Recommendations for a Single Board Computer? 49
Lardmonster asks: "I'm looking for a Single Board Computer that's reasonably spec'd for performance, but low power (from a Wattage perspective!). I'd like to build a small machine to host NFS/Samba shares, store email, and run Slimserver. There are some nice-looking boards from Soekris, but they max out at 266MHz and have limited RAM. Can anyone recommend similar devices that are low-power, up to 500MHz, with IDE connector and have a SO-DIMM slot? Compatibility with i386 binaries is not necessary. Many places sell similar boards, but only in large quantities, and the prices are generally prohibitively high when they're publicized at all."
VIA EPIA (Score:3, Informative)
VIA EPIA NL [via.com.tw]
Re:VIA EPIA (Score:2)
I have an EPIA M10000 running linux at home as a fileserver (samba, nfs, ftp), mailserver (imap + webmail) and internet gateway.
It does not use much power and it is small. With its 1GHz CPU and 256MB DDR RAM it perfect for this use.
Epia! Epia! Eeeeehaaa! (Score:2)
I like the EPIAs, actually, quite a lot. I have been using an MII 12000 for some time now as a workstation, and it works quite well. It triple-boots Ubuntu, Slackware and XP, though I'm probably going to blow away the XP partitions very soon, as I finally got around to getting WINE installed and configured.
Anyway, it's a small board, 17cm x 17cm, fairly low profile, fits Mini-ITX, Flex-ATX, Micro-ATX and ATX cases, has a 1.2GHz processor (600MHz is available), has IDE, floppy, parallel, serial, USB, fi
Re:Epia! Epia! Eeeeehaaa! (Score:1)
Re:Epia! Epia! Eeeeehaaa! (Score:2)
I run it as a moatly headless network server, so I don't have X running on it, but it should perform nicely for normal tasks (* or 16 MB video, SVGA resolution). 3D graphics will probably don't work well.
Re:Epia! Epia! Eeeeehaaa! (Score:2)
How do you find X works with the onboard graphics?
Well enough under Slackware, though you need to do some tinkering. Very well under Ubuntu, no tinkering involved.
A word against EPIA (Score:2)
If I were you I'd get a box designed to handle massixe I/O, not a cheap consumer board. Get your hands on an old Ma
Re:A word against EPIA (Score:3, Informative)
The epia boards suck because the via cpu has poor
linksys nslu2 (Score:2, Insightful)
Via might have one soon... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Via might have one soon... (Score:2)
Anyway, just my 2 cents. nano-ITX boards would be very, very cool if they were available...
Re:Via might have one soon... (Score:2)
Re:Via might have one soon... (Score:2, Informative)
What's wrong with a Mac mini? (Score:2)
Re:Why is the above still at +2? (Score:1)
Underclock... (Score:2, Informative)
Portwell (Score:3, Informative)
One word (Score:4, Insightful)
Search for "single board" and you'll find plenty. Buying direct is not really an option because, yes, they are expensive. Get them secondhand, after a company's already gotten their quantity discount. You can get almost any architecture and performance level.
Maybe a linkstation (Score:3, Insightful)
I have been looking for similar reasons at this kind of thing. I think I am going to go for a Linkstation [buffalotech.com] by Buffalo. It is a network attached storage device which has quite a lively hardware hacking community [linkstationwiki.org], mainly because it runs linux and is easily reflashable.
I also want to run the slimserver and there are details on how to run it on this hardware here [linkstationwiki.org] (depending on whether you have the MIPS version or the PPC version). You can upgrade the hard drive (though not officially) or if you want you can also use external USB2 hard drives as it has a couple of USB ports.
If you want the officially hackable version of this box, they sell a thing called the Kuro Box [revogear.com] and they actively encourage hacking it.
HTH
BJPirt
Re:Maybe a linkstation (Score:2)
Thanks for the link to the Linkstation community hacking site, wasn't aware that even existed. Looks like my little Buffalo has more capability and potential than I realized.
Ooh, deja woo: This reminds me of the days when you could find useful information on Slashdot and not just links to press releases and stupid quasi-tech related items for gossipy posters pushing jebus-in-the-sky, Georg
Re:Maybe a linkstation (Score:2)
You must be new here...
