VIA is not out of the business of providing computational power to shoebox sized tech, even with the competition from Intel and nVIDIA.  One of their newest products is a network attached storage device that includes a 1.5GHz VIA C7-D CPU to extend the functionality of the ARTiGO A2000 beyond what you might expect from an NAS.  Consider the audio ports on the back, something you wouldn’t really expect to see in a NAS, but well within the power of the ARTiGO.  Drop by Think Computers to see how they dealt with the device, including the joys of installing an OS to something without an optical drive.

“Generally, when I think of a NAS, I think of computer which has been stripped of any input/output devices and is really little more than a hard drive on a motherboard with a network port. I liken it to a motorcycle compared to the car which is a desktop computer: only the necessities of storage, network, and processing power. The VIA ARTiGO storage computer is more the car than the motorcycle, but is aimed at the motorcycle-NAS-market. Powered by a VIA C7 processor on a Nano ITX motherboard, the ARTiGO A2000 desires to fill a need which cannot be met by shrinkwrap, walled garden NAS devices from Synology, QNAP, D-Link, Buffalo, and the like. ThinkComputers checks out the device to see how it fares.”

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