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Mega Linux Boxes, and Cheap Ones Too

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the stuff-to-see dept.

Couple of interesting developments in Linux hardware lately. The Linux Store is selling super cheap linux boxes. news.com has a story about them where they proclaim that they will only be advertising on sites like Slashdot and Freshmeat except that Scoop doesn't even had ads, and I'd never heard of them before reading that article. An actual advertiser (Penguin Computing), however now has a 8 CPU Xeon Box that runs Linux (of course). First 8 CPU box I've seen running Linux (which I didn't even know could do 8 way SMP. Although I've been told of 32 and 64 chip linux boxes in development by other companies. No I can't name names).

3 of 163 comments (clear)

  1. Are you serious?? by Sleepy · · Score: 3
    Save money by removing the fan and hard disk, while making the system totally silent.

    Think, before you speak r00t d00d..

    Heat fins on the case? Since when is the CASE a major source of heat? If you want to transfer heat from the hard drive and the CPU ONTO the case, how would you do it? Submerge it in water maybe... :)

    CPU's in _general_ aren't the problem; x86 and is hugely innnefficent and generates higher-than-average levels of heat so it needs another fan atop the heat sink. My PowerPC does quite nicely without a CPU fan... the CPU is in my estimation the third source of heat after the hard drive and power supply.

    As a result, this G3 is AMAZINGLY quiet. I suppose all fans could be disabled if I got an external hard drive (no thanks) or netbooting (not needed) and moved the power supply out, but I'm not willing to test it. If I wanted absolute quiet I'd get a G3 rackmount from Marathon Computers..

    One thing that CAN help reduce noise is applying vibration dampening material to "safe" metal inside the computer, like portions of the frame and maybe the inside of the case cover (YMMV I wouldn't completely cover the case because more heat may build up).

    You can get the stuff at a car-stereo shop..

  2. I detect a slight amount of sleaze by IntlHarvester · · Score: 3


    I thought multi-proc + IDE was a bad idea. Plus why buy an extra CPU when you're burning the cycles you do got with IDE?
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  3. What is that? by raistlinne · · Score: 3

    What is asynchronous IO? What specifically does it relate to?

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    They laughed at Einstein. They laughed at the Wright Brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown. -- C. Sagan