I got hold of a Via Eden motherboard quite a while ago. The 800mhz EPIA model. When I purchased it, I wasn't entirely sure what I wanted to use it for - I just knew there was a use there. At only 170x170mm, this sucker can be put into the most unusual of places. Lets take a brief look at this board before we show off our latest mod.

As you can see in this photo above, comparing it's size to a micro-atx motherboard, it's VERY small.

This motherboard has in intergrated C3 processor. When I say integrated, I mean as in no ZIF socket, this thing is soldered straight to the board. This cut's down on a lot of costs, but stops us from sticking a celeron into this board. A ZIF socket version of this board would certainly sell well. (hint hint via).

Taken from the Via Site:

Processor VIA C3™ processor up to 800MHz with 128K L1 and 64K L2 cache, with 3dnow and MMX.

Core Logic VIA Apollo PLE133: North Bridge (VT8601A), South Bridge (VT8231).

Main Memory Two 168-pin DIMM memory sockets, PC100/133 SDRAM support.

Graphics Integrated AGP2X with 2D/3D Graphics Acceleration
Motion Compensation for DVD playback
VIP port for video overlay function

Storage (ATA) Two ATA 33/66/100 IDE connectors

Audio System VIA VT1612A

3 Audio Jacks - Line-Out, Line-In and Microphone-In, Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster Pro Compatible.
Digital I/O compatible with consumer mode S/PDIF

Ethernet (LAN) VIA VT6103

TV Out VIA VT1621, Integrated Macro Vision 7.01, High quality scaling and filtering, S-Video or Composite video output, Support NTSC/PAL TV.

Four USB ports (two USB ports located at rear side)
One EPP/ECP parallel port
One 16C550 compatible serial port
Two External PS/2 Compatible Keyboard /Mouse ports
Two TV output ports (S-Video or optional RCA TV out)
One S/PDIF out (optional and multiplex with RCA TV out)
One RJ45 port
One PCI slot (Note: support for two PCI devices)

So, as you can see - you get a lot for your money. For me, this has got a great application as an MP3, Divx and DVD player, perhaps for a set-top box. And also for making cheap, small, quiet workstations. A lot of sites would at this point spout off a load of benchmarks but there is no point becuase this is no performance king. This board can do pretty much anything except play games. It will play Divx, MP3, DVD, Browse the net, run Microsoft Office.... What a lot of us spend 90% of our time doing.

My first idea was to fit this inside a suitcase. But thats been done SO many times. So I decided on a different approach...

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