[time-nuts] Modern HW replacement for ATOM based NTP server?

Hal Murray hmurray at megapathdsl.net
Tue Apr 7 16:58:00 EDT 2015


> Looking for a platform not needing a fan. While the ATOM and SSD seem to be
> OK w/o direct airflow, the Mini ITX Power Supply fan is needed. 

If you are happy with Raspberry Pi or BeagleBone Black, they are the low cost 
low power way to go.  They run Linux.  They don't have a real disk.  If you 
do a lot of "disk" activity, you might wear out the SD card frequently enough 
to be annoying.  That hasn't been a problem for me but I don't have a lot of 
years on them yet.  You could use a USB disk.

The Raspberry Pi has a HDMI connector so you can run a real display.  The BBB 
has a mini/micro HDMI connector.  I ignore those and ssh in from my main PC.  
(Some people refer to that mode of operation as headless.)


You can get no-fan style power for Mini-ITX size systems.  The ones I'm 
familiar with have a tiny DC-DC converter that mounts on the big power 
connector and runs off a laptop size external supply.
  http://www.mini-box.com/DC-DC


You could just change the fan or whole power supply whenever the fan dies.  
Maybe you will get lucky and find one with a fan that lasts a long time.


You could try an old laptop.  The battery will decay over the years, but it 
will probably work well enough to cover short dropouts and/or let you wander 
around for a few minutes.  Some laptops have fans.  (I have a Dell Latitude 
D430.  It has been running 24x7 for several years.  The fan still works.  The 
battery is only good for 10 or 15 minutes.)


-- 
These are my opinions.  I hate spam.





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