[ale] homebrew routers, castoff hardware

[Jim Kinney]

I never mix investment payoff with geek appeal or security. If the budget is too tight to run the hardware, I need to be doing other things. AC, dryer, fridge = big power. My stack of gear in the basement is worth every W in my happiness (until something breaks then it's all just a pile of garbage to be replaced asap).

I will be using that rack to provide crawlspace heating this winter:-). The floor in my den is usually quite cold.

On September 23, 2017 3:04:47 PM EDT, Steve Litt <slitt at troubleshooters.com> wrote:
>On Sat, 23 Sep 2017 00:31:54 -0700
>Alex Carver <agcarver+ale at acarver.net> wrote:
>
>> On 2017-09-22 15:59, Joey Kelly wrote:
>> > On Friday 22 September 2017 12:53:34 DJ-Pfulio wrote:  
>> >> The newer APU2 CPUs handle 750+Mbps on their GigE connections
>> >> thanks to Intel NICs.  These aren't the old Alix boards.  
>> > 
>> > I'm about to get a few of these for my lab. I'm working on a
>> > perpetual dev project and had wanted to use Soekris, but they just
>> > pulled out of the US. I started looking for a replacement and found
>> > these, the apparent Alix successor. These things are beefier and
>> > way cheaper, so it's a win.
>> > 
>> > On a side note, there's lots of little router-style boxes out of
>> > there, but most of them are from Red China. I shudder to think what
>> > lurks in the firmware.
>> > 
>> > --Joey
>> >   
>> 
>> I've been looking at one of these though I haven't pulled the trigger
>> yet since they're not cheap.  Not necessarily direct from China
>> (though one office is in Taiwan).
>> 
>> https://www.logicsupply.com/ml400g-12/
>
>Not cheap is an understatement. At 15 cents/kw-hr, I spend about
>$0.40/day running my guestimate 100 watt ancient box. So that's in the
>neighborhood of $150/year. It would take me 4.4 years running the
>recommended low power computer to break even. Would the $662 computer
>last that long and still be relevant to start saving? It's a
>reasonable question, although I have a feeling the answer would be
>"yes".
>
>In this calculation I assumed the low power unit uses 0 watts, because
>my round figure of 100w for my old commodity box is probably low too.
>
>For those of us living in warm climates, a factor in favor of the low
>power machine is that my 100 watts creates heat which must be
>removed via the rather inefficient method of air conditioning,
>effectively raising the wattage I pay for due to this one computer.
>
>I'd feel much better about this investment if it were $300.00. An
>investment that pays for itself in 2 years is a no brainer, as long as
>there's a reasonable expectation the equipment will last longer than
>that.
>
>Whether you buy one of these or not, it's essential to have a second
>computer, probably an old commodity box, at the ready in case this one
>screws up. You should also have an up to date copy of pfSense or ipCop
>or OpenBSD or whatever you're using to firewall.
>
>I love the fact that, as configured, this computer has no wifi. I
>really want my wifi separate from my firewall.
>
>SteveT
>
>Steve Litt
>September 2017 featured book: Manager's Guide to Technical
>Troubleshooting Brand new, second edition
>http://www.troubleshooters.com/mgr
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-- 
Sent from my Android device with K-9 Mail. All tyopes are thumb related and reflect authenticity.
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