[Asterisk-Users] Asterisk overheating on VIA Epia M Seriesmotherboard

[Darrick Hartman]

Angus Comber wrote:
> But the systems are sold in this configuration.  There is a fan option.  
> I chose the fanless option.

<snip>

I've used numerous of the VIA mini-itx boards.  There are several that 
are designed to be fanless.  The Eden processors are low power, low 
consumption and do not ship with a fan.  You cannot order these boards 
with a fan.  The only mini-itx boards that VIA makes that have fans are 
on the C3 processors.  The ones with the C3 processors were not designed 
to be run without fans (with the exception of the initial release of the 
C3-800Mhz boards).  You have no benefit from an M series board.  The M 
series boards have a built in MPEG decoder.

There are also several models available with two ethernet ports (someone 
posted that question in one of the follow up notes).  These are the PD 
and CL models.  I've setup several of these as firewalls and VPN 
endpoints.  Never had an issue with heat except the time when the boss 
man installed an insulating cover to the one side of the rack without 
leaving an air space.

In any case, if you are doing transcoding you will probably not be happy 
with the performance of an Eden based system.  Go for a C3 1Ghz board 
and you'll be much happier with the results.

>> Is SUSE not the best distro to use for this sort of thing?  Should it be
>> something to take up with VIA?

SUSE is a dog for this sort of thing.  Way too many services started by 
default.  Run something less complicated such as Slackware or a version 
of debian and you'll be much happier with the results.

Feel free to email my offlist to discuss.  I've been very happy with the 
VIA mini-itx based systems for most applications that I've tried.  You 
will find limitations with Asterisk, but for general functionality, you 
should be able to find something that will work well.

Darrick
-- 
Darrick Hartman
DJH Solutions, LLC
http://www.djhsolutions.com