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by dsr_ 3947 days ago
If that's the highbrow option, what's a mini-ITX motherboard with an AMD 5350, 4GB RAM, an SSD and an Intel 4-port gig-e card plus the onboard gig-e?

Scout NewEgg for combos -- you too can run a fully supported OS on x86-64 instruction sets with familiar hardware, but at a low cost of both purchase and power.
1 comments
mindslight 3947 days ago
You built a server that also happens to route?

I was thinking the low brow option would be an old laptop, but that's not going to suffice for someone who wants to keep up with wireless protocols (due to the same FUD under discussion). Obviously you can fix this (coreboot or modded BIOS), but specificity and tinker factor is going way up.

It's the rise of low power general boards that really make this practical. I tried out the ECS E2100 board for a remote server, and with a silver PS it drew around 15W from the wall. It didn't work with the RAM I already had though, so I ended up going with an i5 which still only measured around 20W before I put drives in.

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ansible 3947 days ago
I was thinking the low brow option would be an old laptop, but that's not going to suffice for someone who wants to keep up with wireless protocols

Many laptops have mini-PCIe slots for the WLAN, so you could buy a new card and stick it in. Note that if you want to run 5GHz and the laptop didn't previously support it, you might need new antennas too.

The other caveat is that with some laptops the BIOS will allow only a particular WLAN card to be used. Which is annoying.

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mindslight 3947 days ago
> some laptops the BIOS will allow only a particular WLAN card to be used

Yeah, that's what I was referring to. The FUD of "unapproved changes" invalidating the FCC's approval for the antenna system leads the manufactures to create those restrictions. Since the end user making a modification well after the sale has nothing to do with the manufacturer, I call it FUD. (Of course the user isn't selling their modified device over state lines either, but I disgress).

My experience is primarily limited to Thinkpads and a few crappy consumer models that I've inherited. But I figure the better designed laptops that can make it to "old" and not overheat with continuous usage are more likely to have those restriction lists.

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kw71 3947 days ago
Manufacturers like HP and Lenovo don't only have the FCC to worry about upsetting. They have to worry about regulators in every other country, too. So they want to make sure their type approvals can't be breached.
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