Help deciding on an EPIA board: 800 v M9000

**jusatry** · 02-19-2005, 10:47 PM

Hi all,

Having been a dedicated mp3car head for a while, i recently got interested in HTPC building. So i am putting a project together, trying to build, into a DVD player's skeleton, a computer on which you will be able to watch TV, pause live TV, setup times to record stuff, and play DVDs. So it will function as an all-in-one, literally. I plan to install KnoppMyth on it and get a Hauppauge PVR-150 Low Profile on a riser card. My question is this:

Should i get an EPIA 800 or M9000. Cost is sort of an issue, but i could afford either if necessary.

The way I see it, the drawbacks of the 800 are:
No USB2.0 (dont need it for this project)
Weak CPU (PVR150 has an MPEG2 hardware encoder, so that wont be straining the CPU)
No DVD decoder......is this a problem for anyone who has an 800?

The M9000 has USB2 and a hardware DVD decoder. But it has a fan (noise?), is more expensive an an 800, and may not work as well with linux bios (any exp here?).

I know lots of people on this board use mini-itx, so i thought i would see your opinions. If you are using either board, could you post what you use it for and how you like it? Thanks!!!!

**thanatos106** · 02-19-2005, 11:20 PM

If what you building is a carputer forget the fan noise I have 2 extra fans and I don't hear anything when driving coming from the PC

**meatwad** · 02-19-2005, 11:27 PM

Check with the Myth project concerning the onboard MPEG2 decoding of the M9000. I think they had it working but it might not be as easy as 1-2-3. That said, you might have to do some kernel tweaking and/or upgrading to get USB2.0 working with the Knoppmyth distro (I honestly can't remember if I had to our not, I flopped back and forth from Redhat 9, Knoppmyth, Sage on WinXp, and Fedora Core 1 and 2). Then again, being the Linux noob that I am, I could be completely speaking out of my a$$

While I haven't run a barebones system in Myth like you are planning, I have been into that hobby for around 18 months. Knoppmyth is an excellent choice for out of the box use and should give you few problems. My only really sound advice? Storage... more than you plan on needing.

**jusatry** · 02-20-2005, 02:05 AM

Originally Posted by meatwad

Check with the Myth project concerning the onboard MPEG2 decoding of the M9000. I think they had it working but it might not be as easy as 1-2-3. That said, you might have to do some kernel tweaking and/or upgrading to get USB2.0 working with the Knoppmyth distro (I honestly can't remember if I had to our not, I flopped back and forth from Redhat 9, Knoppmyth, Sage on WinXp, and Fedora Core 1 and 2). Then again, being the Linux noob that I am, I could be completely speaking out of my a$$

While I haven't run a barebones system in Myth like you are planning, I have been into that hobby for around 18 months. Knoppmyth is an excellent choice for out of the box use and should give you few problems. My only really sound advice? Storage... more than you plan on needing.

Thanks for the advice. The HDD will be the last thing i buy, since if i buy it now it will be overpriced then. Do you think that the 800 will be able to run knoppmyth? I have almost 0 exp in linux, so this will be a learning project in every way. I recently built a new desktop machine with a PVR150, asus mobo, XP2700 - and half a terabyte of raid 0'd space. and im almost full!

so yeah, any advice on the 800 would be appreciated.

Thanks

**Danceheaven** · 02-20-2005, 02:11 AM

DONT DO IT!!!!!!!

the 800 can barly handle a divx rip let alone a DVD base don my experience there only good as low power servers mate

**jusatry** · 02-20-2005, 03:27 AM

Originally Posted by Danceheaven

DONT DO IT!!!!!!!

the 800 can barly handle a divx rip let alone a DVD base don my experience there only good as low power servers mate

What happens when you play a DVD?

Thanks for the input!

**Danceheaven** · 02-20-2005, 10:51 AM

Originally Posted by jusatry

What happens when you play a DVD?

Thanks for the input!

Choppy playback

**jusatry** · 02-20-2005, 03:54 PM

Originally Posted by Danceheaven

Choppy playback

What OS were you using?

**Danceheaven** · 02-20-2005, 05:57 PM

Originally Posted by jusatry

What OS were you using?

that was on win xp sp1
slimline toshiba 8x dvd drive with 256 mb of DDR2100
using media engine
ive got my epia 800 fired up here now mate it took an hour to install xp on last night and is very very sluggish with nothin installed yet so i dread to think what itll be like once ive got stuff installed

**Spaghetti** · 02-20-2005, 06:18 PM

Thinking about either the MII10000 or the MII12000 myself. P4 route sounds kinda tempting too, although I'd have to weigh it against the built-in extra connectivity of the MII's

Dunno abouth the 800's though - I do know people are struggling to get rid of theirs.....