|
[Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]
|
Re: [PLUG] no moving parts
|
On 01/28/2010 06:19 PM, Bill Patterson wrote:
> Can anyone recommend a computer with no moving parts? I want one to
> stay on 24/7 and be there to 'wake-on-lan' my other computers only when
> I want them on. This computer would have to take Debian Linux.
If you're willing to build it yourself this isn't too hard to do - if
you're willing to accept less-than-stellar performance.
For example, many mini-ITX systems are designed to operate without
cooling. They usually involve rather large brick power supplies, however.
The trick is to keep the power consumption way down, and use a CPU that
is closer to a smartphone than a desktop PC.
I imagine you could do the same in a regular ATX system - but you have
to find a motherboard and CPU designed to consume very little power.
If you don't need much storage space you can probably find a fairly
cheap linux-based thin client and re-purpose it. Forget running debian
though - you're going to need a very minimal footprint, but you could
probably get a cron daemon, sshd, and wake-on-lan working just fine. At
work I was messing around with some $120 thin clients and they have a
small linux install (busybox/etc) with 128MB of flash. You can actually
do quite a bit with 128MB if you're careful and don't care about GUIs
(after all, these boxes ran X11 and Citrix).
I like the plug computer idea though - only pain there is that you don't
get a traditional console which can make setup a bit trickier. You're
not going to be installing anything too big on that either, unless you
network-mount /usr or something (which then necessitates another powered
on server of some kind).
___________________________________________________________________________
Philadelphia Linux Users Group -- http://www.phillylinux.org
Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
General Discussion -- http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
|
|