Excito B3 Mini ARM Powered Server
Many interesting things come from Sweden whether it is Tunnbrödsrulle to Glögg to IKEA, but how well are these wonderful people able to create compact, home servers? After reviewing the CodeLathe TonidoPlug and PogoPlug, Excito, a company from Limhamn asked if we would be interested in checking out their new Linux-based home server, the B3. With that said, here is the review of the Excito B3 home server, which is actually a rather exciting device with its capabilities ranging from being a Bit Torrent download server to a home router with web serving capabilities.
The Excito B3 is a full-fledged home server that is quite small and power efficient yet it boasts a 1.2GHz ARM CPU, 512MB of RAM, up to 2TB of data storage, two Gigabit Ethernet connections, integrated 802.11n WiFi, two USB 2.0 ports, and one eSATA port for additional storage connectivity. As far as the power requirements go for this ARM-based Linux server, the power consumption ranges between 8 and 13 Watts, or as low as 5 Watts if using the SSD-equipped model. The dimensions on this server are just 11.5 x 4.5 x 18.5 cm. If there is already not enough to get excited over with this Excito product, this entire server is completely fan-less so it is absolutely silent.
The Excito B3 is not limited to one model but there is a B3 server with only Gigabit wired networking and then a model with 802.11n WiFi on top of the Gigabit Ethernet. With each model, you can also choose from four storage options with a 500GB, 1TB, or 2GB hard drive. For those more concerned about performance and less about storage capacity, there is also a solid-state drive version deploying a 40GB Intel SSD. Excito had sent over to the United States as a review sample for us a B3 WiFi with a 1000GB Serial ATA 2.0 hard drive.
This is not Excito's first server project but before the B3 was the BUBBA|2, which they still market. The B3 and BUBBA|2 have next to the same software features built-in from support for DAAP/UPnP media streaming, file and web serving support, an email server, print server, router, DNS server, DHCP server, and integrated backup capabilities, among similar capabilities. For a full list of services built-in to this mini Linux server, see the Excito.com specifications page. On the hardware side, however, they upgraded the RAM from 256MB to 512MB and the CPU really was beefed up from being a 333MHz PowerPC chip to now the 1.2GHz ARM processor. To some dismay, the B3 only has one eSATA connection where the Excito BUBBA|2 had two ports.