[geeks] Low-cost Dual-Core Opteron mini tower server at Dell

[Lionel Peterson]

  On Mon, Feb 11, 2008 at  6:39 PM, Bill Bradford wrote:

> On Mon, Feb 11, 2008 at 02:54:59PM -0600, Lionel Peterson wrote:
>> You know, that machine sort of beats the snot out of the Wal-Mart gOS 
>> "google" PC[1] with it's Via C-7 CPU...
>
> Yeah, but I actually *need* one of the gOS PCs - I need power saving 
> more
> than I need horsepower.  I'd trade the SC420 for a C7 box in a 
> heartbeat.

Bill,

You can't be serious - the VIA PC-1 motherboard[0] at ClubIT is $60 and 
it runs on DDR2-533 (or greater) RAM, up to 2 Gigs. For your application 
you want an efficient power supply, not a cheap power supply as I 
suspect comes in the gOS PCs. I believe an in-efficient 300 Watt power 
supply can use more power than an efficient 400 watt unit (but I could 
be wrong). If you really want a VIA PC-1 gOS MB let me know, as I have 
one about to go spare (nothing wrong with it, just don't need it).[1]

I just pulled a Linksys NSLU out of a moving box, along with 2x 250 USB 
drives, and it got me looking at the available hacks and mods for it - 
did you know the original units were running at half-speed? Later models 
run the CPU at 266 MHz, the originals ran the CPU at 133 MHz (a speed 
not even documented in the CPU specifications). IIRC your biggest 
complaint was that the NSLU was slow - I wonder if the newer, faster 
NSLUs are any better. (It seems that by "removing, with extreme 
prejudice" on resistor you can let the CPU run full-speed on the older 
units). An NSLU running a *nix OS witha couple USB drives might really 
drop your power usage - much more than a full PC (no matter how green it 
is).

Also, I wonder how the Intel D201GLY2 compares to the VIA PC-1 MB for 
power usage - the Intel board has two SATA ports, takes DDR2 RAM (cheap 
these days), and can run 64 bit operating systems (it is a Celeron chip 
based on a Conroe core). You could take one of those MBs, spend $20 or 
so on a 1 Gig RAM DIMM, and then get the smallest ATX power supply you 
can find (180 or 200 watt) and make sure it has a 12v 4 pin wire for the 
MB, then swap in your existing HDs and you're all set - a better machine 
for just about $100. (heck, it would be ideal if you could wedge the 
Intel board into a Sun Unipack case, then stack a couple of your 
home-made Unipack USB cases for storage and have that be your backup 
solution ;^)

Actually, I wonder if you can canibalize a Multi-pack case (the 6/12 
drive cases) and remove the lower drive bays with a dremel motor tool, 
bol the MB to to the case bottom, slide a couple SATA drives in the top 
sleds and have a self-contained SATA-based backup solution. I think the 
HDs would fit if you strip out the SCSI backplane and use right-angle 
SATA wires... Hmmm.....

Lionel

[0] http://clubit.com/product_detail.cfm?itemno=CA4842001
[1] I'd make you a good deal on it - I have original box, CDs, etc...
Lionel