Tonight only - VIA V21G Motherboard + CPU $45 AR and Free shipping

[GunsMadeAmericaFree]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813185094

Newegg has the Via V21G ATX Motherboard with BUILT-IN VIA C7 Processor soldered to the motherboard permanently. This is a 1.5 GHz CPU.

Normal price is $70 plus $6 shipping, or $76 total.

Tonight it appears that they have free shipping, which knocks $6 off the price, taking it down to $70. Normally their free shipping only lasts 1 day, so I'm guessing the free shipping disappears tonight at midnight.

They also just added a $10 rebate for the board, which takes it down another $10 to $60.

If you happen to have signed up for the Paypal $15 back deal last month, and haven't used it yet (like me), you can use Paypal to pay for this board and get another $15 back automatically. This will take the final cost down from $60 to $45 total.

Yep, you get the motherboard, CPU, onboard video, onboard LAN, onboard sound, etc. The board supports DDR2 memory, so if you already have a stick of that laying around, this could be a cheap upgrade for an old system. It also happens to have two hookups for IDE AND 2 for SATA on the board, so you could hook a lot of drives up to it and still have each be on its own cable.

One of the best aspects of this board is that you can install it in a case using an old power supply. The motherboard draws a grand total of 50 Watts maximum, including the CPU.

So, just $45 total to completely upgrade an older system, WITHOUT having to worry about the power supply being underpowered. In my case, I went from a 700 MHz CPU to 1.5 GHz, went from USB 1.1 to USB 2, and now can use DDR2 memory. The onboard video is also almost guaranteed to be better than my 7 year old TNT 2 32MB video card.

 

[khurios2000]

nice find OP,
the CPU draw 12W
according to their website,
matter of fact more efficient than Pentium-M
http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/processors/c7/

 

[thecoolnessrune]

I wish i had $50 This would work great as my little video server..

 

[gba]

I am not experienced with FlexATX, but from what I gather, a FlexAtx board fits a MicroAtx case, right?

Shipping is still free...

 

[cubby1223]

Sooooo tempting. Only wish it weren't a pc chips board.

These cpus make great media centers, they handle everything with ease, except for high definition content.

They better have put a silent fan on this board, it was absolutely ridiculous the number of fanmates I had in my epia based media center pc. Dell can silently cool a 3ghz prescott, yet I can't buy fans that would silently cool a epia system... for shame.

 

[MisterE]

gba, Although NewEgg lists this as a FlexATX, the motherboard in the pictures appears to be mATX.

 

[Lanyap]

Be careful with the rebate. It's very strict and designed to be invalidated easily. I'm surprised and dissapointed that Newegg went along with this rebate.

Here is how you get your rebate:
1) Fill out this form completely. Incomplete forms will be disqualified.
2) Must go to www.MyRebates411.com, login, fill out the required information,
and submit a new rebate request
3) Mail this form with the following proof of purchase of the specific product(s) to
the address below:
? Copy of original invoice downloaded from Newegg?s website.
? Must write Newegg.com, its Item Number, the promo code, and
MyRebates411 Transaction ID on the back of the envelope.
? Original UPC barcode including Serial number
cut from retail box. Label must include serial number
or customer will be disqualified
MAIL TO:
PCCHIPS REBATE CENTER
3129 S. Hacienda Blvd, Suite 711
Hacienda Heights, CA 91745

Failure to meet any of the Requirements listed in 1, 2, and 3 above, and the Terms and Conditions listed below in the Original Submission will result in disqualification.
This Rebate will be qualified based on the Original Submission. Re-qualifications will not be processed and will be denied 60 days after end of Promotion

THIS REQUEST MUST BE POSTMARKED WITHIN 20 DAYS OF THE PURCHASE DATE. APPLICANT MUST WRITE LEGIBLY.

 

[Lanyap]

Originally posted by: MisterE
gba, Although NewEgg lists this as a FlexATX, the motherboard in the pictures appears to be mATX.

I was wondering about that too but it does appear to be a FlexATX form factor which is compatible with a microATX case.

From PCCHIPS specs page it's listed as FlexATX at the bottom:
http://www.pcchips.com.tw/PCCWeb/Produc...&DetailID=384&DetailName=Specification

From Wikipedia:
FlexATX is a PC motherboard form factor derived from ATX. The specification was released in 1999 by Intel as an addendum to the microATX specification. It uses a subset of the motherboard mounting holes required for microATX and the same I/O plate system as ATX and microATX.

FlexATX specifies that a motherboard be no larger than 9.0 x 7.5" (229 x 191 mm).
(Which is smaller than microATX - 9.6 x 9.6" max)


I guess it's time to replace my Andara motherboard.

 

[gba]

Thanks all, yeah, I thought it looked like it would go right in a mATX case..

Wow, it sure has taken a lot of restraint to hold off... just too busy right now and no need for such a system at the moment.. but is it every tempting!! Thanks OP!

 

[Showtime]

anyone use one of these? how's the performance?

 

[corkypa]

I wonder how the Via processor compares to, say, an undervolted Sempron or ML or MT Turion? Using an AMD chip would give you a wide choice of motherboards at, I would guess, similar power consumption and a possibly higher monetary cost and no touchy rebate.

