Which Device shall i buy? (Pogoplug/GoFlex/Raspberry)

[MikeK]

Hi,

I''d like to buy a Plug Computer, and I am hesitating which device I should buy (as I don't realy know which would suit my requirements); could you experienced user give me some advice here? Thanks very much!!

What I intend to do with the Plug:
- Groupware-Server (two users max., it shall collect Mails from different POP3-Accounts)
- (maybe) Asterisk (also a small installation; mainly as "extended answering-machine")
- I want to use USB-Sticks (first Installations on "smaller" Sticks, the final one with larger (up to 32GB per stick, or even on a small SSD; depending on how the experimental Installations work out)
(- "Device" will be connected to a Fritz!Box-1-Gig-LAN)
(- the lower the power consumption the better)

I do know that RAM and LAN-Connection will be the major issues; so i'm hesitating what to get:
Raspberry Pi: best RAM (up to 512MB), slow LAN (10/100), one USB (on the same Bus as the LAN)
Seagate GoFlex Net: low RAM (128MB), fast LAN (1Gig), two SATA (maybe good for later use) but just one USB...
Pogoplug (no further Details in the shop; i guess it's a Pogoplug Pro or v2): low or middle RAM (128MB or 256MB)?, fast LAN, as I read: maybe one SATA onboard

... which one would suit best for my purposes? (...which would be the best choice?)

Thanks for your help!

Mike

[pepedog]

Or the cubox?
Gb LAN, 2 USB channels, SATA, micro sd, 1 or 2 GB ram, armv7h

[sjwoo]

I ownthe Pi and the Pogo E02. I used to own a Pogo B01. I would not recommend the B01, since it's tougher to update now (http://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv6 ... provideov3). I just picked up the E02 from Adorama for $25, so price-wise, you can't beat it.

Since what you are looking to do is server-based, I'd recommend the E02. I also have gigabit LAN here, and the file transfer speeds of the Pogo are excellent -- around 20MB down, 10MB up on my USB HDD. It can be tweaked to go even higher, but those are good throughputs for me. The Pi is way slower since it's limited by the 10/100. And even though it has more memory, the Pi seems slower to me in general. But I'm using it for server purposes, and the Pi is way more than that. Check out this post:

viewtopic.php?f=18&t=2583

The costs for the Pi are higher. You also need a powered USB hub to really use additional storage, especially for USB HDD drives. After working with the Pi, I'm very thankful that the Pogo comes with its own stable power supply.

After playing with the Pi for a bit, I'm not sure I really have a need for it. I already have a full-blown HTPC, so I don't need it in the living room. Possibly for travel? I don't know. I'll keep it for a while longer to see how I feel about it.

[MikeK]

@pepedog

Thanks for your Input - the cubox looks realy interesting, but... Unfortunatly I'm on a limited budget...
But it is sure an alternative for future consideration

@sjwoo

After reading your Post, I think i'll go for a PogoPlug... Main Problem on that: living in Switzerland, I don't have many Shops selling the Device I can choose from (at least for an acceptable price, that is)... (I guess the Product-Picture (taken from the Amazon-Store of the Shop I would order from) does not show what I would get, does it?)

Somehow, I thought it would be (only) tricky to get the Software running - I'm surprised even the Hardware-Question seems to be challenging...

[moonman]

Originally Only Pink and Grey boxes were E02, now there are a lot of mislabeled boxes it seems so it is hard to know what you are really getting.
Out of curiosity I ran a CPU benchmark on GF Home (same cpu as E02) and R Pi:

Raspberry Pi:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', '========================================================================
BYTE UNIX Benchmarks (Version 5.1.3)

System: alarmpi: GNU/Linux
OS: GNU/Linux -- 3.6.11-7-ARCH+ -- #1 PREEMPT Tue Feb 19 01:50:39 UTC 2013
Machine: armv6l (unknown)
Language: en_US.utf8 (charmap="UTF-8", collate="UTF-8")
13:28:25 up 7 days, 9:50, 1 user, load average: 1.04, 0.43, 0.19; runlevel 5

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Benchmark Run: Fri Mar 01 2013 13:28:25 - 13:57:37
0 CPUs in system; running 1 parallel copy of tests

Dhrystone 2 using register variables 2363834.7 lps (10.1 s, 7 samples)
Double-Precision Whetstone 339.9 MWIPS (9.4 s, 7 samples)
Execl Throughput 366.0 lps (29.9 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 54848.3 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 16967.5 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 122768.6 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Pipe Throughput 181003.5 lps (10.1 s, 7 samples)
Pipe-based Context Switching 28192.6 lps (10.1 s, 7 samples)
Process Creation 1154.6 lps (30.1 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 281.5 lpm (60.2 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 40.0 lpm (60.8 s, 2 samples)
System Call Overhead 463862.6 lps (10.1 s, 7 samples)

