1.2Ghz Eden or 1Ghz C7?

[jamespetts]

I am confused: I thought that the Eden was the fanless version of the C7, yet there are fanless C7s available, too. Which of the following would be more powerful/faster (and for which applications):

• EN12000E, 1.2Ghz VIA Eden CPU; or
• EX10000G, 1.0Ghz VIA C7 CPU?

Are there architectural differences between the Eden and C7 CPUs, such that, hertz per hertz, one is more powerful than the other, either in general, or for specific applications?

Also, the latter seems to have more features, including built-in HDTV encoding/decoding hardware acceleration, and built-in DVI. I would imagine that the hardware HDTV decoding/encoding part, at least, would not have Linux drivers yet, but is it reasonably safe to assume that they will make Linux drivers for it in time, and that the board will work with Linux to do everything else even without such drivers?

Also, the new EX10000G finally seems to have dropped the legacy AC97 audio codec, replacing it with a new "high definition" VT1708A codec; will that still mean that I will be better off with a Creative PCI soundcard for its superior DAC? Is there anything to be said for using the optical out and some external DAC (and are external optical-RCA DACs reasonably priced)? Also, would using a PCI SoundBlaster Audigy card take any load off the CPU for multimedia applications, or does that only work for games?

Does anybody have any experience of the EX10000G? It seems like a very interesting product indeed to me, subject to the above queries.

[Ducky]

Why do you want to get a VIA motherboard, if you want a mini-ITX computer which performs well and is fanless, get a Pentium M mini-ITX motherboard. I have bought one recently and I'm extremely impressed with the performance.

[aidanjt]

Lower power consumption perhaps?

@jamespetts: It seems to me that the Eden is designed primarily at HTPC systems and the C7 at more generic low power computing applications.

[jamespetts]

Ducky, I was under the impression that it was not possible to have a truly fanless Pentium M system. On that understanding, I have already bought a VIA EX10000EG, and have it running in a Nexus Psile case, with fan detached. I have not noticed any heat problems with it totally fanless (I used notebook hard drives, so that they would not need an airflow), and it is wonderfully quiet, compared to the same case with its built in fan.

Aidanjt, thank you :-)

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

These thread may answer your questions:

http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:w...ient=firefox-a

[Ducky]

Ducky, I was under the impression that it was not possible to have a truly fanless Pentium M system. On that understanding, I have already bought a VIA EX10000EG, and have it running in a Nexus Psile case, with fan detached. I have not noticed any heat problems with it totally fanless (I used notebook hard drives, so that they would not need an airflow), and it is wonderfully quiet, compared to the same case with its built in fan.

Aidanjt, thank you :-)

Sorry, just read your post. Yes as said you can cool the Pentium M passively. But you are right, you need a case fan otherwise it will get too hot inside the case. I didn't buy a case, I made my own, and initially with no fans things were getting too hot inside. But since my case is homemade this was not too much of a problem because I just created more ventilation by having 3 sides of the box almost entirely made from grill. Ok my computer is not very pretty, but that doesn't matter to me. Another alternative would be to buy a heatsink type case where the cpu heatsink plate connects to the case.