What the VIA Embedded Boards like for running MAME?

[Dariusz]

Hi there,

Just wondersing if any one has used the VIA Embedded Boards (Mini-ITX, Nano-ITX &  Pico-ITX boards) in the arcade cabinet to run mams?

http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/mainboards/

If so, which board in each range have you used, and what is the speed like (compared to AMD 2000XP series) when running mame (latest if used).

Look forward reading up on any responses.

Thanks,

Dariusz

[squicker]

A magazine in the UK made one once, but I can't remember what board it was let alone the magazine's name!

I had a play with a VIA board a while back, and while they're not too bad you have to think of it as an old Cyrix chip (which basically it is), so the 800mhz chip will be more like 600-700 performance wise.  You'll manage most 2d games, but I wouldn't try CHD games.

I'd get a socketed mini-itx board if you want to go down that route, it'll cost more but the performance difference will be worth it.  Check out LinITX to get an idea and then get on google to find it cheaper.

http://linitx.com/viewcategory.php?catid=137&pp=137

[Turnarcades]

I use these boards for our 'Box Arcades'. See this link:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=75157.0

In that project I used a VIA Epia MII series board (The 1Ghz fan model), and performance is great. The embedded graphics make it easy to set up, but I found the base drivers did not support certain dynamic graphics effects, and slowed down with certain D3D effects.

Speed wise on 2D games I found it great, but if you are going for a more specific setup you may want to consider getting the max RAM of 1Ghz and a decent graphics card.