[other] Meet the new System76 Meerkat NetTop [Archive]

crichell

April 2nd, 2009, 01:37 PM

We're very excited about our new Meerkat NetTop... just launched it late last night.

I've been working on this NetTop for a while and it's surprisingly snappy. Although I imagine it may slow down if a bunch of apps are open, I never experienced any slow down while playing video, music, and surfing the net.

Check it out here: http://system76.com/meerkat

As always, we'd love to hear your feedback.

Cheers,

Carl

betrunkenaffe

April 2nd, 2009, 02:33 PM

Nice price. Is a nettop a desktop intended for browsing internet use only? Email and that sort of thing as well or?

crichell

April 2nd, 2009, 02:42 PM

Is a nettop a desktop intended for browsing internet use only? Email and that sort of thing as well or?

It's intended for browsing, blogging, email, word processing - paticularly working/playing in the cloud. Great for education as well. i.e. consuming all that's out there more so than heavy creating.

eddietours

April 2nd, 2009, 03:30 PM

can it play HD video 480 or 720

Ian9056

April 2nd, 2009, 03:35 PM

Not really in the market for one right now (my Pangolin's only a few months old), but if/when Netflix streaming is possible on Linux I'll pick one of these up as a nice living room computer.

crichell

April 2nd, 2009, 03:39 PM

can it play HD video 480 or 720

The Intel GMA 950 card can display 480i/p, 576i/p, 720i/p and 1080i/p; however, this isn't the best platform for HD. The CPU will become a bottle neck when pushing through that much data and video could become choppy.

eddietours

April 2nd, 2009, 03:43 PM

sounds good to me very nice looking system

octathlon

April 2nd, 2009, 09:07 PM

I see it has an 84W power supply. Any stats on typical power usage? I'm thinking of getting something that I can leave on all the time to use as a home file/print/database server.

crichell

April 2nd, 2009, 10:03 PM

I see it has an 84W power supply. Any stats on typical power usage?

It's going to be far less than 84W... probably closer to 30W or less, based on anecdotal evidence rather than good measurements (CPU & HD power consumtion). The CPU uses only 8W.

betrunkenaffe

April 3rd, 2009, 10:33 AM

Any thoughts on how difficult it would be to put a SSD into it instead of the HDD that it comes with?

thomasaaron

April 3rd, 2009, 10:42 AM

It wouldn't be difficult at all. We could walk you through it.

Lee_Machine

April 3rd, 2009, 10:47 AM

Not really in the market for one right now (my Pangolin's only a few months old), but if/when Netflix streaming is possible on Linux I'll pick one of these up as a nice living room computer.

I thought about the same thing. As a dedicated boxee box, but then I noticed the VGA port.

If it had at least DVI it would be a viable option.

Also, moonlight 2 wont be out until sepetember 2009.

That said, the Meerkat look like a great NetTop. It opens up S76 to a whole new market of computing in the cloud.

I personally think they should also go into the Linux Media Center market....but now is not the time. That would be when boxee does everything mythTV does, plus more in its final release sometime next year.

Any plans?

jpoRS

April 3rd, 2009, 12:22 PM

I started specing one out for my mother, called her up to ask her some questions, and she eventually decided she wants something laptop shaped, not desktop. I have heard you guys have a netbook in the works, I guess she will just have to wait.

Still, looks like a solid machine. Will definitely consider it for some sort of home server/media hub/second computer in the future.

jim

jjacobs2

April 3rd, 2009, 01:24 PM

can it play HD video 480 or 720

480p h264 would not be a problem for it however 720p would struggle. Most likely you would need to setup coreavc for linux or wait until the decoder efficiency is improved in libavcodec. Even then it wouldn't handle really high bit rate 720p. Too bad there's no nvidia graphics option, that would allow 1080p decoding with VDPAU. Is there a pci-e or pci slot free in there that could be used for another card?

crichell

April 3rd, 2009, 02:20 PM

Is there a pci-e or pci slot free in there that could be used for another card?

Yes and no.... there is a pci slot but the chassis is 2.36" wide. No space for even a low profile card.

I personally think they should also go into the Linux Media Center market....but now is not the time.

I love the Boxee concept. The recent action by Hulu (and subsequent reversal it seems) shook us a bit. VOD is on our radar.

