Via Epia Mini-ITX PC

[pete_c]

I still haven't tried mine. I am considering using the case sans MB for a new HA box. I am currently using a similiar case / different MB in one CarPC and a different case / same motherboard in another CarPC. The Epia motherboard has served me well in the last four years being driven by an MIIATX power supply with the ability to run XP Pro, customized CarPC software with the ability to play music and video via the RCA to the OEM TV tuner in one car. I am using another one to run a Linux Firewall (Smoothwall) and its been running now for over a year.

Thinking of using this Epia MB to drive an under the kitchen counter LCD TV. Initially was going to use a mini-pc (tested it to work well) but now maybe this motherboard mounted in a smaller case:

mini-case

 

[JohnWPB]

Any ideas how well this will playback Xvid/DivX compressed movies? I had an old 1 Ghz laptop that did not like to play Xvid movies due to the "on the fly" decompressing the movie. I would like to pick one up to replace the tower that is behind my Media Center that is running XBMC. 1.0 Ghz is not a very quick machine, so am a little hesitant. I know XBMC can also be picky about graphics capabilities, and was hoping someone would know more details ect.

 

[123]

Any ideas how well this will playback Xvid/DivX compressed movies? ...

I just installed support for DivX, I'll test it this weekend. I can confirm that playback of AVI files, in Windows Media Player, is excellent.

So far I've:

• Removed the TV tuner card (can't find a Win XP driver).
• Added a second hard-drive (configured as a Secondary Master).
• Added a physical port for the onboard COM2 serial port.
• Loaded Win XP and installed Premise on the primary drive.
• Loaded support drivers (ELO, Edgeport, Mp4 codec, dynawrap, simageutil, etc).
• Used MaxBlast to clone the primary disk onto a partition of the secondary disk (to be used as a failover).
• Changed BIOS settings (boot order, power handling, etc)

Todo:

• Add modem card.
• Increase memory (although it is amazingly responsive with 256Mb).
• Transfer media (music and photos) from my HA server to the 2nd hard-drive.

etc etc

So far the only thing that is less than ideal is that the CPU fan is somewhat noisy (loud hum). It seems to run at full tilt all the time. Not a big deal because the PC will be located in the basement.

 

[JohnWPB]

Sounds good.... I solely want to use this to run XBMC off of as a HTPC. XBMC can be picky about the gfx card.

Here is what their site says:

For end-users the recommended minimum requirement is a x86-based computer, with a 3D GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) that at least supports Shader Model 3.0 and OpenGL 2.0 (that features 24bpp or 32bpp for 3D hardware-acceleration support, which XBMC GUI need to run smoothly at an acceptable frame-rate). Graphic adapters that support DirectX version 9.0c or later usually meet all of those mentioned requirements,

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Any ideas on if this PC is capable of the above?


EDIT:

Well I guess it doesn't matter.... I was gonna bite the bullet and just buy one, and they are gone

If anyone here purchased one more than they need, let me know.

 

[shadowwalker]

I found the Xp drivers for the TVtuner if anyone wants them

 

[123]

Yes. Please post a link to the file(s). Thanks!