Cool news has come out of Via today, with the introduction of a new low-power board. Focused around media centers, the new setup is based on the PC3500G motherboard. It sports a faster processor than other models of comparable power draw, with either a 1.5GHz or 1.8GHz embedded C7-D CPU. Along with that, the system has some impressive power specs, claiming that at idle it'll draw only 24W and can go as low as 35W during DVD playback.
This helps the system achieve a better Energry Star category placement, which more and more people are looking for when building systems:
In addition, a system based around the VIA pc3500 Mainboard draws only 1.09 watts in Sleep Mode, and 0.68 watts in Standby (Off Mode), comfortably meeting the Energy Star requirements for a Category A system, as summarized in the table below. The system even draws under 35 watts when playing back a DVD, one of the most power-intensive computing applications.
That is very ideal for media centers, where the need for quiet can often outweigh other factors. With the increased performance the C7-D has brought over predecessor VIA processors, along with a gigabit NIC, these boards are looking fairly attractive compared to other "media center" flavor hardware from Intel or AMD.
You can read the full press release at Via's site.