[Server-devel] small form factor XS options?

[Greg Smith]

Hi Bryan et al,

This probably goes without saying, but make sure that all your hardware 
is supported by Fedora 9 and know to run well on that distribution.

Also FYI, here's the list of recommended HW: 
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/XS_Recommended_Hardware

Update and correct as needed but please do not put anything new on there 
until its fully installed, tested and known to work rock solid with an 
"out of the box" XS ISO binary.

Thanks,

Greg S


Date: Wed, 26 Nov 2008 20:31:21 +0545
From: Bryan Berry <bryan at olenepal.org>
Subject: Re: [Server-devel] small form factor XS options?
To: Martin Langhoff <martin.langhoff at gmail.com>
Cc: server-devel <server-devel at lists.laptop.org>,	Prithak Sharma
	<prithak at olenepal.org>,	Tony Anderson <tony_anderson at usa.net>
Message-ID: <1227710781.7267.6.camel at hitman>
Content-Type: text/plain

On Wed, 2008-11-26 at 09:39 -0200,
 > > If you look for machines with VIA CPUs, they are low power
 > > dissipation, and often cheap too. We have a few samples at 1cc with
 > > heatsinks - no fans!

Will do, tks for the heads up

I definitely need at least 1 Ghz processor because we intend to host an
offline E-Library on the XS. Even w/out the E-Library we want to host a
lot of content cached from the broader Internet and that will require a
good bit of RAM and some CPU.

I have looked at the Excito and they are impressive but do not offer a
fast enough processor and the price is higher than I would like.

 >> > > Eee Box - more expensive but doesn't seem to have the same cooling
 >> > > problem
 > >
 > > I talked with Asus engineers who assured there's a version of it with
 > > no fans, and a heatsink. Not sure if it's in the catalog though :-/
 > >
 >> > > Unfortunately, none of these have a spare PCI slot that I can 
use for
 >> > > the XS's 2nd NIC card. We are considering using a USB NIC for 
the eth1.
 > >
 > > That'll hurt if you have significant traffic. In fact, I'd recommend
 > > using the usb nic for eth0 which is guaranteed to have less traffic
 > >  ;-)
 > >
 >> > > Does anyone know of similar small form factor PC's that do have 
an extra
 >> > > PCI slot? Or other good XS choices?

This is very true. Small form factor isn't actually that important.
Low-Power is much more important. I have to say I am still leaning
towards the Shuttle X2700N. It seems to have adequate cooling features
compared to other small form-factor PCs

Perhaps my best option would be to purchase an Atom CPU, appropriate
motherboard, and fit into a regular PC chassis . . . But I still haven't
checked out the Via CPU options  ;)


-- Bryan W. Berry Technology Director OLE Nepal, http://www.olenepal.org 
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