The current top model of the EPIA series has arrived

Of VIA Technologies ’mini-ITX boards, the EPIA SN18000G promises to be the fastest copy in the series.

The EPIA SN motherboard is available in three packages, with a 1,8, 1,5 or 1,0 GHz VIA C7 processor: in the latter case, only one aluminum heat sink performs the heat transfer function. By choosing the most powerful central unit, VIA promises a 30% increase in performance compared to previous models.

The EPIA SN is the first mini-ITX motherboard to feature VIA’s latest chipset, the CN896. Of course, the graphics performance is still driven by the DirectX 9-compatible Chrome2 HC IGP, which hardware-accelerates the encoding of MPEG-9 videos.

In terms of expandability, it’s worth mentioning one full-featured PCI Express x16 and two slots for up to 4GB of 667MHz DDR2 modules, as well as handling four devices with SATA and one IDE connector.

Series production of the EPIA SN motherboards will begin next month and distribution will begin in November.