Motherboard Experience

dsmith6 · 10-20-2005, 05:11 PM

Just figured I would share my experence with this etremely cheap motherboard/vga/cpu set. It was 55 bucks from newegg.com. I am running road runner, and using cineplayer for dvds. It runs everything flawlessly, and boots xp sp2 reasonably fast. It's physical size is also small. I was not expecting to have as good as an experience as I have had, so just in case any of you are looking for a super-cheap motherboard solution, here you go!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813185043

Also, for someone who is willing to use a drill-bit and a dremel, here is an awesome solution for a case. It even fits under the seat of my 1989 honda accord easily with full size dvd player and full size hard drive. All you have to do is drill holes in the bottom for motherboard risers and har drive mounting. It's steel, and costs about 30 bucks.

http://www.digikey.com/scripts/DkSea...=20331&Site=US

I also used one of the very cheap 8" touch screens from ebay. here is a link to the one I bought. The drivers were difficult to get installed correctly (the auto-installer doesn't do it right). But it works very well.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...MEWN%3AIT&rd=1

Just sharing my experience

evandude · 10-20-2005, 05:23 PM

I wasn't real impressed with that mobo at first glance, after all, most of us who go for micro-atx mobos instead of mini-itx are trading size and power consumption for speed and try to go for nForce chipsets for decent video...

but that was before i noticed it's a 2000+ via processor... so even though it's micro-atx size, and you only get low-end onboard graphics, you should still get the low power consumption of an epia, and quite a bit faster than any of the epia boards (assuming their 2000+ rating is moderately accurate like AMD's), plus you get two PCI slots...

hmm, I think this motherboard bridges the gap between mini-ITX and micro-ATX. Not my idea of an ideal system, but I'm sure some people will think it is. and it's cheap!

Good find!

Oh, and if you get a chance, you should try doing some sort of system benchmarks on it, so others can get an idea of how it stacks up to the epia systems, or traditional micro-atx systems, since I'm sure not many of us are familiar with the performance C3 Samual 2 CPU...

dsmith6 · 10-20-2005, 06:37 PM

I'll do that when I get a chance. I have only had it in the car for a short time. The c3 processor is what sold it for me. It surely doesn't have the performance ability for serious gaming, but it works very well with dvd/ mp3/ music video stuff. And the best part... It produces practically no heat with the itty-bitty fan that comes with it.

PatO · 10-21-2005, 10:33 PM

PC-Chips. I hope you bought two of them!

Seriously, though - they are good boards. They just tend to be a little fragile. Every one I've owned (4) has died just outside of one year (warranty period).

I used to work at a mom and pop computer shop and we sold tons of machines with PC-Chips boards. Probably 20% came back within the first year with bad mobo's.

dsmith6 · 10-23-2005, 09:42 AM

what's going bad with them? Solders, caps, or components. I looked at the board material and thickness and it doesn't look prone to cracks (glass epoxy). Let me know what dies so I can be prepared ;-)

User Name		Remember Me?
Password