...stuff I do and things I like...

Sunday, January 04 2009

New Hardware in 2009

I already assembled a list of hardware I'm going to buy this year. Of course the list is not complete :-) I really like to get hints for all hardware on my list, thanks!

1) NAS Box (or multiple)
    I bought a NAS-4220 in March last year. I wanted to run it as a backup device with raid-1 and crypto. But it turned out that not all of the required software works good enough to be used for backup (a unstable backup system is useless in my opinion). So I'm going to sell it (the actual hardware and default software works just fine).

    So I'm looking for a nice NAS box that runs Linux (or can be made to run Linux). The devices based on the Orion SoC look nice. See here. Unfortunately the crypto acceleration is not yet supported. Crypto is thing I really need in hardware as raid-1 works just fine in software on Linux.
2) 802.11n Wifi router that runs OpenWRT
    No research done yet besides a brief check on the OpenWRT site. Seems some routers are supported but with out supporting the 802.11n part itself.
3) Internet Radio device for the kitchen
    I want something that just works, runs Linux, and is hackable. Needs WiFi. Good looking hardware that is not too big.
4) Gaming Computer
    Since 2004 I only own laptops (besides my media center/home server). From time to time I think about playing/buying some games but since non of my laptops can handle current games I will go and buy a gaming computer.

    It will need to cost less then 1K Euro (without screen). I'll probably go for a intel E8400 with 4GB ram and a nVidea GTX+ with 512MB. Is this OK for most games this year? I mainly like real-time strategy C&C, WarCraft, StarCraft style games.
5) Android-based mobile phone
    I ordered a Kogan Agora Pro in December.

    I mainly ordered this one because it is really cheap in comparison with the G1. Looking forward to play with it. It will be interesting to see how the whole android thing goes this year.
6) Media streaming device (something like Apple TV)
    I want a device to put audio/video into my living room without the need for a computer (my media center is too noisy after all). I have a Zenega/S100 in my bed room which is really great but can't play high bit rate content.