Processor and Motherboard

I decided to use a mini-ITX motherboard with a VIA C7 processor. This processor is designed by VIA Technologies for an extremely low power consumption and a reasonable performance. It consumes just about 7.5 Watts, about the same amount as modern portable handheld devices and cell phones. According to VIA, the entire motherboard with this CPU consumes about 13W on average, which allows it to run without fans at all. VIA Technologies manufactures several types of C7 CPUs running in the range 0.5 to 2Ghz. See here for more info on VIA CPUs and Motherboards. VIA chips are generally very well supported by Linux, which is a big advantage for me.

As a rule, mini-ITX motherboards have on-board electronics for one or two network ports, several USB ports, built-in video with S-Video and RCA connectors for TV and VGA output for a computer monitor, and 5.1 channel audio. Some of them even have Firewire ports and serial ATA. So, basically you do not need any extension cards. Anyway, on a 6.7" x 6.7" mini-ITX motherboard there is just enough room left for only 1 PCI slot to attach an extension card, if you need one.

It looks like the mini-ITX form factor is more popular in Europe and other places than here, in the US, and not too many online stores offer mini-ITX motherboards. See some of them I found in the resources section above. I purchased the CPU + motherboard combo from the newegg.com website: VIA EPIA-CN10000EG 1.0GHz VIA C7 nanoBGA2 Embedded Processor VIA CN700 Mini ITX Motherboard/CPU Set.

As one can see in the next picture, it has a purely fan-less design, the huge heatsink takes care of cooling down the CPU and chipset very efficiently. So, the motherboard itself is completely silent. The CPU operates at 1GHz, and one can put in only one stick of DDR2-533 memory up to 1Gb. This is more than sufficient for modern OS like Linux or Windows XP to run smoothly. I use Kingston 1GB SDRAM (PC2 4200), model KVR533D2N4/1G. Check the article resources for more info and click on the pictures here to enlarge them.

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