News - VIA VB8003 mini-ITX mainboard brings Trinity platform to life

Quote:

---

Mini-ITX board combines a VIA Nano processor, a VX800 media system processor and an S3 Graphics 435 ULP GPU.

---

Read more.

Nice, I like it... but seriously a Serial port? More USB would be more use in the media market...

And can't they use on of their big board covering heatsinks and a single larger fan? Or at least offer that as an option where low profile doesn't matter. Could make a useful media extender...

A sku with a 12V dc supply would also be useful. Rather than an ATX connector.

That's a pretty awesome board. Up to four monitors and dual etherent, I presume they are gigabit connections.

As for the PSU, it makes sense to keep it ATX, you can always use one of these if you want to keep things really small:

http://www2.multithread.co.uk/mtcsho...120_Detail.jpg

120Watt PicoPSU fed from a 12v supply.

Where's the serial port? That's a VGA d-sub....

:telephone:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by kingpotnoodle

Nice, I like it... but seriously a Serial port? More USB would be more use in the media market...

---

But Via's big historic market is industrial / embedded, where serial ports are de-rigeur - I'm guessing this is targetted more at that market for things like in-store advertising / information display systems, rather than consumer multimedia. Serial gives access to a whole array of permanently connected control systenms, and if your box is 30feet above a crowded supermarket entrance you can't really keep nipping up there to swap USB devices... ;)

Besides, it's got plenty of connectivity - I count four USB at the backplane plus at least 2 motherboard headers for an additional 4 USB ports, so 8 host ports, and you can always add hubs. How many USB devices do you stick in your computer?

Whats the power draw on this?

Can think of 2 uses; HTPC (obvious) but is that a PCI slot at the bottom of the board? Would take a nice SATA RAID card and be used as a nice big file server and email server for my home network (have one which is starting to feel its age)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by cjs150

but is that a PCI slot at the bottom of the board?

---

I can't find an actual reference as to what that is, even the VIA data sheet doesn't say what that slot is. The two portions of the connector are the wrong way round to be PCIe 4x.

http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/em...&id=970&tabs=4

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by 3dcandy

Where's the serial port? That's a VGA d-sub....

:telephone:

---

Looks like it's smack bang in the top-centre to me...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Funkstar

I can't find an actual reference as to what that is, even the VIA data sheet doesn't say what that slot is. The two portions of the connector are the wrong way round to be PCIe 4x.

http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/em...&id=970&tabs=4

---

Mini PCI-Express?

Unless VIA have changed their target market, It'll be too expensive.
Intel killed this form factor for VIA when it released the D201GLY.
Atom followed up and began hammering nails into the coffin then ION came along and started jumping up and down on the grave site.

If this walks 1080p out of the box then there's a great market for it if the price is right. IMO Intel don't deliver in this form factor at the moment and whilst ION is good it is pricey. Hopefully some competition in the HG playback mini-ITX market will bring costs down - might start seeing some good cheap case options as well then...

One big question... how are the linux drivers? :P

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by DataMatrix

Looks like it's smack bang in the top-centre to me...



Mini PCI-Express?

---

WAy too big for that, maybe some kinda of add-in flash/SDD module ? As mentioned before, its keyed incorrectly for PCIex.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by zephod

If this walks 1080p out of the box then there's a great market for it if the price is right.

---

from what I've read, all outputs are HD accelerated, it sounds like you could have three or four HD streams all being hardware decoded.

Also 1080p isn't always the hardest, 1080i source on a 1080p screen is far more computationally intensive that straight 1080p decoding. de-interlacing and decombing is a pain in the neck.