I've actually had the thing running and my students can't wait until we get more. The difference in speed between this and a thin client is beyond noticeable.
Here are the parts I used: Foxconn A74ML-K 3.0 Socket AM3/ AMD 740G/ A&V&GbE/ MATX Motherboard MB-A74MLK3 $43.99 Evercase E0526-S15 150W Mini-ITX Case (Black) CA-0526S15 $45.90 $45.90 AMD Athlon II X2 Processor 250 (3.0 GHz) AM3, Retail ADX250OCBX $62.99 $62.99 Super Talent DDR3-1333 2GB Original Memory D32G1333SP $18.98 $18.98 Sub Total $171.86 I ordered from SuperBiiz, but you could probably get similar pricing from NewEgg or TigerDirect. Last I checked, those two didn't carry the case, however, and the case is a really nice, small case for a client. With a micro-ATX mobo, there's only room for a slim optical drive and a 2.5 inch hard drive, so if you're not using either of those, you're not wasting a lot of room. Also, there's a vent just over the location of the CPU, so the CPU fan blows right out of the case. Since there's no case fan, that's a pretty good thing. There are still a couple of things I'm not sure about with using a fat client with Ubuntu LTSP. I changed /etc/environment, but it doesn't seem to show up when people log in, and I did have to create a way for network traffic to get forwarded, but other than that, the set-up is very nice. It's not super low power, but the CPU is about 65 watts and the motherboard doesn't use much more. Obviously, you could get a nice thin client that uses much less power, but I don't think it would be as fast, and it might not be much smaller. Todd On Tue, Nov 23, 2010 at 10:45 PM, Todd O'Bryan <[email protected]> wrote: > I just got one of these cases. A MicroATX motherboard fits into it > very snugly, but it's a very nice overall size: > > http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=CA-0526S15&title=Evercase-E0526-S15-150W-Mini-ITX-Case-Black > > The power supply is above part of the motherboard, so you might want > to try your parts before buying a bunch, but if you want something > that's not much bigger than a typical thin client, I think this fits > the bill. Add an inexpensive mobo, a CPU, and RAM, and it's all less > than $200 for a pretty powerful machine. > > I've been creating my fat-client image to try to get it running and > will report back once everything is installed and working. > > Todd > -- edubuntu-users mailing list [email protected] Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/edubuntu-users
