Need a robust PC for the observatory?

[BPO]

Originally Posted by 2stroke

Lol via they have some great ideas but are always to late to release there products and when they do there obsoulte.

If you want com's try this on for size http://www.scorptec.com.au/computer/46611-ser5466a 8 DB9M's on pci express w00t your never going to run short but even a 2x port card for $25 is plenty.

There are some circumstances where very low power consumption is paramount, such as in off-grid setups.

And I have yet to find any astronomy application that will tax even an Atom processor. Yes, they struggle a wee bit with things like high resolution video encoding, but how many people are doing that on their observatory control PC? It's not as if it's going to be used for hard core gaming, or anything like it. Are they?

Considering these quad-core systems are low wattage and can be configured with up to 12 COM ports, I reckon they are very useful wee beasties in an observatory setting.

[Poita (Peter)]

Originally Posted by g__day

Well I decided to buy a HP Proliant Micro Server today (been considering it for a while) - but when I saw the link to the discounted price of $265 - too good to lose! So I added 2 * 4GB of ECC RAM and just a single 2TB Seagate drive to start with, but I will option it up (removing the 250GB drive) as I need it.

My choice OS will be Windows Home Server 2011 (althought 2012 is 'rumored' to become available practically now). My idea is to run this as both a NAS to save user files daily, system images monthly and act as a media server (using Tversity Pro) to stream movies and music to all PCs, XBoxes, smart bluray players / media servers and PS3's in our house.

Fingers crossed; my guess is Windows Home Server 2011 might even make a very stable platform for an Astro lab (but you'd need to add a PCI express to USB3 card in a mini height configuration and a powered USB3 hub) for this to work well!

Thanks Poita et al for the heads up - great timing!

There is a good guide here to setting one up.
http://www.tekforums.net/guides-proj...e-setup-guide/

[cventer]

These look interesting.

I need a stable workhorse for my observatory. Been using a laptop but its been a bit flaky lately.

What type of card would be needed to add serial port to this ? My weather monitor still requires serial. Not having seen one not sure if low profile PCI serial card is needed or not.

Originally Posted by Poita

For a robust setup I tend to go with servers when buying second hand, things like ECC memory and power supplies designed to be on 24/7 add up to a much, much more stable system.


For a cheap reliable new system, these are really hard to go past.
http://www.shoppingexpress.com.au/bu...371/658553-371
Less than $300, use ECC RAM, 7 USB ports and have 4 drive bays and are tiny and really reliable.
Not a speed demon when it comes to performance, but are still pretty quick, ultra reliable, tiny and use almost no power at all.

There are a few different flavours of the HP Microserver, some are a bit more grunty. They also make a great home media server, can playback 3D Bluray without a hassle, and again, lots of room for storage and don't add much to the power bill.

[Capricorn1(Tom)]

love the word robust when HP are concerned had the original HP41 and HP 41 CV (man landed on the moon using a HP 41) currently have a HP 50G.Old fan of HP