# Thoughts on the VIA C3 CPU?

## rev138

I'm looking to put together a cheap box to run some undemanding software on, and I'm tempted to buy a $80 microATX motherboard/CPU combo I found on pricewatch.

The catch is, it's a VIA C3 2000+ CPU, which sounds a bit dodgy to me. Does anyone have experience running Gentoo, or linux in general on this chip that should cause me to run away screaming, or is it a suitable cheapo processor for a low-performance machine?

TIA.

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## Headrush

I have a machine running Windows XP on a Via C3 MII1000 system and its fine, so a 2000+ running Gentoo should be fine.

(For day to day stuff: email, web browsing, word processing.)

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## mbar

Yep, but it might compile everything much slower, as C3 processors are somewhat underpowered. Especially FP unit is weak (lucky you don't need that one to compile stuff I think).

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## think4urs11

 *rev138 wrote:*   

> The catch is, it's a VIA C3 2000+ CPU, which sounds a bit dodgy to me. Does anyone have experience running Gentoo, or linux in general on this chip that should cause me to run away screaming, or is it a suitable cheapo processor for a low-performance machine?

 

Depends on your expectations.

I've (since ~2.5-3 years) a C3-600 as my 'pretty-much-everything'-Server running Gentoo. thats file/dns/proxy-server, portage rsync/replicator, vpn endpoint and stuff.

Does what it should, cannot complain about its speed (except compliation times but i don't care too much about them). Proc-wise it is about a P-233 in comparison.

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## rev138

Thanks. I think I'll give it a shot. For 80 bucks, it's not much of a risk anyway.

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## mbar

No sweat then. You may think of using notebook SATA drive (80, 100 or 120 GB, 2.5 in) as they run much cooler than desktop 3.5 drives. You should not have any problems with cooling even in ITX mini-case.

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## rev138

The C3s run pretty cool themselves, no?

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## think4urs11

the 2.5"HD inside my pretty small mini-itx case has 51 degrees celsius now (i.e. running on the edge) - with 32 air temp. outside

so i don't believe it would be possible to have higher clocked C3s cooled completely passive for longer times

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## mbar

 *Think4UrS11 wrote:*   

> the 2.5"HD inside my pretty small mini-itx case has 51 degrees celsius now

 

...and that's better than my three 3,5 drives in mATX case, each one easy getting to ~60 C...

Also, I use old and rather nasty Maxtor 40 GB as a removable drive (external IDE-to-USB cable), and after few hours work you can not grab it barehanded. And it's not even in a case.

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## lovecraft

I've got a VIA Eden C3 (600 MHz) on a mini-ITX board running as an audio server.  When I first got it 2 years ago, there were still patches needed to take advantage of its features (audio, UniChrome video), and I was running 2.4.something.  Now, in the 2.6.16 kernel support is pretty good, except for cpu speed throttling - broken for now I guess.  Would be nice to have that so it will throttle back to 400 MHz when not being used - worked great in 2.4 kernel.

It's pretty slow - kernel compile takes several hours, and it's running in memory, not swap.  Also, the via-rhine Ethernet chip seems rather slow, too.  The purpose it excels at is being crammed into a small case and just working.  Use a 586 minimal system to install gentoo, not anything higher.

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## rev138

I went ahead and got the mobo/chip. Seems to be working pretty well. It's no speed demon, but it gets the job done. I did most of the compilation on a P4 and just copied the system over.

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## recoco.zhang

You can build the target Gentoo system on another faster computer and install it to via system.Otherwise a general compile task will take several hours.  :Smile: 

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## Headrush

 *recoco.zhang wrote:*   

> You can build the target Gentoo system on another faster computer and install it to via system.Otherwise a general compile task will take several hours. 

 

 :Laughing:   Isn't that what he just said he did?

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## rev138

 :Razz: 

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