low cost home server
 

Hi,

I'm looking for a cheap & fanless device that can run linux and has USB ports. The goal is to build a home server for printing, audio, storage and probably a webcam for security. I'm asking in this forum as I know most people here deal with SBCs and similar devices, you may be aware of something worth looking at.

I saw this: http://www.dealextreme.com/p/26320. Great deal for $40!

I was in doubt cause one of the comments there says that CPU is not powerful enough... but 250MHz sounds like a lot to me. I know, just MHz is not a good measure, we have to look at the number of instructions for a program and the CPI.

I'm not familiar with ARM processors. The question is: Have you had a good experience with them? Can I ignore that comment knowing that 250MHz is enough for my purpose?

Otherwise, any similar-costing device you would recommend?

Thanks

What I use for a low cost fanless home server.

They are used. But cheap. Ram can be upgraded to 512MB on the 686.

I have a 786EX and a 686. Straight Debian, Antix,Puppy Linux. All work great on these. I use a pcmcia combo firewire +usb card for extra ports and pcmcia wireless g card also.


Amrel Former Police Laptop Model RT686 Heavy Duty Case Durable

I's not a sheeva plug or beagle board or sbc. But for my needs. It serves it's purpose.It is definitely more powerful than what you posted for the price.
Any 19v a/c laptop adapter can be adapted to power these on.If interested. I have a link on one of my other computers that shows a german company that sells the cable that fits the back of those Laptops.

Just pointing out a option you may not have thought of is all.

A Raspberry Pi should be similarly priced and provide a much better performance. You'd have to configure the system by yourself however, and it does not come with a casing, although the latter will become available overtime.

Yes, the raspberry pi is certainly the best choice, but the first batch took long and now that they have it, it looks like they're not shipping to my location :(

But the used netbooks sound like a very good alternative and indeed I hadn't thought about it.

Thanks guys.

Almost all of those embedded single use devices are difficult to modify. If you are happy with what they come with then fine but a standard x86 board might not be a lot more.

I have used some of these and they are kind of pokey, but what do you expect for $40?

These are x86 they are a little more expensive around ~100 bucks i run voyage linux which is an embedded x86 debian distro
http://www.wdlsystems.com/modperl/vi...id=24&asibs=no

If you still live in Italy, they've already shipped some in Italy. However, if you have not ordered yet, you'd probably have to wait until July to get one.