[Nottingham] Cheapie Via C3 replacement?

[Jim Moore]

On 12/22/09, Martin <martin at ml1.co.uk> wrote:
> Martin wrote:
>> Folks,
>>
>> Any suggestions for...
>>
>>
>> I have a very old Via C3 mini-itx board...
>
> Well a search around has been a bit of a disappointment.
>
> Looks like it's about a £100 for putting something together using a C7
> or Atom based system. Going for a min-spec AMD system is cheaper and
> more powerful but also more power hungry.
>
> The VIA Nano systems look nice but not at the silly prices... And why
> are SBCs so expensive?...
>
> Almost tempting to go for a Linux netbook at just over £100 even though
> that seems to be quite a waste just for the sake of getting USB2 on my
> present via C3 system!
>
>
> Also, can DDR2-800 be run at 533MHz? Or will the SPD reported timings
> for the 800MHz operation completely confuse the BIOS?
>
> Cheers,
> Martin
>
> --
> ----------------
> Martin Lomas
> martin at ml1.co.uk
> ----------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> Nottingham mailing list
> Nottingham at mailman.lug.org.uk
> https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/nottingham
>

I'm not certain about any viable C3 replacements, but my 3000+ Sempron
on a Foxconn K8M890M VIA mainboard and dual 512MB DDR2/800 with one
HDD, one DVDRW and no other peripherals draws 65W (86W under full
load). Measured using a primary (socket) digital meter. It ain't
supercomputer stuff, but it's plenty quick enough at 1.6GHz and I'm
pretty sure it should run off of a high-capacity 12V-ATX converter (as
provided in the VIA EPIA car kit). The board spec is here:
http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Motherboards/Socket+AM2+(AMD)/Foxconn+VIA+K8M890M+AM2+Mainboard?productId=28897
and the power curve for the First-Gen AM2 Sempron processor (Manila
core AM2): 35W full load. OK, that's still three times the power of
the Eden, but you can't have everything... low power dissipation or
something a little more useful than a Texas pocket calculator?

-- 
Vi veri veniversum vivus vici