[ale] NUC vs. RPi mail server

[Jim Lynch]

On 12/19/2014 11:56 PM, Alex Carver wrote:
> Looks like the SBC market is exploding again after the success of the
> Rpi with all these clones, beefed up clones and ultra-miniaturized
> desktops/laptops (NUC).  The Radxa looks equally interesting as a couple
> others like the BananaPi and BeagleBone.
>
> Since I have an Rpi now and it doesn't seem that I need much horsepower
> for this server I'm going to get another Rpi (and an external drive) and
> try it out.  If it doesn't work I can always use the Rpi for something
> else and just get a bigger SBC.
>
> This is something that I'm probably going to have to do very soon since
> my mail server just puked again.
Even though you've decided, I want to toss another option in the mix.  
Recently someone mentioned that running an OS over a USB connected disk 
might not be optimal.  The Cubieboard2 is a single board computer like 
the Pi and the BBB.  It has twice as much memory 1024M, and most 
importantly a SATA port.  It may not have quite as much GPU power as the 
Pi but for a server, a bit more memory and the SATA port are probably 
worth the $30 more that it costs.  $65 for the Cubieboard2, a power 
cable and a SATA cable.

I have one that I've used for a platform for collecting log data and 
generating a map with information from the log, displayed on an html 
page.  It also has been used with a USB camera to catch images for a 
time-lapse video.  I have it configured to boot the OS from the SATA 
disk.  It only reads the boot info from the SD card so I suspect it will 
last quite a while.

It's running a version of Wheezy, but there are a number of OS options, 
including Fedora.

Jim.