[ale] NUC vs. RPi mail server

[Alex Carver]

On 2014-12-20 05:28, Jim Lynch wrote:
> 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.

I haven't committed to anything yet so I'll probably lay out all the
options side by side and weigh them.  I may still lean towards the Rpi
but I'm willing to consider all the options first.  However, I wasn't
planning on running the OS from the spinning drive.  I was going to
leave that on the SD card (bump up to a 16 or 32 GB card) and only have
the spinning drive as /home and /var/spool (and maybe /var/log and
/var/www also) to handle the ever changing data.

At the moment 512MB is 65% more than is in my existing mail server
(180MB) so I'll be happy with almost anything. :)  The existing server
is also only 233 MHz so any of these SBCs are just going to outperform
it. :)  I think even SATA drives in USB 2.0 enclosures are going to
outperform the IDEs that are in the current server. :)  But I do
understand your point on having the actual SATA interface right there on
the board.