[conspire] which box for: low end, low noise, low profile?

[Don Marti]

begin Rick Moen quotation of Fri, Aug 03, 2007 at 04:49:21PM -0700:
> Quoting Eric De Mund (ead-conspire at ixian.com):
> 
> > What kind of very small footprint, low profile, low noise, low end box
> > (case, motherboard, and CPU) do you all recommend? I'd be perfectly
> > happy with 200 MHz processor with passive cooling (in fact I'd prefer
> > passive cooling), a 40 GB hard disk drive, and a 3 cm. tall case.
> 
> The last (x86-class) CPU I know that really, truly ran cool and allowed
> you -- with care -- to get by with nothing but passive cooling in your
> system was the AMD K6 -- which would be perfectly adequate for the sort
> of system you're talking about.  With the right mini-ATX motherboard and
> suitable case with adequate airflow, you could probably swing that sort
> of operation.  But _3 cm_?  I can't imagine how you could honestly get
> any sort of airflow at all, let alone adequate airflow, with a 3 cm tall
> case.

You could get a Via Mini-ITX board.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mini-ITX

Some have no CPU fan.  I use one running software RAID
for my home backup server.  Be sure to use a kernel
built for 586 or below, since the Via processors
don't have the full 686 instruction set.

Another option for a low-power Linux box is the
Linksys NSLU2 "slug" -- an ARM-based appliance that
you can hook up a USB drive to and run Debian on.
  http://www.cyrius.com/debian/nslu2/

-- 
Don Marti                    
http://zgp.org/~dmarti/
dmarti at zgp.org