Epia 800 vs 5000 - noise?

[Bitgod]

Epia 800 vs 5000 - noise?

[Bitgod]

Has anyone gotten to compare the 2 of them and see what the noise difference is?  I'm thinking of getting on of those Cubid boxes, but I'm undecided on which CPU to get.  On the one hand I like getting the stronger CPU for basically the same price, just in case I ever need to use it for anything else.  On the other hand, my #1 priority is for it to be quiet.  What this system will be doing is replacing my current home domain server running FreeBSD, doing some NATting, e-mail server, a little ftp and web server, nothing too crazy.  The existing box is an old K6-200, so the Epia 5000 shouldn't have a problem doing the same thing.  If the sound levels between the two Epias aren't that different, I'll probably just go for the 800.

[MrMoray]

I don't have either board...so I certainly can't compare.  But, the 5000 is totally fanless...the 800 has a cpu fan.  In theory, that makes the 800 atleast a bit more noisy...however, I've read here in other posts that the fan on the 800 can be removed without problems...if that's the case, then their sound levels would be equal.  

It hightly depends on what your looking to get out of the ITX.

To be honest I'd go for the 800 as the 5000 is a bit underpowered for any thing graphical beyond a desktop at 1024x768 16bit depth.  Most likely drive to more than 2 or 3 HD's, you would want to keep your existing PSU. If thats the case you _wont_ hear the 800's fan over any of the other components.

Somewhere in this forum is a thread on "mini-me"  that I replied to about what I  accomplished with my C800 ITX.

[Gamer]

If you are concerned with noise from the 800's fans, you could always get Zalman Fanmates. They are pretty cheap at less than $5US. They allow you to regulate the speed of the fan to a level that is comfortable for you. I use two of them in my Cubid (one on the CPU and one for the case fan). I just dialed down their speed until I couldn't hear them anymore. As soemone else said, the 500 is fanless already, and most people don't even hook up the case fan with a 500.

[Ultim8pc]

Ask yourself this:

Do you need more CPU power?
If so, then go for the EPIA800 & then mod the CPU fan for 7v operation.

If you need silence then go for the EPIA5000.

Combined with the 2677 case it's a small silent combo. We sell more EPIA5000/2677 combos than anything else!

 

[jayftee]

Hey,

Just a little reminder, at Mini-ITX.com they do preview the next
EDEN board that would run a C3 " 933 Mhz.

That board seems to be aimed at the "M" multimedia crowd.

I don't remember the site but, an Australian site reviewd both 5000 and 800 and
never really mentioned any difference in noise.

The only thing was that, in the 5000, thins would compiled a lot slower under linux and that,
you had to put any DivX player on its lowest setting to have a nice picture.

With that a side, I'm building a box for  Mini-ITX at 933.

Jeff

[Bitgod]

Ultim8, I still see people with some complaints here and there about cubid problems like with the LAN port, and I think I've seen you say that it was related to a power supply problem with earlier versions of the cubid, but that it's been fixed now.  So you're comfortable that the 2677R and either the 800 or 5000 doesn't have any problems these days? (as much as any pc put together can always be screwed up in the process, and acknowledging that on forums, you're going to hear about problems a lot more than people saying how great something is. )

I may just go with the 800, it will be quieter than the system that it's replacing for sure, and if I still find the fan(s) noisy, I could add the Fanmate.

[Ultim8pc]

There was a known issue with the DC convertor in very early 2677's (Which usually showed up as the LAN port not working on EPIA's) - which has been fixed.
Annonyingly, there was also a seperate issue with the LAN port on early EPIA boards (where it wouldn't work) with some PSU's.

I have only ever found 2 faulty EPIA's since we started selling them - 1 was dead & the other a LAN port problem.

So, as far as I am concerned, there is no issue with the EPIA's.

However, the PSU spec. for EPIA's is slightly different to those of ATX & there is the possibility that if you were building your own case & using 'any old PSU' that your EPIA might not work correctly....
(Incidentally, the newly released Chyang Fun CF-7989 mini-iTX case had to have all the PSU's recalled, as they just didn't work with the EPIA's!).

The EPIA5000 is silent as it has a passive CPU heatsink. The EPIA800 does make noise due to it's CPU fan - end of story!

The EPIA5000 is a little underpowered for some tasks (being about the same CPU power as say a 300MHz celeron....) - but for MP3 decoding, general computing, file serving & routing functions it is fine.
The EPIA800 has more power & can generally do software DVD decoding correctly about 99% of the time - it also handled DIVX playback, so long as you stick to lower rez stuff.

Yes, the new 'EPIA2' is on it's way - with samples due anythime soon. This has been designed with multimedia in mind - faster CPU's, more memory bandwidth, better graphics which will mean less overhead for video playback..

This product will move the old & new EPIA's into two distict market places:
EPIA1's will be for low cost & low perfromance appliances -  MP3, routers, NAS, fileserver etc.
EPIA2's will be for slightly higher cost, multimedia rich applications - DVD & DIVX playback, medium spec. PC.

So, don't worry about what's coming soon (as there will always be something better around the corner) - just build your EPIA based system & enjoy!

Nigel

[Bitgod]

Yeah, I've been drooling at the Lex Light system the past few days, having multiple LAN ports and that neat looking case would make it really nifty for a nat/firewall/server box, but it looks like it doesn't go into production until next month, and I need something now, so I'll probably get a 2677R and add a NIC card.  Thanks for the input Nigel.

[Ultim8pc]

The Light system is in production now!

[Bitgod]

Doh, you're not helping now!

[allen]

I wouldn't worry about the EPIA 5000 being underpowered. My household LAN server is based on a 10 year old 486SX-25 motherboard.  Running a Linux 2.2.x kernel, it acts as an ADSL router, firewall, fileserver, mailserver etc with little evidence of strain. It takes about 3 hours to compile a Linux kernel, but this is only needed at very long intervals - maybe once a year.

John Allen
Bofferdange, Luxembourg
allen@vo.lu
http://www.homepages.lu/allen

[Vexorg]

Even with the fan on it, I find that the Epia 800 I have running at home (with no case currently) is pretty quiet.  The hard drive and PSU fan (I have it on a 150W 1U PSU) drown out the CPU fan (of course, the jet engine class Volcano 6CU+ fan on the computer next to it drowns 'em all out   .)  If you're basing your decision between the 5000 and 800 on noise, I'd only go with the 5000 if you need total silence, or want to save $10.

[Ultim8pc]

We run an EPIA5000/2677R as our ADSL router/firewall/proxy. No problem
We run an EPIA800/2677R as a Win2K server - no problem.
We're currently tinkering with an EPIA800/CF-7989 & Sigma X-Card as a cheap & very stylish HTP....



The EPIA's do anything you could want (except games) in a small & cheap package.

Guys, once again.  The 800 can run fanless, unless you have it sitting in a sealed box. And, I just may try that as I have some ultra small Cisco 675 cases laying around.

It -would- be a good idea to at least have a case fan somewhere nearby modded to 7v, but I haven't really even needed that.

I've had both, but ended up trading the 5000 back in for another 800.  The 800 is quite a bit quicker, and seems to be pretty tough.