Hi,
Can anyone recommend a very low cost box that could support Asterisk and at least one (preferably two) TDM400p cards and cost less that $150 (preferably under $100). The box should be able to run without a keyboard/mouse or CDROM. It also needs at least one Ethernet port. I know about converting the Linksys router to Asterisk but that does not give me the ability to connect POTS to the box.
Thanks
Go buy a used pc, 2-3 year old machines will work wonderfully with that config.
If you want a little peace of mind, take a look at Dell’s entry-level Poweredge tower servers – RHEL3 certified and as low as $299 brand new.
Best part, they provide key software drivers as necessary to keep your box operating/compatible over time as the RHEL distro updates over time.
What if you wanted do use asterisk for home use? Could you use with p2 or p3 machine. Using only one SIP account?
Desipher,
I use it at home with a 500MHz Athlon and it doesn’t even get noticed by the machine.
I have 0.00 load almost 100% of the time, with 1 FXO and 3 IP Phones and lots of other stuff “running” (available but not really in use, as apache and others). With 1 ongoing call, from an IAX phone to the Zap interface, I still see 0.00 as machine load…
Calculating by the load itself, a P-166 could easily support a home system.
Regards.
yeah I’m dedicating old 266 p2 machine to asterisk. That is all I needed to know.
If you are using hardware interfaces, you need to check if they are supported for that configuration. Yes, yes, I know PCI is PCI, but if you need support some day, it is good to know if you can get it for your configuration. 
Oh! Mine consumes some 16 MB of memory… Plan for that too.
Search eBay for “Dell Optiplex GX1”
Pretty much running p2 266 with 128mb ram and 1 Digium Wildcard X100P OEM FXO PCI Card hardware wise and just setup for dedicating to asterisk and I only have 1 sip account.
Wow! Real bargains! Unfortunatly a 100MHz Pentium here costs 10 times as much. I never really understood what is with the second-hand PC market in my country. 
Desipher, you should be okay with that configuration, don’t worry.