cheap linux box ?

[Gilboa Davara]

On Mon, 2010-10-11 at 10:30 +0200, Erez D wrote:
> hey,
> 
> 
> my NSLU2 just died ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSLU2 )
> I can replace it with a new one, however i was thinking - it has been
> long time since nslu2 showed up, and there must be a more powerful
> device available for a similiar price...
> 
> I am actually looking for a cheap linux box, with usb2 and lan, which
> I can install a general purpose linux distribution on (e.g. debian and
> such. not openwrt which is good for routers, but not for other things
> like hosting a mail server etc ...)
> 
> anyone knows of such a linux box ?
> 
> Thanks
> erez.
> 

If you're willing to trade "small" for "cheap", in my view a (very)
low-end PC is a far better option. (At the expense of bigger foot-print
and higher power usage).

Of the top of my head, two options:
1. A dual core ATOM combo box can be found at under 800nis. Add a case,
PSU and you can stay under 1100nis. 
2. Low end dual core AMD machine: CPU: ~250-300nis, board (Low-end
nVidia based board): ~300nis, case+PSU: 300nis, memory: ~200nis. Total:
~1100nis.

Needless to say, such a machine is far more capable (and far more
serviceable) compared to custom made ARM or PPC machine.

For my use, I chose the AMD route. This low end machine (beefed up with
4GB of RAM a and a software RAID5 based on cheap SATA drives) is
currently used to house 3 different CentOS VM's using Fedora 13's
qemu/KVM, and according to the UPS monitor, this machine rarely tops
60-70w. 
Keep in mind, that with some effort you could further reduce the power
usage by using 35w or even a 25w 2x0u-series CPUs (instead of the usual
55w).

-- 
Gilboa Davara
http://www.wirex-systems.com