On 08/08/2013 05:23 PM, Lonnie Olson wrote: > On Thu, Aug 8, 2013 at 2:43 PM, Michael Torrie <[email protected]> wrote: >> I want a machine that's x86 (i3 or i5), at least 1 GHz, low-power, no >> fans, ssd disk, 2 gigabit ethernet ports, small formfactor. Any ideas >> as to what I should look for? Anything under $500 is game at this point. > > Is there a reason you prefer x86?
Yes. Mainly that I want to run a standard distro on it (CentOS, Linux Mint, or Debian). I know that Debian can more or less run on Arm, but CentOS certainly can't. And I want a standard boot system (grub, not sure about UEFI). And I'd just as soon run normal ext4 (ro mode perhaps) on an SSD SATA disk than muck about with MMC devices and flash file systems. Definitely way overkill, but at this point, I'm glad to pay for the convenience. Also I know that x86 has enough horsepower to run DansGuardian. I've been playing with DansGuardian on various Arm platforms and so far they've all been a bit anemic. Not sure why! Part of that probably has to do with onboard flash memory being kind of slow. > There a a bunch of interesting ARM > based machines that will fit this kind of usage fairly well. > Examples: > http://www.plugcomputer.org/development-kits/ > http://www.raspberrypi.org/ > http://beagleboard.org/Products > http://utilite-computer.com/web/home Yeah I've explored many of these options over the years. I've got a drawer full of little plug servers (well just 3 actually). Interesting devices, but the esoterics of Arm boot loaders is a pain, and many of them use older processors. I did manage to convert one plug computer to straight debian with UBIFS. I've also got an old Alix (x86) board, and a routerstation pro. All cool in their way, but I'm tired of messing with them. I had forgotten about raspberry pi until you mentioned it. I also have one of those, but it only has one interface. However I think I'll fire it up tonight as a network monitoring system running something like cacti. /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
