[Cialug] Small and quiet Linux box suggestions

[Thomas Kula]

On Wed, Apr 23, 2014 at 08:42:43AM -0500, Daniel A. Ramaley wrote:
> Has anyone tried running Linux on an Intel NUC, or other similarly-sized 
> machines? The size and quietness of the NUC appeal to me. I'd worry a 
> bit about its reliability though; i usually use at least some server-
> grade parts when i build a machine (such as ECC RAM and a motherboard 
> that supports it), but the NUC is definitely a consumer-level device.

I've been seriously considering replacing the home box with an Intel
NUC, primarily for power savings (my ConEd bill every month raises my
blood pressure a good 10 points). I do kinda wish they offered an option
with ECC RAM capabilities (I'd pay $100 more for it or so), but I
understand that's totally not the market for these. On the other hand,
the two primary reasons for having a home server are becoming less
important to me: while I have a local fileserver I rarely use it, and
I'm moving everything to the fileservers I have on colocation and don't
notice it, and backups I'm moving elsewhere. For home use I basically
want something unixish to do stupid VPN tricks with, and some ad-hoc
usage, but everything else is off in colocation.

Based on what my current home server costs me in power, if the NUC works
for two years it has paid for itself in power savings. 

-- 
Thomas L. Kula | kula at tproa.net | http://kula.tproa.net/