Idea what to do with old & functional PC

[Dirt Chip]

Don't sure if it's the right category but anyway:

The components are describe at the system spec. It is i5-2400, 16GB DDR3 based with 256 ssd.

It is unused now, I wonder what to do with it except throw away for recycling.
Creative ideas are welcome

 

[Frick]

Use it? Donate it? It's plenty powerful for everyday use.

 

[taka]

NAS, Firewall, Router or just learn a thing or two about Linux on it.

Have fun!

 

[QuietBob]

Install Win7 or older for retrocomputing. Add a cheap video card and enjoy classic games maxed out.

I use a similarly specced machine on an everyday basis. It's perfectly capable of handling typical home/office tasks.

 

[cvaldes]

I dislike trying to figure out usage cases for unused computer hardware or gadgets (even kitchen tools).

These old systems generally draw too much power for what they can offer (poor performance-per-watt metric) so using one as a file server or router makes less and less sense these days when you look at electricity consumption. Even duty as a home theater PC is not so great since these old systems don't handle modern video codecs gracefully. I think my Intel N95 draws 1.5-2W when it plays back HEVC and AV1 files.

My inclination would be to recycle or freecycle or donate. It's harder to donate these sort of things to schools these days (compared to 20 years ago) since district IT staffers prefer standardized systems. However there might be a church who would be interested, the best thing to do would be to contact the church's administration office and ask to speak to the IT person directly.

Otherwise you might try listing it locally (e.g. Craigslist) for a modest price ($10-20 OBO) saying that it would be a good project or learning system for hobbyists.

 

[AUTOEXEC.BAT]

Don't sure if it's the right category but anyway:

The components are describe at the system spec. It is i5-2400, 16GB DDR3 based with 256 ssd.

It is unused now, I wonder what to do with it except throw away for recycling.
Creative ideas are welcome

This is a bit like a child asking the parents what he can do because he is bored. We don't have to think of that, do we? You can also just give it away or throw it away

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Its so old that id see if i could max out it out on whatever platform its on for cheap. Maybe slip a 4770 or Xeon equivalent if supported. 16-32GB ram. More hard drives and have it set up as a NAS/Back up PC.

 

[Noci]

If you don't mind the electrical bill, start crunching with team TPU for the good cause (research on horrible deseases, climate change research and so on)

Even if it is an old pc and computes less than modern ones, the results are welcome. Like they say: a little bit goes a long way .

 

[Dirt Chip]

Install Win7 or older for retrocomputing. Add a cheap video card and enjoy classic games maxed out.

I use a similarly specced machine on an everyday basis. It's perfectly capable of handling typical home/office tasks.

I enjoy max out classic games on my current build

NAS, Firewall, Router or just learn a thing or two about Linux on it.

Have fun!

NAS actually might be it. I have and allways get more 4K+ video files of aerial drone fotage.

What hardware (if any) do I need more, except the HDD`s?
What operating system is recommended as NAS server?

 

[inquisitor1]

I use an old pc for online. all other 3 strong pc are offline and for work/gaming. online you dont need much

you should run linux in a virtual machine. then move online pc to linux. minimal tracking.

 

[taka]

I enjoy max out classic games on my current build

NAS actually might be it. I have and allways get more 4K+ video files of aerial drone fotage.

What hardware (if any) do I need more, except the HDD`s?
What operating system is recommended as NAS server?

If you are into learning then TrueNAS/FreeNAS should be a great place to start.
Here some alternatives: https://alternativeto.net/software/freenas/?p=2

Also Windows 7,8 and 10 can be used and since NTFS is used you can recover data faster than from any ZFS or LVM.

Up to you and your skills.

I'm using an old Dell SFF with a Core i3 4130 with windows 10 as a NAS (it came with an Win7 license and i need Chrome Remote on it since no OOB or any peripherals are used).

It draws 10-20W from the wall with 8GB ram and 4TB HDD drive.

 

[Toothless]

Its so old that id see if i could max out it out on whatever platform its on for cheap. Maybe slip a 4770 or Xeon equivalent if supported. 16-32GB ram. More hard drives and have it set up as a NAS/Back up PC.

