Help me utilise this older PC I have

[havoc]

I've finished upgrading 100+ PCs at work and as such got first pick of the old PCs to take home. So naturally I grabbed the one I had already put aside for such a day (Since our IT team is three people and I am in charge of all the computers, I can do what I want).

Specs:
- i3 3.20GHz
- 4GB DDR3 RAM (may upgrade to 8GB)
- Integrated GPU (could always grab a cheap GPU)
- Running XP (Has a Win 7 Pro OEM)
- 500GB HDD (I have another two of the same size I can add to it)


So even though I was keen to take it I can't really decide what to do with it. I'm leaning towards turning it into a server for files, VMs and some web stuff. But that's all I can really think of.

Any suggestions?


Cheers!

 

[michi]

buy a switch and connect them all together to build a powerful beouwulf cluster

 

[Vraelomon]

Get a sledge hammer and just beat the hell out of it. Always wanted to do that.
Alternatively, you could use it for something. Did it come with a monitor?

 

[Splintert]

Sell it to me for cheap so my girlfriend can play games.

 

[crodio]

What i did with my old computer is taking the PSU and desoldering al the caps and storing them in an old box to never use them. Then took the motherboard and desoldered a lot of stuff. And opened the floppydisk reader/writer and took some little motors from it. heh

 

[havoc]

Sell it to me for cheap so my girlfriend can play games.

2 dolla

Get a sledge hammer and just beat the hell out of it. Always wanted to do that.
Alternatively, you could use it for something. Did it come with a monitor?

I have plenty of screens. It's too good to smoosh.


I think I'll turn it into a big HDD that I can control and download stuff to remotely. Maybe.

 

[janlulhannes]

I'd first find a use for it, then decide how to upgrade it. If you want it as NAS, add harddisks. Want a cheap gaming PC? Add a GPU.
I cant say anything else until you make up your mind on that.

 

[havoc]

Alright, here is what I've done.

1) Installed Windows 10 on it (just like my main PC)
2) Added 1.5TB of storage
3) Enabled IIS
4) Made a storage pool
5) Made a 200gb file history partition for my other computer
6) Setup RDP

I'm on my way!

Now I'm going to write up some scripts so I can use the machine to remotely download things from anywhere.

Woo, woo. This is fun.

 

[janlulhannes]

Alright, here is what I've done.

1) Installed Windows 10 on it (just like my main PC)
2) Added 1.5TB of storage
3) Enabled IIS

Oh god... Get Linux on that thing xD

EDIT: especially if you want to write scripts to download stuff etc.etc.

 

[Splintert]

Adding layers of needless complexity is not the point of having a download server.

 

[havoc]

Alright, here is what I've done.

1) Installed Windows 10 on it (just like my main PC)
2) Added 1.5TB of storage
3) Enabled IIS

Oh god... Get Linux on that thing xD

EDIT: especially if you want to write scripts to download stuff etc.etc.

Don't be silly. I wrote the PHP scripts in about 30 minutes and it's all setup. I can access it from anywhere and download to the storage pool or my onedrive. Furthermore, because it's Windows I can use it for other stuff at the same time. It isn't dedicated to just file downloads. I have a bunch of VMs on it and visual studio stuff.

Adding layers of needless complexity is not the point of having a download server.

I don't really care much for Linux to be honest. Aye, Windows might be a bit bloated for just doing a few dedicated tasks, but I don't want to limit myself.

 

[Splintert]

The layers of complexity are added by using Linux, since its so needlessly obtuse and hard to use for little to no gain. Windows isn't perfect, but it works.

 

[havoc]

Agreement.

 

[janlulhannes]

The layers of complexity are added by using Linux, since its so needlessly obtuse and hard to use for little to no gain. Windows isn't perfect, but it works.

To be honest, if you find that using Linux is bloating things, and hard to use, you just dont know it enough.
And I dont mean that offensive, but it really is a clean and functional OS. Much less of the bloated cluster**** Windows is.

 

[Splintert]

It may be true, Linux probably is less bloated and whatnot. But its the bloat that comes with Windows that makes it easy to use and not a headache every time you want to copy a file around. There is a reason Windows is dominating the market - Linux is quite simply harder to use for anything and as such it will remain a niche OS forever. The extra speed gained by Linux over Windows is totally irrelevant in  Havoc's case, he doesn't want to run intensive math operations, he just wants a file server. Much easier to use the OS that he is familiar with than to bother trying to learn how to use Linux efficiently for the same end result.

 

[havoc]

Especially since everything I need is already in Windows. It's just a matter on enabling the features and then getting IIS to install PHP for me. Don't think it could be really any easier than that.