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VIA Epia MII
[Abstract]
Noise During testing, our Epia system remained very quiet throughout, the loudest noise noticeable to me being that of the hard disk - Noise from the CPU fan and coolers at the rear of the...
[Content] PCDigitalMobileGame
Along with our Epia MII motherboard, we were also shipped an example Mini-ITX form factor case, so let's take a brief look around it.
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With a motherboard with as small a footprint as the Epia, you expect to have a case to match its diminutive stature, and the case we see here certainly lives up to that desire, weighing in at just 27cm by 29cm, and just 6cm tall. To give you a rough idea of size, I would say it is similar to most modern slimline DVD players you see on the market - In other words, an ideal size for a PC to use as a media centre plugged in to your TV. The front of the case is plain, containing simply power and reset switches, and room for a slimline CD/DVD-ROM drive (no room for a standard 5.25" drive I'm afraid) and floppy drive. Inside the case features a single 3.5" internal drive bay for installation of a hard drive.
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Finally, the front of the case also houses a panel which, when opened, gives access to two additional USB ports and an extra FireWire port, as well as microphone and line-out ports.
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Taking a top-down view of the case, things look somewhat cramped, but fitting and installing the motherboard is generally speaking easy enough, particular once the metal panels for the floppy and CD-ROM drive bays are removed to make space. The only real issue with the case is that when a CD-ROM drive is installed, the ATA cable has to find its way past the RAM installed in the motherboard's DIMM slot, which is a very tight fit indeed. Aside from that, everything makes for a smooth install.
Click for a larger image Finally, at the rear of the case we find a couple of cooling fans, as well as the power input.
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