VIA Launches Mini-ITX 2.0 Form Factor

[phoronix]

Phoronix: VIA Launches Mini-ITX 2.0 Form Factor

If VIA didn't already have enough things going for it this week at Computex with the OpenBook, Nano Processor Family, and Chrome 440 GTX, they have just announced the Mini-ITX 2.0 Form Factor specification. Mini-ITX 2.0 is coming seven years after VIA originally created the Mini-ITX design...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=NjUxMA

[Tillin9]

They should have mandated a PCIe x16 and a PCI (not mini-PCI) slot. Considering I can get a full Core Quad system on ITX with those there's no reason not to. Its just a major pain to go through boards and reject 90% because it doesn't have two useful expansion slots.

[deanjo]

Originally Posted by Tillin9

They should have mandated a PCIe x16 and a PCI (not mini-PCI) slot. Considering I can get a full Core Quad system on ITX with those there's no reason not to. Its just a major pain to go through boards and reject 90% because it doesn't have two useful expansion slots.

Well, I really doubt anybody is going to use the pci-e for video, but I can see it being used for other applications such as a raid card or secondary NIC. Sticking pretty much any video card in there will bottleneck the rest of the system, and defeat the power and small form factor advantages of the system. Nice to see that they have a GBit nic on it. It would be an attractive alternative to creating a cheap, low power, home server.