I would agree with Eric, I have used Advantech computers and I think their biggest plus is form factor and convenience for industrial applications.
I think Advantech's reliability is less than good server hardware but probably not better than standard commercial grade PCs. I have worked with a company that uses a lot of Advantech PCs for their panels as they are convenient to mount, but when it comes to the data center of the system they use high end server hardware mounted in an air conditioned panel with hot swap drives setup in a raid configuration for redundancy. The Advantech PCs are used as clients to the data server. If they die they get swapped out but the data is still safe. With the availability of good MicroITX boards and good chassis I think Advantech type hardware is less relevant. I think you would be better off looking at high reliability server hardware if you really want reliability and are willing to pay for it. Otherwise I think you are stuck with Mini Itx boards with fans and a search for a really good power supply. You might want to look at Mini Itx board that have onboard raid support. I think there are a few out there that have that built in. Even so if you can avoid the bad capacitor situation and get a good power supply and fan you should still be good for 5+ years. Dave On 10/22/2010 11:10 AM, Igor Chudov wrote: > Supermicros are great. I have a 5 1/2 year old Supermicro based server > from Thinkmate that I keep colocated at my ISP. > > The hard drive is showing errors (as they are all wont to do), but the > box itself is great. I will soon take it home for a refit with a new > HD and SSD and Ubuntu 10.04 (It runs Fedora at this time). > > Guys, what do you think about advantech boxes like this one: > > http://buy.advantech.com/product/industrialComputer/system-3293.htm > > Those are fanless, have low power consumption everything, Atom CPU, > and take 24 VDC in. > > Again, I will use it for high importance, low power needs, like to > host my CVS, be a nameserver, maybe a file server from a USB attached > device. I want this box to last for, say, 10 years or more. > > i > > On Fri, Oct 22, 2010 at 9:48 AM, Dave<[email protected]> wrote: > >> What seems to kill PCs these days are bad capacitors and bad power >> supplies. >> >> Hard drives simply wear out after a while. A SSD with wear leveling >> gets rid of that problem. >> >> Server grade hardware seems to last a long time - SuperMicro boards in >> particular seem very well built. I sold a customer over 20 systems >> and not one motherboard has failed in 3 years. However they have lost >> some power supplies. >> >> That said, you can buy several D510MO boards for the price of a >> SuperMicro motherboard and CPU. >> >> I would install a fan in the chassis. A really good one, preferably a >> large fan that runs at a low speed. If the fan costs $3.00 keep >> looking. ;-) That will help minimize board hotspots and keep the >> temps down. >> >> Put a filter on the fan intake or plan on blowing out the computer to >> get the dust out every year or so. >> >> With good parts - 3-5 years should be easy and 7 years or more likely IMO. >> >> The trick these days will be finding a power supply that is made to >> last. If you can find a mini-itx board with premium capacitors - you >> be in even better shape. >> >> Dave >> >> >> >> On 10/22/2010 12:27 AM, Igor Chudov wrote: >> >>> I apologize in advance that this is somewhat off topic. >>> >>> I am beginning to feel a need to have a PC/server, to run Linux, that >>> would be extremely reliable and long lasting. >>> >>> I would use it for >>> >>> 1) Holding a personal CVS repository >>> 2) Running a nameserver >>> 3) SSH port tunneling >>> 4) Possibly serving files from an attached external storage device. >>> >>> None of the above tasks requires a great deal of CPU and file writing. >>> >>> I will not need a GUI on this machine. >>> >>> My own thinking about this includes: >>> >>> 1) A SSD to hold the data (as I said, I do not anticipate a lot of >>> repetitive writes). >>> 2) A fanless power supply >>> 3) A very low power consumption CPU, like Intel ATOM. >>> >>> The objective here is low power, cool temperature, and absence of any >>> rotating parts. >>> >>> Any thoughts on this? >>> >>> Thanks guys, and again, sorry for the OT post. >>> >>> i >>> >>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ >>> Nokia and AT&T present the 2010 Calling All Innovators-North America contest >>> Create new apps& games for the Nokia N8 for consumers in U.S. and Canada >>> $10 million total in prizes - $4M cash, 500 devices, nearly $6M in marketing >>> Develop with Nokia Qt SDK, Web Runtime, or Java and Publish to Ovi Store >>> http://p.sf.net/sfu/nokia-dev2dev >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Emc-users mailing list >>> [email protected] >>> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users >>> >>> >>> >> >> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ >> Nokia and AT&T present the 2010 Calling All Innovators-North America contest >> Create new apps& games for the Nokia N8 for consumers in U.S. and Canada >> $10 million total in prizes - $4M cash, 500 devices, nearly $6M in marketing >> Develop with Nokia Qt SDK, Web Runtime, or Java and Publish to Ovi Store >> http://p.sf.net/sfu/nokia-dev2dev >> _______________________________________________ >> Emc-users mailing list >> [email protected] >> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users >> >> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Nokia and AT&T present the 2010 Calling All Innovators-North America contest > Create new apps& games for the Nokia N8 for consumers in U.S. and Canada > $10 million total in prizes - $4M cash, 500 devices, nearly $6M in marketing > Develop with Nokia Qt SDK, Web Runtime, or Java and Publish to Ovi Store > http://p.sf.net/sfu/nokia-dev2dev > _______________________________________________ > Emc-users mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Nokia and AT&T present the 2010 Calling All Innovators-North America contest Create new apps & games for the Nokia N8 for consumers in U.S. and Canada $10 million total in prizes - $4M cash, 500 devices, nearly $6M in marketing Develop with Nokia Qt SDK, Web Runtime, or Java and Publish to Ovi Store http://p.sf.net/sfu/nokia-dev2dev _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
