If you are rolling your own I would advise a Soekris net4501 (US $173 new) over any netbook for several reasons: cheaper, more rugged, better solution overall.
It all comes down to requirements, budget, and who the user is (which drives the first two). If I were doing a system for myself, it's hard to beat what I have with a net4501 ($175) , a Thunderbolt ($120) , a TAPR Clock Block ($62), and a pulse stretcher (TAPR FatPPS $44). I have a 12V power supply (yes it's a switcher, but I can live with that) to drive the +12, +5, and -12 required by the Thunderbolt. Whole thing is powered by 12V, and is very portable. Also extremely accurate. All for about $400 US. Some assembly required. If you don't need that level of accuracy you can get very reasonable solution with a net4501 and a Garmin GPS18xLVC. Power the GPS from a 5V pin off of the Soekris. Total cost less than $250. Under other situations a commercial box is more appropriate. If I were asked to specify a system that I would not be responsible to administer I would recommend a commercial box such as the Symmetricom. Ralph On Nov 30, 2010, at 1:39 AM, Chris Albertson wrote: > What do you need to do? What precision is required and how many clients will > you be serving. For most "normal" uses you don't need a special purpose > server system. A $600 notebook PC and any GPS unit with a serial > connection and a copy of Linux or BSD. > > On Mon, Nov 29, 2010 at 11:36 AM, Robert Darlington > <[email protected]> wrote: >> Hi guys, >> >> I'm looking to buy an NTP server for a field deployable server system. I >> currently have a Symmetricom SyncServer S250 which does more than I need. I >> am considering buying an S200 (same as the S250 but without the ability to >> connect to an external frequency standard). My gut feeling is I don't need >> a rubidium oscillator or even an OCXO internally since we'd be going from a >> power on to being used state in under an hour, outside of any kind of >> temperature controlled environment. Are there any manufacturers out there >> besides Symmetricom that I should be looking at for something like this? >> The unit we're considering buying is about $4k new and is inside of our >> budget. >> >> Thanks, >> Bob >> _______________________________________________ >> time-nuts mailing list -- [email protected] >> To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts >> and follow the instructions there. >> > > > > -- > ===== > Chris Albertson > Redondo Beach, California > > _______________________________________________ > time-nuts mailing list -- [email protected] > To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts > and follow the instructions there. _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- [email protected] To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
