Let's get things straight, I *NEED* quiet. Most of the pc's I have run 24/7 and I sleep in the same room as some of them. I've bought most of the quiet products that are for sale and still one pc keeps me awake. I found out the main cause of the noise was the CPU fan, So I went hunting for a processor that runs cooler so less cooling is needed.
I came across the VIA C3 on many review sites from the US all gave it rave reviews. So I thought this C3 deserved a reviewing due to its quiet features.
Now when I say a VIA processor I bet Cyrix springs to mind, well VIA Cyrix has changed a lot since the days of the Cyrix 200, the development team has changed so no real Cyrix designs have been used in this. Now VIA has been a major player in the chipset of many great motherboards so with their reputation I had no problems trusting them with a CPU.
The C3 arrived in a nice little box with a coolermaster heat sink in tow. What impressed me was the fact the heat sink was about the size of a taisol with NO fan.
In its box, ready to go !
Opening the CPU box I am met by a lovely gold coloured CPU, a nice touch the CPU being gold separates them from amd and other manufacturers. This CPU was not designed for performance games or to compete with the Intels and AMD. It's not a performance chip but it's perfect for home servers that are becoming the norm. I am going to see how this processor performs as to whether I use it in my server or my DVD box.
Look ma, NO FAN !!!!
Well installing was a breeze as with most chips. It uses socket 370 like Intel chips which is a great bonus for people looking to change the CPU rather than their whole rig. Most motherboards will support the C3 though I would advise you checked the manufacturer's site, VIA also provides a list of some compatible boards. I chose the Soltek 65KV2-T due to it's relatively cheap pricing and the features it has.
Just to prove it once again, NO FAN !!
The heat sink clipped on easily, no fan or anything to get in the way and a no danger of crushing the core. I scraped off the coolermaster black thermal pad in favour of some Arctic Silver 2.
Now the test setup was as follows:
- VIA C3 933MHZ
- Soltek 65KV2-T with onboard ac97 sound codec
- 128 Meg pc100 RAM
- Maxtor 20gb Diamond ATA100 5400RPM
- S3 2 Meg PCI graphics (yes 2 meg, but it has Tv out so is all I need)
- Globalwin 802
- Running windows 2000 service pack 2
That's not a games setup as you can tell, I'm sure most of your rigs would thoroughly whoop me in benchmarks but I don't play games. Now let's get some action. I decided to run motherboard monitor 5 through the system to see its temps. I was a bit cynical that a 933MHZ pc could run stably without a fan but VIA have proved me wrong.
Temperatures ... yes it is stable !
I gave it a good testing through RC5 and other cpu stress programs and it didn't perform brilliantly but I didn't expect it to, however it could hold it's own.
Well that pretty much concludes this review; let's have my final thoughts. The CPU is priced alongside the celeron and Duron ranges so it's a budget CPU. It doesn't claim to be the best at speed however I doubt AMD or Intel can boast a 933MHZ CPU that'll run for than 30 seconds without a fan. It's a good CPU for the money, my boot times are acceptable and it even handled Divx playback acceptably (it was better when I put my ati xpert 2000 in so I think you can blame the problems on my poor graphics). It's a good CPU and I can see this partnering the Shuttle SV24. As for my decision I'll be running this as a DVD machine and am considering replacing my celeron server with a C3. I am anxious to see if VIA can break the 1 GHZ barrier without the need for a fan.
Pro's:
- Silent (literally)
- Socket 370
- Needs little power
- Cheap
- Even though it's not a performance chip it can still keep up with similar budget chips
Con's:
- Not up to high speed games
I honestly can't think of any other bad points to this CPU. It's brilliant if you are just looking to have a quieter connection server or DVD rig. I would have no hesitation in putting a VIA cpu in any of my pcs.
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