Low Powered Mini-Server for the Masses

ServerSam writes "Sudhian has a review up on EmergeCore's "IT in a Box" IT100. Designed for small business use, it comes equipped with a Transmeta Crusoe 533MHz, 128MB RAM, 20GB IBM TravelStar, 802.11b Access Point, and boots from a 32MB Flash card. The IT100 is powered by a 60 watt external PSU and is smaller than a PS2."

Comments

Other than size...

[BJZQ8]

Other than size, I think one of those $199 Walmart Microtel machines would be a better deal...they now have 1300MHz Durons in them. They are a bit skimpy on memory (come with 128MB), but you can buy 512MB of the SDR stuff they use for $50 these days. I have a bunch of them, and they've been flawless!

Er...

[FrostedWheat]

Yes, you can use Linux and other "free" operating systems, but the concept of Linux, and it's "unaccountability" scares most small business owners

Yes ... because as we all know Microsoft or Apple are completly "accountable" for any errors or damage there OS causes...

Re:Er...

[kinnell]

Yes ... because as we all know Microsoft or Apple are completly "accountable" for any errors or damage there OS causes...

What matters is that most people who make business decisions to use commercial software believe that the vendor is liable, and continue to believe it despite any evidence to the contrary, such as "we do not guarantee that this software will do what it is designed to do".

Re:Er...

[tabdelgawad]

The two parent posts reflect conventional wisdom here in slashdot. Unfortunately, they miss the point, which is that even if there is no strict 'legal' liability (and there are reasons to think even this may not be true), there's always some 'effective' liability imposed by business reality.

For example, suppose TurboTax makes a certain error in filing that affects a certain percentage of its customers, who are then punished with fees/audits by the IRS. If the case is publicized and the error is strictly TurboTax's, could TurboTax really afford to say that they're not liable because of their EULA? What would that do to their sales the following year? And what would consumer recourse be if they used a non-commercial tax package instead of TurboTax? Who would they hit up for their fees and damages?

Additionally, there's no guarantee that all EULAs would stand a legal test in a liability case. I believe that was what UCITA was all about, strengthening EULAs to limit software liability. If EULAs were always legally biniding, UCITA would probably be unnecessary.

I don't claim that commercial software vendors will always be liable, but there are formal and informal ways of accountability available with commercial vendors. It's not fair to claim that businesses are being completely irrational in continuing to believe this.

Cobalt RaQ and Cobalt Qube?

[ThogScully]

Anyone recognize the niche as that of Cobalt, before Sun took them over? Did those do well enough that this can be popular?

Unfortunately, as an operator of a Cobalt RaQ for many years, I found it to be very limiting once we did figure out how to really use it and how little the custom interfaces allowed, but it was great for people who just wouldn't learn that stuff.

I hope no one thinks these are patch-proof though,. Our Cobalt needed patches and even with them had trouble avoiding a few compromises since patches were so delayed. Now it runs Debian and I couldn't be happier with the little box.
-N

Re:Cobalt RaQ and Cobalt Qube?

[danamania]

It's not a bad small out of the way server for the old learning experience. The whole idea of starting admins-in-training on the most minimal hardware instead of having them throw 3GHz PIVs at serving a home site that gets 5 visitors a day just begs for inefficiency down the line.

I started my site on a 33MHz Quadra. It'd still be using that if I didn't rely on quite a bit of PHP in places. There was no reason to jump up too far, so a PPC601 was the next machine up.

What the whole experience has taught me is how to keep things running efficiently by knowing the system well, and remembering never to do stupid things, like post the URL on slashdot. :)

Re:Cobalt RaQ and Cobalt Qube?

[ThogScully]

and remembering never to do stupid things, like post the URL on slashdot. :)

Looks to me like your URL is posted to slashdot every time you post a message. http://www.danamania.com appears under your username.

But don't worry - your secret's safe with me ;-)

Smaller than a PS/2?

[Anonymous Coward]

Funny how PS2 doesn't mean what it used to.

Re:Smaller than a PS/2?

