**** BEGIN LOGGING AT Fri Jul 30 02:59:57 2010
Jul 30 03:11:03 <tinker-f595> bkero: but they should of put the coffee cup holder on top.  Keep the coffee warm and the guruplug cool ;)
Jul 30 04:27:07 <nighty__> Hi
Jul 30 04:27:23 <nighty__> which is best plugcomputer device to buy at the moment
Jul 30 04:27:28 <nighty__> ?
Jul 30 04:27:48 <nighty__> Any multicore plug computers yet ?
Jul 30 04:28:07 <nighty__> s/multicore/multicores
Jul 30 04:28:21 <Plax> AFAIK all the plug computers use the same marvell processor
Jul 30 04:28:36 <Plax> so it just depends what you connections you want on your plug
Jul 30 04:28:44 <nighty__> there seem to be different version in term of speeds though no ?
Jul 30 04:28:57 <Plax> some have esata some double ethernet, some bluetooth, some wi-fi, some can print money and waste them in apple products
Jul 30 04:29:12 <nighty__> e-sata , USB , Wifi and Dual Gigabit is nice
Jul 30 04:29:25 <Plax> then the guruplug server is the one you're looking for
Jul 30 04:29:26 <nighty__> but I read somewhere of bad experiences with the Guru plug
Jul 30 04:29:27 <Plax> but it will have a fan
Jul 30 04:29:38 <nighty__> I want no fans
Jul 30 04:29:44 <Plax> they say they fixed the components layout
Jul 30 04:30:08 <Plax> the single nic model doesn't overheat much
Jul 30 04:30:12 <nighty__> ok
Jul 30 04:30:19 <NightMonkey> I wouldn't reccomend the Guruplug for anything but personal use. The heat problems are real.
Jul 30 04:30:35 <nighty__> Yes I should wait a bit then
Jul 30 04:30:48 <Plax> they said next ones will come with the heating problems fixed
Jul 30 04:30:54 <nighty__> Since I plan on buying like a 100 of them
Jul 30 04:30:57 <Plax> but I don't know if they'll fix it with a fan like for current customers
Jul 30 04:31:06 <nighty__> I would of course test one before :)
Jul 30 04:31:07 <Plax> oh if you need so many then you'd better wait
Jul 30 04:31:14 <Plax> to find out if the new one is stable
Jul 30 04:31:26 <Plax> I don't think any of the currently available plug computers are reliable
Jul 30 04:31:28 <NightMonkey> nighty__: You can get a Sheevaplug and use that for prepping a deployment for your 100 other plugs, tho.
Jul 30 04:31:44 <Plax> so it also depends on what you need to do with them
Jul 30 04:31:45 <nighty__> I would really like Marvell to come out with multiple core chip 2.0Ghz
Jul 30 04:31:52 <Plax> marvell has a 2ghz model
Jul 30 04:31:54 <Plax> but no news yet
Jul 30 04:32:10 <Plax> (that also has wi-fi bluetooth etc all without additional hardware like the guruplug has)
Jul 30 04:32:12 <nighty__> NightMonkey, Yeah I could do this up to a point
Jul 30 04:32:41 <Plax> I would wait for the 2ghz model if I needed so many
Jul 30 04:32:48 <nighty__> Plax, Yes
Jul 30 04:32:57 <Plax> they'll probably fix the current issues the sheevaplug has as well
Jul 30 04:33:08 <Plax> (and hopefully won't introduce much others)
Jul 30 04:33:10 <NightMonkey> nighty__: Do you really need 2Ghz for what your use case is?]
Jul 30 04:33:46 <Plax> don't get fooled by the GHzs, with the 16bit memory bus the plug is really extremely slow
Jul 30 04:33:51 <nighty__> NightMonkey, sorry I cannot at the moment give you that information
Jul 30 04:34:00 <NightMonkey> Might as well go with a micro-atx board, with nice fans, proven power supply, etc.
Jul 30 04:34:07 <nighty__> Plax, ouch
Jul 30 04:34:17 <nighty__> Plax, that is going to be a problem then
Jul 30 04:35:02 <NightMonkey> nighty__: To make them so small, and power-sippy, there's lots of trade-offs. You have to marry them well to the purpose they will be put to.
