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I use utorrent and jdownloader quite a bit. But leaving my main rig for these purpose is quite overkill. I need a computer that i can leave on 24/7. Should be very silent ,low power.

Also a few small application i coded should work on this machine(written in python and java. )

It can be a ARM based computer , or a x86 based one but should not cost much. Maybe $300 tops.

Any advise for such a machine?

Why not just hook up a raspberry pi to an external drive?

Possible, but i need slightly more cpu power than raspberry pi. Is there a similar product that has a faster cpu, and more ram? Also raspberry doesn't even come with enclosing. I need a more consumer ready product.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6883220388

check out that lil dood.
Nice price and expandability for a little over 2 bills.
And its ASUS.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6856102001 + some hard drives and memory. Small, low power, well under budget for one hdd and when the corporate thugs come you can fool them by hiding it in your pants. This is one of the applications that booksize PCs were made for.

edit: that Asus would be a good one too, and it comes with an SSD. I use Atoms professionally, they're great chips when they're not held back by a bloated OS. I've had my eye on this Shuttle for a while, it's designed for commercial use so it should last forever.

conversely, you could go with a seedbox somwhere that you pay for monthly, then just FTP between your comp and the seedbox as needed.

Hsldn wrote:

Possible, but i need slightly more cpu power than raspberry pi. Is there a similar product that has a faster cpu, and more ram? Also raspberry doesn't even come with enclosing. I need a more consumer ready product.

If you want something faster there is also the CuBox-I that has multiple configurations.

http://cubox-i.com/table/

I don't know if you want to do external storage, and I assume you're going to need a fair amount. This Atom barebones system for $70 has a 3.5" drive bay and USB3.0. You'll have to buy your own SO-DIMM RAM and hdd of course. Price w/o hdd = $113. Sounds like a home run to me.

3.5" hdds cost $35-40 per TB, don't be afraid to buy an external hdd and uncase it.

IF you wanted something with a little more CPU horsepower, this Celeron 1037U would drop in around $200 shipped (w/o hdd).

DPete27 wrote:

I don't know if you want to do external storage, and I assume you're going to need a fair amount. This Atom barebones system for $70 has a 3.5" drive bay and USB3.0. You'll have to buy your own SO-DIMM RAM and hdd of course. Price w/o hdd = $113. Sounds like a home run to me.

Considering that he is wondering about ARM systems as well, I would imagine that he is looking to run Linux on the system. That being said, the graphics on that Atom (being PowerVR) are notorious for being absolute crap on linux.

Deanjo wrote:

Considering that he is wondering about ARM systems as well, I would imagine that he is looking to run Linux on the system. That being said, the graphics on that Atom (being PowerVR) are notorious for being absolute crap on linux.

Unless he's running media programs or anything 3d it probably doesn't matter at all if the graphics driver blows.

Getting even just getting a desktop that isn't slow as molasses is a trying experience with PowerVR on the atoms. Having to use software rendering on an atom is not a pretty experience.

I am not even going to plug a monitor or keyboard once i set it up . I don't need fast graphics . I don't know how much difference does it make while using remote desktop.

If i run it on linux , can i also use it as a very powerfull router and connect my computer to the internet using it?

Hsldn wrote:

I am not even going to plug a monitor or keyboard once i set it up . I don't need fast graphics . I don't know how much difference does it make while using remote desktop.

If i run it on linux , can i also use it as a very powerfull router and connect my computer to the internet using it?

You could use it as a router, you would probably look at something with dual nics then or at least an open slot to put in a second NIC.

If you can wait a couple weeks, what about MSI's new J18001? Looks to be about $60 for the 2.4GHz dual-core version on a mITX form factor motherboard. Leaves a lot of cash for case, power supply, and hard drives.

HP Microserver N54L, mine runs
XBMC
SabNZB
utorrent
Sickbeard
Acronis true image (once a week)
It's great.

DPete27 wrote:

This Atom barebones system for $70 has a 3.5" drive bay and USB3.0.

Deanjo wrote:

you would probably look at something with dual nics then or at least an open slot to put in a second NIC.

That Atom system has an open PCI slot that you could drop any half-height PCI NIC into...

Deanjo wrote:

Why not just hook up a raspberry pi to an external drive?......even just getting a desktop that isn't slow as molasses is a trying experience with PowerVR on the atoms. Having to use software rendering on an atom is not a pretty experience.

I completely agree that the previous-gen Atoms aren't speed demons, but they're definitely more powerful than a Raspberry Pi. I didn't assume graphics horsepower to be a priority.

Why not get a NAS like the WD MyBook Live? You can download torrents directly using their web interface and not even have to use a computer.

Transmission (1 Article )

Download torrents directly from your Mybook Live, even when your windows computer is Off.
Transmission is an open source torrent downloader, with a nice GUI web user interface.

This Feature pack will automatically configure Transmission on your Mybook Live Device...

Prestige Worldwide wrote:

Why not get a NAS like the WD MyBook Live? You can download torrents directly using their web interface and not even have to use a computer.

For torrents it would be fine. But it doesn't suport any other kind of downloads . Also if i install a linux distro, i can use it as a print server too.

Thank you for all the replies, its been very helpful.