Our testing methods
All tests were run three times, and their results were averaged, using the following test systems.

Because the EPIA-M10000 is such a unique product, and indeed one with few direct competitors, I'm taking a slightly different approach with testing. Instead of flooding you with a bunch of graphs of memory bandwidth performance and Winstone scores for which I can't really cobble together an equivalent comparative system (as far as the Mini-ITX form factor goes, the EPIA-M10000 has no competition other than VIA's previous EPIA models, and I don't have any of those), I've decided to so some specific application performance tests to determine if the EPIA-M10000 is fast enough for common home theater applications and basic office productivity tasks.

For media playback tests, I've included graphs of CPU utilization with media streaming from a networked drive over the EPIA-M10000's Ethernet port, and also playing off the EPIA-M10000 system's hard drive. I've also included impressions of some subjective testing with web surfing and Office XP. Since this isn't a gaming platform (especially given the board's limited graphics upgrade potential), gaming tests have been left out.

We used the following versions of our test applications:

• Microsoft Windows Media Player 9
• Winamp 2.92
• DivX 5.05
• CyberLink PowerDVD XP

The test systems' Windows desktop was set at 1024x768 in 32-bit color at a 75Hz screen refresh rate. Vertical refresh sync (vsync) was disabled for all tests. Most of the 3D gaming tests used the high detail image quality settings, with the exception that the resolution was set to 640x480 in 32-bit color.

All the tests and methods we employed are publicly available and reproducible. If you have questions about our methods, hit our forums to talk with us about them.