I am in the process of a computer network refurbishment and it is time to replace my laptop for good this time. For completeness here is a list of problems I have with it:
1. Running FreeBSD 10 and I can't seem to upgrade Firefox without upgrading the OS
2. Has trouble scrolling with a single webpage open
3. Firefox can take down the whole OS even freezing the mouse cursor
4. It's pitiful 4GB RAM seems to really be holding the system back and swaps very often with webpages
5. It is 10 years old now and the battery only lasts a few minutes and the battery indicator does not work in FreeBSD
6. It uses a colossal 50 watts of power despite being the slowest computer ever
7. The "backslash/wall" key is mapped to "<" instead making it impossible to pipe things
It may be the worst possible computer to use FreeBSD on.
An intermediate solution
A year ago I built a custom laptop from desktop parts to use FreeBSD on. Unfortunately it is showing some signs of instability and the power usage is similar to the old laptop. I have still been using the old computer because I was skeptical of how my own work turned out.
Current plans
So now I would like to remove the old motherboard from my custom laptop and install a powerful but efficient x86 SBC in it's place. It will need multiple SATA ports for ZFS and an HDMI connector to connect to the monitor.
Small power usage focus
I have been moving more and more equipment on to my custom made online UPS systems. 10 watts is actually a huge amount of power when you are talking about running off battery power. I increasingly see power hogging systems as useless to me when the slightest disruption to society means you can not operate the computer anymore. I want to be able to work through riots, wars, and natural disasters without skipping a beat. Yes I have redundant internet connections as well. I would like to eventually setup a satellite or HAM internet fallback as well.
Search results
Using the search at https://www.hackerboards.com/ I found several that met the basic hardware requirements. What concerns me is the real world power usage with these boards and the fact that they all cost $300+. I would like to build more than one system with these SBCs ideally and I also don't think these boards are really worth 300 plus dollars. Is the large amount of RAM in these boards driving the prices up?
1. Running FreeBSD 10 and I can't seem to upgrade Firefox without upgrading the OS
2. Has trouble scrolling with a single webpage open
3. Firefox can take down the whole OS even freezing the mouse cursor
4. It's pitiful 4GB RAM seems to really be holding the system back and swaps very often with webpages
5. It is 10 years old now and the battery only lasts a few minutes and the battery indicator does not work in FreeBSD
6. It uses a colossal 50 watts of power despite being the slowest computer ever
7. The "backslash/wall" key is mapped to "<" instead making it impossible to pipe things
It may be the worst possible computer to use FreeBSD on.
An intermediate solution
A year ago I built a custom laptop from desktop parts to use FreeBSD on. Unfortunately it is showing some signs of instability and the power usage is similar to the old laptop. I have still been using the old computer because I was skeptical of how my own work turned out.
Current plans
So now I would like to remove the old motherboard from my custom laptop and install a powerful but efficient x86 SBC in it's place. It will need multiple SATA ports for ZFS and an HDMI connector to connect to the monitor.
Small power usage focus
I have been moving more and more equipment on to my custom made online UPS systems. 10 watts is actually a huge amount of power when you are talking about running off battery power. I increasingly see power hogging systems as useless to me when the slightest disruption to society means you can not operate the computer anymore. I want to be able to work through riots, wars, and natural disasters without skipping a beat. Yes I have redundant internet connections as well. I would like to eventually setup a satellite or HAM internet fallback as well.
Search results
Using the search at https://www.hackerboards.com/ I found several that met the basic hardware requirements. What concerns me is the real world power usage with these boards and the fact that they all cost $300+. I would like to build more than one system with these SBCs ideally and I also don't think these boards are really worth 300 plus dollars. Is the large amount of RAM in these boards driving the prices up?