We compared the EPIA board's network controller to a 3com PCI network card. When streaming video across the network the controller chip's CPU usage makes a considerable difference.

VIA EPIA / Eden 1500

CPU usage with the integrated network codec reached as high as 90%, compared to a maximum of 75% with the high quality network card from 3COM. Overall, however, the differences are even greater than this.

EPIA / C3

The difference is smaller with the EPIA board with its 800 MHz C3 processor...

EPIA M9000

...and with the EPIA M9000 the external card was still the better performer. Here again, the 3COM card uses noticeably less processor time when copying across the network.