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Recommendations for a Single Board Computer?

Posted by Cliff on from the small-but-capable dept.

Lardmonster asks: "I'm looking for a Single Board Computer that's reasonably spec'd for performance, but low power (from a Wattage perspective!). I'd like to build a small machine to host NFS/Samba shares, store email, and run Slimserver. There are some nice-looking boards from Soekris, but they max out at 266MHz and have limited RAM. Can anyone recommend similar devices that are low-power, up to 500MHz, with IDE connector and have a SO-DIMM slot? Compatibility with i386 binaries is not necessary. Many places sell similar boards, but only in large quantities, and the prices are generally prohibitively high when they're publicized at all."

8 of 49 comments (clear)

  1. VIA EPIA by ERJ · · Score: 2, Informative

    Probably VIA EPIA would do the trick. Maybe something like this:

    VIA EPIA NL

  2. Via might have one soon... by deque_alpha · · Score: 2, Informative

    I take it that the mini-ITX stuff from Via et al is overkill / too big? If so, they are (hopefully) soon going to have nano-itx boards available that are more like traditional SBC's. http://www.mini-itx.com/ recently posted an article where one was spotted in the wild in Japan, so they might actually see light of day, finally. If you don't want to wait, there are a ton of SBC manufacturers that advertise in Linux Journal, surely one of them will do what you want. Pick up a copy of LJ and take a look.

    1. Re:Via might have one soon... by BJH · · Score: 2, Informative

      On sale in Akihabara as of last week.

  3. Underclock... by harrkev · · Score: 1, Informative

    If this is just an attempt at reducing power usage, why not use an old mobo/processor and underclock the thing to death. You should be able to get an Athlon 64 to run at 500 MHz or so by scaling back the multiplier and FSB speed. You would likely not even need any fans, except possibly for the power supply. And even if this is not exactly the most optimal solution, the money saved in purchasing used, cheap hardware will more than offset the amount of extra electricity that this thing might take when compared to a real SBC.

    Of course, if this thing is intended for a special application, such as a space-limited or power-limited use (in a car, or battery powered, etc.), then feel free to ignore me.

    --
    "-1 Troll" is the apparently the same as "-1 I disagree with you."
  4. Portwell by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    is the answer.

  5. why do you need it to be clocked so high? by manno · · Score: 2, Informative

    I mean looking at that Soekris board it looks perfect for you. I mean you don't need a processor that's that fast. After all it only has 3 100 mbit connections, that's just 75 megabytes/sec bandwidth if it's full duplex. That's peanuts in the computer world, like a 486 maybe Pentium 1 bandwidth. If ram is a concern it looks like it takes a SO-DIM, right their on the board... call them up and ask them to clarify. I'd say for what you're looking for that thing is perfect.

    -manno

  6. Er, what is wrong with the iBase? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    "I question whether you are looking in the wrong direction for what you are wanting to accomplish. You are looking for something to run drives for a streaming server which means you'll need a power supply for those too (which you won't pull off one of the low power sbc systems generally). Unless you just want to dump a single 2.5" drive in there, and in that case, again, the soekris 4801 would work just fine."

    The IB705 SBC is for the multimedia market with SATA connectors.

    http://www.technoland.com/pr_ib705.htm

    They even have an online-store.

    http://www.technoland.com/

  7. Re:A word against EPIA by LoRdTAW · · Score: 2, Informative

    Hate to break it to ya but those arent PCI-X slots In a G4. They are regular PCI 64bit 33mhz slots. Twice as fast as normal pci 32bit/33mhz. You can tell because the notch in the 32 bit portion of the slot is for 5 volt operation. No PCI-X card or even PCI 64bit 66mhz card was 5 volts, only 3.3 volts. The G5 had PCI-X slots that are now being replaced with PCI Express slots. A PCI-X card might work in a 64/33 slot but check first, some dont work below 64/66.

    The epia boards suck because the via cpu has poor preformane compared to AMD and Intel CPU's with the same rating. In my opinion try a laptop. They are designed for low power operation and have all the I/O you need built in. There are laptops with gigabit ethernet, wireless, fire wire 800, usb 2.0, and 32bit pc card slots. What the laptop doesnt have you can add on with a PC card. Raid systems can be setup using fire wire or usb hard drives in external boxes. The battery will act as a built in UPS in case of a power outage. Plus you dont even need a keyboard, mouse or monitor as they are all built in.