Best they can do is a 3770k. Bit old but still capable.

 

[GerKNG]

Throw it on ebay or sell it locally for a small price and make someone happy who needs it.

 

[lambda]

While building a NAS could be considered, you're better off with newer gen parts, say Pentium G5420T. They are far more efficient and better at HW transcoding.

It's a decent machine if you wish to try clustering or high availability setups.

 

[_roman_]

Also Windows 7,8 and 10 can be used and since NTFS is used you can recover data faster than from any ZFS or LVM.

Why should LVM should be an issue.

I use lvm for ages for my desktop box.

1. MBR before - now GPT
2. LVM2 - i think the user meant lvm2. LVM 1 was hardly a topic ~8 years ago
3. optional: Later I added luks
4. previous ext4 with i7-3610qm / now btrfs

lvm is nearly transparent but it adds a lot of extra features.

ZFS - heard about it. Well the file system choice and how you deal with issues is a common topic.

I think the poster mix up zfs = a file system, with the extra "block layer" below it which lvm2 does. In my own words. Note: check redhat docs for lvm2.

my synology nas uses btrfs. That was also the reason why i moved my filesystem to btrfs. But i keep my backup on the more stable ext4.

I would highly not recommend a new user, unstable - not mature file systems like BTRFS or ZFS. It's clear the topic poster is a tech starter. Tehrefore only recommend ext4 or XFS as a file system of choice.

 

[Dirt Chip]

Let's say I want this PC to be a big, cold storage, solution much like G-RAID SHUTTLE 4 from western digital. Once in a while I will add new stuff to it
I don't really need NAS, so efficiency is a non issue.
All I want is to add the HDD's i choose to that PC. Will it replayabily work?

 

[_roman_]

When you use another computer as a network storage than it is in my point of view a nas. Regardless of every feature or not.

I assume you may use SAMBA to get network access for those files on the old computer. In the past I was lazy and I hard coded the network addresses / mac addresses to make my life easier.

Storage is Storage. Same issues locally as remote. Backup or not backup, duplicate files or not duplicate files, encryption or not encryption, file compression or not file compression.
Reliable file system vs newer not so long in use file system.

 

[SKRDPTSGL]

If you don't mind the electrical bill, start crunching with team TPU for the good cause (research on horrible deseases, climate change research and so on)

Even if it is an old pc and computes less than modern ones, the results are welcome. Like they say: a little bit goes a long way .

It runs automatically or you have to do something more than just donate computing power?

 

[80-watt Hamster]

Let's say I want this PC to be a big, cold storage, solution much like G-RAID SHUTTLE 4 from western digital. Once in a while I will add new stuff to it
I don't really need NAS, so efficiency is a non issue.
All I want is to add the HDD's i choose to that PC. Will it replayabily work?

I've got an old 775 system running a Windows Storage Space (plus a mirror) as a network storage device for... three years now? The only reliability issue has been auto restarts with Windows Update which merely means I have to traipse downstairs and log in or, on occasion, power up. I will admit it doesn't perform super well: It's just spinners with no SSD caching or other accelerator, so first access from idle can take a few seconds. But as a place to store backups, software installers and old drivers, it does what it needs to do.

 

[Harlow]

I would highly not recommend a new user, unstable - not mature file systems like BTRFS or ZFS.

I'm inclined to agree that ZFS systems can be tricky to set up for a newbie, but according to this Wiki, ZFS started out in 2005, so that makes it 20 years old and it's reasonably mature.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZFS

It took me a while to sort out things out on my first FreeNAS server (since upgraded to TrueNAS Core). As far as I can remember, you can't just add more drives to TrueNAS without breaking the Vdev and defining a new array, which means backing up your data elsewhere.

With TrueNAS, it's best to plan carefully and decide how much storage you need from the outset, then buy the appropriate number of drives. Remember you lose drive space if you pick a ZFS RAID option that includes parity to guard against hard disk failure. In RAID-Z1 you lose one whole drive's worth of capacity from the array. I run RAID-Z2, so I lose two discs out of the array to parity.

