I've got this Ye Olde Linux box - P3 1Ghz running in what I assume is a generic ATX case with a 240 or 300W power supply.

This box is basically my firewall/gateway/router. It's on 24/7.

In an attempt to practice what I preach a little more in terms of being green, I'm interested in shrinking this down into a smaller case. I don't need sound or video so I figure onboard sound/video will be fine. I have one of the common ASUS P3 motherboards, can't remember which one exactly (though I can look it up if it matters).

Does anyone have any advice how to do this? I know there's those Shuttle cases which look OK. Basically I just want to be able to put the whole thing in a much lower power-consuming case.

Thanks for any advice anyone has.

Well if it goes in any shuttle case, you can chuck the asus board...

Smallest you could go with the asus board, if its SFF ATX would be a slimline case like the Aopen H340D, which comes with a 200W I believe. Otherwise you'd need to chase a shuttle box with a compatible motherboard, ideally with the same chipset.

Is 200W the lowest you can get that will still make a PC... work? I guess I could look at some of the other low power CPU options like Crusoe, but I don't know if I have that sort of patience.

The other option is obviously just to replace the whole thing with a decent router thing but I really like having a linux box there for remote access to my stuffz.

If you are serious about it, I'd look at purchasing a Micro and Nano ITX setup.

They are in the 60-100W range, some are passively cooled (making them quiter).

eg.
http://www.pioneercomputers.com.au/products/products.asp?c1=112&c2=114
http://www.eyo.com.au/search_results.php?search_term=itx&x=0&y=0

But if all your box is doing is Firewall/Router, why not purchase a Firewall router that already runs at lower power ?

What Obes said - if you want to spend money to make your firewall smaller to be green, why not just grab something like a Linksys WRT54G and throw the DD-WRT firmware on it.. gives you a bit more than just your average consumer firewall/router device.

but I really like having a linux box there for remote access to my stuffz

Well the ITX stuff is a real PC (runs linux if you want it to)

so ... you leave your 450w pc on just incase you need your stuffs ? or are you running a WOL thing on your linux box to wake up your pc ? or is other stuff on your linux box.

If you are running your PC anyways, just set up VNC / PCAnywhere / Remote Desktop and forward the ports through.

I have a shuttle with a 250w PSU and passive cooling running 2gig of ram and a P4 3ghz CPU as my linux server for mail and backup storage. I like the shuttles, they are quiet and just sit in the corner and hum along.

Another way to do it is get a small desktop case and run it on its side. takes up low power and less space.

250w is not exactly low power, that draws more power then leaving 6 4 foot fluros on.

Not that I really care, it just if trog is trying to be green. There is a 60w option (could run 4 of then and still be ahead of a shuttle).

so ... you leave your 450w pc on just incase you need your stuffs ? or are you running a WOL thing on your linux box to wake up your pc ? or is other stuff on your linux box.

no, anything I need is on my linux box - but I mostly use it for testing stuff

Another way to do it is get a small desktop case and run it on its side. takes up low power and less space.

Can you get smaller desktop cases than shuttles these days? or do you mean just smaller in general

ta obes, those links look like handy starting points

FYI- I'd be happy to take that P3 motherboard off your hands if you won't be needing it *cough*

I have a tiny old Compaq Deskpro EN p3 system sitting in my lounge room serving as a HTPC. I imagine it's a sub-100W PSU. I'd be interested in trading PSU/CASE/MOBO if you're keen. I wouldn't mind something with a bit more space or expandability.

FYI- I'd be happy to take that P3 motherboard off your hands if you won't be needing it *cough*

Cool dude will keep it in mind after I check out my options

Thought they were 190w or 200w from memory, The small form factors were 120 or 150w.

I just checked, it's 120W. I used to have a similar IBM set up that was 90W, my bad. The old Compaqs make great HTPC's if you can get a good enough CPU etc for them. Mine currently has a MX440, SB Live!, P3 1ghz, 256mb ram and is whisper quiet so it does a good job. The only down side is that there's only 3 PCI slots so it could be a problem for something like a router/firewall deally.

While on the topic of networking etc, why has it not occured to anybody to put a few network ports on one PCI network card? The tech is well old, and we're in an age of network cards costing under $10. Is there some reason that they can't put a few network ports on one card that I'm unaware of? Or was this tried in the past but there wasn't enough of a market for it? Or maybe I'm just uber smart and just invented it... /patent...

Why not buy one of those small nas-box things, then get a wrt54g. you should be able to access the nas-box over the 'net via the wrt54g.

NAS cube thingy Even has php/mysql built in! Shared via CIFS, Apple, FTP (/SFTP )

i've thought about this for myself, i thought, well, just get a tiny case, pissy little power supply, small mobo etc etc etc, maybe even a laptop drive, maybe if i can somehow squeeze a little 15" LCD onto it or something.

and then i thought

why don't i just get an old P3 laptop

so i did

less mucking around, less expense, less power used.

