[plug] via hardware

[Bernd Felsche]

William Kenworthy <billk at iinet.net.au> wrote:

>Does anyone know of a supplier of via motherboards and cpu's in Perth?

No. None with local stock.

>And which cpu/MB would be best?  Grunt isnt really needed (underutilised
>its a LAMP setup) so a 1.5-2G should cut it.

>Looking to build up a "green" gateway, but its just become urgent as my
>old P4 3Ghz gateway died overnight and currently I have everything
>hooked through an old machine in the bedroom so we have net access. - I
>need to source the parts today or go with commodity stuff.

You have a few choices.

If you want your gateway to be a transparent web proxy or to cache
large volumes of traffic, then you may as well go for a uATX-sized
mainboard with a low-power CPU like an AMD Sempron or even low-end
Athlon. The important thing is that they support variable clock
rates (scaling). Power consumption of the CPU is then around that of
the VIA CPUs; near-enough to make no measurable difference.

Keep the mainboard as simple as possible. No fancy graphics, etc.
This stuff is off the shelf in Perth metro area from various
suppliers.

Another option is a PC-Engines ALIX-based system. But supply is a
problem here in WA. You could, possibly order one "overnight"
from Yawarra in Melbourne <http://www.yawarra.com.au>.
-- 
/"\ Bernd Felsche - Innovative Reckoning, Perth, Western Australia
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