While building a NAS could be considered, you're better off with newer gen parts, say Pentium G5420T. They are far more efficient and better at HW transcoding.

One of my TrueNAS systems is built round an old AMD FM2 APU, but of course I don't do any transcoding on it. TrueNAS will work with virtually any dual-core CPU from the last 15 years, if all you need is basic storage functions.

What hardware (if any) do I need more, except the HDD`s?
What operating system is recommended as NAS server?

If you're brave enough to try TrueNAS Core and can follow YouTube video guides for setting up Vdevs and network sharing, the main requirement is plenty of RAM. The absolute minimum is 8GB, but you're better off with 16GB. Install TrueNAS on a small SSD, even 64GB will be fine. I boot TRueNAS in my HP servers from 32GB mSATA SSDs in SATA-to-USB converters. It saves wasting a valuable SATA port on the OS, leaving all ports free for hard disks in the storage array.
https://www.truenas.com/docs/core/13.0/gettingstarted/corehardwareguide/

Processor	Memory	Boot Device	Storage
2-Core Intel 64-Bit or AMD x86_64 processor	8 GB Memory	16 GB SSD boot device	Two identically-sized devices for a single storage pool

Let's say I want this PC to be a big, cold storage, solution much like G-RAID SHUTTLE 4 from western digital. Once in a while I will add new stuff to it

That's exactly how I use my four TrueNAS systems, They don't get switched on very often, but act as large repositories of photos and videos taken on vacation. Apart from 16GB RAM, all you need is enough space for a bunch of hard disks in the PC case. If you run out of SATA ports on the mobo, fit a cheap second hand LSI SAS HBA card. They work equally well with SATA drives.
https://forums.servethehome.com/ind...and-hba-complete-listing-plus-oem-models.599/

If you do buy an LSI card, make sure it comes with IT (Initiator Target) firmware and not IR (RAID) firmware. TrueNAS needs full visibility of the drives in the array and IR firmware gets in the way. You'll also need some SFF8087 "forward breakout" cables to connect the HBA to the drives (one cable per 4 drives).
https://www.amazon.com/Cable-Matters-Internal-SFF-8087-Breakout/dp/B012BPLYJC?th=1

I've long since abandoned my large collection of WD and Samsung USB3 desktop drives for backups. They get hot during long file transfers and can become very slow, because most the drives are probably SMR (Shingle Magnetic Recording). I'm much happier running CMR/PMR SAS and SATA hard disks in tower systems with adequate cooling for the drives.
https://www.howtogeek.com/803276/cmr-vs.-smr-hard-drives-whats-the-difference/

 

[Noci]

It runs automatically or you have to do something more than just donate computing power?

In runs in the background using unused CPU resources, once the preferences are set it runs automatically.

More info here: https://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/
and here: https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/forums/world-community-grid-wcg.68/

If you want to join the TechPowerUp! team, contact the team captain @phill. You're most welcome.

 

[Dirt Chip]

That's exactly how I use my four TrueNAS systems, They don't get switched on very often, but act as large repositories of photos and videos taken on vacation. Apart from 16GB RAM, all you need is enough space for a bunch of hard disks in the PC case. If you run out of SATA ports on the mobo, fit a cheap second hand LSI SAS HBA card. They work equally well with SATA drives.
https://forums.servethehome.com/ind...and-hba-complete-listing-plus-oem-models.599/

Many thanks for the very informative answer

This True NAS sounds interesting, will do some research to see how hard it is to learn from scratch.
But first, how is it different and in what way better than just go with win 10, set up raid1 with 2 20-30TB HDD from the bios (like I have in my current build) and keep it simple.
Than, when I want to add stuff for backup I turn this PC on and move, by external HDD via usb3, all data to the raid setup. Any major downside to this procedure?

 

[Shrek]

Yes, it does not include an incremental back up so if a file gets corrupted, so also is that which is copied across.

I like to keep an old machine around as a backup; if the main machine fails, say the power supply goes, one can still keep up with email and order a replacement. Better still, one can use the 'spare' power supply to see if that is really the issue.