Old desktops dont know what to do..home server?

Rol87 · Sep 7, 2014

Hello,
I have some old desktops that have been collecting dust and spiderwebs. The question here is I have no idea what to do with them other than throw them away. Some are from the xp era and some are vista era. Could any of them be used as a home server? My knowledge as far as servers is very limited as I dont know much about them other than they can be used for sharing your files with other devices and backing up data. I have a collection of dvds that I have been saving onto my main pc along with itune music and I would like to be able to share them with other devices in my house and also back them up. Any suggestions on what to do?

thanks

Solaris17 · Sep 7, 2014

sure grab a linux distro or freenas pull the harddrives out of all of the machines test them using something like gsmart or crystaldisk info to make sure they are still usable put as many as you can into a tower. RAID them if possible and start sharing and putting stuff on them.

Rol87 · Sep 7, 2014

Thanks for the reply, I was just in the middle of checking freenas site as I had seen it mention on a youtube video lol. Even though the towers are old hardware will they be good for a server? also I have no idea what RAID is other than a faster hdd right?

Solaris17 · Sep 7, 2014

raid is 2 HDDs working together to basically act as 1 HDD

Sir B. Fannybottom · Sep 7, 2014

I had a FreeNas server running off an old single core, and it preformed decently, maxing out the transfer speeds of SATA I with LAN transfers, your machine should be fine. Currently its a quadcore with 8 gigs of ram, and 2 old seagates in there, and these are my transfer speeds

JunkBear · Sep 7, 2014

Do you have kids? If yes i can find you a website with all games online and suggest you to put Xubuntu in it.

Rol87 · Sep 7, 2014

Solaris17 said:
raid is 2 HDDs working together to basically act as 1 HDD

ok i see

JunkBear said:
Do you have kids? If yes i can find you a website with all games online and suggest you to put Xubuntu in it.

ok i see. yes I do

JunkBear · Sep 7, 2014

http://game-oldies.com/

Create an account with an email and you can save it online all the games even the one like Zelda and stuff like that. Enjoy

Sir B. Fannybottom · Sep 7, 2014

If you want, you could use those old systems to teach your children about computers, maybe even let them take it apart and try and put it back together

Rol87 · Sep 7, 2014

Sir B. Fannybottom said:
If you want, you could use those old systems to teach your children about computers, maybe even let them take it apart and try and put it back together

Not a bad idea thanks

Melvis · Sep 7, 2014

Clean them up and sell them, I have sold every old XP and Vista PC I get that people dont want anymore. There are more poor people in the world then rich.

xBruce88x · Sep 7, 2014

just curious... what are the specs of these systems?

coozie78 · Sep 7, 2014

^Good question, 'old' stuff can be surprisingly capable, my rig is nearly 5 years old but can still easily cope with current games on a 1080 screen while by brother is using an ancient E6600 dual core setup-but then he only uses it for the internet and the odd blast with very old games.

Rol87 · Sep 7, 2014

xBruce88x said:
just curious... what are the specs of these systems?

Hp pavilion a1130n
Dell Optiplex gx240
Two are custom built that have amd athlon x2
One is a amd can't remember what it was but I think it had a sempron
dell dimension 3000

Processor	AMD A64 X2 4600
Motherboard	Asus M2A-Vm
Memory	1 G Kingston DDR2 PC2 5300
Video Card(s)	onboard
Storage	seagate 250GB Samsung 500GB
Power Supply	Thermaltake
Software	Micorsoft Windows XP Version 2002 Service Pack 2 (Tweaked)

System Name	Rocinante
Processor	I9 14900KS
Motherboard	EVGA z690 Dark KINGPIN (modded BIOS)
Cooling	EK-AIO Elite 360 D-RGB
Memory	64GB Gskill Trident Z5 DDR5 6000 @6400
Video Card(s)	MSI SUPRIM Liquid X 4090
Storage	1x 500GB 980 Pro \| 1x 1TB 980 Pro \| 1x 8TB Corsair MP400
Display(s)	Odyssey OLED G9 G95SC
Case	Lian Li o11 Evo Dynamic White
Audio Device(s)	Moondrop S8's on Schiit Hel 2e
Power Supply	Bequiet! Power Pro 12 1500w
Mouse	Lamzu Atlantis mini (White)
Keyboard	Monsgeek M3 Lavender, Akko Crystal Blues
VR HMD	Quest 3
Software	Windows 11
Benchmark Scores	I dont have time for that.

Processor	AMD A64 X2 4600
Motherboard	Asus M2A-Vm
Memory	1 G Kingston DDR2 PC2 5300
Video Card(s)	onboard
Storage	seagate 250GB Samsung 500GB
Power Supply	Thermaltake
Software	Micorsoft Windows XP Version 2002 Service Pack 2 (Tweaked)

System Name	Rocinante
Processor	I9 14900KS
Motherboard	EVGA z690 Dark KINGPIN (modded BIOS)
Cooling	EK-AIO Elite 360 D-RGB
Memory	64GB Gskill Trident Z5 DDR5 6000 @6400
Video Card(s)	MSI SUPRIM Liquid X 4090
Storage	1x 500GB 980 Pro \| 1x 1TB 980 Pro \| 1x 8TB Corsair MP400
Display(s)	Odyssey OLED G9 G95SC
Case	Lian Li o11 Evo Dynamic White
Audio Device(s)	Moondrop S8's on Schiit Hel 2e
Power Supply	Bequiet! Power Pro 12 1500w
Mouse	Lamzu Atlantis mini (White)
Keyboard	Monsgeek M3 Lavender, Akko Crystal Blues
VR HMD	Quest 3
Software	Windows 11
Benchmark Scores	I dont have time for that.

