Upcoming Asus Chromebox looks like it would make a decent cheap home server?

[Feathers McGraw]

After removing Chrome OS and installing Debian/Ubuntu, of course.

http://www.engadget.com/2014/02/04/asus-chromebox/

$179 for Celeron 2955U processor model, also available with a core i3 but I can't find a price for that configuration.

Haswell processor should be quite energy efficient, and it's also pretty damn small (4.88"x4.88"x1.65" or 124x124x42mm if you use proper measurements )

2 or 4GB RAM
16GB SSD
FOUR USB 3.0 ports
SD card reader
802.11a/b/g/n WiFi
1GB Ethernet
HDMI
DisplayPort
Kensington lock

...and no windows tax!

[oshunluvr]

I wonder why the i7 version isn't available here. No matter, for $179 I'm buying one!

[Feathers McGraw]

Price vs intended use, I guess! The unit comes with a mount for behind the TV, I think Google see people using it as a steaming box rather than for doing any heavy lifting.

They just happen to have accidentally designed rather a nice server, and all the hardware presumably has decent Linux drivers

[Snowhog]

I wonder why the i7 version isn't available here. No matter, for $179 I'm buying one!

See Asus Chromebox mini-desktop hits the deck next month, supports 4K

4K capable

For a little more power customers can bump up the specs to a 1.7GHz Core i3-4010U and 4GB of RAM. Asus' Chromebox will also come in a 2.1GHz Core i7-4600U powered variety but this model won't be available on US shores.

Get a European friend to purchase one for you.

[Feathers McGraw]

*raises hand*

[oshunluvr]

Actually, (thank you for the offer Feathers - be careful what you wish for ) the i3 model would suffice for my intended use. My eventual plan is to equip all my TV's with boxes like these so they can be used as both TV's and PC's. Not doing any high-end gaming so i7 likely overkill. I was more curious than anything as to what the reason for the limitation is. You can bet without the i7 you won't be running Windows Media Center on it.

[oshunluvr]

I would need to know if they'll support PXE. My plan also includes a common server and booting to images to reduce my updating workload and so each users desktop is available at every station.

Thinking at least one per bedroom, office, den, family room, and kitchen.

[Feathers McGraw]

At least one per room?! Add a couple more and you could turn the heating off, low power consumption or not!

Just skimmed the Wikipedia article for PXE, it looks really cool!

Is it _just_ used when booting, i.e. the computer uses a HDD/SSD after that, or have I misunderstood?

[Feathers McGraw]

FYI, HP is also releasing a chromebox, and theirs has an i7 (but is expected to cost more).

[perspectoff]

You know that ASUS has had an Ubuntu nettop box for some time, right? (Here's an example: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16883220388 .)

It has retailed for about $239, though, which makes me think that Google is doing the Microsoft trick of subsidizing its boxes (to the $179 price break) in order to jump-start sales

[Feathers McGraw]

I didn't know that, thanks for pointing it out.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if it's subsidised, they have a bit of an uphill struggle to break into the market. I'm not sure how many people will buy one with the intention of using chrome OS!

[Feathers McGraw]

Hehe classic

[SteveRiley]

Is it _just_ used when booting, i.e. the computer uses a HDD/SSD after that, or have I misunderstood?

Preboot only, as the name says

[Feathers McGraw]

So... the difference between this and wake-on-LAN is that WOL uses the boot manager/bootloader that's already on the computer's hard drive, whereas with PXE there needn't be a bootloader/manager on the hard drive at all since it's downloaded from a remote server and loaded into RAM?

I was just wondering whether PXE can be used to boot and also tell the computer to start doing stuff once it's booted (i.e. boot and display this video), or if all it will do is turn it on.

What are the advantages of PXE over WOL? Just that you don't have to fiddle with the bootloaders on multiple devices if you want to make a change to all of them, just update the master copy?

[SteveRiley]

They serve different functions. WOL boots the operating system currently installed on the computer.

PXE runs entirely in the firmware, before any installed OS. PXE locates the NBP and executes it. In most enterprise deployments, the NBP is used to install a fresh copy of the OS onto the machine. Internet cafes often do this. Alternately, the NBP could boot an OS over the LAN; it's how diskless workstations start.