Super small PC What to do with it?

[jarreddean]

I have been given a very small pc, it was found on the back of a TV and can be mounted easily. its running win xp atm but i was wondering apart from a media player what i can do with it ? I will upload photos when i can thanks

[ACK]

Well there are lots of things that you can do with a relatively low power pc if you are interested in tinkering with the software.

Some ideas I can throw is to have it serve as a personal web page server, remote fileserver, local fileserver, torrent box, backup machine and lots more. You can also mix and match all these functions depending on what you want and what the pc can deliver.

[Dave :)]

Do you know the specs at all? Could make it a NAS possibly.

[jarreddean]

Do you know the specs at all? Could make it a NAS possibly.

Its an intel atom 1.6 GHz 2gb ram. I'm thinking of making a nas as you said what os should I use ?

[jarreddean]

Well there are lots of things that you can do with a relatively low power pc if you are interested in tinkering with the software.

Some ideas I can throw is to have it serve as a personal web page server, remote fileserver, local fileserver, torrent box, backup machine and lots more. You can also mix and match all these functions depending on what you want and what the pc can deliver.

Torrent box is new to me ? I know about torrents and download and upload a far bit. Well I can attach 1 hdd however it has 2 network adapters, 2x USB ports and a VGA out x6 I've removed 5 because I don't need it. The case is about 13 x 20 cm. Ps in my area my internet connection is only 2.4mbps.

[Dodge]

What do you want it to do exactly?

[Dodge]

I read that, but there are different possibilities with different features. If you don't really want/need a NAS, you could play around with something free, like OpenMediaVault.

[Ghost]

You could simply have a home media server and an FTP server.

[jarreddean]

Thanks for you help guys really appreciate it

[Dodge]

Only a short time and purely for fun. I don't use or need a NAS at the moment.

[ACK]

If you want to turn it in to a simple NAS/ file server without installing a specialized OS you can just activate the SMB sharing in windows or if you want you can install linux and run samba which is more configurable but less simple.

[jarreddean]

If you want to turn it in to a simple NAS/ file server without installing a specialized OS you can just activate the SMB sharing in windows or if you want you can install linux and run samba which is more configurable but less simple.

My plan so far is to install windows server 2012 maybe run an ftp if I can and link my other pc's to it somehow I've never really used a server os. I'll post a few photos as I go, its a pretty sick little PC

[ACK]

If it is an old small pc I don't think that it is a good idea to install windows server 2012. Also if you want to use it more effectively don't just install ftp. FTP technically only supports file transfers which means that you must transfer the file if you want to work on it. On the other hand SMB is a network file system meaning that it makes the drives or directories you share with it available to be mounted in other computers and used almost like they were installed as part of that computer. So with something like SMB you can work on your files completely remotely without having to actually transfer them. In the end you can have SMB enabled for your local network and FTP enabled for basic internet access. Also as I said you can do all these things almost as easy with a simple linux distro which will probably also be much easier to run on a small factor pc.

If you decide to go with a linux distro or if you want info on SMB of FTP I would be glad to help you.

[jarreddean]

Put Ubuntu on it and hook it up to your TV. Then buy one of those keyboard/mouse combo's and browse the internet from your couch!

I would do that if I already didn't have a media centre. It has a mount that can hook up to the back plate of the tv.

[jarreddean]

If it is an old small pc I don't think that it is a good idea to install windows server 2012. Also if you want to use it more effectively don't just install ftp. FTP technically only supports file transfers which means that you must transfer the file if you want to work on it. On the other hand SMB is a network file system meaning that it makes the drives or directories you share with it available to be mounted in other computers and used almost like they were installed as part of that computer. So with something like SMB you can work on your files completely remotely without having to actually transfer them. In the end you can have SMB enabled for your local network and FTP enabled for basic internet access. Also as I said you can do all these things almost as easy with a simple linux distro which will probably also be much easier to run on a small factor pc.

If you decide to go with a linux distro or if you want info on SMB of FTP I would be glad to help you.

I really like your idea, its a fairly old PC although I've only had it for about 3 months, I'm pretty sure iei or someone like that built it.. I'm putting a 500gb laptop hdd in it because that fits and I have a spare. Ok I'm going to go with Linux distro, yes the more info the better thank you

[ACK]

Well first of all you should choose your distro. Now if you have a specific preference go with it but if I suggest you use debian.

I suggest debian because it is very mature and since you won't be using the pc for everyday use but only for server I think that will do just fine.

Actually if you want I could make a simple guide with instructions on how set up a linux based SMB share server and post it on the forum, because trying to help you in comments will get long and not very practical. Tell me if you want to and I will write on when I find some time. Also you can try and search for guides if you are in a hurry.

[ACK]

OK I will start working on it but you might have to wait a little because I am a little busy lately.

[gylmir]

you can do a crashtest and throw it around the room or outside

[JohnnyGrey]

This thread is 10 months old. Please don't necro threads.

[iain]

if it is 64 bit turn into a promox ve vitrutal testing lab will be slow only run 1 - 3 vm's but it is for learning

[Skeletonfish]

Its an intel atom 1.6 GHz 2gb ram. I'm thinking of making a nas as you said what os should I use ?

i wonder is that's enough to stream games when steam OS comes out. other wise you should put it in a broken NES