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)
Re:I don't get it (Score:3, Informative)
BTW, the Walmart price does not include a monitor.
"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:That's a smoking deal (Score:5, Informative)
Re:That's a smoking deal (Score:3, Informative)
For additional extra credit, google for the following:
-theGreater.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.
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'?
Re:That's a smoking deal (Score:3, Informative)
Intel uAtx board, Celeron 215 soldered on, takes DDR-II 533 or 400, onboard graphics, one PCI port, $70.
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 together similar budget systems for maybe 30% more money, but with probably 50-70% more performance and better performance per watt.
Now, if it offered say, 15% less performance per planar, but 25% less power consumption at 30% lower price, then yes, it may make sense to buy it and increase node count to offset the difference. But my understanding is that the difference in performance is quite drastic, more drastic than the cost savings or power consumption figures. I heard the VIA platform takes two clock cycles to execute a single-precision floating-point operation. For comparison, current Intel archictecture acheives 4 double-precision flops for every clock cycle (theoretical max). This is of key interest if wanting to compare your setup against the Top500.
Now if your intent is simply to learn the in and outs of clustering, with no practical work expected, and you lack old hardware to hobble together, it may be educational. However, it's likely that any old hardware lying around would be on the order of the same amount of educational value.
The target market is obviously areas where they won't need more than one, in which case scaling back power and cost at the expense of performance is a no-brainer. Other interesting places for VIA products ('just-enough' processing at a low TDP) are embedded. I've been wanting to piece together a Car-PC, but haven't overcome my laziness. A car-pc is an excellent target for VIA based products.
the complete machine (Score:3, Informative)
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.
Re:That's a smoking deal (Score:3, Informative)
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 small, and (but maybe I just look at the wrong places) it seems that there is a greater variety of Micro-ATX cases available.
Re:Enlightenment is lightweight nowadays? (Score:3, Informative)
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 pants off of them for performance.