Loading...These days, businesses are beginning to prioritize the portability of their equipment almost as much as they prize their performance. It makes sense that in a world where the ability to relocate at the drop of a hat can mean the difference between being the next Google and being the next burnout that companies are seeking light, fast, and flexible machines to connect them to their clientele. The ability of a company to transport a server without delay can give it an edge when it comes to finding or offering dedicated server hosting to customers. This article will review two of the best laptop brands and models of 2011 that make great portable servers: the Acer Aspire and the Asus G Series.
Perhaps the first laptop model to look into for 2011 when it comes to cheap website hosting with a portable server is the Acer Aspire AS8943G 6782. This Acer is a powerhouse with the processor, memory, hard drive, and network interfaces necessary to perform all of your serving needs without breaking a sweat. It comes with the newest Intel Core i& processor that runs at a base of 1.6 ghz but has the potential to cycle up several hundred megahertz higher in response to increased load. That upscaling capability will help if you use the laptop as a server in high traffic environments when a number of computers may put additional load on the network.
Similarly, the bandwidth of most servers is determined by the amount of memory they contain, and at 8 gigabytes of random access memory, it will take a lot to overwhelm the Acer’s capacity. This means you can have more computers connected without experiencing any noticeable slowdown or lag, which will also yield dividends for whatever tasks you apply the server toward. Similarly, the amount of storage within the server is prodigious at 500 gigabytes, which means you will not yearn for additional drive space while storing all of your necessary programs. However, it will still be a good idea to look into backup solutions, since no server or hard drive will last forever.
The downside of the Acer is that it comes only with a blu ray combo drive rather than a writable drive, which means you will not be able to take advantage of the much greater storage capacities of blu ray disks when it comes to backing up information. However, when you keep the 500 gb internal drive in mind and the capacity to add a number of external drives via the USB 2.0 connection, you might decide that it is not so much of a loss.
You will also receive the standard wired ethernet connection to enable you to have rapid and reliable access to the internet on your Acer laptop turned server. If you want to connect wirelessly, the wireless system is also well designed. The default operating system for the Acer is Windows 7 Home Premium, which some might find anemic for serving applications. However, you are free to load any operating system you wish onto the laptop, including Ubuntu Server Edition and Windows Server 2008, just to name a few.
A second laptop powerhouse that is well worth considering if you are in the market for a portable server is the Asus G Series G73SW XN2. Like the Aspire, the Asus G Series is powered by an Intel Core i7 processor, but it includes a later and faster revision that runs at a baseline clock speed of 2.00 ghz rather than 1.6 ghz, which means all of your information can be processed just a little bit faster during peak periods. In this respect, it is an even better choice for a portable server setup than the Acer Aspire. On the remaining features, however, the two are more closely matched. For example, you will also receive a default 8 gb of memory on the G Series laptop as well as a 500 gb hard drive to store all of your data. As with the Aspire, you will want to look to external backup solutions to make the most of your technology.
Similarly, you will receive Windows 7 Home Premium rather than an operating system tuned to server needs, which means you will probably want to wipe the hard drive as soon as you receive the laptop and outfit it with an operating system more befitting a workstation rather than a portable home laptop. Perhaps the biggest downfall of the Asus G Series in comparison to the Acer Aspire is that it comes with a DVD multi drive rather than a BD combo drive, which means that you will not even be able to read blu ray disks, although, as with the Aspire, you will still be able to read and burn DVDs. On the whole, it is another good contender for dedicated server hosting via laptop.