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Posts: 43 | Thanked: 3 times | Joined on Jul 2008 @ Vienna
#16
Originally Posted by jolouis View Post
I've never had a slug but wanted to add from the opposite side of things that any of the "WRT routers" these days seem to play the same sort of role. In particular the Asus WL-500GP does a good job of bridging the gap... low cost, but with 2 USB2.0 ports and full wifi capabilities. It all comes down to questions of purpose though... OMAP3 is awesome for low power media devices (that's what it's designed for after all), but it's not a network access point/storage device/ethernet switch/etc.
If you're looking for something more along the slug lines but with a bit more "beef" in terms of hardware, I found the next logical step is to move up to one of the embedded VIA or x86 boards that will offer you the same sort of network functionality/features, but with some more expansion and performance options: mini-box.com has a great set of them, with the ALIX series being my personal favourites for network-oriented features (and the prices of course are very favourable).
However the power consumption on the slug is way slower than on any of the embedded VIA or x86 board (correct me if I am wrong tho). Mine eats about 3 Watt on idle and 6 Watt on full load with everything.
Also the price point, nowadays you can get a slug for as low as 50$.
And apart from that it's perfectly silent, creates no real heat or anything and is very small.