Page 2: BIOS, Testing, Conclusion
BIOS:
The BIOS is a standard AMI type. It is basically no frills, but all the major options are there. You can enable and disable all the onboard stuff including the video to use a PCI Express graphics card.
This board includes RAID support in the category of FakeRAID. FakeRAID isn't a hadware RAID solution so it isn't much better than software. If your RAID solution doesn't have its own RAM, it isn't true hardware RAID. That being said, FakeRAID is fine for most home/office users.
Testing:
I usually forgo the array of benchmarks that I would normally do on a motherboard in favor of a more subjective few. This board is not targeted at the same market as the normal ATX boards paired with a CPU such as a Core 2 Quad.
This board was tested with:
Ubuntu 7.10
1GB Kingston HyperX RAM
80GB Maxtor HDD
A common theme with new motherboards in the embedded range is the lack of proper video drivers in Linux. Before I get to the negatives, let me go through the positives. VIA supports Linux and their boards are fully usable out of the box with Ubuntu 7.10. Everything from the dual ethernet ports to the audio works extremely well out of the box. Even though the video drivers that Ubuntu ships don't work with this board (Chrome 9HC support will probably be included with Hardy), the VESA drivers work fine out of the box. To get XvMC support (to get things such as MythTV working well on this board) you will need to compile the latest OpenChrome drivers from http://www.openchrome.org. The OpenChrome team do a great job of making drivers. VIA really needs to support that team better since VIA's own binary driver doesn't work with Linux in general. It only supports a few kernels.
Another problem with the board is DRI (Direct Rendering Infrastructure). The DRM (Direct Rendering Module) included with the kernel in Gutsy (7.10) doesn't have the proper PCI id for this new board. I tried as much as I could on compiling a new DRM kernel module, but all I did was break my install over and over. I just gave up and left it with indirect rendering. It is slower, but it works.
You can drop in a PCIe video card for speed, yes, this will handle a latest generation graphics card. There is much more this PCIe port can do. I can drop in a real hardware RAID card and make a great storage array server. This is one awesome board for expandability.
How about general multimedia tasks? After loading the proper OpenChrome driver, the board can use XvMC so MythTV works extremely well with no dropped frames. It can handle streaming OGG with a CPU usage at around 10%-20%. When playing a DVD file, the CPU was around 30-50%. This board is an all around board that would be great for a home theater. With better drivers, it can be one of the best. VIA states their binary drivers will support Ubuntu 7.10 soon, but I suggested that they support OpenChrome.
It is faster than the »D201GLY2 that I tested before. As a similar test, it was faster by 5% when gzipping that large tar file. The serial ATA subsystem is a big improvement for EPIA boards.
Conclusion:
The SN is available now and it retails for about $250. It is a hefty price for an ITX motherboard. The saving grace is that the board does a great job of handling expandability and speed that no other VIA EPIA series boards have ever done. This board is suitable for anyone looking for a small form factor PC. If you want more gaming horsepower, drop in a PCI Express graphics card and you're good to go. If you're looking for an ITX board for a new build, this should be on the top of your list.
I'd like to thank Pat and the folks at VIA for making this review possible.
The BIOS is a standard AMI type. It is basically no frills, but all the major options are there. You can enable and disable all the onboard stuff including the video to use a PCI Express graphics card.
This board includes RAID support in the category of FakeRAID. FakeRAID isn't a hadware RAID solution so it isn't much better than software. If your RAID solution doesn't have its own RAM, it isn't true hardware RAID. That being said, FakeRAID is fine for most home/office users.
Testing:
I usually forgo the array of benchmarks that I would normally do on a motherboard in favor of a more subjective few. This board is not targeted at the same market as the normal ATX boards paired with a CPU such as a Core 2 Quad.
This board was tested with:
Ubuntu 7.10
1GB Kingston HyperX RAM
80GB Maxtor HDD
A common theme with new motherboards in the embedded range is the lack of proper video drivers in Linux. Before I get to the negatives, let me go through the positives. VIA supports Linux and their boards are fully usable out of the box with Ubuntu 7.10. Everything from the dual ethernet ports to the audio works extremely well out of the box. Even though the video drivers that Ubuntu ships don't work with this board (Chrome 9HC support will probably be included with Hardy), the VESA drivers work fine out of the box. To get XvMC support (to get things such as MythTV working well on this board) you will need to compile the latest OpenChrome drivers from http://www.openchrome.org. The OpenChrome team do a great job of making drivers. VIA really needs to support that team better since VIA's own binary driver doesn't work with Linux in general. It only supports a few kernels.
Another problem with the board is DRI (Direct Rendering Infrastructure). The DRM (Direct Rendering Module) included with the kernel in Gutsy (7.10) doesn't have the proper PCI id for this new board. I tried as much as I could on compiling a new DRM kernel module, but all I did was break my install over and over. I just gave up and left it with indirect rendering. It is slower, but it works.
You can drop in a PCIe video card for speed, yes, this will handle a latest generation graphics card. There is much more this PCIe port can do. I can drop in a real hardware RAID card and make a great storage array server. This is one awesome board for expandability.
How about general multimedia tasks? After loading the proper OpenChrome driver, the board can use XvMC so MythTV works extremely well with no dropped frames. It can handle streaming OGG with a CPU usage at around 10%-20%. When playing a DVD file, the CPU was around 30-50%. This board is an all around board that would be great for a home theater. With better drivers, it can be one of the best. VIA states their binary drivers will support Ubuntu 7.10 soon, but I suggested that they support OpenChrome.
It is faster than the »D201GLY2 that I tested before. As a similar test, it was faster by 5% when gzipping that large tar file. The serial ATA subsystem is a big improvement for EPIA boards.
Conclusion:
The SN is available now and it retails for about $250. It is a hefty price for an ITX motherboard. The saving grace is that the board does a great job of handling expandability and speed that no other VIA EPIA series boards have ever done. This board is suitable for anyone looking for a small form factor PC. If you want more gaming horsepower, drop in a PCI Express graphics card and you're good to go. If you're looking for an ITX board for a new build, this should be on the top of your list.
I'd like to thank Pat and the folks at VIA for making this review possible.