Mini ITX PC's

[lagrian]

Hi,

I have a Mini ITX PC a EPIA CL6000, the menu performance is really bad so I'm looking to upgrade it.

I want to stick with the Mini-ITX format and I was just wondering if anyone could share their experience with the EPIA MII 10000 (C3) and performance with menus, also the performance when used with a MediaMVP.

Also probably not the best place to ask, as they come with a fan for the processor does this increase the noise signifcantly ?

Any help at all would be most benificial.

Thanks in advance

Lagrian

[Dai]

I use a EPIA ME6000 and I find that the menus are a bit slow but quite useable. I use the TV out on the PVR 350.

Dai

[lagrian]

Thanks for the input Dai,

Hmm the delay for me is about 3-4 seconds per click, this is when using the MediaMVP (as my mini itx board doesn't have TV Out.)

When I ran the GBPVR on a AMD XP 1600+ using the MediaMVP it was fine. I used all the same hardware virtually, same amount of RAM, same HD for the EPIA CL6000 but the menus were slow.

So I can only deduce that it is the processor that is the bottle neck. I suppose using TV out would speed things up a little but not enough for me to be happy if you are saying they are a bit slow.

So after that I suppose the question is how quick are the menu's when using a EPIA ME10000 with the MediaMVP ?

Has anyone had experience with this that they could share with me please ?

Thanks

Lagrian

[sub]

Unfortunately there is not too much I can do about it. When I started this project I decided to you c# and and GDI+. Unfortunately I've found GDI+ to be a little slow for drawing graphics, but quite acceptable on most current machines. By itself GB-PVR should be quite useable on M10000 (Nehemiah).

You problem is compounded by then taking the generated graphics and converting them from RGB to YUV then compressing each frame as required by the MVP. The Nehemiah based M10000 has a full speed floating point unit which would be much better than the ME6000 which runs at half (and is also much slower).

At the end of the day, the faster the machine you can get the better.

[lagrian]

Cheers sub that helps, for me its the balance between a silent PC and one that has a enough juice to run GBPVR.

Thanks again

Lagrian

[Kevlar_IIA]

I use the M10000 (Nehemiah). And it runs great + it is wery silent (3 lowsound fans that goes at 70% or less). I have a Fan mate to a 18db fan for the CPU + my modified zalman heat sink, a Colbalt Pyramid V+ for the case fans (2 case fans). And best of all a fan less 100Watts PSU (I use maximum 80 watts), if you want to know more lokk att the list yor system topic. /Jonas

P.S.
I only use the 350 tv-out, never the onboard tv-out becuse of scaling and speed.
D.S.

[lagrian]

Thank Jonas,

Sound like the M10000 will do the job and still also be able to keep the dam things quiet. Nice job on yours by the way.

Also noticed they now have a EPIA M12000 but a bit pricey.

Could you tell me how do you find out how much power you are consuming ?

Thanks once again

Lagrian

[sub]

I dont know about there lagarian, but here the price difference between the M10000 and M12000 is only a few dollars. I'd definitely go the M12000 if you get the chance.

[Kevlar_IIA]

There is a power calculator at a web-side that is usefull http://www.mini-box.com/

Other wise you can be safe and use this

http://linitx.com/product....5642c04 (not sure if it is optimise for mini-ITX)
That is a PSU for 150Watts.

I am still waiting for my 100watts PSU, before that one I hade a 200watts (that broke), but I am certian that a 100 watts is enought for my system (acourding to my calculations I will use maximum 85watts at full load whit all hardware running at MAX)

[lagrian]

Thanks for the help guys,

Sub: After your comment I have found a better place to buy them now thanks.

Jonas: Thanks I'll read up on it when I get home tonight. The reason I ask is that I have a wireless USB dongle/NIC and under heavy use it cuts out , so to me no weather plugin or Net Radio. My suspicion is that it doesn't have enough power to run but I am not sure if these devices take up allot of power or not.

Thanks once again for your help.

Lagrian