I have some time with VIA later this week and I’m looking forward to seeing their new Artigo barebones home server in the metal.
The system supports two hard-drives (up to 3Tb internal storage), comes with Gigabit LAN and is based around the VIA C7-D processor architecture, used extensively in home servers over the past two years (although perhaps no superceded by the Intel Atom and VIA’s own forthcoming Nano processor).
The Artigo supports up to 2Gb of RAM and is said to be very quiet. Although it is fan cooled, its noise output is just 26dB.
For now, here’s what they’ve got to say about it:
Big on Storage, Small on the Desktop: the New VIA ARTiGO A2000 Barebone Storage Server
The sleek, black, 2-bay barebone system supports up to 3TB, ideal for PC enthusiasts seeking compact, power-efficient home media storage
Taipei, Taiwan, 9 December 2008 – VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator of power efficient x86 processor platforms, today announced the VIA ARTiGO A2000 barebone storage mini-server. The perfect balance of size and space, the ARTiGO A2000 packs terabytes of storage capacity within a stylish, compact, low power and low noise system.
Today’s users are seeing their PCs filling up with gigabytes and even terabytes of locally stored media, and the proliferation of home DVD projects and high definition video downloads means file sizes are on the rise. The VIA ARTiGO A2000 consumes far less power and space than a regular desktop, yet provides ample storage for large home media libraries of music, photos and HD video. It can also serve as a headless Network Attached Storage box or media storage and streaming device in home server applications.
The same height as a CD and just 26cm (10.2”) long, the VIA ARTiGO A2000 can store up to three terabytes of data – the equivalent of around 4,500 CDs – with hard drives available today, all in a remarkably small footprint. Easy to assemble, the ARTiGO A2000 has two sturdy drive bays allowing for the simple snap-in of full-sized desktop hard drives.
“The VIA ARTiGO A2000 proves that small can be not only beautiful, but also substantial when it comes to storage capacity,” said Jerry Yuan, VIA Embedded Business Development Manager. “Building on the success of the ARTiGO A1000 Pico-ITX builder kit, VIA has once again broken the mould for barebones, creating a device that embodies VIA’s reputation for innovation and creativity in small spaces.”
VIA ARTiGO A2000: The Home Mini-Vault
Measuring just 13.5cm wide x 12cm high x 26cm (5.3”x4.7”x10.2”), the VIA ARTiGO A2000 is powered by a 1.5GHz VIA C7-D processor and supports up to 2GB of DDR2 SO-DIMM 667/533MHz memory. Two Serial ATA bays with integrated power ports are mounted within the case, and a type I Compact Flash socket is located discreetly beneath the motherboard.
Connectivity includes a Gigabit Ethernet port, and support for a wireless 802.11 b/g module, while two USB 2.0 ports at the back are supplemented by one port at the front for easy accessibility for USB peripherals such as a flash drive or memory card reader.
Multimedia is provided through the VIA VX800 system media processor, featuring DirectX 9.0 3D graphics support through the VIA Chrome9™ integrated graphics, hardware video decoding acceleration of multiple video formats, and VIA Vinyl HD audio.
The VIA ARTiGO A2000 supports Microsoft Windows XP and Vista, Ubuntu 8.04, SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 (Service Pack 2) and FreeBSD.
More Info: VIA
