Re: Need a PC for HA ...

[Chris Hunter <cjhunter@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dave, Tim -

Thanks ... I'd not heard of the mini-ITX before ...

'have been digging more into the Idratek web-site ... it works well, and
using the search feature brought out more ... I had thought of going for
a last-year's PC, or even a year-before's, but it looks as though that
would be a mistake ...

Chris


David Gumbrell wrote:

> On 2/14/06, Chris Hunter <cjhunter@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> >
> >
> > We've 'Macs, but 'looks like I'm going to have to get a PC to run
Cortex
> > linked to an Idranet ... any suggestions, please, for which one
of the
> > many to go for ... needs to be reliable, for continuous operation
...
> > and be able to connect in some way with our 'Mac network ...
maybe I
> > should wait for the 'Mini to go Intel, and load it with Windows ?
> > 'wonder if it's possible / practical to run both Windows &
Tiger on the
> > same machine, simultaneously ... OSX being based on Unix, and
Unix
> > having pre-emptive multi-tasking capabilities, maybe it would be
> > possible ... ???
> >
> > Chris
> >
>
> It's going to depend a lot on where you plan to site the PC, how you
> plan to access it, and what Cortex features you plan to use
> (especially voice recognition and CCTV). I doubt Mac Mini hardware is
> fundamentally more reliable than modern PC board.
>
> I think trying to use virtualisation to run two OS's for Cortex will
> break the KISS principle -- Cortex wants unfettered access to the
> serial ports and virtualisation may break that. I haven't heard of
> anyone running either OSX on non-Apple hardware or Windows on Apple
> hardware yet, but I'm sure some hackers are going to prove me wrong
> eventually.
>
> Plan on dedicating a PC to Cortex and not using it for anything else.
> I haven't checked, but you may be able to use the Cortex bridging
> features to split the automation across two PCs, one running the
> basics, the second doing the CCTV stuff you've mentioned before.
>
> Personally, I built my own based on a PD-10000 mini-ITX board. You can
> get mini-ITX's that will take faster Intel processors, but cooling is
> more of an issue. I'm not running CCTV or speech recognition, so I
> don't know whether the PD-10000 is up to that.
>
> HTH
>
> --- Gumby


Chris,

I've been extremely pleased with Dell machines. I've set-up loads of
Dell Optiplexes for work (GX1, GX110, GX260, GX270, GX280 etc.) and they
have generally run faultlessly (I say "generally" but I can't
actually
think of a fault that wasn't user-initiated...). I liked Dell so much
I've bought a Dimension desktop and Inspiron laptop for home + my new
business.

If the small form factor of the Mac Mini appeals then have a look at the
Mini-ITX boards from the likes of www.linitx.com and www.mini-itx.com
(and www.mini-itx.com/store). The project pages are worth a look just
for the sheer creativity of some of the designs. The mini-itx form
factor is a low power design, which may be important if you're going to
leave it on all the time.
A colleague has one of these boards at home (the MII 12000, IIRC) and is
pleased with it.

Having just revisited the mini-itx site I see that the Nano-ITX
form-factor is about to hit the market too. At 12cm x 12cm the
motherboard is even smaller than the mini-itx boards...

There's quite a few people over on the UKHA list with the mini-itx
boards so that would be another resource if interested :-)

Cheers,

Tim




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