System Benchmarks Index Values BASELINE RESULT INDEX
Dhrystone 2 using register variables 116700.0 2363834.7 202.6
Double-Precision Whetstone 55.0 339.9 61.8
Execl Throughput 43.0 366.0 85.1
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 3960.0 54848.3 138.5
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 1655.0 16967.5 102.5
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 5800.0 122768.6 211.7
Pipe Throughput 12440.0 181003.5 145.5
Pipe-based Context Switching 4000.0 28192.6 70.5
Process Creation 126.0 1154.6 91.6
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 42.4 281.5 66.4
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 6.0 40.0 66.6
System Call Overhead 15000.0 463862.6 309.2
========
System Benchmarks Index Score 112.5')
GoFlex Home:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', '========================================================================
BYTE UNIX Benchmarks (Version 5.1.3)

System: GoFex: GNU/Linux
OS: GNU/Linux -- 3.7.10-0-ARCH -- #1 PREEMPT Thu Feb 28 01:55:30 UTC 2013
Machine: armv5tel (unknown)
Language: en_US.utf8 (charmap="UTF-8", collate="UTF-8")
13:27:00 up 14:13, 1 user, load average: 0.32, 0.09, 0.07; runlevel 5

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Benchmark Run: Fri Mar 01 2013 13:27:00 - 13:55:15
0 CPUs in system; running 1 parallel copy of tests

Dhrystone 2 using register variables 2393926.2 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Double-Precision Whetstone 46.4 MWIPS (9.9 s, 7 samples)
Execl Throughput 578.4 lps (29.9 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 65346.8 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 20205.4 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 144303.5 KBps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Pipe Throughput 200164.6 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Pipe-based Context Switching 17833.1 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Process Creation 1610.6 lps (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 378.9 lpm (60.1 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 53.0 lpm (60.6 s, 2 samples)
System Call Overhead 599885.9 lps (10.0 s, 7 samples)

System Benchmarks Index Values BASELINE RESULT INDEX
Dhrystone 2 using register variables 116700.0 2393926.2 205.1
Double-Precision Whetstone 55.0 46.4 8.4
Execl Throughput 43.0 578.4 134.5
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks 3960.0 65346.8 165.0
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks 1655.0 20205.4 122.1
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks 5800.0 144303.5 248.8
Pipe Throughput 12440.0 200164.6 160.9
Pipe-based Context Switching 4000.0 17833.1 44.6
Process Creation 126.0 1610.6 127.8
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent) 42.4 378.9 89.4
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent) 6.0 53.0 88.3
System Call Overhead 15000.0 599885.9 399.9
========
System Benchmarks Index Score 110.7')

The only reason Pi has a similar score is because it's got an FPU.

[dhead666]

@MikeK,

Regarding availability of devices:
You could consider using a forward shipping service, thus you will have a personal shipping address in the USA.
I heard good things about Shipito, I haven't tried it myself, I'm using another service which only forward to my country.
The most important thing to consider is taxes and handling fees by customs in your country, I understood that some European countries overcharging.

[MikeK]

@moonman

Interesting Benchmarks indeed...
Unfortunatly you'r right - no chance of knowing what you get... And that does not encourage me to buy...

@dhead666

Those services are great (I'm using one for orders in Germany), but as you wrote: some countrys (especially switzerland, unfortunatly) are overcharging. Not with the Tax-Fee (this would be no problem), but the administrative charges. (#1 custom #2postal service as I would have to pay Tax & charges on delivery); doing some calcs I found out I would have to pay the same money for the Fee's as for the Device and Shipping itself. Ok, I would get the desired device, but I would have to pay more (including shipping: 40%) than I would buying in Switzerland/Germany... And as I said - I'm on a tight Budget here

After considering all Advices I received, I decided to wait buying until I find a shop (in europe) selling the E2... (or I'll have enough money for a cubox - what ever happens first)

Thank you all for your Help!! I'm sure we'll read again!!

[rty]

Moonman, how can we get that Byte benchmark test software?

[moonman]

It's not in the repo, but you can compile it. It's fairly quick.

http://code.google.com/p/byte-unixbench/downloads/list

EDIT: Here it is precompiled (armv5). I'm too lazy to make a pkg

$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', 'cd ~
wget https://dl.dropbox.com/u/15043728/UnixBench.tar.xz
tar xvJf UnixBench.tar.xz
cd UnixBench
./Run')

[rty]

Thanks Moonman. I followed your steps and got this message.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')[root@pogo4 ~]# cd UnixBench
[root@pogo4 UnixBench]# ls
Makefile pgms README results Run src testdir tmp USAGE WRITING_TESTS
[root@pogo4 UnixBench]# ./Run
Can't exec "make": No such file or directory at ./Run line 788.
Can't exec "make": No such file or directory at ./Run line 790.

**********************************************
Run: "make all" failed; aborting