning stage) to build a pc inside of something portable, like a nintendo or a lunch-box or something cool so I can take it around to other peoples dorms and play old video games with emulators and watch dvds. I am gonna use an m1000 but if I have to have a monitor around everytime I boot then I'll have to buy a seperate vid card which will totaly change my plans.

Also, where did u get yours from? Or did u get it for free?

5 - Posted by Brian on October 25, 2003 - 11:09 am

Funny thing is, I don't have a TV. I'll see if I can snag one and test it out.

6 - Posted by Brian on October 25, 2003 - 11:34 am

To set up TV output, first attach a TV AND a Monitor and select "CRT+TV" in the BIOS and boot normally. Both screens will boot normally, but the TV will go blank once in Windows. (using your monitor) Go to the Display Properties (right click on desktop and click properties), go to the "Settings" tab, then "Advanced" then "S3Display. Then click on the TV icon/image and it should highlight in blue and tick the box below it. Click "OK" and the TV should display again.

Once you have done that, you should be able to shutdown, remove the monitor, and display with only the TV. I will test this out in a few days and keep you updated.

7 - Posted by A Person on October 25, 2003 - 2:14 pm

cool, thanks so much!!!

8 - Posted by ELiTE KiLLaH on October 25, 2003 - 10:28 pm

hopefully its just a one time thing...otherwise thats just fucking stpuid of them lol

:?

9 - Posted by A Person on October 25, 2003 - 11:30 pm

Ya, if its just a one time thing then I dont need any other video card and then I can stick some other fun stuff in it instead.

Add Comment

To add a comment without being a member, you may omit the password field, but you must enter your name (or nickname) along with your comment. * Denotes required fields.