On 19 Jun 2014, at 09:27, Laurie Brown laurie@brownowl.com wrote:
I've had a look at the local guys at http://www.linitx.com (Needham Market) but the choice is mind-boggling, and I haven't really kept up to speed with this stuff.
I’ve been lusting after some low-power hardware for a while. Bewildering choices, aren’t there? The latest low-power options in that space are based on Intel’s Bay Trail system-on-chip, which has a whole range of CPUs.
They’re showing up in motherboards for self builds (e.g. Gigabyte J1800N-D2H /J1900N-D3V, see mini-itx.com), and small all-in-one devices like the latest Intel NUC, GigaByte Brix, and others, in various levels of capability, from home pcs to higher-grade server board options like ASrock-c2750d4i, Asus P9AIC25504L, Supermicro X10SBA and MBD-A1SAi-2750F-O.
Some point out that these boards seem to come at rather a premium, partly because of the “low power” appeal, but especially for the ones aimed at the NAS market with lots of SATA ports, and the server-grade machines that have remote management facilities built-in.
Also, if you’re considering using these machines for a virtualisation lab, you need to be be aware that many support VT-x but not VT-d, if that’s important for you.
Some point out that if your machine runs justly at idle, then an i5 will be quite low-power too, while still giving you the option of going to higher performance and vt-d when needed, and giving you the option of upgrading your CPU later.
And depending on your preference, you could consider going from your current "small machines to perform specific roles” strategy to running those as individual VMs on a single somewhat larger box, which might things like backup/rollback easier, and save server space.
You mentioned: - the JNC9I-525 JC110; that’s an older generation D525 chip, with one Realtek NIC, limited to 4G, for £125 with case. Does not support vt-x - the Jetway JBC373; that’s a D525 again, limited to 2G with 4 gig ports, for £150 with case. Does not support vt-x
By comparison: - the Gigabyte J1800N at mini-itx has a bay-trail chip, single port, goes up to 8G, for £50. Supports vt-x. The J1900N adds 2 further cores and a second gigabit ports, for £65. Sans case. Cheap, and nice. - The A1SAi-2550F has 8 cores, can go up to 32G RAM, has USB3 (nice for off-host backup), quad intel nic, IPMI, fanless £190 ex VAT. Powerful but a lot dearer. See review here http://www.servethehome.com/Server-detail/supermicro-a1sai-2750f-review/
Of course depending on what exactly you do with your router, you could also consider using a small dedicated router like the Mikrotik RB260GSP instead, or something with Wifi, and then you may not need so many ports on your linux machine, and you might be able to use a cheaper motherboard there.
From reading the odd forum post, some of these new motherboards do have some teething problems, so it’d be worth to look into your particular choice before purchasing, and make sure you get the latest BIOS.
Not sure if this helped or just confused you more :-) Good luck, have fun, and do report back!
— Martijn