[rescue] little low-wattage servers

[Joshua D. Boyd]

On 1/22/2012 1:30 AM, Robert Darlington wrote:
> I'm using an ARM based Linux server that I got setup last night and am very
> happy with it.  It's a Seagate GoFlex Net device.  Looks like a tiny
> toaster that will accommodate external storage through USB or direct
> through the top SATA connectors.  They're about $45 delivered on eBay.
>
> http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/products/network_storage/file-sharing
>
> They even make little wifi modules for them that plug into the USB port.
>
> Following the directions here:
> http://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv5/seagate-goflex-net  I was up and
> running in about 30 minutes.   Samba is setup as well as NTP and I've
> managed to transfer over about 500GB of videos and music already with 500
> to spare.   There are even scripts to use the lights on the front of the
> device to show percentage of disk usage.   Pretty slick system.  We're
> talking $200 total for a NAS box with GigE network interface (I managed to
> only run it up to 25% capacity either due to disk bottlenecks or controller
> bottlenecks on my pc or the NAS).

That is a terrible form factor though.  Also, other boards for just a 
little more have 512 megs of ram.  The CPU has 2x gig E (integreated 
PHYs for both), PCI express, digital audio, and a port for a video 
decoder, so where is a board for say under $150 that supports a bit more 
of this hardware?

A $100 guru plug drops you to only one SATA connector, but gives you 
both GigEs and 512 megs at least.  Plus, I expect that it will hang 
nicely from a rack mount PDU.