My house has frequent power blips, where the power flickers off and back on again within a few seconds, after which I have to reset my router. I’m also running my ISP-supplied router, which is kind of a no-no in techie circles, so I’m debating picking up either a laptop or mini PC so I can install an open source router OS and take back some control over my own network infrastructure.
Can someone help me weigh the pros and cons of laptop vs mini PC + UPS? This project will start out as just a network router but might grow into other boxes for various things. I already have another old/jank laptop serving as my POC media streaming box, and I enjoy the fact that I don’t have to also restart that mf’er every time the power flickers.
I feel like the main selling points of laptops are that they are low powered by design (for always-on use cases), and they come w/ built-in batteries (to get through those power blips). I also appreciate that they come with a built-in keyboard and screen, so I can log in and troubleshoot without having to ssh in. The only downside I can think of is that most laptops are not very upgradable, although I’ve read/seen good things about the old Lenovo Thinkpad business grade laptops as far as durability and upgradability.
Anything else I’m not considering? Thanks in advance.
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I’d go mini PC plus a small UPS. A laptop battery sitting at 100% for years tends to swell, and most laptops give you one ethernet port, so you end up with a USB NIC, which is the first thing to flake on a router. A cheap N100/N150 board with two 2.5G ports and a $50 UPS gets you through the blips and leaves room for the media stuff later. Turn on ‘power on after AC loss’ in the BIOS. That one bites people. Disclosure: I’m building a small N150 home box, so I’m biased toward that size. If you go that way I’d like to hear what you’d want in it.
You need to keep in mind that most laptops are not going to have 2 ethernet ports(or even 1 these days). You will need 1 port to connect to your modem and 1 port to provide the network to an AP. All ports aren’t created equal. If you want good speeds you want to find something with 2 good ethernet ports. Your internet speed will determine what is good enough for you port wise. If you are fine with pretty slow speeds then a laptop can work and you can use a usb to ethernet adapter but that’s a bit janky. If you intend to use the built in wifi card for the AP just know it won’t be nearly as good as a dedicated AP. Check out the Lenovo ThinkCentre line. It has some good options with decent ports. As for a UPS you can sometimes find something better by looking at “Solar Power Generators” instead. They’re basically just batteries with an inverter and outlets on them. And they can recharge from solar which is why they have the name. But a lot of times they’re the better bang for your buck than a normal UPS. And if you got a few solar panels you could hook them up to it. Which it sounds like might be useful to you in general.
Laptop: cheaper and easier, but keeping the battery charged constantly will degrade it (no matter how many battery protection features it has), and upgradability is somewhat limited.
Mini PC + UPS: more upfront cost, some elbow grease required to integrate power monitoring (but it’s not difficult), but more flexibility to expand, and the UPS can provide power to other devices like an access point. Also, the UPS battery uses a different chemistry and is made for that specific purpose, meaning it’ll take longer to degrade.