System Name	The SwagMachine / The Sister
Processor	Core i5 3570K @5.2ghz 1.3V/ 1100T
Motherboard	ASUS P8Z77-V / ASUS M5A99X EVO
Cooling	Phanteks PH TC14PE / Corsair H40
Memory	M379B5273DH0-YK0 2X4GB + PVI316G213C1QK 2X4GB / 2x4GB Patriot 2133
Video Card(s)	PNY 780Ti /Windforce 7950
Storage	2xSamsung 840 EVO 250gb+WD10EZEX + WD30EZRX/ 1x WD1500 Black
Display(s)	AOC Q2963PM+Acer S200HL / Acer S200L+ LG 22LD350
Case	Fractal Define R4 / NZXT Trinity
Audio Device(s)	Asus Xonar DG / Asus Xonar DG
Power Supply	Seasonic 750X / ROSEWILL RG630-S12 630W R
Mouse	Razer Deathadder Chroma / Roccat Kone+
Keyboard	Razer Blackwidow 2013 Stealth / Roccat Isku
Software	Windows 8.1 Pro / Windows 7 Ultimate
Benchmark Scores	one time I scored a 3 on 3dmark 11

Old desktops dont know what to do..home server?

Rol87

Solaris17

Super Dainty Moderator

Rol87

Solaris17

Super Dainty Moderator

Sir B. Fannybottom

JunkBear

Rol87

JunkBear

Sir B. Fannybottom

Rol87

Melvis

xBruce88x

coozie78

Rol87

System Name	HTPC
Processor	Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 - 3.00/6M/1333
Motherboard	AsRock G31M-GS R2.0
Cooling	CoolerMaster Vortex 752 - Black
Memory	4 Go (2x2) Kingston ValueRam DDR2-800
Video Card(s)	Asus EN8600GT/HTDP/512M
Storage	WD 3200AAKS
Display(s)	32" Irico E320GV-FHD
Case	Aerocool Qx-2000
Audio Device(s)	Onboard
Power Supply	Enermax NoiseTaker 2 - 465w
Mouse	Logitech Wave MK550 combo (M510)
Keyboard	Logitech Wave MK550 combo (K350)
Software	Win_7_Pro-French
Benchmark Scores	Windows index : 6.5 / 6.5 / 5.6 / 6.3 / 5.9

System Name	Night Rider \| Mini LAN PC \| Workhorse
Processor	AMD R7 5800X3D \| Ryzen 1600X \| i7 970
Motherboard	MSi AM4 Pro Carbon \| GA- \| Gigabyte EX58-UD5
Cooling	Noctua U9S Twin Fan\| Stock Cooler, Copper Core)\| Big shairkan B
Memory	2x8GB DDR4 G.Skill Ripjaws 3600MHz\| 2x8GB Corsair 3000 \| 6x2GB DDR3 1300 Corsair
Video Card(s)	MSI AMD 6750XT \| 6500XT \| MSI RX 580 8GB
Storage	1TB WD Black NVME / 250GB SSD /2TB WD Black \| 500GB SSD WD, 2x1TB, 1x750 \| WD 500 SSD/Seagate 320
Display(s)	LG 27" 1440P\| Samsung 20" S20C300L/DELL 15" \| 22" DELL/19"DELL
Case	LIAN LI PC-18 \| Mini ATX Case (custom) \| Atrix C4 9001
Audio Device(s)	Onboard \| Onbaord \| Onboard
Power Supply	Silverstone 850 \| Silverstone Mini 450W \| Corsair CX-750
Mouse	Coolermaster Pro \| Rapoo V900 \| Gigabyte 6850X
Keyboard	MAX Keyboard Nighthawk X8 \| Creative Fatal1ty eluminx \| Some POS Logitech
Software	Windows 10 Pro 64 \| Windows 10 Pro 64 \| Windows 7 Pro 64/Windows 10 Home

System Name	Old Gateway / Steam Deck OLED LE
Processor	i5 4440 3.1ghz / Jupiter 4c 8t
Motherboard	Gateway / Valve
Cooling	Eh it doesn't thermal throttle
Memory	2x 8GB JEDEC 1600mhz DDR3 / 16gb DDR5 6400
Video Card(s)	RX 560D 4GB / Navi II 8CU
Storage	240gb 2.5 SSD / 1TB nvme
Display(s)	Dell @ 1280*1024 75hz / 800p OLED
Case	Gateway / Valve LE
Audio Device(s)	Gateway Diamond Audio EMC2.0-USB 5375U ($15 a long ass time ago), Valve
Power Supply	380w oem / 65w valve USB-C
Mouse	Purple Walmart special, 1600dpi. Black desk mat
Keyboard	SteelSeries Apex 100 / virtual
VR HMD	Lmao
Software	Windows 10 / Steam OS
Benchmark Scores	It can run Crysis (Original), Doom 2016, and Halo MCC. SD LE 45fps

System Name	The Endless Road.
Processor	R9 5900X under EKWB Quantum Velocity2 block.
Motherboard	asrock x570 phantom gaming 4
Cooling	EK-XRES 100 Revo D5, EK Quantum Surface 420M (case roof) with 3x140m.m. case fans, pull config
Memory	32Gb DDR4 3600/14 cas
Video Card(s)	Zotac RX4080 Trinity, waterblock cooled.
Storage	2 Tb WD Black sn770
Display(s)	32" Gigabyte M32UC 4K/144 Hz
Case	Corsair 7000D airflow
Audio Device(s)	MB audio feeding a HyperX Cloud 2 wired headset
Power Supply	Koolink Continuum 850
Mouse	one
Keyboard	also one
Software	Win 11 Home 64 bit
Benchmark Scores	I don't play benchmarks.