[pete-classic]

I was just going to ask how many MCA slots it has. Thanks for taking the wind out of my sails.

-Peter

"The IT100 did it all at a cost of $1,395"

[no_such_user]

$1395?! Why not just buy a laptop? Or two? It would be (much!) faster, similarly power efficient with an external power supply, could likely boot from CF, could act as an AP, would even have an integrated diplay for debugging... and MUCH more. C'mon folks -- I was hoping something like this would go for $400, not $1400!

Re:"The IT100 did it all at a cost of $1,395"

[GNUALMAFUERTE]

Yep, but there is an advantage:
Think this is going for a server, the real meaning of server is 24*7; so heat is your enemy here ... there is no notebook out there that can manage to have 7 months of uptime with a high cpu usage without burning out or hanging all the time ... Crusoe is a beatifull cold processor. But i agree with you ... this kind of device is for marketroids that wants some big company behind their hard/soft, because they think that is a kind of warranty of profit (like all those assholes using redhat) ... If you have the knowledge *and* the balls to tell the manager that you are going to put home-made hardware in their raqs; it will work as well as any of this closed boxes.

Re:Slashdotted Already?

[L0C0loco]

There is some info and a less than glowing review Here.

Enjoy

Not just size

[Gleef]

The noise level and power usage are also key for this machine. Of course, there are other fanless machines, many of them much cheaper than this one. (Note: Not all of the machines at that site are fanless, but many are, check out the Tranquil PC and the Hush). (Also Note: Fanless doesn't equal silent, you still get drive noise and monitor whine, unless you replace those with solid state components)

Just think what a geek can do with $1100 these day

[LazloToth]

Sure, I know that not everyone can build his own box and load it with Linux. But for this money, I'm thinking you could do pretty well with a Duron, a couple of ATA 133 drives, and a cheap 1U box. If you can run a web interface such as the one described here, you probably could do alright with Webmin, too. And think how much more useful and trustworth a thing you'd have.

Ah, well - - aren't the do-it-yourselfers among us lucky?

Re:hmm

[Cthefuture]

Erm... What?!

My friend, silence is the future of computing. I really hate, I mean I - HATE - those god awful gianormous skyscraper towers that blast out 90dB of concentration breaking whirring and grinding sounds. Not to mention the heat and wasted space. Who needs 8 PCI slots, 12 drive bays, and a 600W power supply?! That's legacy garbage from the ;lt%90's man.

Smaller, faster, QUIETER. That is the future.

You sound like one of those "old timers" that likes inefficient crap just because that's all you know.

You would probably take a CRT over an LCD any day, right? (*)

* By the way, CRT's do have there uses in high speed games (Quake) but other than that they just burn your retinas.

Re:Ripping off

[wwest4]

you don't need a 2+ GHz P4 to run common net svcs. you need a cold-running reliable box, preferably with no fans or drive spindles to wear out.

for small businesses, appliances make a lot of sense. they just want stuff to work and be simple to understand from a high level - they don't want a custom hack job (as fun as that may be).

these boxes (along with the slew of thin client appliances out there) often run open-source software, and not all are as expensive as this baby. i, for one, welcome our black box toaster overlords - at least at the mom&pop level.

Small Servers?

[mr_lithic]

When did size become a massive concern for people buying servers?

I thought cooling, data transfer rates and reliability (redundant PSU's etc) were the main considerations. Processor speed and storage capacity are definitely up there as well.

But Size?

I don't understand

Re:No Fault Tolerance? No Server

[Slider451]

Good points. However:

With raid-1, you dont even have to make backups.

That's a common misconception with RAID. Redundant disks only protect you from hardware failure. You still need to make backups to recover from human failure. If Bob in accounting deletes your Quickbooks files, they're gone. I just had to restore a giant spreadsheet from tape a couple days ago, onto a RAID 5 system.

RAID won't save you from Bob.

Re:128MB?

[bigdavex]

A system with only 128MB or RAM is NOT a server in today's world. Ten years ago maybe but not today.

Now there's some exageration. RAM was about $50/MB in 1993, making 128MB $6,400.