On 05/30/2012 03:09 PM, Sciss wrote: > hi, > > I don't know if this is the best place to ask, as it's more of a hardware question... > > I will need to get a good + cheap + reliable machine to sound installations. I can invest _max_ £400 (EUR 500) and I need to get hold of the machine latest by August. Unless a miracle happens and a new Mac Mini model is announced, dropping the prices of current models by at least £150, I am looking for something comparable of the i5 2.3 GHz Mac Min, Linux based. > > It can't be desktop size, it really should be a portable thing, size factor/ weight not much larger than first gen Mac Mini. > > The nettops seem all underpowered for computation expensive realtime apps. I came across this : http://www.zotacusa.com/zbox-giga-id72-plus.html -- but seems like a new model or so, can't find any retailers or pricing info, at least not in the UK. > > Minimum specs would be i3 2 GHz, 4 GB RAM, 100 GB HD. Will be audio only, so I guess graphics card doesn't matter. And of course, it needs to run Linux audio -- my stuff will use SuperCollider and various things on the Java VM. ASUS EEEbox comes to mind. If you like bare-bones: search for "Advantech Single Board Computers". They come without HDD, w/o power-supply and w/o case (it's not a "box" per se), but there are powerful models available that meet your specs and even with PS, HDD and case will be within in your budget. http://buy.advantech.eu/Embedded+computer+embedded+pc+bo/3+5+Single+Board+Computers/35_Embedded_Board.ps.htm I'm just setting up an installation using a PCM-9363D-S8A1E (Atom CPU 64bit, 1.8GHz, 2 cores [4 w/hyperthreading], 4 GB RAM) + USB2-Audio Presonus 1818VSL: 8 channel audio I/O -- jackd runs stable at "-p64 -r48000 -n2" ~6ms round-trip latency with debian/wheezy's RT-kernel. > How about audio interfaces? I guess there is no chance I can connect a MOTU 828 Mk II to any of these boxes? Firewire is rare these days. Besides: "MOTU is hostile towards Linux" [http://www.ffado.org/?q=node/63] :) How many channels do you need? > The Z-Box looks interesting saying that it has 8-channels digital audio output via HDMI. I have no clue how to get that to 8 analog line signals, but maybe there is a cheap way? Will there be a problem getting Jack to talk to this kind of interface? > > Thanks for your suggestions, I hope it's not off topic! > > Best, > > .h.h. _______________________________________________ Linux-audio-user mailing list Linux-audio-user@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx http://lists.linuxaudio.org/listinfo/linux-audio-user
