Re: Looking for suggestions for small, low power machine

[Andy Ruhl <acruhl%gmail.com@localhost>]

On Wed, May 25, 2011 at 5:42 AM, Jean-Yves Moulin <jym%eileo.net@localhost> 
wrote:
> Didn't try this one, but I'm using this board:
>
> http://www.e-itx.com/pico820-series.html
>
> It's a bit expensive but powerful and it works great on NetBSD. It never use 
> more than 10w (with harddisk, compactflash and 2gb). You can find a 
> board+case in the same site.
>
> Fit-pc2 ( http://www.fit-pc.com/web/ ) is based on the same hardware, but I 
> never tried it.

That fit-pc is closer to what I had in mind. Probably a bit of context
is necessary here:

The machine I'm using right now to do this job is a Cobalt Qube2 which
is mipsel. Netbsd works fine, but unfortunately the hardware doesn't
so much. It crashes once in a while and the power supply breaks on a
fairly regular basis (every year or so). I haven't plugged in my "kill
a watt" but I'm guessing it's using more power than some of these
newer machines would.

What I'm hoping to do is get something which will be completely
reliable, low power, and will be able to be a server for this other
NetBSD stuff I play with like my Dreamcast, Qube2, NSLU2, and maybe a
few other things mentioned above like a Mac or Sheevaplug.

I'm surprised nobody commented on my original link because it's very
similar to some stuff that has already been mentioned (e-itx, etc),
but as far as I can tell, always less expensive. It's a tiny system on
chip box with vga, serial, USB, SATA, solid state storage, and
possibly wifi for less than $200:

http://www.norhtec.com/products/mcjrmx/index.html

I've thought about stuff like Gumstix, Beagleboard, and that Biffer
thing mentioned earlier falls into the same category. A little too DIY
for this particular application, but maybe something I would try
booting off of this new machine I'm needing.

Anyway, enough for now. Keep the suggestions coming, this is fun.

Andy