I have heard you guys have a netbook in the works

Yes, we're aiming for Mid-May nothing definent yet. As development progresses we'll keep folks up to date on twitter.

octathlon

April 3rd, 2009, 06:41 PM

I love the Boxee concept. The recent action by Hulu (and subsequent reversal it seems) shook us a bit. VOD is on our radar.

Also, it seems that some ISPs are planning to move to tiered pricing:

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/mar2009/tc20090331_726397.htm

Z_o-s-o

April 4th, 2009, 12:07 AM

Doesnt Intel have a dual core Atom slated for nettop usage specifically....it would be cool to see it put in the meerkat, with maybe some type of Nvidia chipset/IGP combo.

Other than the atom and the gma 950 everything looks good.

crichell

April 4th, 2009, 12:09 AM

Doesnt Intel have a dual core Atom slated for nettop usage specifically

Yes, and this is it (we need to update the description to say Dual Core). This Atom also includes Hyperthreading. In the OS it looks like 4 CPU's.

Z_o-s-o

April 4th, 2009, 12:19 AM

Oh, right on. Cpu shouldn't be too pokey then, and at least the GMA 950 can handle basic compiz and stuff like that.

blackened

April 4th, 2009, 12:35 AM

I thought about the same thing. As a dedicated boxee box, but then I noticed the VGA port.

If it had at least DVI it would be a viable option.

Also, moonlight 2 wont be out until sepetember 2009.

That said, the Meerkat look like a great NetTop. It opens up S76 to a whole new market of computing in the cloud.

I personally think they should also go into the Linux Media Center market....but now is not the time. That would be when boxee does everything mythTV does, plus more in its final release sometime next year.

Any plans?

Exactly what I was thinking. The lack of DVI is a real deal-breaker for me. Also, what's with the serial port? Only time I see serial ports is on my 10 year old SCADA systems at work. Considering I can't think of any modern domestic use for them, what gives?

Z_o-s-o

April 4th, 2009, 12:53 AM

Agreed on the whole no DVI issue as well as the serial port....lol...

Lee_Machine

April 4th, 2009, 02:17 AM

Serial ports are still very much in use today. At work the laptops I use have to use a USB to serial adapter when I console into the switches and routers. The port still has its uses :p

blackened

April 4th, 2009, 02:54 AM

Serial ports are still very much in use today. At work the laptops I use have to use a USB to serial adapter when I console into the switches and routers. The port still has its uses :p

Right, you use serial ports at work on a portable machine, this I can understand. My point was that I can't think of any reason a machine destined for use as a nettop would have any need of them. Outside of work they don't serve much purpose.

They might be handy in a kiosk setting, but since there are alternatives with a much broader set of modern compatible hardware, I just can't understand how you can justify including it. Call me crazy.

Z_o-s-o

April 4th, 2009, 03:33 AM

Even though the serial port may have certain specific uses, its widespread uses are few and far between.

jdb

April 4th, 2009, 10:20 AM

Even though the serial port may have certain specific uses, its widespread uses are few and far between.

Yeah, but if it's available on the mobo, might as well make it accessible.

BTW, my old Garmin Etrex is serial only :)

jdb

octathlon

April 4th, 2009, 10:32 AM

I think it's great that it has a serial port. Many people, including my Mom, are still limited to dial-up in rural areas. External serial modems work best with Linux and that's what she's using on an old 700MHz Dell that I handed down to her a few years ago. I'm going to recommend the Meerkat to her. (when Jaunty comes out -- hopefully it will have fixed the reversions in modem support that happened in Intrepid).

blackened

April 4th, 2009, 02:28 PM

I didn't mean to make it sound like this machine was useless garbage just because it had a serial port. Was just pondering the reasoning, but then I think this is the only 330 board available right now, being the reference Intel board, no? I'm seriously considering picking one of these up. I don't think anyone can beat that price.

crichell

April 4th, 2009, 02:51 PM

Although System76 uses the board for a NetTop, Intel designs it with the maximum number of scenarios possible. They're probably thinking Point-of-Sale applications where serial ports are used heavily. Notice the PS2 ports as well. There are probably many more corner-cases that maximize the boards potential market and thus enable System76 to deliver the most competitive NetTop available.