Jul 30 04:35:03 <Plax> it looks there's almost no interest in the 2ghz model
Jul 30 04:35:25 <Plax> the new model was announced 7 months ago yet no websites queried marvell to find out the release date
Jul 30 04:35:45 <nighty__> Plax, well my power budget is not really the concern
Jul 30 04:36:09 <nighty__> Plax, I wish they'd make some "server" class machine
Jul 30 04:36:32 <nighty__> Plax, with higher power budget but better performance
Jul 30 04:36:36 <Plax> from what I read none of the marvell plugs are very reliable
Jul 30 04:36:48 <NightMonkey> Completely the opposite model.
Jul 30 04:36:51 <nighty__> Yes that is a major problem then
Jul 30 04:37:54 <Plax> it all depends on what you have to do with them
Jul 30 04:38:15 <NightMonkey> I think the server class model would probably be called "FirePlug".
Jul 30 04:38:21 <nighty__> NightMonkey, yes I realize this, but I still want to have a reasonable power budget
Jul 30 04:38:38 <nighty__> read much less than Intel Server
Jul 30 04:39:08 <Plax> it all depends on the performance, power consumption and the price you want to pay
Jul 30 04:39:35 <nighty__> I am price sensitive but with bounds that much higher than the current one
Jul 30 04:39:50 <Plax> what about the performance and power draw?
Jul 30 04:39:54 <nighty__> lets say 200~300 dollars
Jul 30 04:39:59 <nighty__> would be acceptable
Jul 30 04:40:13 <Plax> there are cherrypal computers as well
Jul 30 04:40:20 <nighty__> 8 ~ 20 watts is ok
Jul 30 04:40:43 <nighty__> URL ?
Jul 30 04:40:48 <Plax> http://www.norhtec.com/products/index.html or this other company too
Jul 30 04:41:32 <Plax> http://www.cherrypal.com/secure/product_info.php?products_id=1
Jul 30 04:42:04 <NightMonkey> nighty__: What are you planning to use for storage?
Jul 30 04:42:05 <nighty__> these seems to be PPC based ?
Jul 30 04:42:18 <Plax> norhtec stuff is mostly x86 based
Jul 30 04:42:28 <nighty__> NightMonkey, E-sata would be nice though I think I will use i-SCSI
Jul 30 04:42:37 <Plax> the microclient models are pretty cheap but the performance is low (233mhz x86 clone)
Jul 30 04:42:52 <Plax> but there are also faster models depending on how much you want to pay
Jul 30 04:42:56 <Plax> the 233mhz model I think is 99$
Jul 30 04:43:14 <Plax> 1ghz model is 140$
Jul 30 04:43:26 <nighty__> 233Mhz x86 is sloz
Jul 30 04:43:32 <Plax> http://www.norhtec.com/products/mcjrdx/index.html
Jul 30 04:44:03 <Plax> this is 1ghz but like for anything else megahertzs say nothing
Jul 30 04:44:13 <Plax> I'd say this is something like a pentium 3 600
Jul 30 04:44:37 <nighty__> I do not need a VGA port
Jul 30 04:44:50 <nighty__> or a graphic card
Jul 30 04:44:55 <Plax> well it's a system on a chip
Jul 30 04:45:01 <nighty__> I see
Jul 30 04:45:01 <Plax> so having it or not won't change muchj
Jul 30 04:45:12 <nighty__> I prefer to use a soekris board in that case
Jul 30 04:45:14 <Plax> you add a CF card and you're ready to go
Jul 30 04:45:22 <Plax> you can use desktop linux distros
Jul 30 04:45:38 <nighty__> which does not fit my purpose
Jul 30 04:45:49 <Plax> well it makes things easier though
Jul 30 04:45:50 <nighty__> because of Gigabit interface requirement
Jul 30 04:46:09 <Plax> oh I didn't know that
Jul 30 04:46:18 <Plax> then I think only the guruplug fits
Jul 30 04:46:34 <nighty__> Well
Jul 30 04:46:41 <Plax> than or a modified router
Jul 30 04:46:43 <Plax> that
Jul 30 04:47:25 <nighty__> http://www.excito.com/
Jul 30 04:47:30 <nighty__> do you know this ?
