VIA EPIA M10000 Board Review - Quake III and Home Entertainment PC
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I have mentioned that this is not a gaming board by any means, and to prove it I tried to run 3DMark03 and, to say it failed is an understatement. In fact not one of the ten tests in 3DMark03 will run on this board. That just emphasizes the point that VIA wasn't after the gaming market when they produced this board. There are plenty of motherboards out there that were made for gamers.
But not to leave gaming out entirely, I loaded an oldie but a goodie up just to see what would happen, Quake III. This won't win any LAN Party events with these Frame Rates but at 800x600 it was playable, but not enjoyable.
This board would work fine for Solitaire, Mine Sweeper, and Windows Pinball.
I mentioned earlier that this board would work wonders at a Home Entertainment PC, and it does a great job at that. With a good DVD player, this board produces very good DVD Playback. I took one of my favorite movies and dropped it in the Lite-On 16x DVD player and fired up PowerDVD to see just how this EPIA board would respond.
The DVD played flawlessly even with the lack of a progressive scan feature. A HEPC setup would be a great home for it. And with the right case, you could have a very quiet and nice looking addition to your entertainment center.
With the likes of 800x600, 1024x768, 1152x864, 1280x768, 1280x960, 1280x1024, 1400x1050 and 1600x1200 all in 16 or 32 bit color resolutions, this board will look good on any size monitor, and with only 800x600 and 1024x768 support for TV's. Don't expect to have HD type quality when rendering this to a Plasma or 50 inch plus TV Screen.
Conclusion
All the stats on this motherboard are available on VIA's website.
Some of my complaints about the board are to say the least, picky. I wish there was more room for 2 DDR Ram Slots, but if you can afford a 1Gb Stick of DDR PC2700 you really shouldn't need more than that. Also with the size of this board, things tend to be very close together, so you have to be very careful when installing this board in its new home. Another thing is that the CMOS battery is installed in the upright or standing position, so caution is needed when installing cables and or PCI cards. With this much technology packed into such a small space, this board will seem a bit pricey. Searching around the web you will find this board runs in the $150 and up range.
Highs
- Size, this board will fit in a shoe box
- Noise Level, What noise?
- Low power consumption
- Everything needed is onboard
- Good DVD playback
- Works great with Linux and Windows OS's
- Almost no heat produced
Lows
- No AGP Slot
- Not for gamers, but you should know that going in
- Components very close together (but they have to be)
That's all folks. I would like to send thanks out to Pat at VIA Technologies for supplying this board for review. Also if you check out VIA's webpage you will see that they have some even smaller boards out and some on the way. So if you need a board that works as advertised, and size does matter, make sure you check out these Mini-ITX boards that VIA has to offer.
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