[mythtv-users] VIA EPIA EX for mythtv front+backend (newbie)

[Jan Ceuleers]

Wouter van Atteveldt wrote:
> My question is: Would this be a sensible choice for a first time install with the parameters given above? Do people have experience with this mainboard? Can I expect driver issues with the components on the mainboard?

As I wrote elsewhere, I for one have not been able to get the hardware 
acceleration of the CX700M(2) to work (at all), either with Via's 
proprietary driver (which is supposed to support it) or with Openchrome 
(which doesn't support it, so it's not surprising that it's not 
working). I never got round to trying the audio part of the mobo before 
discarding it, but that is another aspect I was expecting driver issues 
with.

As regards keeping things cool: I've decided against fanless mini-ITX 
boards, having had seriously bad experiences with fanless C7 boards 
(admittedly with Jetway mobos which have absolutely tiny heatsinks 
compared with the Via Epia boards). I now have an Epia EN15000G in a 
Morex Cubid case, standing upright behind my TV, and it's not audible 
(unless you know it's there and you make an effort). The upright 
position is important, because it helps convection flow.

So my advice is to go for a mobo with fan, with support for PWM-based 
fan speed control, and with as much CPU offloading as you can get (i.e. 
hardware video encoding and decoding) in order to keep the power 
consumption (and hence heat generation) down, which in turn keeps the 
fan speeds low. But even at full throttle the fans of this mobo and case 
are acceptably quiet.

HTH, Jan