Vadi

April 5th, 2009, 09:10 AM

This is quite a nice product. Definitely will keep it in mind

tonyyarusso

April 6th, 2009, 05:55 AM

I've been eyeing the Asus Eee Box and MSI Wind PC for a few months now, but you've definitely added a serious contender to the list for consideration. The Atom 330 sounds pretty nifty, giving this a leg up on both. In terms of improvements I would suggest, the biggest thing I see lacking in comparison is an SDHC card reader - hopefully that can be added somehow. I don't personally need a DVI output (I'd plan to run it headless primarily actually...), but I'd agree it would be a nice upgrade for a future revision or an additional model. I noticed that only the 32-bit version of Ubuntu is listed as a pre-installed option, but my understanding is that the 330 can do 64-bit as well. Is that right? As far as the serial port thing, I have some things that use it too (Garmin GPS, UPS), and it's great to have for dialup folks.

Let me know about the card reader thing - you may have a sale coming. :)

jeamer

April 6th, 2009, 12:27 PM

Also curious about the 32 bit OS. This would be a great addition to the home for a bunch of storage to offload my pangolin.

ahood

April 6th, 2009, 01:25 PM

Would this little machine be useful as a MythTV frontend connecting to a MythTV backend storing analog TV shows?

thomasaaron

April 6th, 2009, 01:42 PM

Also curious about the 32 bit OS. This would be a great addition to the home for a bunch of storage to offload my pangolin.

Yes, it would work nicely for that.

Would this little machine be useful as a MythTV frontend connecting to a MythTV backend storing analog TV shows?

It's a little under-powered for that.

Tweak42

April 7th, 2009, 07:00 PM

Nice little box for a nice price.

I've been eyeing a Asus eee box but they are more expensive, bundled with kb/mouse and have only single core Atom.

In the future, will there be SSD options? The recent reviews of the Indilinx controller based SSD's put them as a very reasonable price/performance point compared to the Intel SSDs.

thomasaaron

April 8th, 2009, 10:29 AM

In the future, will there be SSD options?

We're looking into it. Price-point on this machine is important, and a good SSD can be more expensive than the machine/keyboard/monitor set-up.

jeamer

April 8th, 2009, 06:16 PM

Why does it run a 32 bit OS?

soleblaze

April 9th, 2009, 01:25 PM

Why does it run a 32 bit OS?

The atom processor that it uses is 32bit, not 64.

jbelmonte

April 9th, 2009, 06:03 PM

The atom processor that it uses is 32bit, not 64.

Are you sure about this? The information sheet for the Atom 330 at http://ark.intel.com/cpu.aspx?groupId=35641 shows a green check next to "Intel® 64 Architecture". Doesn't this mean it is a 64 bit chip? I suupose it could be 64 bit, but not compatible with or recognized by 64-bit Ubuntu. Does anyone have the definitive answer?

thomasaaron

April 9th, 2009, 06:24 PM

The Atom 330 is 64-bit capable.

The reason we're putting 32-bit on it is that the motherboard can only handle 2GB of RAM. So, 64-bit (which is necessary to see 4GB of RAM) is kind of overkill.

Given the natural limitations of this CPU (admirable for its size, but still not a super workhorse), 64-bit would provide little, if any, performance advantage.

Docaltmed

May 3rd, 2009, 07:51 AM

I just ordered mine, I'll let you guys know how it works in a few weeks! I'm thinking I will use it to run a very small (2-3 user) EMR system, to stream audio from the internet into a (legal) low-power fm transmitter, and as a backup storage unit. I'm not a pro IT guy, but this looked like it could handle this pretty light load without any difficulty whatsoever.

dstien

May 22nd, 2009, 05:41 PM

I'm really curious how that Dual Core Atom performs. The fact that its dual core--does that double the processing power over its single-core counterpart?

I'm looking to run Quickbooks, a few Open Office docs, and then browse the internet with Firefox. Is the Atom 330 enough to do that or will it be struggling? What if I add in some music? Worth spending more money to get more beefy machine?

I'm especially curious to hear from those who have ordered and are using it.

Collin White

May 23rd, 2009, 09:17 AM

I'm looking to run Quickbooks, a few Open Office docs, and then browse the internet with Firefox. Is the Atom 330 enough to do that or will it be struggling? What if I add in some music? Worth spending more money to get more beefy machine?

I'm especially curious to hear from those who have ordered and are using it.

I have a Meerkat with 2GB memory and have been using it as the primary computer for my wife and I for a few weeks now. As I type this, I have Firefox open, streaming radio on Rhythmbox, and have Evolution, Thunderbird and Open Office Calc running in the background. It works fine with no lagging or other performance issues I have notice so far. I'm very happy with it.

Tweak42

May 23rd, 2009, 04:58 PM