This is a retarded article... your comparisons are very poor. You should have compared this MB with full ATX Socket 754 instead of AM2.

The VARIABLE is supposed to be the form factor (Mini-ITX). Therefore all OTHER variables should be held constant. That is, socket should be the same, at least ONE ATX board should have been using the same chipset, and PROCESSORS of the competing boards should have been the same.

As it is, this test shows NOTHING, except that Turion chips aren't as fast as Athlon X2 chips (duh!) and Socket 754 doesn't perform as well as Socket AM2 (duh!).

What the hell is the matter with you guys? Jesus, go take a look at a decent review site. Anandtech and SilentPCReview have got a lot to teach you...

Cool mobo, though... ridiculous pricetag on it

While micro-ATX boards are far larger than this, they do so much more for so much less money, that I can't see a good reason for this board.

For example, I'd willingly trade one of the NIC ports on the above board for Firewire. Since I can't get that though, I'd have to leave it out, as there is only one PCI slot, and I'd likely use that to hold a TV tuner/PVR board.

Contrast with an mATX board. Dual channel memory support already available. A newer CPU socket with dual-core support. If onboard video is your bag, the Geforce 6150 is still available (or an ATI solution); if not, you'll probably have a graphics card slot for the upgrade. You'll have two, possibly three PCI slots for the add-in cards you need. You'll likely be able to fit the heatsink/fan you need. And after all of that, if you choose your case wisely, you can still wind up with a fairly small system. Plus, I can get that mATX board for a price of around $80-100.

The reviewed board is very interesting, and the review was very well done. For me though, it just isn't practical for the price, and I have trouble seeing where it would be for others as well.

Am I the only one that thinks this motherboard is nothing more than a tiny way to waste a lot of time?

Socket 754? PS/2 connectors? Two ethernet ports? Jesus, people, are you trying to get your arses kicked by Apple?

*sigh*

If you want a small box with some "Core 2 Duo balls"...
http://www.epiacenter.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=94

Why didn't TR use some mATX gForce 6150 MBs in this review? It would only make sence because THAT is what this MB NEEDS to be compared to. This MB is designed for the HTPC & Carputer community. Not gamers, so why use a 7900GTX as a graphics comparison? Currently, the most popular MBs for HTPCs are mATX 6150s and for the Carputers its the Via Epia series. Seems like they would have been included.

Other than that, the review was great.

BT

The socket is going to kill this thing. You can't even find new 754 Athlon64s anymore!

Now, a S939 variant I could see the point of, at least those CPUs are still out there (though not for very long), and there's going to be a lot of upgraders who might want to move their old memory and (possibly quite expensive) CPU from their gaming rig to a home server, like I might do in a few years; I have a S939 X2 and 4x512MiB RAM in my gaming rig, and when that gets upgraded I'd love a mini-itx board to move it over to.

I actually thougt about buying a barebones S754-box when I saw one really cheap, but I looked around and couldn't find a CPU to put in it! (I'm not buying a Sempron, ever). Went to VIA EPIA instead.

you pc guys slay me ;-) .... all this trouble to imitate a mac mini for the same price!

minimum cost: $1000

mobo $300 + $250 CPU + $100 RAM + $100 Case + $150 DASD (+ $100 GPU?) + $100 DVD±RW/DL (+ $100 B/T & wifi if physically possible)

you are stuck with a mono core not a DUAL core ...

you are stuck with a giant heat sink, a huge LOUD fan ...

but you are contrained for RAM (max 1GB RAM vs 2GB RAM) ...

and you dont get wifi + bluetooth included -- or even possible on the mobo!

plus NO o/s or any software at all!

plus no power brick or power supply!

plus no (meaningful) warranty

in short: a typical PC kludge! ....

when the superior alternative is a mac mini ... ready to go, turn-key, same price;

which also includes the world's best operating system (OS/X); plus an /awesome/ bundle of apps (iLIfe);

plus the ability to boot or VM with windows or linux etc if you are stuck with some crappy legacy software.

I mean, why would you guys punish yourselves like this? ...

plus you have had to wait for years after apple introduced its own compact form-factor product, just hoping that maybe the clones could figure out a way to catch up.

trust me: so do yourselves a favour -- go to your nearest applestore (or a dealer) & check it out for yourselves.

you will wonder why you didnt switch eons ago.

enjoy!

Dang that is one small mobo.

