Low-Cost Board Runs Linux, Google Apps 152
An anonymous reader writes to mention that hardware hacking enthusiasts can now get their hands on the guts of the Everex TC2502 Linux PC for just $60 (USD). The compact x86-compatible "gOS Dev Board" offers a lightweight Linux-based OS designed for use with Google Apps. " Along with a Firefox browser supporting the Google toolbar, gOS includes local productivity applications, such as OpenOffice.org. However, its main goal is "coherently packaging Google Apps to give users the idea that they can use Google as their main environment," explained Paul Kim, of Everex. "
That's a smoking deal (Score:4, Informative)
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The only thing I would change is to put a bigger heatsink on the CPU to eliminate the 40mm fan. My fan crapped out and getting a good replacement for those is always a pain.
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Re:That's a smoking deal (Score:5, Informative)
$9 more, NVidia graphics processor, Athlon 3200+, same 0-MB of RAM...
You'll need a heat sink. Avoid installing >1 DIMM. Does that qualify as 'close'?
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You'll need a heat sink. Avoid installing >1 DIMM. Does that qualify as 'close'?
This board doesn't compete with an Athlon 3200 on performance/cost, it does however blow it out the water on efficiency. I want a router/firewall box and having it running 24/7/365 means the electricity adds up and the Athlon ends up far more expensive. I don't have the exact figures but when I worked this out for my parents file server we found that it was
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Intel uAtx board, Celeron 215 soldered on, takes DDR-II 533 or 400, onboard graphics, one PCI port, $70.
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Not Some Fry's Special (Score:1)
Search for that board elsewhere. It's just a cheap board, not some Fry's deal. You should have no trouble finding it online etc.
I was looking at that board recently, my only big complaint is that it has 10/100, not gigabit. It's a pretty sweet little platform.
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Directron FTW (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.directron.com/nf61sm7comb58.html [directron.com]
Biostar NF61S Micro 754 Motherboard and AMD Athlon 3100+ CPU with Cooler, $72.99
1 ATA + 2 SATA, plus nVidia GPU.
Undercutting TFA by $15.00... (Score:2)
* PC CHIPS M789CG(3.0A) VIA C3 Samual 2 2000+(800MHz/133) VIA CLE266 Mini ITX Motherboard/CPU Combo
* $44.99
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And on the other hand, if the GOS box will do the job, i
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If the CPU isn't good enough, is the GOS? (Score:2)
Enough to spend an extra $15 over TFA and get an AMD CPU, and a motherboard with an AM2 socket and nVidia GPU. If this setup isn't good enough, then likely the C7 1.5 GHz isn't either.
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If only it had a DVI output instead of that dinosaur analog VGA output -- and possibly a gigabit net
Everex TC2502 and Intel BOXD201GLYL compared (Score:2)
celeron 1.33Ghz versus VIA C7 1.5Ghz - celeron is probably faster, VIA is lower power
celeron board is IDE only, no SATA. the VIA board has 2 SATA ports.
VIA board has room for two DIMMs(2GB max), Celeron board has only one DIMM(1GB max)
SiS Mirage graphics engine on the celeron, UniChrome on the via. neither are fast. and both can decode MPEG-2 in hardware. UniChrome CN700 can also do MPEG-4 decoding (and there is Lin
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Its a sweet board with a perfect price.
Re:That's a smoking deal (Score:5, Informative)
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The really small cases are, for instance, mini-ITX. Mini-ATX is almost exactly the same size (area) as Micro-ATX, but a different arrangement (8.2x11.2cm instead of 9.6x9.6cm), so its true that this Micro-ATX MB won't fit in a Mini-ATX case, and is too big in one dimension. But, just the same, a Mini-ATX MB wouldn't fit a Micro-ATX case, for exactly the same reason. Micro-ATX cases are IMO reasonably
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For additional extra credit, google for the following:
Walmart/Everex GPC TC2502 (VIA CN700 + VT8237R Chipset), PC2500E
Or just check the LinuxBIOS Mailing List [linuxbios.org] thread about this very board, which is available from ClubIT.com [clubit.com] for about $60.00 with free shipping.
