My Opinion on my 'Mini server'

Just thought id share and report. Ive been using one of these now for 6m-1 year and its great for anyone who has multiple PCs like me.

http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/embedded/artigo/

its just a cheap embedded <200 quid, cheap enough for 24/7 powering as the consumption is low and fast enough for simple server stuff.

I am using as a remote/local centralised file(nfs/smb), imap email, web-dev server. It also supplies a point for remote access if i need to come in from elsewhere. Its great if you want a centralized solution. Im running Xubuntu on mine but it can take XP which means 2003 should run ok too if linux isnt your bag.

Everything is backed up using a GF.F.S. system using 'sync' once a week to two external usb drives. The whole thing sits up on a shelf and is accessable via remote desktop.

Worth it honest :)

Thanks for sharing. I've been considering putting up a similar mini pc server. I've been looking at www.fit-pc.com as an option.

Nice....
I've seen that one in kit form, but not heard how good it is. Glad it's working well.
I've just rebuilt my NSLU2 based system to do a similar job (although probably somewhat slower!).
I was quite interested in this line from the web site..
"The ARTiGO is an extremely ultra compact system that can be installed into a standard 5.25" desktop drive bay. Adding a mini PC within a Desktop PC."
That could be interesting combined with a mini KVM switch.

Yep it comes in a kit. It takes about 5-10 minutes to click together :)

When i was using my main desktop as the 'server' my power bills were huge. I have noticed the difference.
It seems to do the job just as good (at least from a linux point of view have not tried it with windows, although windows as client is fine)

hmmm I may give it a try when thing settle down at home.

Oooh, cool. There's one that I find interesting called Linutop (guess what operating system it's running), notable for running on 8W of power and being silent. Have you looked at whether this would fit one of those home automation / media centre tasks?

I understand the WD MyBook World is pretty capable, too :)

The fit-pc runs on 3-5W and runs linux. :) It's also about half the price of the Linutop, and actually has a 60 gig hard drive, rather than a 1gig flash memory.

Although I believe the Linutop is a bit more powerful.

I looked at that mybook thingy too. While it looked great for files, it did not seem capable of being an apache, print and imap server or useable as an ssh portal so i gave it a miss.

A friend of mine has the MyBook thingy, and I believe there is a way to hack it open and install a small linux on it, but it's not meant for that so it may not be that easy.