Overclockers Australia - Via "Eden" EPIA (800 MHz C3)

Via "Eden" EPIA (800 MHz C3) - Page 2
18-June-2002 - Review by Kevin Baker (Baker on Forums)
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Technical Specs:

External Connectors:

1x PS2 Keyboard connection, 1x PS2 Mouse connection
1x 15 pin CRT VGA Monitor output
1x 25 pin Parallel port (EPP/ECP Compatible)
1x S-Video Output
1x RCA Video Output/S/P-DIF Output
2x USB 1.1 compliant ports
1x RJ-45 10x100 Ethernet connector
3x Audio ports (Line out, Line in, Mike in)
1x 16C550 9 pin Serial port

CPU Specifications:
- Embedded VIA C3-E 800MHz Processor
- Enhanced Ball Grid Array (EBGA) packaging
- Internal 128kb Level 1 cache
- Internal 64kb Level 2 cache
Chipset:
- VIA 8601A Northbridge
- VIA VT8231 Southbridge
Audio:
- On Board VIA VT1612A AC’97 codec
LAN:
- VIA VT6103 Ethernet controller, supporting 10/100Mb Ethernet speeds
TV-Out:
- VIA VT1621 TV-Output controller, supporting S-VHS or RCA video outputs, at resolutions of 640x480, 800x600, in PAL or NTSC
Graphics:
- Integrated Trident Blade 3D Graphics Core, 8mb
Internal Connectors:
- Memory: 2x 168pin DIMM slots, supporting SD-RAM modules from 32mb to 512mb, for a maximum memory total of 1 GB. Supports PC100/133 speeds.
- USB: 1x USB pin header for up to 2 additional USB Ports
- Power: Standard 20pin ATX power connector
- Front Panel Connectors: Supports Power/Reset switches, and Power/HDD LED’s
- Video-In/PCI 2 Card Connector: For connecting a PCI Riser card, and a Video In port.
- FSB jumpers: Supports configurations of 66MHz, 100MHz, and 133MHz speeds
- 1x PCI Slot

Benchmarks:
SiSoft Sandra 2002
All tests were performed without any tweaks.

Arithmetic, Multimedia and Memory tests, click to enlarge

As you can see, the Eden shows up as performing slower than a PII 400, showing the main weakness in this package.

3D Mark 2001SE
I never expected much from this, and my expectations came true. I had to lower the quality to 800*600*16bit for it even to work.

Other Software:
Smoothwall
I do not have a lot of Linux experience, but as smoothwall is so simple to install, I attempted to see if how it would work as a standalone firewall. I used the smoothwall .9.9SE distribution. Smoothwall installed very nicely, detecting the on board NIC as a VIA Rhine PCI Fast Ethernet card. Once configured correctly, the Eden showed no sign of slowness, and was more than powerful enough to run as a dedicated firewall. A user on the forums gave a possible warning about this however, saying that earlier Linux kernels did not detect the MAC address properly. I do not recall experiencing this, but as I had several operating systems on and off during my time with the Eden, I may be mistaken (although 99% sure I am not).

Windows XP
Installation went without a hitch, and Windows found default drivers for all devices (video, Ethernet etc.). I upgraded the drivers to the latest available, and ran the following tests:

Divx: On default settings, all video is VERY jumpy and out of sync, with both Media Player and The Player 2.0. However, when I lowered the DIVX quality settings (Start-Programs-DivX-DivX Pro Codec-Decoder Configuration) to the minimum, all playback was perfect. I noticed no sync issues. Playback was tested with a file run from the DVD player, and off of the hard drive, performance was the same. Minimal difference could be noticed between the quality settings in DIVX, especially when the TV-OUT was enabled.

To test the Eden’s ability as a dedicated DIVX box, I used a program designed for this application, DivxOS. This software is perfect for an application such as this, as when a CD is inserted with a movie file (DIVX or VCD) it will auto-play it. All control is done through the keyboard, and if you had a remote interface to the computer, it would be very easy to configure the remote to work with DivxOS. To get optimal ease-of-use, I placed this program in the startup folder, so that when the system is booted, it automatically goes into the program. Playback is perfect (due to the above tweaking), and this allow for a nice DIVX box.

MP3 Playback: No problems at all, even with high bitrate and variable bitrate MP3’s.

DVD Playback: This was tested with PowerDVD Deluxe 4.0 XP. Playback was tested with the movie “Armageddon”, which contains high action scenes and also low action scenes. When the movie was at a slow action scene, playback was perfect, until a high-action scene was hit. When a high-action scene (for example, the asteroids hitting New York scene) was on, slight skipping was noticeable, but minor. When a separate, PCI video card was used, DVD playback was perfect.

VCD Playback: Perfect, no issues.

Games: Knowing that the Eden was VERY low powered CPU wise, I decided to push the limits of the board with gaming, just to see what it could be coaxed to do. Counter-Strike was perfect @ 640*480 under Direct3D, but as I expected, any recent game was impossible to play due to graphic issues. This occurred with a PCI video card too, so I would assume that the CPU is the bottleneck.

TV-Out: I wanted to test the TV-Out, to see how good it was. TV-Out is the same as it is on most cards, blurry.

When a RCA cable was inserted into the TV-Out port, TV-Out is automatically selected on Windows start. This is good for when the machine is to be used as a DIVX box. This is what an Ali G Video clip looked like:

These pictures are quite deceiving, as I have found it is quite hard to take a photo of a TV. The playback is perfect, and looks just as good as my Geforce 2 MX-400's TV-Out.

Conclusions:
I think that the Eden definitely has a place in the market. It is primarily pushed as a small low powered solution, and is perfect in what it does. I have thought of some possible applications, and my recommendations.

Office computer: If the workstation is only needing standard word processing and less intense work, this is perfect. Small, quiet, and reliable. Only downfall is that if more power is needed, it cannot be upgraded easily, requiring a whole new motherboard.
Home/SOHO Firewall: Perfect. Size and low power consumption make this a perfect unit for a firewall, and as they do not need much CPU power (Most are run on early Pentium chips) this is perfect
DIVX Box: Perfect, once quality settings are tweaked. On-board TV-Out is a big advantage, and the low power consumption will allow it to fit right in with a standard lounge room. Cases that will be available in Australia shortly will help this.
LAN Box: No good, not enough power to play any recent games
DVD-Player: I would not recommend. To improve playing of DVD, some members of OCAU have purchased a Realmagic XCard (http://www.realmagic.com/products/xcard.htm) which takes care of Divx and DVD decoding. However, as it is around $200-$300, that bumps the price up a lot, and I would instead recommend a Duron based system with a basic Geforce2 MX card with TV-Out, and a passive heatsink such as a Zalman Flower.

Advantages: Compact size, low power usage, low noise.
Disadvantages: Non-upgradeability, low CPU power (lacks kick)

Availability: $273 from Kieran at Data Parts Shepparton, who provided the review unit.

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