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Pricing up Linux hardware.
http://www.x404.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=5670		 Page 1 of 2
Author:  Fogmeister [ Fri Jan 22, 2010 10:50 am ]
Post subject:  Pricing up Linux hardware.
I've been trying to price up a cheap PC to use Linux on as a router/server.

So far the cheapest I can get (only been looking at Scan) for a reasonable setup is around £175 quid.

  • 1GB Corsair XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800), 240 Pins, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 5-5-5-18
  • Asus TM-B11 Black Micro ATX Tower Case No PSU
  • Biostar G31-M7-TE, Intel G31, Sok 775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 533/667/800, SATA 3Gb/s, Micro ATX, VGA
  • Intel Pentium Dual-Core, E5300, S775, Wolfdale, 2.6 GHz, 2MB Cache, 13x Core Ratio, 65W, Retail
  • 350w Be Quiet BN134 SFX microATX PSU
  • with a CF card from Amazon.
  • Sweex LC001 PCI 10/100 Network Card VIA Chipset

I could reduce the memory to 512 or slower speed. I could also go for a Celeron instead of the Pentium.

If you were to buy new what sort of stuff would you go for?
Author:  forquare1 [ Fri Jan 22, 2010 1:02 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Pricing up Linux hardware.
I built a small PC for just over £100. I bought all the bits from eBay :P

Single core Atom board (built in graphics and ethernet)
Mini-itx case with power supply
2GB RAM I had lying around
80GB HDD

If an Atom board will do you, might be good to go that way as it may keep the costs down (both of the components and power usage?)

EDIT:
I'm quite happily running OpenSolaris on mine, though it's built for higher spec computers. I've no doubt some linux distro would run comfortably on that.
Author:  saspro [ Fri Jan 22, 2010 1:47 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Pricing up Linux hardware.
I'm just finishing my itx server build. The Atom 330 isn't actually too bad, it even runs exchange.
Author:  rustybucket [ Fri Jan 22, 2010 1:55 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Pricing up Linux hardware.
Fogmeister wrote:
I've been trying to price up a cheap PC to use Linux on as a router/server.

What are you serving?
Author:  Fogmeister [ Fri Jan 22, 2010 2:31 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Pricing up Linux hardware.
rustybucket wrote:
Fogmeister wrote:
I've been trying to price up a cheap PC to use Linux on as a router/server.

What are you serving?

TBH I mainly want to use it as a firewall router for my house. Prob with a wireless card in for wifi access (or something).

In terms of serving probably not much/nothing at all but possibly a file server at some point in the future.
Author:  rustybucket [ Fri Jan 22, 2010 2:53 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Pricing up Linux hardware.
Fogmeister wrote:
TBH I mainly want to use it as a firewall router for my house. Prob with a wireless card in for wifi access (or something).

In terms of serving probably not much/nothing at all but possibly a file server at some point in the future.

I had a SmoothWall firewall running on a AMD K6-2 @ 250Mhz with 96MB of PC100 RAM.

You could run that on a very low powered system as it uses a Web interface.

[Edit] Just checked min reqs:

Quote:
SmoothWall Express 3.0 SP1
Released - 8th January 2009

Express 3.0 SP1 is the latest version of SmoothWall’s Free, open source, GPL network firewall. Two standard versions are available;
one for the Intel® i386 (and above compatible processors) and
one for 64-Bit processors (such as Opteron, Core 2 Duo, AMD Athlon 64 etc.)

81MB | ISO CD Image | SmoothWall Express 3.0 SP1 (i386)»
84MB | ISO CD Image | SmoothWall Express 3.0 SP1 (64-bit)»


If you want to make a file server, you could use ClarkConnect 5.0 but I've not tried it so I can't tell you what it's like
Quote:
Hardware Guidelines

The following are guidelines for estimating the right hardware for your system. Keep in mind, the hardware required depends on how you use the software. For instance, a heavily used content filter requires more power than a system running a simple firewall.
-------------------- <5 users 5-10 users 10-50 users 50-200 users
Processor/CPU 500 MHz 1 GHz ____ 2 GHz ------- 3 GHz
Memory/RAM --- 512 MB ___1 GB ____ 1.5 GB ___2 GB

Hard Disk Installation and logs require 1 GB - optional storage is up to you.
RAID Recommended for mission critical systems - see User Guide for details.
Author:  Fogmeister [ Fri Jan 22, 2010 3:02 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Pricing up Linux hardware.
Thanks for the info.

TBH I could probably run it on a Nokia 3310 but the problem is getting hold of low power/spec processors.

The price I put together was going from the cheapest stuff available on Scan.

Are there any computer supplies that will supply older/slower/mobile CPUs, mobos, etc...?

Thanks!
Author:  rustybucket [ Fri Jan 22, 2010 3:07 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Pricing up Linux hardware.
Fogmeister wrote:
Thanks for the info.

TBH I could probably run it on a Nokia 3310 but the problem is getting hold of low power/spec processors.

The price I put together was going from the cheapest stuff available on Scan.

Are there any computer supplies that will supply older/slower/mobile CPUs, mobos, etc...?

Thanks!

You tried Freecycle?
Author:  Fogmeister [ Fri Jan 22, 2010 7:51 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Pricing up Linux hardware.
Even better :D

I remembered I had my old gaming PC in the garage at my grandma's house. It's been there for around 2 years and never used so I've stripped it of all the non-essentials to try out Smoothwall on :D
Author:  Fogmeister [ Fri Jan 22, 2010 10:08 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Pricing up Linux hardware.
Woohoo!

It's installing now! One thing though, I'm gonna def have to get a new case and a quieter PSU.

And poss a quieter HSF for my CPU. I can't imagine much cooling is called for.
Author:  Coref [ Sat Jan 23, 2010 12:54 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Pricing up Linux hardware.
Fogmeister wrote:
Are there any computer supplies that will supply older/slower/mobile CPUs, mobos, etc...?


I've never used them, but take a look at

http://www.mini-itx.com/store/
Author:  Fogmeister [ Sat Jan 23, 2010 8:48 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Pricing up Linux hardware.
Damn, been trying to install it but I keep getting the error "Unable to calculate module dependencies" in the install process.

I've tried 2 different CDs and 2 different CD drives.

Just going to swap out the HDD and try again.
Author:  Fogmeister [ Sat Jan 23, 2010 9:28 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Pricing up Linux hardware.
OK, got past that bit by putting the HDD as single master on IDE 1 and then the CD on IDE 2.
Author:  Fogmeister [ Sat Jan 23, 2010 9:55 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Pricing up Linux hardware.
Damn! So close!

I now get an error "Unable to make root filesystem".
Author:  Fogmeister [ Sat Jan 23, 2010 11:21 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Pricing up Linux hardware.
Woohoo!

I switched to using the 32bit version instead of the 63bit and it's working now.

:D

Well, it's past the bit it was sticking on.
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