-theGreater.
Minimal Extras? (Score:2)
Is there a PS that can drive this little device that doesn't have a fan? And can that little sucker run a Linux that can run madplay and curl, so I can stream audio from my network? Maybe even build this sucker into some network speakers, even
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Whole PCs for use as consoles cost only $250. Why can't I find one that just runs Linux, and converts ethernet to audio (no kbd, monitor, etc) when pointed at a streaming server, without a fan and under $100?
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What they don't do, though, is run Linux. If you're interested in a li'l thingie that plays music, you might just like 'em, if it's just about hackery and not about getting that stuff to actually run, you won't
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Maybe there's some models of Linux GSM phones with Bluetooth and stereo headsets that cost under $100 used (and are available as they fail in the phone market). Those would be perfect. And the next ge
Where's one that takes a 12V supply? (Score:3, Interesting)
I want an inexpensive board like this that takes a 12V supply, or
a PC hd connector like the FPGA boards out there from http://www.digilentinc.com/ [digilentinc.com]
It would be easier to put these in autos or stack them up for
robotics projects that way.
- Ralph
The Artist Formerly Known as "Thin Client" (Score:4, Insightful)
aka: Thin Client
Coming soon to a handset near you! Oh, wait...
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What cracked me up was :
"with the lightweight Enlightenment window manager"
I remember how this would have been considered downright silly a few years back
Lawl (Score:1)
I don't get it (Score:5, Insightful)
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BTW, the Walmart price does not include a monitor.
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The big deal is that, when the ~$200 system was announced in its full-size case here, people commented that they'd like to have the same thing, but in a smaller form factor, since the board is, after all, a Micro-ATX board. Now they can.
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Re:I don't get it (Score:4, Insightful)
Most of the alternatives people have posted that are similar in price have some advantages and some disadvantages. None seem to be clearly and unquestionably "better" in every way, just different and in the same general ballpark. So perhaps its not outstanding, just another low-cost option that's well supported in Linux. Which, unsurprisingly enough, is somewhat interesting to a substantial part of the Slashdot crowd.
Micro-ATX, actually.
I suppose that we should be suspicious of Linux, too, then...
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Good point. What is it with mbs that are marketted as a different form factor than the most accurate one? I mean, sure, you can use a flex-ATX mb in a micro-ATX (or plain ATX) case, but why wouldn't you make sure that all your marketing material emphasized flex-ATX, since that gives the buyer more, well, flexibility than micro-ATX.
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Anyone truly deserving of the label 'geek' already has all of that stuff laying around from previous machines. I know I've got a 20-pin PC Power & Cooling PSU just itching to get back in the game, and some old DDR2 RAM as well. They're crying out, I tells ya!
Re:I don't get it (Score:4, Interesting)
What do you mean old DDR2? How can it be old when DDR2 wasn't introduced but four years ago!? I don't own ANY DDR2 memory (or DDR3), much less any old DDR2.
Now, I do have 128 or 256 MB of EDO DRAM, a 700 MB SCSI hard drive (cost me around $1k in 1992), and a real AT-style keyboard (with big connector) that I wouldn't mind putting back into service... or we could go back further in the closet and gut the AT-compatible by tossing the 10 MHz 286 motherboard, and use its 70 MB hard drive from ~1987. I think I'll pass on trying to make use of the TRS-80/Tandy 16b with its full-height 12 MB hard drive. Some things are just not worth it, even to a nerd.
Marc
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It'll be old when you use this as an excuse to get a new system, and thus have old DDR2.
You need to learn to think creatively. You'll get more new toys that way.
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Also C7 has hardware crypto. it's worth getting just to play with that:)
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You could get 1 GB RAM from HP for $9 [slickdeals.net] (look at the rebate form: it really is a $40 rebate on a $49 item). A used power supply costs $5. I never pay for a monitor, mouse or keyboard; too many are being thrown or given away these days in the rush to flat screens and wireless mice.
You mean you could have gotten that deal.
The deal specifies that any ram must be purchased before 10/31/07 - and you posted about it a few days later.
But at least I'm aware of that site now, so thanks for the mention of the link.
