~pcwiz Posted November 24, 2007 Share Posted November 24, 2007 OK, so I have a 10 year old computer (Compaq Presario 5447). Specs: 450MHz AMD K6 3D processor 162MB RAM 8MB SiS 530/620 Series Video Audio In and Audio Out CD-ROM and CD-RW Drive 8GB Hard Drive Its old, slow, but tough. Is there any way I could convert this into a reliable web and media server? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glassJAw Posted November 24, 2007 Share Posted November 24, 2007 I doubt that motherboard could handle any hard drives over 137 GBs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
~pcwiz Posted November 25, 2007 Author Share Posted November 25, 2007 I know I mean could I turn it into a server for SOMETHING...doesn't have to be web...maybe a media server or something. Its uselessly sitting here collecting dust and I want to put it to some use instead of selling because its barely worth anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hagar Posted November 25, 2007 Share Posted November 25, 2007 fileserver with freenas is the easiest thing that comes to mind. as mentioned above you might have issues with disk size.. Otherwise there are loads of things that will run on a server like that. I used to run a webserver on much the same hardware and it never missed a beat in over 4 years continuous use, with first slackware then debian running apache 1.x php, mysql.. it ran a web gallery, webmail with horde, a couple of blogs & some club/enthusiast websites running cms's. It's still fully functional sat under my kitchen table awaiting a network cable & an on-switch to go back into action. point is, you don't need dual xeons just to run a web server, just pick a nice lightweight linux distro or freebsd maybe use lighttpd and look at ways of keeping things simple, fast & bloat-free, a good excercise in itself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
~pcwiz Posted November 25, 2007 Author Share Posted November 25, 2007 Do you think this would still work with a 8GB HD? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
U.C. Posted November 25, 2007 Share Posted November 25, 2007 You could even try Microsofts Windows Home Server. Newly released and seems like a great OS. Plus no Linux required. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Halligalli Posted November 25, 2007 Share Posted November 25, 2007 And guaranteed to not work. Windows Home Server demands quite alot for a server OS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hagar Posted November 25, 2007 Share Posted November 25, 2007 Do you think this would still work with a 8GB HD? Absolutely, that's what I upgraded to early on.. it started with 2. disks were added as they came my way.. web pages take next to no space, and the OS needs to be slim & fit to run on that machine anyway. Once again, I would encourage you to take this as an excercise in efficiency. If you can get a server running well on that, imagine what you could do with serious, modern hardware? Oh and whilst I'm rambling: I've got a k6/2-350 here that I used to use as a firewall.. shove a cople of nic's in it & run smoothwall or m0n0wall or even roll your own BSD-based firewall or router.. another great opportunity to learn about networking innards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
~pcwiz Posted November 25, 2007 Author Share Posted November 25, 2007 Yeah once I built my new hackintosh I will have 2 computers so theres one for backup. Then I can convert the old one to something useful. Right now its running Windows XP Professional and its is SOOOOO SLLLLOOOOWWW. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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