Thread: Pentuim M on DFI Vs. Epia Worth it?

I have a conundrum. I have been delaying the install of my carputer waiting to save up for the right parts since august now. I finally purchased an Opus 150, Seagate HD, Panasonic slot load DVD/CDRW and Kingston 512 DDR. I already have my GPS, OBD and my albrite/controller/inverter, (which is a long story and for another thread, but going on the assumption that everything works out with the screen, I am almost there.)

I still have to buy a motherboard. For months I was under the assumption that I was going to buy an M or MII epia, but kept holding off from purchasing it. I wanted to, but kept holding myself back. While I am sure that the epia is the smart choice for power consumption, size, low heat output, price and port availability. I also know from what I have read here that they are not the fastest boards either. I am not a gamer so I just assumed it would be enough for my needs in the car, and chalked it up to the sacrifice for the low power consumption.

Then a couple of weeks ago came this

And this was already around but the only board available was a super expensive ITX option that was way out of my league.

But combined with one of the two new mATX boards it is under $500 dollars

Hmmmm.

So my question is who thinks it is worth it? There is a good 250-300 dollar difference between the epia and the Pentium M setup.

The Pentium M 2.0 only consumes 28 watts at full load, I am sure the 1.6 will be slightly less, I cannot find info on how much power the DFI consumes only that it is listed on there site as “low power”. Form what I have been reading DFI makes a good board and a overclockers dream. I few reviews have overclocked the 2.0 M to 2.8

I am especially curious to here from Epia owners in a “if I could go back and do it again light”. Knowing what you know now having had the epia what’s you take? If I decide to go with the Pentium setup it is going to delay my install yet again.

Sorry this is so long.

Thoughts