True (Score:1)
Wow (Score:5, Funny)
"..but with the lightweight Enlightenment window manager instead of heavy Gnome/KDE desktops. "
I never thought I would live to see the day.....
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Then again, in those days, we thought Netscape Communicator 4.x was bloated... although, despite living in the age of dial-up, it was at least 17MB, the same size that Firefox is currently!
"dev board" ? (Score:5, Informative)
According to TFA, it "comes with gOS", but gOS doesn't sit anywhere on this 'dev board', it has to be installed onto a regular hard drive just like a normal computer.
Bad article. It's not a dev board, it's an entirely normal mobo. The ONLY thing about it that is even remotely special is that there are linux drivers for all its components.
If it were a dev board I'd want at least some attached flash storage, and some interesting pin headers.
Re:"dev board" ? (Score:4, Insightful)
Ya, that was my problem with the piece too, no reason for it to be on linuxdevices since it is just another Via Mobo+CPU deal, this time blown up to the MicroATX form factor instead of the Mini-ITX VIA normally prefers. $60 for Mobo and CPU is OK I guess but not especially newsworthy.
"Devel" board to me implies something to develop for an embedded 'target'. What is the target system this board aims at? A PC running an x86 Linux isn't embedded computing. It isn't new, interesting or different. Linux on x86 is now mainstream. A decade ago a commercial outfit pushing Linux systems would have been newsworthy.
The only thing special is (Score:3, Interesting)
I set one of the 299.00 Wal-Mart computers up for a local volunteer fire station that had an application that needed XP, but they could only find Vista computers new. I wiped the drive and installed a legal copy o
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Enlightenment is lightweight nowadays? (Score:3, Interesting)
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Getting from Login to fully functional desktop in E17 takes about 1.5 seconds.
I love KDE and Gnome and the functionality they have, but nobody can tell me E17 doesn't whip the pa
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I'm currently using the Ganymede theme which is pretty and doesn't consume a lot of resources.
Upgrading emachine (Score:1)
I assume that this board should be an easy match. Anyone see any problems? Thanks.
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C7 is good for embedded apps, or low-power low-heat. It's not at all responsive in the way that your USUAL overpowered desktop CPU is.
If your budget is $60 same as this, I'd get a CPU/mobo combo from NewEgg or Directron. Seriously. If you thought a 2.8Ghz Celeron would be OK, you can easily match it with a AM2 processor or an older P4. Shop around.
Cheap Cluster? (Score:2)
I've been hunting for cheap systems to put together for some experimental work I want to do (as well as learning how to properly run a Beowulf), and so far this looks like the best deal I've seen. With onboard lan and video, all I'd need to do is toss in some memory, hack together some sort of combined power supply, and build a rack to store the boards in, and I've got
Maybe, but not practical... (Score:3, Informative)
In this case, buying 4 of these boards would probably suck down more power than a single quad-core Intel planar+processor. The cost of 4 boards (plus memory, etc) would probably be not much cheaper than consolidating all of that into one chassis. So if expecting a significant lifetime out of it, it's not really worth it. You can put tog
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That means I have a fully functional older car (and a 99 Saturn SL2 isn't that bad for an extra car), and I've been thinking along the same lines (though I intended to use a laptop - cheap older laptops seem much easier to maintain in a car due to low power, batteries, inbuilt (but removable) display, and
Re:Cheap Cluster? (Score:5, Interesting)
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Obviously, you don't build a cluster out of VMs to get performance. You do it to get experience with everything that you listed, without having to also worry about hardware issues. Then once the bugs are worked out of your design, you can move over to actual hardware and experience a whole new learning curve without having to also worry about software issues.
Cheap power efficient servers? (Score:2)
Coupled with a single PSU to power several baords (i figure a regular server psu should easily handle a stack of these small boards) and some high speed server fans to cool all of them at once (single boards shouldnt need much cooling, but a stack of them in a confined space would)...
And maybe a small unmanaged switch in the case too, running off the same PSU.
Like a blade server but on the cheap. Blad
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And since each C3 would consume only about 4-7W (depends on model) that's a grand maximum of 28W, probably idling at around 4W. It was intented for servers, but I don't think it sold very well. Still, it was a great idea.
