Systems and Space, Need your help

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turbolapp

turbolapp

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Aug 10, 2007
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Ok currently I have 3 lap tops for all my *cough grayhat* needs. We're about to expand. We're going to add 5 more with idea of adding ??? more in the future. Actually hubby wants to switch from laptops to desktops for space (physical space). With the idea of using our livingroom and office flatscreen. So I figured I'd bring the problem to you guys since I'm sure alot of you have multiple systems in a finite space.

1) what is the smallest PC you would you recommend? It doesn't have to be fancy just standard 2gb of ram 100 gb hardrive 2.0 GH processor speed. What's most important is that it has good wireless capabilities and dial up and standard LAN


2) What type of Gizmo would you recommend to store these computers? (I'm picturing something like an old CD tower but for computers)

3) We currently have them all hooked up to the livingroom flat screen but would like to be able to flip them back and forth from livingroom to office, wirelessly and effortlessly. Is there a way to do that?
 


If you're wanting to add a bunch you could buy a half rack and put 1U or 2U units. 2U units are recommended as they have less heating issues.

Then you can use a KVM switch to go between all the units. I think they have KVM switches up to 24 units.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/Category/category_tlc.asp?CatId=30&name=Servers
http://www.buy.com/prod/innovation-...ck-cabinet-innovation/q/loc/101/10382804.html
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_slc.asp?CatId=599&name=8-Port-KVM-Switches

(OMG! AFFLINKSZZZORZ! Oh wait, they're not.)
 
Get a bunch of mac minis and stuff em in the drawer. you could probably fit ten to twenty in there depending on the size of the drawer of course. Just remember to get one hell of a fan to keep em cool.

Sorry coldn´t resist saying that .. :-)

Seriously thou im running three laptops and i just love the way they can be stored in the corner or anywhere if need be.
 
Why do you have so many computers? Why not just build a decent desktop, throw in a few graphics cards and set up multiple monitors?
 
You may be able to get away with it for laptops, but if you are planning on having that many in one place, you may also want to look into installing a 220V outlet. I used to have a lot of desktops on one circuit and it would trip the breaker, so I put them on the only 220 I had. But it sucked having to shut everything down whenever I wanted to dry my clothes, so now I cut them back and spread them out.

No matter what you get, you will need to keep them in a place that has good airflow; there are Mini-ITX mainboards out there with embedded processors that are used for "car-puters" and can handle high temperatures, but probably your best and cheapest bet (for desktops) is to look for a micro-ATX board with onboard video and LAN. Then all you would need is the CPU, RAM and a power supply to run it.

For storage, look at FreeNAS, build 1 or 2 Freenas systems and attach all your HDDs to them for centralized storage and backups.
 
Im confused as to why you need to do what you are doing, but the solution may lie in Computer-On-Module: single board computers, single board pc, passive backplane

Failing that set up your grey hat server farm in the garage with all gigabit ethernet ports and a gigabit switch, attach a wireless router to that network and use an existing laptop to VNC into all of the other pcs. That way you maintain the portability of your laptops and you don't have all your desktops eating the wireless bandwidth. Plus you dont have a bazillion PC's lining your lounge room.

However there is probably a much cleverer solution to the problem, I can't fathom why you need "good wireless capabilities and dial up and standard LAN"

I can imagine the need for any one of those three in a single box these days, but why all three?

The reason I ask is with a serious desktop server motherboard you will have enough PCI Slots to trick out a pc with a whole bunch of ports of your choosing. So if you really need 50 dialup lines, or 50 lan ports or whatever. The answer probably isn't in adding 50 computers.

Oh and any more than about 5 pc's on a home-strength wireless router will be slow as shit. Avoid.
 
I know exactly what you need this for and I've set this up before.

IMO, the best solution would be to get a single powerful desktop (entry-level server) and split it into multiple virtual machines using VMWare. The limitation of how many virtual machines you can use will depend on how many modems you can cram into the system. But I would gather that there is a chance you could share a single modem across several virtual machines if you only use them sparingly.

If all the virtual machines are using Windows, you can either Remote Desktop into them or setup VNC.

This would definitely be the cheapest and least-space consuming solution.
 
audax said:
I know exactly what you need this for and I've set this up before.

IMO, the best solution would be to get a single powerful desktop (entry-level server) and split it into multiple virtual machines using VMWare. The limitation of how many virtual machines you can use will depend on how many modems you can cram into the system. But I would gather that there is a chance you could share a single modem across several virtual machines if you only use them sparingly.

If all the virtual machines are using Windows, you can either Remote Desktop into them or setup VNC.

This would definitely be the cheapest and least-space consuming solution.
Click to expand...

This. I think you mean network cards, not modems.

Get a quad-core, or dual quad-core system with 8-16 gigs of RAM. Slap VMWare on there and you've got 4-8 really nice systems.
 
Servers are loud. I'd get a bunch of shuttle pc's and put them on some some sort of shelving unit with cube shapes shelves and get a kvm switch so i could use one monitor/keyboard/mouse to manage all of them.
 
audax said:
I know exactly what you need this for and I've set this up before.

IMO, the best solution would be to get a single powerful desktop (entry-level server) and split it into multiple virtual machines using VMWare. The limitation of how many virtual machines you can use will depend on how many modems you can cram into the system. But I would gather that there is a chance you could share a single modem across several virtual machines if you only use them sparingly.

If all the virtual machines are using Windows, you can either Remote Desktop into them or setup VNC.

This would definitely be the cheapest and least-space consuming solution.
Click to expand...

Wow the lowest price I could find for the VMware is 1600 dollars (that's more than the desktop)! Am I looking at that right? Is there another alternative?
 
Why is it so important to have multiple physical computers?
If they don't have to be powerful, it seems like you could instead just run it all on one powerful box(w/o a VM). Though I haven't tested this, it seems like it'd work.

1) FreeProxy lets you have a decently secure proxy when properly configured. Also it lets you run multiple proxies on multiple IPs of the same machine (so you'd just connect to localhost:3456, localhost:3457, localhost:3458), and each of those would run through a unique IP.

2) External/USB 56k modem + 4 Port USB Hub (if you don't have enough on your own)

3) If you really want to have fun(and know your way around MS-DOS) you could probably have a batch script using the "rasdial" command(so you can get everything to disconnect/reconnect whenever. In case you want new IPs)
 
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Ok based on your suggestions we went to Frys and got an intel Quad Core 2.66 ghz with 6 gigs of ram(upgradable to 12) 500 gig hardrive. Two 56k modems 12 usb ports with the option of adding 3 more modems wrapped in a case with 2 fans.

Now we're just looking into the VMware... :)
 
turbolapp said:
Ok based on your suggestions we went to Frys and got an intel Quad Core 2.66 ghz with 6 gigs of ram(upgradable to 12) 500 gig hardrive. Two 56k modems 12 usb ports with the option of adding 3 more modems wrapped in a case with 2 fans.

Now we're just looking into the VMware... :)
Click to expand...

The tech-geek in me would really like to see the set up when it's finished. Maybe a pic or two after it's set up?
 
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