NAS cube thingy Even has php/mysql built in! Shared via CIFS, Apple, FTP (/SFTP )

That cube looks expensive and a bit of an overkill. I have a cheaper suggestion:

For VPN/FTP access to your files, I also suggest a WRT54G* with a decent flash memory size. Flash it with the version of DD-WRT that has OpenVPN built in and now you have not only VPN access to your network for files, but SSH for network testing at the command-line.

Then grab a cheap Ethernet HDD enclosure like the Vantec 375LX (Umart link), slap an old hard-drive in and plug it into the router. That particular enclosure can do about 3MB/s over Ethernet and 20-25MB/s over USB.

No need to pay extra for fancy enclosures with support for RAID or network protocols that you've never heard of :)

Altogether you might be looking at ~$230, assuming you already have a spare HDD.

last edited by parabol at 14:12:43 18/Mar/07

I have a HP E-Vectra, its a S370 sff case, and I bought it on ebay... they go for next to nothing these days...

Trog: I have a dlink pos router that has usb ports on it which you can plug usb hard drives into. Why not just get one of those and use that to store all your internet stuffs on? Doesn't have to be a dlink router I think linksys or netgear also make a storage router. You can set up ftp access to the usb hard drives or http access too. It also acts as an windows share.

I was under the impression that the 450w power supply wouldn't be outputting 450w permanently, but only outputting the energy that the system required. I mean, if the hard drive drew only say 15-20watts of power, wouldn't it overload that unit if the PSU was ramming 100w down that line?

I thought that's what the Smart power switching units did? (which most are SPSU's as far as I was aware)??


correct me if I'm wrong of course, this isn't the bible of PSU's that thou shalt follow :)

Trog: I have a dlink pos router that has usb ports on it which you can plug usb hard drives into. Why not just get one of those and use that to store all your internet stuffs on?

It's not so much about the storage, its more about having my linux box there to test web pages, scripts, code, etc, on. I just like having a fully fledged linux box on a totally different network for testing internets stuff.

I thought that's what the Smart power switching units did? (which most are SPSU's as far as I was aware)??

I don't know - that would be cool. I assume there are magic devices out there that I can plug in between the computer and the wall that tells me how many watts its burning?

yeah. thinkgeek have a couple of those devices for counting watts, I would assume somewhere like jaycar would have an aussie equiv.

i'm with Moo - a 400w PSU only draws 400w when under full load. If theres nothing plugged into it, it will draw whatever its idle is (prob like 1w).

It's not so much about the storage, its more about having my linux box there to test web pages, scripts, code, etc, on. I just like having a fully fledged linux box on a totally different network for testing internets stuff.

I pay AU$40/mth for a dedicated (not virtual) Linux box in the US. Does all those things and is a tax write off.

While on the topic of networking etc, why has it not occured to anybody to put a few network ports on one PCI network card?

these are pretty common. you can even get quad port pci nics cards nowdays. i even found a 5 port pci network switch (1 internal and 4 external ports) the other day while researching something for work.

I picked up a couple of HP D530 desktops off ebay to be my linux and media centre PCs.

The HP D530 Ultra Slimline i picked up for Mediacentre has a 150W PSU and uses 1-3Watts of power when on standby.

The HP D530 Slimline I picked up for my linux box has a 185W PSU and has space for 3 hdds and a couple of pci cards.

Both have built in video, NIC etc etc.

I pay AU$40/mth for a dedicated (not virtual) Linux box in the US. Does all those things and is a tax write off.

Latency is a bitch though; I can barely stand it when its 50ms let alone 200ms :)

The HP D530 Ultra Slimline i picked up for Mediacentre has a 150W PSU and uses 1-3Watts of power when on standby.

That sounds great, can I have yours?

Beef up your Wireless Router

Quick article on the advantages of using OpenWRT on something like a Linksys WRT54G. Lists a few things you can do with it like install Asterisk, OpenVPN, Snort, etc.

old laptop ftw.

the screen is scratched on mine, and I had to find a $40 generic laptop powerpack for it, but it's ideal. I spent a total of $100 on it all. 'Wouldn't mind another 512mb in there though

i agree with koopz

i have an old P3 with 512mb - it does the job quite well. pick one up for $100 or so and voila, perfect little permanently on pc.

I dunno if this has been mentioned in this thread or not

I used to use an old P100 Laptop with 40meg ram running 98 ( LOL ) back in the day. 2 PCMCIA cards and did the job very nicely :) Do away with the PC and get a hardware router, seriously :)

The SLUgs that boba mentioned suck penis (so schlow).