Jul 30 04:47:32 <kblin> the shevaplug officially has GigE as well, but I never reached that
Jul 30 04:47:43 <Plax> is that a nas?
Jul 30 04:48:20 <nighty__> No not a nas
Jul 30 04:48:23 <Plax> intel makes some celeron NASes at about 200$
Jul 30 04:48:26 <nighty__> it runs Linux ,
Jul 30 04:48:41 <Plax> dual gigabit and 512mb of ram but the power consumption is probably about 30w
Jul 30 04:48:45 <nighty__> you can use it as a nas if you wish I guess
Jul 30 04:49:04 <nighty__> I do not want to use Intel for that very reason
Jul 30 04:49:10 <nighty__> power consumption
Jul 30 04:49:14 <nighty__> and also other reasons
Jul 30 04:50:36 <nighty__> I am sensitive to form factor ( as small as possible )
Jul 30 04:50:44 <nighty__> ethernet interfaces 2
Jul 30 04:50:49 <nighty__> external storage
Jul 30 04:51:04 <nighty__> power consumption 8~20W
Jul 30 04:51:06 <nighty__> RAM
Jul 30 04:51:32 <Plax> the bubba one seems pretty nice but it's only 333mhz
Jul 30 04:51:44 <Plax> how much ram?
Jul 30 04:51:50 <nighty__> Yes but it is a PPC :)
Jul 30 04:52:18 <Plax> it's probably as fast as the chinese 1ghz clone
Jul 30 04:52:22 <Plax> x86
Jul 30 04:52:43 <Plax> how much ram do you need?
Jul 30 04:53:32 <nighty__> 256MB only
Jul 30 04:53:37 <nighty__> that is the problem
Jul 30 04:53:46 <nighty__> I would need ideally 1GB
Jul 30 04:53:47 <Plax> so that rules out modding routers
Jul 30 04:54:16 <nighty__> I need to keep in RAM a lot of data while processing them
Jul 30 04:54:48 <Plax> too bad you have the 1gbit requirement because the norhtek computers would have probably been a pretty nice choice
Jul 30 04:55:22 <nighty__> Plax, I need to send a lot of traffic out and receive about half of the traffic in
Jul 30 04:55:45 <nighty__> and I need to do this on 2 separate networks
Jul 30 04:56:16 <kblin> wait, so you're aiming for a 2xGbE number crunching machine that'll run at 8-20W?
Jul 30 04:56:30 <nighty__> kblin, ideally
Jul 30 04:56:44 <nighty__> though that sounds pretty low
Jul 30 04:56:50 <kblin> let me know when you found one :)
Jul 30 04:57:04 <nighty__> kblin, I agree with you
Jul 30 04:57:16 <nighty__> kblin, but I aim low purposely
Jul 30 04:57:41 <nighty__> kblin, power budget can creep up
Jul 30 04:57:45 <nighty__> pretty easily
Jul 30 04:57:54 <Plax> too bad xcore86 has no gigabit ethernet
Jul 30 04:59:00 <Plax> http://www.norhtec.com/products/mcjrmx/index.html wow
Jul 30 04:59:01 <nighty__> Thank you all for your informations
Jul 30 04:59:33 <nighty__> got to go to one of these darned meetings
Jul 30 04:59:41 <nighty__> :(
Jul 30 04:59:54 <kblin> have "fun" then
Jul 30 05:00:26 <Plax> follow forums to find out if the new guruplug fixes the issues
Jul 30 05:01:06 <Plax> because that seems to match your requirements very well especially the dual gigabit nic one
Jul 30 05:02:07 <Plax> I wonder if that jrpc thing has a wi-fi card that can work as access point
Jul 30 05:02:10 <Plax> that would be really nice
Jul 30 05:06:52 <NightMonkey> Plax: Would you really trust early "It's fixed!" reports, given GS's apparent lack of QA?
Jul 30 05:08:00 <Plax> of course not that's why I said to follow forums :P
Jul 30 15:43:25 <PhotoJim> anyone know if the WiFi in the new improved Sheevas can be set to function as an access point, or is it client only?
**** ENDING LOGGING AT Sat Jul 31 02:59:57 2010