Mini PCs
I have been working, for the past few years, with armv7 SOCs and have a number of servers working.
Intel, etal are catching up with ARM and I have seen ones like:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/NEW-Mini-pc-X86-4-Lan-Qotom-Q190G4N-with-celeron-J1900-quad-core-4-usb-VGA/32785346279.html
I am looking for a low power (this is 10W) x86_64 board that has at least 2 core and 2GB memory. A single LAN port, a few USB and sata (not mSata) that supports a 1TB drive (2.5″, 5V is just fine).
Oh, and for ~$100 :)
Case is not necessary, as I can put it in my rack like these:
http://medon.htt-consult.com/~rgm/cubieboard/cubietower-3.JPG
(goal is to replace that SFF to the left).
It looks like Qotom might have one. It is a bit challenging to figure out which units have what.
thanks for any pointers.
14 thoughts on - Mini PCs
I would take something similar to this:
https://www.zotac.com/product/mini_pcs/zbox-ci323-nano
(for this zbox I can tell you, that it works with CentOS, as I have one configured as firewall/router)
Hello Walter,
This might become off-topic with my reply, but I’m curious: is there any specific software you’re running from CentOS on your zbox in order to manage the rooter features?
I currently use, between my xDSL box and my LAN machines, an ATX-format box running a pretty old GNU/Linux system with a Jay’s Firewall setup but I’d like to replace it w/ a fanless small barebone like the Zotac CI327: minimum hardware and cost but it has 2 LAN connectors – that’s my point for rooting at home: WAN <-> xDSL modem <-> rooter-linux-box <->
LAN <-> local machines.
Regards,
SSH?
this zbox has in comparison to the CI323 a different CPU, which I don’t know if this is supported by CentOS
(I didn’t mention, that I use CentOS 6 …)
Hello Walter,
I think I’ve been unclear, sorry about that! I wanted to ask if you use something, any helper installed on this rooter box, on top of firewalld/iptables, in order to setup and administrate the NAT/rooting
(and eventually proxy) rules?
That’s a good point to check, you’re right, support for this CPU in either CentOS6 or 7.
Regards,
I’ve configured it quite simple …
/etc/sysconfig/network_scripts:
ifcfg-eth0 and ifcfg-wlan0 have this: BRIDGE=br0
ifcfg-br0 is LAN (Dual-Stack)
ifcfg-eth1 is WAN (IPv4only)
ifcfg-sit1 is an HE IPv6 tunnel (IPv6only)
/etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf has this:
interface=wlan0
bridge=br0
/etc/sysconfig/ip(6)tables have at the last lines this:
# Log all other
-A INPUT -j LOG –log-prefix “IP(v6)[IN]: ” –log-level 7
-A FORWARD -j LOG –log-prefix “IP(v6)[FWD]: ” –log-level 7
-A OUTPUT -j LOG –log-prefix “IP(v6)[OUT]: ” –log-level 7
there runs a cronjob every hour, which sends an email like this:
dmesg |grep -e “IP(v6)\[” |timefltr.pl
for DNS a BIND is configured as caching DNS, and as authoritative master for my domain …
an Apache is configured only for some status pages like output of
‘ifconfig’, ‘df’, ‘free’, ‘ip(6)tables -L -n -v’, ‘uptime’
I programmed some simple network diagnostic:
– traceroute(6) and ping(6) to a given dns/ip-host
– nslookup of a given dns-name
this is only reachable from LAN side; as I have a VM that runs a squid with SSL-interception, I made a mini-CA, the root is installed on my computers, one intermediate CA is used by squid, the other intermediate CA is used for signing a SSL certificate which I use on LAN side of my zbox or on my intranet (e.g. squirrel)
to reach my squirrel, the apache does proxying …
when there is the need of changing firewall rules, I manually edit the files and reload ip(6)tables …
it is somewhat very individual, I’m thinking of sending SMS messages on special situations, e.g. the WAN IP address has changed (this happens about 2-3 times in a year)
that’s all
Hi,
I have this and happy with it, I believe it ticks all your boxes (+ built-in IR port).
http://www.intel.co.uk/content/www/uk/en/nuc/nuc-kit-dn2820fykh.html
Thanks, Nux!.
But a few hours late. I just purchased:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ZOTAC-ZBOX-NANO-Plus-Mini-PC-ZBOXNANO-AD12-PLUS-2GB-320GB-with-Power-Supply-56/382042194064?_trksid=p2045573.c100033.m2042&_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D41376%26meid%3Deae770f22d504a9b8366eb0c02dd20d6%26pid%3D100033%26rk%3D7%26rkt%3D8%26sd%3D152356229748
Zotac has been in the mini/nano PC business for a number of years, and this is a good price for the AD12.
I will probably swap the 320Gb drive out for my 1Tb drive, but as the unit comes with eSATA, I have to decide to perhaps get an eSATA adapter for the 1TB or what. My backup drive is USB, but I have had some I/O
problems with it (my earlier post), so I may switch my backup drive to eSATA.
I will post power and other numbers here when I get the unit.
Bob
Hi looked it up,
this AMD CPU has a thermal design power of 18 W
Greetings, Walter
The data I have found shows it varying from 10W idle to 26W under load.
Once I get it up, I will put it on my kill-a-watt and get a reading and average consumption.
The HP dc7600 pulls 84W idle. So at $0.165/KWH, I am forecasting a 12mo ROI (paid $100 refurbished).
Plus the lower heat and thus summer cooling.
Plus the longer run time on my UPS, if needed.
If it had two (or more) network ports, I’d be all over it. A single gigabit nic is a bit limiting for me.
Then check out:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/NEW-Mini-pc-X86-4-Lan-Qotom-Q190G4N-with-celeron-J1900-quad-core-4-usb-VGA/32785346279.html
or
https://www.zotac.com/product/mini_pcs/zbox_r_series
I am only putting up a Samba server, so only want/need one LAN.
Bob
I was fed up with Intel NUC’s, and after one of them died ultimately, I
replaced it with:
https://www.amazon.com/Shuttle-DS81-Haswell-chipset-Heatpipe/dp/B00IXFFD4W/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid95117096&sr=8-3&keywords=shuttle+pc
Admittedly, it somewhat bigger, somewhat heavier, but it is built like tank, it has more than one ethernet port, has room inside for 2.5 inch drive/SSD, and has two mini-PCI slots (can accept mSATA drives). And I am happy about that box ever since.
Valeri
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Valeri Galtsev Sr System Administrator Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics University of Chicago Phone: 773-702-4247
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The Nano AD12 arrived today. Swapped out the 320GB drive for my 1TB
drive, plugged it into my kill-a-watt and booted up to do the install.
On idle I am seeing 10W. So far, disk I/O (plus whatever processes run for the install) did not push it past 15W.
So my power goal seems to be met by this unit.
Will see how it goes.
Hello Walter,
Thanks for all this! That will help for sure :-)!
Regards,