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the complete machine (Score:3, Informative)
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Wouldn't a KVM switch [wikipedia.org] do this job? At the very least, I'd think it would save wear and tear on your high powered machine's video port in the long run. Sounds like it has an expensive graphics card.
VGA output? No thanks (Score:2, Offtopic)
I guess I'll have to look elsewhere for a VIA board for my next PVR. I suppose I'll also have to wait until some cable-card dev
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So I guess the two questions are: 1. Are you sure VGA won't do the job, and 2. What am I missing?
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Maybe you can clear something up for me. I built a Myth frontend using an ASUS board (M2 NPV-VM) that supposedly had hdtv out on board, but I never got the fancy video options to work. I've ended up just using the VGA out (my 42" Panasonic HDTV has a computer input). It actually looks really good -- at 10' it's hard to distinguish the PVR signal from broadcast HDTV. I was surprised.
So I guess the two questions are: 1. Are you sure VGA won't do the job, and 2. What am I missing?
Not all TV's have a VGA input. So if they only have Component, Composite, S-Video, and HDMI, then you're SOL if you have only VGA. I suppose you could get a converter to change a VGA plug to a DVI, but then you still have to use a DVI-HDMI cable.
But then again, I am posting this 3 hours after being at the bars. Have fun figuring out what the hell I said.
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Oh, and you won't be seeing any CableCARD devices that aren't a part of a full system until roughly the same time the Earth is roasted by the Sun. You'd be better off finding a good cable box that's easily controllable by Myth.
Thumbs up (Score:1)
Not the same (Score:2)
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Later,
-Slashdot Junky
Hahaha Dev Board... whatever... (Score:4, Insightful)
"This is not a "low-cost board running Linux"... this is "a run-of-the-mill PC that can run Linux". And you're kidding yourself if you think that you cannot buy the same motherboard cheaper by going around these wily marketeers. What joke... and a slashvertisement. Buy Everex! Google in Everyone's Home!
Let's see what it DOESN'T have... This is like, seriously, 2004 tech here...
1) No gigabit.
2) Questionable AGP chipset
3) See 2 - No PCIe, given this is AGP.
4) VGA? At least not CGA...
5) Lots of legacy I/O ports no one cares about.
If you think you cannot by a BETTER motherboard for $60 is... well... I want some of whatever it is that you're smoking.
micro-atx is (yawn) boring (Score:4, Interesting)
I called the local walmart to see if they had that cheapie pc in stock. they didn't. I didn't want to wait and I wanted to see what all this low-power VIA stuff was about.
so I got a true mini-ITX system which is using the same c7 cpu: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2010/1890660635_273662e3c9_o.jpg [flickr.com]
note, it DOES RUN HOT. I am not kidding. I bought it as a fanless system to run myth-tv back-end on. it does - and it captures 2 HD streams ok over 10/100 VIA ethernet. but the heatsink runs VERY hot to the touch. no way could I even use a cover on that system for more than 15 minutes before it overheats.
if you plan to use that c7 cpu in something 'real', you better have good cooling.
Linux support: warning (Score:2)
"Experience our first developer product. We encourage developers to advance the currently limited driver support for this eco-friendly VIA board."
You can't get a TC2502 - sold out online (Score:2)
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i bet you could throw together a p3 or amd athlon system booting off a usb pen for similar cash and it would tear appart a crippled amd 3rd world processor
Yes, maybe you could, and maybe that system would better suit your needs... but not everyone's.
However, that USB pen is a read/write device. It could theoretically get infected ith viruses and spyware, the end user could accidentally wipe it. All of those are extra work for a corporate IT department.
If you're a company, you could build a system out of these parts for well under $200 (and that includes a keyboard, mouse and monitor). It'd be perfect for the 90% of the company that are office drones that
i doubt that (Score:1)
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Does it run FreeBSD?
Probably not but you could likely port it. Or... Soekris" [soekris.com] has a nice package that runs a variety of FOSS OSes and is very power friendly. A friend uses OpenBSD and has quite good success with it.