Date: Tue, 14 May 2002 16:08:54 +0200 From: Axel Scheepers <axel@axel.truedestiny.net> To: martin <mymarrandy@yahoo.com> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: economic low power computers Message-ID: <20020514160853.B9170@mars.thuis> In-Reply-To: <20020514134716.60873.qmail@web21503.mail.yahoo.com>; from mymarrandy@yahoo.com on Tue, May 14, 2002 at 06:47:16AM -0700 References: <20020514134716.60873.qmail@web21503.mail.yahoo.com>
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Hi Martin,
On Tue, May 14, 2002 at 06:47:16AM -0700, martin wrote:
> Hello.
>
> This may be 'off topic' so replies off-list would be appreciated.
>
> I`m looking for a low power consumption computer at a reasonable price that
> can handle (probably has them on board) Two NIC`s. It will be a
> firewall/router/server.
>
> I have considered a notebook but am not sure that they can handle Two
> pcmcia ethernet cards simultaneously. (Although with USB and USB NIC's,
> this might work.)
2 pcmcia network cards should work without any problem, but keep in
mind that you don't use these newer Xircom cards, they block the other
entry.
>
> Some of the really low powered ones on a general search (20 Watts) come
> back with a price in the $5-8,000 range.
Well, there are many different solutions, like ARM and NetBSD for instance,
although the price will be equal. :(
>
> I don`t need much more than 500MHz and less than $1,000 would be nice.
>
> Manufacturer and model number would be appreciated and a "we use this on and it only draws xx watts and works great", would be a bonus.
>
I use an old IBM PS/2 system as a router/firewall, it runs FreeBSD 4.5 and
has the followin specs:
Intel 486 33Mhz
16MB EDO mem
408MB Seagate
I use ipfilter/ipnat and the box never reaches full load, pumping about
350MB-1GB a day. (Home use ;)
Total costs for the box: $0,- :-0
Just try some second hand stores etc. Sometimes they'll be available
in bundles (about 100) then the whole package shouldn't cost more then
$250,- not including monitors.
The older models don't need that much power, althouh I don't exactly know
how much it needs. You might consider throwing out the hdd and make a
bootable (picobsd) router/firewall floppy. It makes them more silent
too. Furthermore, the laptop with powermanagement could do the trick
also, but they tend to get very hot when they're _really_ busy so
that depends a bit on the workload.
>
> Regards...
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------
> Do You Yahoo!?
> LAUNCH - Your Yahoo! Music Experience
Ow, btw, did you have a look at those nice industrial boards?
At www.micropower.nl you can see examples of them. Low power, super
small. I used one inside a tft monitor as a x-terminal. Cost will
be about $600 for a pentium based board with onboard VGA/Lan.
Some models have 'DiskOnChip' which eliminates the need of a tftp server.
Gr,
--
Axel Scheepers
UNIX System Administrator
email: axel@axel.truedestiny.net
a.scheepers@iae.nl
http://axel.truedestiny.net/~axel
------------------------------------------
UNIX was half a billion (500000000) seconds old on
Tue Nov 5 00:53:20 1985 GMT (measuring since the time(2) epoch).
-- Andy Tannenbaum
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