Has anyone used the EPIA-M mother board?

[wackychimp]

I'm wanting to build a HTPC off of the EPIA-M motherboard and am hoping that I can run MAME on it too.

Here's the specs:
http://www.viavpsd.com/product/epia_m_spec.jsp?motherboardId=81

933Mhz, up to a GB RAM, TV-out, and it's only 6.7"x6.7"  

Is anyone using it right now or has anyone tried it?  I don't expect to be able to play Unreal Tournament 2003 on it but most of the classic arcade games (plus maybe Mortal Kombat II and III) would be cool.

[eightbit]

Just remember this is not an intel or a AMD or even a cyrix processor. Its a cheap version of a celeron or duron chip. My quess would be its the equivalent of a 600-700mhz p3.

[BobA]

Lovely little board (17 x 17 cm) if you are trying to fit your MB into a cigar box or RC car body but for the difference in size I would go with mini ITX at 24 x 22 cm and you have a full choice of Pentium 4 or AMD processors.  The mini ITX boards have the same features but give your alot more performance.  You will not regret having more performace later on.

I have a friend with one and would not recommend it for MAME unless you are trying to build it into a controller or some other very restricted space. It is not as fast as the cpu speed would have you believe.

BobA

[Merce]

Lovely little board (17 x 17 cm) if you are trying to fit your MB into a cigar box or RC car body but for the difference in size I would go with mini ITX at 24 x 22 cm and you have a full choice of Pentium 4 or AMD processors.  The mini ITX boards have the same features but give your alot more performance.  You will not regret having more performace later on.

I have a friend with one and would not recommend it for MAME unless you are trying to build it into a controller or some other very restricted space. It is not as fast as the cpu speed would have you believe.

BobA

Mini-itx is 17cm x 17cm.   Do you mean flexATX or microATX perhaps?   They do offer more performance, but finding one of those with TV-out and sound onboard in the mini-itx price range is bit of a challenge.

If you have the space definitely put a little more under the hood.  Minimum reqs never seem to go down.

[Brad Lee]

I got one (EPIAm9000) and it is a nice little board. It runs pretty comparably to the Celeron 700 I had in my other system.

I set it up originally in my cabinet with the tv-out, onboard sound, 256ddr. It ran adequately for most games, but the video was a little wonky when I tried using hardware Stretching thru mame, real fuzzy around the edges.

I've since pulled it and have it as my regular pc for now. Whenever I get around to a new board for the cabinet I'll shuffle around and the Epia will be going into a media PC for divx/mp3 and I saw a suggestion to add an Atari2600 emulator

[Merce]

Somebody beat you to it.

Here's a mini-itx in an Atari 2600

[Brad Lee]

If you go to www.mini-itx.com they have lots of crazy ideas of where people have been sticking these boards.

I've got a little Barbie PC case that is flex-atx form factor, Ive scrapped the outer shell part of it(fruity pink & silver monstrosity) So I'm left with the inner frame & mountings, about a 10"x10"x10" cube. I'm thinking of building a wood case that'll blend nicely with my entertainment center

[LockeN]

Just remember this is not an intel or a AMD or even a cyrix processor. Its a cheap version of a celeron or duron chip. My quess would be its the equivalent of a 600-700mhz p3.

The C3 that comes with the board is essentially a cyrix.  VIA bought cyrix and the C3 is based on their tech.

I've seen benchmarking that compared a C3 933Mhz with a P3 466Mhz.  It was close, but the P3 just edged out the C3 in most of the benchmarks.  So you're probably looking at a top of the line C3 being the equivalent of a P3 450.  

[BobA]

Lovely little board (17 x 17 cm) if you are trying to fit your MB into a cigar box or RC car body but for the difference in size I would go with mini ITX at 24 x 22 cm and you have a full choice of Pentium 4 or AMD processors.  The mini ITX boards have the same features but give your alot more performance.  You will not regret having more performace later on.

I have a friend with one and would not recommend it for MAME unless you are trying to build it into a controller or some other very restricted space. It is not as fast as the cpu speed would have you believe.

BobA

Mini-itx is 17cm x 17cm.   Do you mean flexATX or microATX perhaps?   They do offer more performance, but finding one of those with TV-out and sound onboard in the mini-itx price range is bit of a challenge.

If you have the space definitely put a little more under the hood.  Minimum reqs never seem to go down.

You are probably right with the micro.  There are so many standards that I get the terms mixed up.   Maybe if they called the mini the itybitty board I could remember.  You can get all the same features but you will have to pay a bit extra.  

BobA

[Jakobud]

If I were you, guys I would look at the Shuttle cases.  You know those little ones.  Those things are not 'much' bigger than a mini-itx, but they allow you to put in an athlon 2000+ or something like that.

I am kind of bummed out that the epia-m9000 is the equivalent of a p3-450...that sucks.  I was just getting ready to buy one for my next gaming project...

[Merce]

Me too.  I knew mini-itx wouldn't be a screamer, but comparable to a PIII-450 is just lame.

I did some looking around.  FIC has a nice board that comes with tv-out., AT31 Fusion.  I could only find it on newegg, but it's not a bad price for all you're getting.  You could slap in a decent Athlon XP and your grand total would be under $150.  In the ballpark of mini-itx, but 3x the horsepower.

There are tons of less expensive MicroATX options without onboard TV-out, depending on what kind of premium you have on space.

[Silverwind]

If I were you, guys I would look at the Shuttle cases.  You know those little ones.  Those things are not 'much' bigger than a mini-itx, but they allow you to put in an athlon 2000+ or something like that.

I am kind of bummed out that the epia-m9000 is the equivalent of a p3-450...that sucks.  I was just getting ready to buy one for my next gaming project...

yeah.. the CPU is about the only thing that would prevent me from seriously looking at one..  

[Jakobud]

Me too.  I knew mini-itx wouldn't be a screamer, but comparable to a PIII-450 is just lame.

I did some looking around.  FIC has a nice board that comes with tv-out., AT31 Fusion.  I could only find it on newegg, but it's not a bad price for all you're getting.  You could slap in a decent Athlon XP and your grand total would be under $150.  In the ballpark of mini-itx, but 3x the horsepower.

There are tons of less expensive MicroATX options without onboard TV-out, depending on what kind of premium you have on space.

I would never ever EVER buy another FIC product ever again.  I bought a mobo not too long ago and later after many wierd memory problems discovered that that particular model was known for having memory problems. Geez. Forget that. FIC just lost my business forever if they release products like that.