All you need to know about VIA's C7

[Palle04]

Got a preproduction sample of the Epia EN 1500 (CN700 + C7@1,5 Ghz)

The review will be online in about a week. I will let you know.

 

[defaultluser]

I'm not surprised at all. We've always known at the Nehemiah around 1GHz was bandwidth-bound, but even with a faster bus and more L2 cache, we knew it wouldn't be a screamer.

You could clock an Athlon 64 down to 1 GHz, 1.0v, and get MORE performance than that with less power usage. But then, if Via were to get off their high horse and stop overcharging for these thing, it might be worth the purchase.

The reason for the poor performance is easy to understand, though: Nehemiah has a single integer execution pipeline, and a single FPU pipe. By comparison, the P3 has 2 integer pipes, and 2 FPU pipes (thus, it is no surprise that the performance is the same as a P3 clocked at half the speed). Unless Via does a major overhaul of the processor design, the performance will always suck.

 

[MD_Willington]

They load your mainboard with piss poor GSC caps? or some other crap like Teapo or OST??

For what they charge, those should be Rubycon, Panasonic, or Sanyo Chemicons on there...

MD

[/ shakes fist at Via for cutting corners with cheap junk...

 

[Emission]

This is the thing that dosnt suprise me about these small form factor solutions. They still charge you an arm and a leg for a piece of crap, easily replaceable with a down-clocked AMD or maybe Intel Celeron solution. A downclocked AMD DTR 3000+ looks attractive if your going for low power/high performance, im actually looking into it. Im losing intrest in big-bore systems simply because I dont see the need for a 3+ GHz music/video/web/im machine. Yeah, the current VIA's are nothing to drool over.

 

[Boxcar]

This is the thing that dosnt suprise me about these small form factor solutions. They still charge you an arm and a leg for a piece of crap, easily replaceable with a down-clocked AMD or maybe Intel Celeron solution. A downclocked AMD DTR 3000+ looks attractive if your going for low power/high performance, im actually looking into it. Im losing intrest in big-bore systems simply because I dont see the need for a 3+ GHz music/video/web/im machine. Yeah, the current VIA's are nothing to drool over.

I'de say that statement is only true if you can afford the alternatives or can get away with something larger. I'de say these are designed for a specific market. Definately not aimed at gamers or video editors. For what I use these size boards for they more then suit my needs. You'de be suprised how well even the 1ghz C3 handles windows, music, and video playback. Perfect for a car pc, HTPC, or basic pc. I have one in my car and also tried talking my mom into getting one for her house. It's really all she needs and can be hidden on any little shelf.

-Boxcar

 

[Emission]

I liked the idea because, if you found a big enough book (think - giant unabridged dictionairy), you can make a case out of a book, and put it in a bookshelf . Looks like it would work well with the low power passive models. No one would have a clue where your PC is

 

[artificio]

I just don't find Via all that tantalizing anymore. Between ridiculous delays and pathetic performance, Via has fallen behind. Now both Intel and AMD can produce more complex chips with larger caches that can have competitive power usage, thus derailing Via's "simple is better" approach for all but the absolute lowest-power applications.

Based on my research they were the only manufacturer with low power consumption and a decent amount of expansion slots. I have a S754 Sempron , the Winchester 128KB D0, so if I can undervolt it and there's a mobo out there for cheap that'll provide at least 2 pci slots along with the usual back panel inputs and consume around 40+W at max load w/ it, or a 90nm cpu/mobo combo that can do this for ~$65, LMK. 40+W loaded with faster processing and 64 bit *nix would be sweet! As it stands VIA was the only manufacturer who offered something that met my needs and price. The D201GLY is ~$15-20 more everywhere I've looked, and doesn't have nearly enough in the way of expansion slots, which knocks it out of the picture even while being twice as fast. Everything else was even pricier, so the VIA combo was the clear choice.

 

[kent]

You guys are going to miss your encryption accelerator!

 

[verteron]

let's see, April 2006 then Feb 2008? Is this thread remotely relevant anymore? We need to redirect to here: http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTQ1MCwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==