VIA Introduces New Fanless Slim PC Kit

Status
Not open for further replies.
G

Guest

Guest
So its missing a Drive and basically for the money you can buy a complete small PC for about the same money. Not sure why it costs over $300 for a box and a motherboard? The CPU has to be a ultra low power one. So do not expect much performance power and to be honest its most likely not any better then a duel core Atom from Intel. These small forms have been around for a while. Samsung just came out with a Chromebook model that has HDMI and DVI output. A bit better then this.
 

ta152h

Distinguished
Apr 1, 2009
1,207
2
19,285
This also needs a hard disk, and the price probably doesn't include memory. Obviously it also does not include a keyboard or mouse, so it's not complete.

VIA is a bad joke. The gave out CN1000 based test systems over a year ago, and they still do not have a single motherboard with it. The Artigo 1150 is still out of stock, and expected soon; also a year ago.

They suck. Don't buy their stuff so they go out of business, which is where they belong. I think AMD and Intel will with the Brazos and Atom, which means they are playing where VIA has been for a long time, without competition.

Brazos is just better, and AMD will stay in business. VIA is going down, as they should.
 
Woo! VIA is back in the news! They use to be the kings of low voltage CPUs and integrated graphics before AMD/ATI kicked them out of the onboard GPU market, and Intel started rocking Atom CPUs that simply trashed VIAs performance. They have always been a great little company, and I hope they are able to pull something awesome out of their hat some day... but this product is not it...
 

tipoo

Distinguished
May 4, 2006
1,183
0
19,280
S3 graphics drivers have an even muddier history than Intels. And at $300 this doesn't include a hard drive. If I absolutely needed a system in this form factor and price I'd have to go with Intel, and I'm not sure if Brazos has made it to nettops like this yet but that would be better still.
 

internetlad

Distinguished
Jan 23, 2011
1,080
0
19,310
"The VIA ARTiGO A1200 PC kit is an ultra slim DIY PC kit for enthusiasts who want a compact fanless system without sacrificing computing power,"

It has a 1 GhZ (albeit dual core) Proc. . . And they claim enthusiasts aren't sacrificing anything?
 
I wish that AMD would buy VIA and gain some profitable product lines as well some decent engineers and IT property in the ARM market. S3 has been crap for many many years even before some here were born! AMD can turn things around in the mainstream markets pretty decently just so long they keep prices low and leave the high end to intel. VIA's add-on usb and raid controllers can make AMD a nice little slice of the market on the side.
 

gallidorn

Distinguished
Jan 23, 2009
104
0
18,680
Really??? Direct X 9????

At a minimum they should support Direct X 10.

This might be good for browsing the web, checking e-mail, or word processing, but forget about gaming and HD Media.
 

gallidorn

Distinguished
Jan 23, 2009
104
0
18,680
[citation][nom]gallidorn[/nom]Really??? Direct X 9????At a minimum they should support Direct X 10.This might be good for browsing the web, checking e-mail, or word processing, but forget about gaming and HD Media.[/citation]

Actually, it might be good for using XBMC and you could probably game through Onlive.
 

deanjo

Distinguished
Sep 30, 2008
113
0
18,680
The kit supports both Microsoft Windows 7 and Linux.

Sure it is, have they every tried using their linux graphics driver? The VX900's linux driver is best described as a "steaming pile of turd".
 

waethorn

Distinguished
Sep 29, 2009
300
0
18,780
Why would anyone buy this when they can get a Foxconn barebones E-450 machine for $180US: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856119070&Tpk=foxconn%20e-450

Or if you really want to stick with VIA, get a Zotac VD01 for $160US: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856173029

The ONLY benefit VIA has here is that their unit is fanless. It's just not worth the expense though! Their drivers suck. DXVA on a VIA IGP is absolute CRAP! and Aero doesn't even display properly half the time. I remember trying a system with one of the VX/VH900 IGP's earlier this year and even IE9!! (a regular program on Windows 7 - nothing out of the ordinary) had weird graphics anomolies where the tab highlighting wasn't drawn properly! Yes, the UI elements! Absolutely TERRIBLE QA from VIA. If you want quality drivers, stick with AMD. The Brazos stuff is only slightly more expensive, but WORLDS better. Sorry, but that's not an exageration at all. Their stuff is a really good deal. AMD is worth the money, while VIA isn't worth the savings or the headaches.

Mind you, VIA might not be bad if you wanted to run a "pocket server" with SBS Essentials or WHS 2011. I haven't tried it though, so I can't comment on it, although I think I'd rather try it on Zotac's VIA machine with the faster clock speed than on this 1GHz system. VIA's U4025 is faster than an Atom D525, and I've seen SBS Essentials run on one of those, supporting 5 PC desktops.
 

waethorn

Distinguished
Sep 29, 2009
300
0
18,780
[citation][nom]nforce4max[/nom]I wish that AMD would buy VIA and gain some profitable product lines as well some decent engineers and IT property in the ARM market. S3 has been crap for many many years even before some here were born! AMD can turn things around in the mainstream markets pretty decently just so long they keep prices low and leave the high end to intel. VIA's add-on usb and raid controllers can make AMD a nice little slice of the market on the side.[/citation]

AMD is already very competitive in the mainstream market. OEM's want Fusion APU's, and AMD is certainly getting a lot of design wins. Intel can only compete in the low-end and mainstream based on their brand, not their product. They have a lot of sway in deals made to OEM's for volume purchasing and such, and AMD can't leverage marketing tactics to get more sales the way that Intel can.
 

ProDigit10

Distinguished
Nov 19, 2010
585
1
18,980
Who would want to buy this, when you can get an asus eeepc for lower than this?
Folded, the EEEPC is about the same size, consumes only a few watts more, has battery, larger ram,and harddrive, and can be taken on a trip because of it's built in keyb, mousepad, and screen!
 
This is made to be a home router / application device or a kiosk.

The Nano X2 is significantly faster then a Pentium-III, your thinking of the C3's which are old as dirt.

Take this, insert CF media or a small HDD and you have a home SPIFW / gateway device or a secure VPN end point for a private network. Could do all sorts of interesting things with one of these. You won't be playing video games, and I highly doubt you'll be watching movies on these (Via's GPU sucks hardcore).
 
Status
Not open for further replies.