I am looking to replace the machine that is current my home router/proxy/file server/mail server (a Guru Plug std) which is just no longer able to keep up.

Although the last round I got by with 1 using VLANs, I would really like the flexibility of a second Ethernet port. I would also like to avoid having to have a pile of stuff hanging off the USB bus.

Does anyone know of contemporary device with 2x Ethernet ports, 2+ cores, and a gig of ram or better?

Otherwise I'll probably go with the new rPi2 b+ when I can get one but that isn't really ideal.

I don't mind having to bring my own case and power supply to table, but a nice package solution like the previous generation plug computers or the trim slice would be a good shortcut, even if its a bit more money.

Obviously looking to run Slackware Arm on it as the base platform.

This board is sexy and not that expensive regarding the sockets :
http://solid-run.com/marvell-armada-family/clearfog/

But one thing you have to look at is the kernel.
Are the sources really available, is it mainstream or at least in an official branch (e.g. omap kernel branch for Ti CPUs) etc. ?

That looks like almost exactly the sort of thing I'd like. Looks like they even have a nice ready made case. Thanks for the link, I'll start seeing what I can find out about the kernel and hardware support.

Please fill the thread with your findings ;^).

After several years of good service one of my 2 seagate dockstars had some sort of hardware failure making it unusable and leaving me with no backup hardware for my home made access point router. It's really frustrating because I recently went thought all the trouble of making the aluminum case itself become the heat-sink for the SOC.
In fearing that the only seagate dockstar I have left will give up too I'm looking for a alternative hardware too.
I want something that will either run on vanilla kernel os has actively maintained kernel port like raspberry PI. I'm not going to spend any more money on crap hardware like the IFC6410 that no one is even willing to swap with a RPI2 !
I might end up combining router and nas all in one x86 lo power machine as getting 2 ethernet ports and 2 sata ports on a single low budget ARM based SBC is becoming difficult.

You can grab a low cost Ti starter kit http://www.watterott.com/en/AM335x-S...Kit-TMDSSK3358
It's supposed to be 2X Gbe, but many cards have USB 2 ethernet chip so it's not fullspeed, so it's a parameter worth checking.

I have been studying the clearfrog a bit. It does look like it need some kernel customization but not much and the patches are available. Support for all the really critical stuff seems to already be included in the 4.x vanilla kernels. So its encouraging in terms of it working and supporting Slackware ARM well.


I also really like the mSATA support. The trouble is by the time you buy this thing + case and add an mSATA SSD to mix you are around the $300 mark. That same money buys a fanless mini Atom based PC that could run Slackware 64. Something like that will pull a little more power, not all the much in terms of dollars though. It makes going the far more fiddly ARM route hard to justify. While it fun figuring out how to program the flash on the gruplug and stuff it was also frustrating chasing down things like the UAP firmware and stuff; I not sure it will be as fun knowing there are now PC options that meet my needs as well and as cheaply.

I am going to have think on this a little more.

I've a RPi2 anyway ... I'm setting that up as a replacement for my router ... if I find something better I'll consider it ... else when it comes round to doing the same to the NAS I'll combine them into an x86 machine.

I would also like to bring to your attention the Olimex A20

It does not have 2 Ethernet ports, but neither has the RPi2 that some are suggesting.
I have been using a lot of them (200+) for some projects and I have found them to be surprisingly reliable and performant.
Although I lack the technical abilities to create a Slackware port for them (I have been using the debian distribution Olimex itself is offering), I don't think it would be much of a challenge for the gurus in this forum.

The olimex stuff is interesting and I've been tempted a couple of times to buy one but when you go to checkout and add shipping and VAT I always get put off.
The cheapest olimex A20 is the A20-OLinuXino-LIME with VAT and shipping to my country it's 56 Euro and it's only dual core 1Ghz and 1/2 Gb of ram.
I can get a RPi2 under 40 Euro and it has 4 cores @ 1Ghz and 1Gb of ram and 4 usb ports onboard. The only thing that I like on the Lime better then the Pi is the SATA port but it only has one ... if it had 2 of them it might have been a winner even at the higher price.
The other major difference is that olimex stuff is industrial graded while the Pi is consumer graded ... it may be a game changer for those requiring the hardware to run in industrial (like) environment.

Allwinner isn't open-source friendly. They promise source codes for years.

For sure they have much better open source support then Quallcomm and Mediatek

That think only has 256Mb of ram and a single core Cortex-A8 based soc ... but costs the price of 3 RPi2 (if you can get it reduced price else 6 RPi2): ... maybe there is a version w/o lcd for a decent price !

That thing resembles pretty closely the Turris Omnia but with 1 less mpcie port.
The price is similar too but the thing is that msata is no good for making NAS and even if you can spend the money you'll have to resort to usb wifi dongles for the AP because you used both mpcie/msata for the drives.
I'm looking for something with regular sata ports so I can use standard 2.5"