What to do with my old PC?!

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shroomiin

Gawd
Joined
Dec 23, 2008
Messages
812
Ok I have my old PC which I was using to stream media to my TV from my NAS.
I have just recently purchased a WD TV to do the same thing... I now have no use for the old PC. I also have a NAS which acts as a seed box so don't need that either.

Here are the specs:
Core 2 Duo E6750
nVidia 680i (2 NICs)
9800GTX
6GB DDR2 800

Now as you can see, it's just powerful enough to play older games at max and newer ones at low. Don't want to be using this to game.

Other potential uses:
-Set up a firewall/router (hardware is overkill)
-Use it for more network storage
-Use it for backtrack (though it's not a laptop so no coffee shop fun)
-protein folding (not into it)

Any other ideas??
 
If your NAS cannot natively run a media hub application, such as Plex, then that might be worth looking into.
 
Use it as a firewall/router that also serves as a cache server for your network, you could also run a DNS server on it as well for your local network.
 
Better than anything in my house, and people are suggesting freebies thread? Really, guys? I mean, I've got Pentium M systems that are too good for that. Like my IBM T42 with a nice screen from a T41. I'd say it's worth $50, not shipping...

Anyhow...

'Play with Linux' would be my suggestion. I'm a fanatic of a distro family called Puppy Linux but you've got something a little new for the mainline Puppies (some of which also have problems with nVIDIA cards because the drivers aren't right because nVIDIA doesn't like Linux) and there's a LOT of derivatives ("Puplets", as we call them). As in, one member on the primary forum (there's another, which is best avoided because it's not a nice place) who collects Puppy ISOs has over 1000 different Puppies -- and not all the ones in existence. Wow.

If you're interested, post on the main forum at http://murga-linux.com/puppy/index.php and we'll help out. Puppians are an extraordinarily friendly batch (as a general rule) so you'll get plenty of cheerful help for sure.

If you really think it's a totally worthless box I'll gladly take it (one man's trash...) but I can't even pay shipping right now, not on a desktop... PM me if you want to do it, maybe I've got something I can trade with you. But it won't be as good as what's in that box now.
 
starhawk said:
Better than anything in my house, and people are suggesting freebies thread? Really, guys? I mean, I've got Pentium M systems that are too good for that. Like my IBM T42 with a nice screen from a T41. I'd say it's worth $50, not shipping...

Anyhow...

'Play with Linux' would be my suggestion. I'm a fanatic of a distro family called Puppy Linux but you've got something a little new for the mainline Puppies (some of which also have problems with nVIDIA cards because the drivers aren't right because nVIDIA doesn't like Linux) and there's a LOT of derivatives ("Puplets", as we call them). As in, one member on the primary forum (there's another, which is best avoided because it's not a nice place) who collects Puppy ISOs has over 1000 different Puppies -- and not all the ones in existence. Wow.

If you're interested, post on the main forum at http://murga-linux.com/puppy/index.php and we'll help out. Puppians are an extraordinarily friendly batch (as a general rule) so you'll get plenty of cheerful help for sure.

If you really think it's a totally worthless box I'll gladly take it (one man's trash...) but I can't even pay shipping right now, not on a desktop... PM me if you want to do it, maybe I've got something I can trade with you. But it won't be as good as what's in that box now.
Click to expand...

I'm familiar with Linux.

I thought that for a second as well, but if I were to run Linux, it would definitely be BackTrack.

I decided no to backtrack because this is a desktop. If it were a laptop and I could take it to public wifi networks that would be a different story.
 
HTPC is the route I went with my old desktop, when I built a stupidly fast new gaming rig (Ivy Bridge, SSD and such) near the end of last May. I already owned a second monitor (24" LCD) suitable for TV-watching, so that's what I do with it.

I run boxes until they don't run any more. Which, for me, is often a disappointingly short period. I'm getting to that point with the old box - it bluescreens, freezes randomly, fails to wake from sleep, and sometimes there is no video on startup. I believe the NVRAM is faulty, as when it freezes and I cycle power, at next startup I have to reconfigure BIOS (it's gone to defaults).

When things get to that point, I salvage what is worth saving. HDDs are generally all that's worthwhile; no one wants a 5+ year old video card (Nvidia GTX 9800 Black Edition though it may be). The PSU is likely obsolete due to changes in power connectors.

I drop the rest off at Staples, which will "recycle" stuff for individuals for free. That's what I did with my 2004 build, which had a dead motherboard.

I rather suspect it all ends up in a landfill, anyway.
 
starhawk said:
Better than anything in my house, and people are suggesting freebies thread? Really, guys? I mean, I've got Pentium M systems that are too good for that. Like my IBM T42 with a nice screen from a T41. I'd say it's worth $50, not shipping...
Click to expand...

I get kinda annoyed when other peoples old/junk PC's are as fast or faster than my primary desktop.
 
shroomiin said:
Well if it bothers you, why not step your game up and purchase some new hardware?
Click to expand...

Truth be told, I don't need any more power than what I have now. Up until about 6 months ago I was running a Pentium D 3.4 with 4gb RAM. I don't play games on my PC anymore, so it's primarily just a general purpose and work from home PC. I'm predicting this power hungry dual Xeon setup will keep me going for at least another 2+ years.

Plus, I'd rather be putting money into upgrading my house. :)
 
Nice!

Yea, if you don't need the power then what is the point. Do you game on consoles now?

Plus, I'd rather be putting money into upgrading my house.
Click to expand...

You are gettin' old. ;)
 
i had buddy whose brother works for a it firm.

his It firm has extremely fast internet.

he fitted his car with a computer and 7 inch touch screen.
when he is at work, his computer diligently downloads movies and other files he chooses, and manages them when he gets home.

might be a fun project to make ur car a part of the 23RD century lol

but honestly i think it'd be cool to see ur progress on a project like this haha
 
so basically he uses his work internet to download torrents from his car...

how is it powered all day while sitting in a parking lot?
 
shroomiin said:
so basically he uses his work internet to download torrents from his car...

how is it powered all day while sitting in a parking lot?
Click to expand...

if it's low voltage enough, battery would power it that long. a lot of smaller laptops also come with a secondary battery option to extend life even further. if he has the screen set to turn off, that'll make it last even longer
 
He might have even hooked it to 3rd party external batteries or even straight to the car battery.
 
shroomiin said:
Nice!

Yea, if you don't need the power then what is the point. Do you game on consoles now?



You are gettin' old. ;)
Click to expand...

Yea, I'm happy with console gaming these days. Not interested in maintaining a computer to play recent games anymore.
 
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