On 05/22/2012 05:32 PM, Ian Perkins wrote: > Very true. I tend to go with the most I can get, on the theory that I > will be less likely to "outgrow" it. A Sheevaplug, Dreamplug or Cubox > would allow me to dive in more quickly, but won't give me PCIe and other > features for down the road.
Let's face it, whatever you get, it won't be the last computer you ever buy. And by the time you really decide you need that new killer feature, the chances are that you'll have more options. For example, this is scheduled for release some time in July, allegedly: http://www.reghardware.com/2012/05/22/chip_maker_via_outs_49_dollar_raspberry_pi_alike/ *TX form factor (i.e. it'll fit in a standard case), VGA out, USB ports. No SATA or PCI/PCIe, but it's priced comparably to the ever elusive Raspberry Pi while being better and more convenient in just about every way. > Decisions, decisions. CuBox looks sold out, They are always sold out, but all the people I know that got one got theirs within a month of ordering them. > but Amazon carries the Dreamplug in stock. DreamPlug is quite nice, but it is also a lot more expensive than the SheevaPlug (newer Sheevas have a SATA port). But I guess you get extra USB ports and audio for the difference. Note, however, that there is no video out of any sort on the Sheeva/Guru/Dream Plugs. You would be limited to using a MIMO USB monitor. I don't know about you, but I find 1024x600 to be absolutely unusable. I swapped the screen in my AC100 out for one that can manage 1280x720 just to make it usable. But that's just me. > Sigh. I should probably start > with something I can get quickly and keep an eye out on the Sabre Lite > board for later. Depending on what country you are in, a Toshiba AC100 might be a good option. The downside is that they were never released in the US so are non-existant there. Here in UK, OTOH, the are easily available on eBay because nobody wants them but us heavy Linux users - they came with Android, and Android without a touchscreen is too painful a concept to give serious thought to. The only people who love them are those of us that put nomal Linux on them. But if you specifically want a desktop rig with a high res monitor, SATA disk and the other niceties, the choice becomes more limited: - CuBox (by far best value) - Trimslice (pretty good performance-wise, but the binary GPU drivers are very unstable) - D2Plug (same hardware as CuBox but more expensive, and from what I can tell, not yet available) - Genesi Efika MX (Freescale iMX51 based) - they do both a desktop and smartbook variants. Not as good or as cheap as the CuBox, though. But if you just want a server, a SheevaPlug is hard to beat on price and support. They have been around for long enough to have been hacked every way imaginable, and all the hardware is very well supported. DreamPlug is essentially the same on the inside, but it's a lot more expensive. I guess you have to ask yourself whether a few extra USB ports and audio out are worth the difference if you just want a small server. FWIW, all the redsleeve.org stuff (website, wiki, mailing list) is running on a DreamPlug running RedSleeve (purely because I got my DreamPlugs second hand on eBay for less than new SheevaPlugs cost). > I expect there will be more quad core products, as that > processor class gains traction in cell phones and tablets. Sigh. Quad core. The thing is - do you _really_ need quad core? The vast majority of the software you're going to use won't benefit from it. I use my Toshiba AC100 every day, and I hardly ever see more than 1 core's worth of CPU used up in normal use. The 40% overclock I get out of my Tegra2s is making a bigger difference in normal use. Gordan
