<br><font size=2><tt>> With respect to your epia motherboard, they do
make boards with a single<br>
> PCI slot. I know mark had a pci riser that turned the PCI card sideways,<br>
> and I'm sure they exist elsewhere. Of course the question really comes<br>
> down to then, what case are you putting it in? </tt></font>
<br>
<br><font size=2><tt>www.caseoutlet.com has EPIA-based barebones systems
with the riser card and a mini case that will handle one PCI slot. Price
is approximately $200. With the proper case and riser card, they
could handle more PCI slots: most 1 or 2U cases I've seen take a
standard motherboard and use a riser card to allow you to put more than
one PCI card into a single motherboard slot.</tt></font>
<br><font size=2><tt><br>
> Also, remember you need stability here. I would not trust that level<br>
> board for long term stability. This quote would worry me for
a must<br>
> work system, "The VIA EPIA Mini-ITX mainboard is the ideal platform
for<br>
> an almost unlimited variety of Extreme Value PC..." Usually machines
in<br>
> this catagory are more to blame than windows for stability problems.<br>
> Don't skimp on quality especially if it will carry customer calls.
None<br>
> of this is saying use only Digium hardware, but you do need to step
up<br>
> just a hair on the quility chain than the epia board and USB ISDN.<br>
</tt></font>
<br><font size=2><tt>I can't disagree here. My primary job is as
a computer consultant. For my customers, I only sell name-brand computers,
primarily IBM. Why? Quality: they're rock-solid, and
supported with about the best support in the industry.</tt></font>
<br>
<br><font size=2><tt>However, we also sell a firewall solution we've built
ourselves. For these, we use the case I described above with a DOM.
In that case, there are zero moving parts, which means a lot less
to fail. We've had about a dozen actually in place with clients,
some as long as a year and a half, most at least six months. The
number of lockups these devices have experienced during this time is exactly
zero. In the same period of time I've had Efficient Networks routers
lock up maybe half a dozen times, I've even had an HP switch crash and
need to be power cycled. But these little guys have run flawlessly.</tt></font>
<br>
<br><font size=2><tt>So, from my experience, the EPIA boards (at least
the dozen or so I've gotten) seem to be a quality device. There are
problems. Only having one PCI slot can be an issue. The VIA
CPU built into those things also needs attention. They are detected
as a 6th generation CPU, but they can't handle the CMOV instruction, so
you must compile for Pentium or lower. Also, their speed is *not*
what you'd think: the 533MHz CPU's are more like 400MHz (or much
less if your code is floating point heavy), and the 800MHz are more like
550's. But in total, they are really very nice boards for the money.</tt></font>
<br>
<br><font size=2><tt>Of course, YMMV. Having a company policy that
says you will not use such a device because from the specs it seems that
the odds of it failing are higher than you wish to accept is not unreasonable.
However, if you are open to the possibility of working with such
a piece of equipment, I encourage you to evaluate these little guys. If
their specs fit your needs, you may find that the quality does, too.</tt></font>
<br>
<br><font size=2><tt>Tim Massey</tt></font>
<br>