CF-668 Chyang Fun Mini-ITX Case

CF-668 gITX Desktop Case (XBLADE Cooling Technology) w/ 150W PSU $149

Chyang Fun E-Note Review: CF-668

The E-Note measures (WxHxD): 11.25" (285mm) x 4.5" (115mm) x 15" (380mm). Unlike the MiniCube, which is an aluminium frame and skin with a plexiglass front attached, this is a true hybrid of the elemental forces of metal and plastic.

It is the classiest of all the cases we've reviewed to date, mixing Aluminium and Plexiglass in a unique and distinctive way. It wouldn't look out of place in any living room, or next to a TFT on a glass-topped desk. But it deserves a quieter PSU, and should be 15mm taller to accomodate all PCI cards, not just a select few. Having said that, the EPIA M motherboard *is* an all-in-one solution and not everyone will even need a PCI card, and the PSU *is* replaceable and potentially made quieter.

EPIA 5000 and EPIA M 9000 Review

The EPIA 5000 eats 9-15W. The 9000 eats 17-25W. A typical low-end desktop eats 60-150W. A typical high-end desktop (especially anything running a pentium 3 or pentium 4) might eat 150-300W. If you leave your machines on 24x7 like I do, power can cost real money. PG&E charges me $0.11 KWh (up to $0.22 KWh in the summer), so each 50W of power (24x7) costs 36KWh/month or around $4 in the winter, and $8 in the summer. When my machine room was full of high-end machines it was costing me 1200W 24x7 or 864KWh/month = $100/mo in the winter and $200/mo in the summer. By consolidating my server functions into less power-hungry EPIA boxes I am only paying 1/3 of that number in machine-room electricity now. That isn't chump change.

Via's EPIA 5000, EPIA 800

To conclude – having tested the two boards side by side you can actually appreciate the single difference, which is the CPU, and the reasons why Via has decided to push it into two market segments - embedded on the lower-end EPIA ESP 5000 and low cost PC production with the more powerful and versatile EPIA 800.