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#277657 - 15/03/2006 02:47 VIA EPIA NL Motherboard
Waterman981
old hand

Registered: 14/02/2002
Posts: 804
Loc: Salt Lake City, UT
I didn't know if people had seen this board, so I thought I would mention it. It looks like a great starting point for a new indash pc.

Highlights (to me at least ):
12cm X 12cm
44 pin IDE header (Yay Notebook drives!)
10/100 LAN
No ports on the back! Instead there are headers to attach everything, PS/2, Video, LAN, USB. Easy to modify to go to docking connector?

While I know I will not be able to create anything nearly as good as the empeg software, I think this board may be a great place to start in creating a small in-dash removable PC. I love that the empeg is removable, and would want any in-dash PC to do the same. I'm thinking of getting one to see what I can put together. The biggest hurdle is the heatsink is huge! Makes fitting it all in an DIN enclosure more difficult!

Edit: Whoops! Forgot product link!


Attachments
278006-EPIA-NL-45_s.jpg (467 downloads)



Edited by Waterman981 (15/03/2006 02:53)
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-Michael

#040103696 on a shelf
Mk2a - 90 GB - Red - Illuminated buttons

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#277658 - 15/03/2006 05:09 Re: VIA EPIA NL Motherboard [Re: Waterman981]
Shonky
pooh-bah

Registered: 12/01/2002
Posts: 2009
Loc: Brisbane, Australia
Are they actually available though? They announced the EPIA-N board (Nano-ITX like this one) something like 2 years ago and only now is it becoming available. I'm pretty keen to do up a new car PC while car is not being driven (no license )

I love my empeg, but I want to add navigation (amongst other things).
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Christian
#40104192 120Gb (no longer in my E36 M3, won't fit the E46 M3)

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#277659 - 15/03/2006 13:42 Re: VIA EPIA NL Motherboard [Re: Shonky]
andy
carpal tunnel

Registered: 10/06/1999
Posts: 5914
Loc: Wivenhoe, Essex, UK
It looks like there are some available already.

http://mini-itx.com/store/?c=26#epianl
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#277660 - 15/03/2006 18:42 Re: VIA EPIA NL Motherboard [Re: andy]
Waterman981
old hand

Registered: 14/02/2002
Posts: 804
Loc: Salt Lake City, UT
That's the site I saw them for sale at. Like you said, some are available. I was telling a cow-orker about it, and we were bouncing ideas off each other. You can have the TV out/composite drive a LCD touchscreen, and use the 15 pin VGA to control a front panel LCD much like the empegs display (full color though of course ). Really for a custom in-dash computer I think this board shows so much potential as an off the shelf part.
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-Michael

#040103696 on a shelf
Mk2a - 90 GB - Red - Illuminated buttons

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#277661 - 15/03/2006 20:41 Re: VIA EPIA NL Motherboard [Re: andy]
andym
carpal tunnel

Registered: 17/01/2002
Posts: 3995
Loc: Manchester UK
www.linitx.com claim to have 3 Nano models in stock, i'm giving some serious thought to getting one for a project at work.
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Andy M

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#277662 - 15/03/2006 22:10 Re: VIA EPIA NL Motherboard [Re: andym]
Shonky
pooh-bah

Registered: 12/01/2002
Posts: 2009
Loc: Brisbane, Australia
Note that they say

"1Ghz fan-cooled VIA Luke CoreFusion™ Processor"

eventhough none of the pictures ever show a fan or a heatsink. I think this is quite misleading personally. They did the same with the inital pictures of the Epia-N board and it has a huge heatsink (relatively).

Edit: It appears the "NL8000E" model is fanless though.


Edited by Shonky (15/03/2006 22:11)
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Christian
#40104192 120Gb (no longer in my E36 M3, won't fit the E46 M3)

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#277663 - 15/03/2006 22:46 Re: VIA EPIA NL Motherboard [Re: Shonky]
Waterman981
old hand

Registered: 14/02/2002
Posts: 804
Loc: Salt Lake City, UT
Mini-itx.com did a review of the EPIA N10000 (note the difference between the N and the NL is the rear connectors). According to them the noise was about 20dBA, so I don't think it's anything to worry about.

I do agree though, that heatsink is huge. I think to get the motherboard, a slimline DVD, and a 2.5" HDD all in a single DIN enclosure you would have to modify the heatsink... a little grinding should do!

BTW, these guys make a pretty cool power supply for the nano-ITX motherboards. But unfortunately they need to make a new design to fit the boards.
_________________________
-Michael

#040103696 on a shelf
Mk2a - 90 GB - Red - Illuminated buttons

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#277664 - 16/03/2006 00:11 Re: VIA EPIA NL Motherboard [Re: Waterman981]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14472
Loc: Canada
Quote:

BTW, these guys make a pretty cool power supply for the nano-ITX motherboards. But unfortunately they need to make a new design to fit the boards.


I have a snap-on regulator package (aka. "PSU") like that on my CL6000E mini-ITX board (http://rtr.ca/) and it's very nice. That board is 600Mhz fan-less, and it's great. The newer CPUs may be a bit faster per-clock, and seem to go up to 800Mhz (and faster?) without fans.

Cheers

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#277665 - 16/03/2006 00:27 Re: VIA EPIA NL Motherboard [Re: mlord]
Shonky
pooh-bah

Registered: 12/01/2002
Posts: 2009
Loc: Brisbane, Australia
Yeah it seems above 800MHz is where a fan is required.

These picoPSUs are pretty cool for a regular ATX connector. 120W isn't bad considering their size. Something like 96% efficient. They still require an external 12V supply of course though which necessitates a further external brick and the bigger bricks (12V 8.5A = 102W) seem to have fans in them. 100W is quite a bit for a small firewall/router/server type combo though.

My MythTV system is currently 3x120GB IDE drives + XP2400 + 2 DVB cards and it's only around 120W. I would like to get that down though, the obvious solution being to have a single drive of course. They do spin down when they're idle.
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Christian
#40104192 120Gb (no longer in my E36 M3, won't fit the E46 M3)

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#277666 - 16/03/2006 00:47 Re: VIA EPIA NL Motherboard [Re: Shonky]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14472
Loc: Canada
Those Via boards don't actually need the full 120W, unless one fully tricks them out with the max number of USB2 devices, each drawing the max 0.5A@5VDC, etc..

My server here has a notebook drive, some LEDs, an extra ethernet PCI card, and not much else. The PSU is rated for 60W, but the whole danged thing only draws about 18-25W, depending on CPU activity.

Cheers

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