#44, Actually, if you've used those "USB to Ethernet" adapters, you'd know not to suggest them from a performance perspective.

Even with USB 2.0, I'd never get good solid performance compared to using plain ethernet. (I found this out when my ThinkPad's ethernet port was busted so I went with the adapter you've linked...I ended up buying a cheap Realtek-chip based PCMICA Ethernet card in the end)...The CPU usage skyrockets when you use those USB adapters!

As for VPN on a typical Linksys router (I'm assuming something like the WRT54G/GS/GL series), I've tried VPN on that. It doesn't have the system resources to provide more than 3Mbit or so for VPN tunnels...That's why I went with EPIA using a VIA chip that has hardware accelerated encryption (marketed as "Padlock")...It allows me to raise the performance to about 60Mbit, easily crushing most consumer (and even business) solutions. This is using AES-256 with HMAC-SHA256...I wouldn't be surprised if it made no difference if I bump the encryption to AES-512.

I'm thinking about getting one with C7 (1.2Ghz fanless one), as they added the capability to accelerate the authentication part...In my case, HMAC-SHA256. (If you accelerate this, you can easily hit almost 90Mbit!)

Interestingly, hackers are working on using the Padlock capability in C3 or C7 CPUs to break encryption! (To accelerate the cracking process).

#46, That's why you virtualise at the OS level!

For Linux, you use something like FreeVPS or OpenVZ.
(For other OS, you use some other virtual server solution).

If I recall correctly, this allows you to put controls such that each service is on its own. Controls include regulating system resources, such that no one service can cause the whole system to slow down. It also allows you to restrict the damage to a particular service, if your box is ever compromised! Its completely up to you on how you want to set it up...

That's the beauty of what I'm saying! If you build your own, you open up some pretty big doors on the flexibility front! The only limitations I notice with this approach, is that sometimes you need to decide on which solution (assuming there's more than one tool to do the same thing) is best for you or for a particular requirement and budget.

When it comes to firewalls, servers and such...I prefer to build my own. I'd only recommend buying a solution, if your business or home doesn't have an onsite expert. (someone that can take care of it for you and knows what they're doing, while you focus on your business, etc).

"The KI51PV is even picky when it comes to IDE cables; the board's IDE ports have a full 40 pins, making them incompatible with ribbon cables that block off one pin. That's not a huge problem, but 39 pins seems to be the new standard for IDE, so it's a little annoying."
Why did they even include it??

While this board is nice, the $300+ price tag really puts me off. However, I'd love to see a review of this board:

www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813185076

Kinda inbetween the Epias and Pentium-m mini-itx boards on performance.

Basically a Athlon XP 1.4 Ghz, but only $75 for the board AND proc. Additionally, who doesn't have DDR266 lying around that could be reused for this board, further lowering the cost.

Nice review! I'm happy to see mini-itx starting to get more attention. Heres a link to a mini-itx C2D motherboard with pcie x16 slot on it!

http://www.commell.com.tw/product/SBC/LV-677.HTM

...if it were more reasonably priced, i'd get it and make a little media server out of it when i replace my current comp (which is a s754 athlon)

Good review. It also competes against other Mini-ITX mobos, though, so please bench against a VIA Epia as well next time.

thank you, geoff, for reviewing this mITX form factor board. it's too bad about the PCI slot, though. i AM glad to hear about the AM2 boards coming soon! I am such a mITX geek. :$

"VIA's EPIA boards dominate the scene, and they all sport relatively slow processors that can't be upgraded or replaced."

Gee that sure is a neat board, maybe I'll go get one for 310 DOLLARS NO WAY!

A Sempron would still kill any Via proc.

*edit* supposed to be a reply to #12

I applaud your choice in music...

At least it has DVI output.

I would have liked to see it compared with a VIA mini-itx board and a Mac Mini (which probably costs the same once CPU, memory, hard drive, etc is factored in).

The AM2 version will presumably be more compelling.

Its a step in the right direction.

Small, low power and enough performance. Now if someone would just make a nice case.

DFI-ACP and Commell make far better _industrial_ boards for the same price or less. I know it from experience. I wouldn't touch an Albatron with a 100-foot pole.

which scores an even 100 with an Athlon 65 FX-51 processor and GeForce FX 5950 Ultra graphics

cute mobo

If you liked this review, please Digg it.

http://tinyurl.com/pf5zg

Thanks.