Sorry, I couldn't help myself.
Er, what is wrong with the soekris? (Score:5, Insightful)
I question whether you are looking in the wrong direction for what you are wanting to accomplish. You are looking for something to run drives for a streaming server which means you'll need a power supply for those too (which you won't pull off one of the low power sbc systems generally). Unless you just want to dump a single 2.5" drive in there, and in that case, again, the soekris 4801 would work just fine.
But, if that's still not your bag, stop looking at SBC's, get one of the low end nano VIA boards (the cheapest one has no fan on it already and relies on passive cooling), underclock it as far down as it'll go. You'll reduce your power draw and you'll also have a much cooler (lower in temperature) system and won't need additional case fans. All you'll need to do is hunt for your case that has the quiet psu and you can do what you please with it.
(I have a 4801 as a router/firewall device, and before using it there I tried it out as a file server using an old 10gb 2.5 I reclaimed from a laptop and it was quite peppy. The only thing you have listed in your descrip that I didn't try was the slimserver software . .
Er, what is wrong with the iBase? (Score:1, Informative)
The IB705 SBC is for the multimedia market with SATA connectors.
http://www.technoland.com/pr_ib705. [technoland.com]
why do you need it to be clocked so high? (Score:2, Informative)
-manno
Re:I'll pass (Score:1, Funny)
Dupe! There it is! (Score:2)
Okay, so it's not quite a dupe, but there is a hell of an overlap!
Look here [slashdot.org] for a similar discussion on ask slashdot.... one month ago to the day, even!
Two words (Score:3, Interesting)
if 500 mhz is all you need, look around for older systems. they'll do everything you want, including lower power handling. i know for fact you can get a p3 550 box on ebay for around $75. if you don't like the case, put it in a big picture frame on the wall or something.
NAS Servers (Score:2, Interesting)
Personally I'd recommend either going with a commercial solution, and hacking it to run whatev
Routerboard 200s (Score:2)
LinuxDevices Review (Score:2)
Off lease, SFF machine (Score:1)
Intel's ITX solution... (Score:1)
not a Geode (Score:1)
Re:not a Geode (Score:2)
Mini ITX is the deal of a lifetime (Score:2)
Mini ITX is completely self contained, reasonably low power, and the big innovation was snap-on DCDC converters from a variety of companies. Mini-box.com is the only place I know offhand that sells them. There's a couple really slick models with compact flash drives, PCMCIA slots, dual ethernet boards.. and they're all under $200. Just add ram!
From my experience, they'
The Answer Guy says: (Score:1)
Ramblings... (Score:2, Interesting)
Wireless gear (Score:2)
The good news is the router. Small and prepackaged, wireless and good ole trusty 802.3 ethernet, 2-7 watts power, some have USB 2.0 connectivity. Most are 133-200 mhz, with the great mode being 200 mhz, however there are some faster. 200 mhz should be plenty for what you want; the routers all have excellent DMA capabilities for shuffling data around. No problems decoding a couple mp3's while doing some file access. As an interesting bonus, a number
Thanks all (Score:2, Interesting)
1. nano-ITX is vapourware
2. SBCs are too expensive for hobbyists
3. hackable boxes (such as NSLU2 and Linkstation) are good for limited use, but will max-out way before something like a mini-ITX solution
Re: my CPU and RAM requirements: Right now, I don't *need* 500MHz and 0.5Gb RAM, but I know I will. When there's a quiet little box running 24-7, I know I'll find more and more uses for it
Re:Thanks all (Score:1)
These meets your CPU speed, but not your RAM reqs, .
http://gumstix.com/spexboards.html [gumstix.com]and they've a number of similar such things, including complete "waysmall"s,
but if you need that much RAM, instead of flash-storage, then mini-ITX is your only hope. .
Slimserver does like a bit of CPU (Score:2)
blades, bricks and a truly thin server (Score:1)
My ideal motherboard would have a single ethernet connector and be POE powered. The official POE standard supports only 13.5 watts and I want to be able to spin one of the larger hard disks available so I am prepared to accept a second 12v. power connector which implies an internal inverter.
Winterm? (Score:2)