Serious Techies ONLY: Linux mini server for £18 delivered

gavinp

I recently bought a "thin client" off of ebay to see if it could be used as a budget mini-server for VPN use although it could be used for a whole host of applications.

Firstly, unless you are VERY happy with the Linux command line and have a specific project in mind then DO NOT buy this as you will be wasting your money!

I sourced the units which are advertised as refurbished but seem well made and look new. The front has 2 x USB 2.0 and the back has 1 x PS2 keyboard, 1 x PS2 mouse, VGA, 1 x serial, 1 x Gigabit LAN, 1 x USB 2.0. [EDIT: Speaker + mic ports also!]

Inside is an AMD Geode LX800 processor, 256Mb DDR333 SO-DIMM (laptop size which can be replaced) and a compact flash slot accessible through a side hatch complete with pq 256Mb Compact Flash card. It also looks like there is a 44pin IDE male connector on the motherboard.

I replaced the RAM with a 1Gb DDR333 module and the compact flash with a Kingston 16Gb 133X ElitePro card. The 12V PSU and a bracket/pouch to mount on the rear of a TFT monitor was included in the price. It came with a "figure of 8" euro power lead so I used a spare UK one I had.

Powering the unit up, it is completely silent - no fans at all and will boot from the compact flash card or USB (CD/DVD and flash drives). It uses circa 7 watts of electricity in use.

This chipset is useful for VPN use as it includes AES hardware encryption acceleration using the Geode-AES module. AMD claims this will give upto 44Mbps VPN throughput using AES-128-CBC encryption. The OCF patches are included in the Voyage Linux distro which is Debian-based and designed to boot from a CF card.

A similar system (albeit in a larger case with 512Mb RAM but without Gigabit LAN/CF card) is available here: http://linitx.com/viewproduct.php?prodid=12091

I have tested installing Voyage Linux 0.65 onto one unit with 1Gb RAM/16GB CF and also another with the bundled 256Mb RAM/256Mb CF as a "generic PC" and both work fine. The author also does a Voyage ONE version for Asterisk use and there are several other distros available (including BSD) depending on what you want to do:

http://linux.voyage.hk/features
http://www.imedialinux.com/imedia_alix_linux
http://www.zeroshell.net/eng/ (bear in mind only 1 LAN port!)

Hopefully, if you are still with me, you have a good appreciation of linux and strong idea of what you would use this for and understand this will NEVER run Windows.

The units can be sourced from Ebay - do a search for FUTRO and the unit is called an A250 - I have no connection with the seller apart from buying two units from them.

Thanks

Gavin

Hammyman

So how much did this all cost in the end to make it half usable? 1GB DDR sticks aren't cheap.

I'd hazard you have £100 in it. I could have sold you a Dell laptop for that which would have had double the storage and ran far quicker.

gavinp

Hammyman wrote: »

So how much did this all cost in the end to make it half usable? 1GB DDR sticks aren't cheap.

I'd hazard you have £100 in it. I could have sold you a Dell laptop for that which would have had double the storage and ran far quicker.

The unit came with 256Mb of RAM and a 256Mb Compact Flash card.

The unit is currently running with the included 256Mb of RAM and the bundled 256Mb Compact Flash card.

I tried the other components to test if the unit could be upgraded if needed. The bundled components are sufficient for what I need.

So the unit as being used cost £18 total...

Thanks

Gavin

Basil1234

so the total point of this thread is??? other than to tell us what you got for £18

and most people understand linux is linux and windows is windows that is common sense. maybe its just me but this thread seems a bit pointless to say the least!
infact i might go as far as say it is heading in the :spam: area to try to advertise some stuff on ebay.

gavinp

How is it spam if I am not selling it ?

Obviously you can't see the purpose behind it so why post ? :eek:

If someone is looking for a cheap, low power consumption machine to operate as a mini server then £18 is a bargain... :T

Thanks

Gavin

DCFC79

Its not spam basil, i think the OP is just trying to help other linux users or advanced users about the mini server

Basil1234

well there is a section for buy this its cheap its here

not really in this section tbh i think its out of place just my view had you come on and asked do you think this is good value i'm not sure? then people would have give you there views thats what this part of the board is for its called asking a question.
This part of the board has had its spam merchants coming on pushing there goods time after time and from where i sit it gets very boring and annoying time after time if you see it from this side of the fence. you maybe truthful but there are alot that aren't out there.
anyway you have had my view leave u 2 it.

gaming_guy

....................

gavinp

Most spam merchants haven't been an active member on MSE for six years! :T

This post was for a very small minority of people who could see the potential in something like this.

Why do people who don't understand something think they have to criticise it or accuse people of spamming the board ?

Thanks

Gavin

PROLIANT

gavinp wrote: »

Most spam merchants haven't been an active member on MSE for six years! :T

This post was for a very small minority of people who could see the potential in something like this.

Why do people who don't understand something think they have to criticise it or accuse people of spamming the board ?

Thanks

Gavin

Just ignore the old fool, he has nothing constructive to post.
Thanks for the info on this device, so much potential.

Owain_Moneysaver

Kewl .