VIA ARTiGO A2000: a Tiny Exterrnal HDD Enclosure

VIA Technologies, Inc., a Taiwanese innovator of power efficient x86 processor platforms, 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.

                     Front panel

                                 Back panel


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.”

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.

Orders placed in the US before December 21st will receive a coupon worth US$100 when purchasing a ‘SPARK Your Imagination‘ kit featuring the VIA ARTiGO A1000 builder kit.

VIA will host a fun campaign, ‘Name It and Win It!‘, to seek a unique, cool and/or fun nickname for this slimline black beauty. Open to all US residents, the competition runs from today until 21st December, and the winning name will be awarded a brand new VIA ARTiGO A2000. There’ll also be a lucky draw for those voting, with a prize of a VIA EPIA Nano-ITX board.

The VIA ARTiGO A2000 will initially be available from selected online retailers from December 15th, including Bell Micro, EPRO-ITX, Fry’s Electronics and Logic Supply in the US, and from Mini-ITX.com, Monclick and Ibertronica in Europe, with wider availability in January.