[conspire] Zotac and Shuttle and Asu, oh my (durability)

[Tony Godshall]

> Example 2:  My new toy the Zotac, at minimum, has appallingly bad
> prospects for I/O expansion when viewed as a server.  Mass storage
> on a _quality_ interface is limited to exactly one SATA connector.
> Possibly, one might also count additional storage in the SD/SDHC/SDXC
> card reader, though I'm not sure about speed.  External storage is
> possible only on USB.  (But it's pretty damned good for $125 w/ 1 year
> mfr. warranty.)

By the way, we've had very disappointing results with the durability
of Zotac units as workstations.  We're back to Shuttle DS68U and DX30
units.  Single laptop-size hard drive, dual laptop-size memory sticks
fanless.  We also like the fact that we've had no driver troubles with
any of the hardware and they have serial ports and even PS/2 and VGA
which helps in terms of swapping out old machines, giving workstation
machines a second life as interfaces legacy industrial equipment etc.
(DX30 needs a header cable for VGA, order it with).

Other units we've been disappointed with durability are Lenovo Q180
and Q190 and ASUS EB1021.  A lot of the issues seem to have been
fan and heat-related, so the fanless nature of the Shuttle's should be a
benefit.