Another alternative is a PC Chips M863G H30 board with an AMD Geode NX7150 CPU, going for $67 at eWiz. The CPU is basically on a mobile Athlon, and AMD says it is 25W max and 14W average. I believe it handliy beats Via chips with similar power consumption.

 

[cubby1223]

Originally posted by: corkypa
Another alternative is a PC Chips M863G H30 board with an AMD Geode NX7150 CPU, going for $67 at eWiz. The CPU is basically on a mobile Athlon, and AMD says it is 25W max and 14W average. I believe it handliy beats Via chips with similar power consumption.

SiS 741gx chipset :thumbsdown:

When you look at low power solutions, the motherboard makes a huge impact. VIA CN700 versus SiS 741GX chipsets, DDR2 versus DDR memory sticks. And for features & stability, I will always take the via chipset over the SiS chipset. PC Chips isn't exactly a winner, you really have to go with via's own epia boards to get the large power savings - though epia boards are quite expensive.

If they could pair the geode with a decent board, probably be worth it, but for now all I see are SiS chipsets and iffy standby / hibernate support. I'm going to give this via based combo a chance, as I'm not fully happy with the system I built to replace my epia-m10000 htpc. See how it works.

 

[weepul]

do be careful with the paypal $15 refund as they were sneaky and had changed the terms to reflect that only those who received a email qualified.

//krunk (^_^x)

 

[MisterE]

Originally posted by: Lanyap
I was wondering about that too but it does appear to be a FlexATX form factor which is compatible with a microATX case...

Lanyap, my Andara brother, thank you for the correction. It appears that this motherboard does indeed conform to the FlexATX standard. I was comparing the product images to the memories that I have of an old "FlexATX" motherboard/case combo that I once bought, and that motherboard was of a different form factor. Must not have really been FlexATX (or my memory is bad).

I guess it's time to replace my Andara motherboard.

I no longer have any Andara machines to upgrade, but I'm about to pick up one of these PC Chips combos to replace the motherboard/CPU in my linux-based firewall PC. I'm currently using a 1GHz Athlon and Chaintech mobo with Via KT-133 chipset, but the capacitors on the motherboard are leaking and stability has gone to the crapper. It has been a good machine, though, and I may try to replace the caps so that I can reuse the mobo for some other purpose.

 

[GunsMadeAmericaFree]

>but the capacitors on the motherboard are leaking and stability has gone to the crapper. It >has been a good machine, though, and I may try to replace the caps so that I can reuse the >mobo for some other purpose

Just hearing that makes me feel ill. I lost 3 motherboards of the same year and make to capacitor swelling. Each board actually had two capacitors that had burst open before they stopped working completely.

Don't you wish they would just spend the extra $5 and use those solid aluminum capacitors that can't break open? I'd certainly pay extra for the peace of mind.

 

[ElFenix]

does this have the horsepower to decode h.264?

 

[jalaram]

I would doubt it.

 

[GunsMadeAmericaFree]

>does this have the horsepower to decode h.264?

Probably. Even my Duron 700 could do that, and that was with DDR1 memory.

 

[geecee]

C7 Review, though with an VIA board.

 

[GunsMadeAmericaFree]

I've used this thing for about a month now. My impression: speedy for general purpose use. Not so great for video editing, but works fine with casual games and all the software I've tried it with.

In fact, it seemed faster than I expected in most circumstances.

It handles mpeg4 video playback with no problems at all, even my more compressed h.264 video with no trouble. I have since ordered two more of these, to build systems for my Dad and Grandpa.

 

[clarkmo]

Anyone got a $100 bucks? (+shipping)
http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=MB-V21G
http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=T533UB1GB
PC CHIPS V21G (V1.0C) VIA C7/ FSB 400/ PCI/ A&V&L/ F-ATX Motherboard MB-V21G $57.68 $57.68
STT DDR2-533 1GB/64x8 CL4 Memory T533UB1GB $39.66 $39.66
Sub Total
$97.34
Estimated Total
(before Tax & Shipping)

 

[Jaxidian]

Originally posted by: clarkmo
Anyone got a $100 bucks? (+shipping)
http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=MB-V21G
http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=T533UB1GB
PC CHIPS V21G (V1.0C) VIA C7/ FSB 400/ PCI/ A&V&L/ F-ATX Motherboard MB-V21G $57.68 $57.68
STT DDR2-533 1GB/64x8 CL4 Memory T533UB1GB $39.66 $39.66
Sub Total
$97.34
Estimated Total
(before Tax & Shipping)

Thanks for the links.

Any chance this would be sufficient for an OTA HDTV HTPC?

 

[clarkmo]

I was thinking the exact same thing. I don't know. Even as a satellite tv box, I'm not sure, but I think so.

 

[Jaxidian]

Originally posted by: clarkmo
I was thinking the exact same thing. I don't know. Even as a satellite tv box, I'm not sure, but I think so.

Well, I know OTA HDTV is MPEG-encoded so saving that to disk is trivial if you're saving it MPEG-encoded. Also, many video cards (I thought) had MPEG-decoders in them so playing it should also be trivial. However, with satellite and others, I don't know if the video feed is MPEG-encoded so you may need to have the CPU involved in this.

I could be wrong but I thought it was something like that.