Your Old PC is Your New Server

[tkitch]

2 hours ago, AkIonSight said:

Also, if you run windows on a server, its gonna mostly keep resources barely leaving it for other programs, imagine buying a PC with lets say 4 gigs of DDR3 RAM, putting windows 10 or hacking out something and installing 11 and its gonna use more than 70% of the memory at idle

If you're buying a pc for this, you can get a 6th gen i5 with 8gb ram for around 100$ on ebay. The only reason to have 4gb is if you found a 10 year old tower in the basement. 

 

And a 4gb stick of DDR3 is dirt cheap. So still not an excuse. 

[reverix]

Any tips on how to setup a minecraft server on this?

[tkitch]

2 hours ago, alphaLONE said:

Apart from the obvious need to integrate the subject of the sponsor, I don't really get the point of not using something else directly. Windows is a real resource hog and there's not much of a learning opportunity in making a windows server for your own home (Active Directory skills maybe? I'd want to avoid wasting my time learning skills that will be restrained by convoluted licensing schemes). So why not directly adopt good practices by installing TrueNAS (or even a Linux system) and then installing Plex and setting shares up on that?

 

It might be a bit more complicated to the completely unexperienced but it's a cool learning activity and, to be honest, the fun is in the journey. Someone that just needed network shares or a Plex server could grab a Synology or spin PMS up in two clicks on their local machine (as others have mentioned in this thread). It'd be more power efficient, simpler and more reliable. This just feels like the worst compromise.

You said it yourself. It's more complicated to non Linux people to get it running. 

 

This was meant to be as stupidly simple as possible. 

 

Reset windows 

Set up Storage Spaces 

Install Plex

 

No os installs, configuration, etc. 

 

Can you do Linux?   Absolutely. It's just way less simple than a 15 minute video. 

 

Can a synology do it?  Sure. But those cost more than nothing. 

[tkitch]

2 minutes ago, reverix said:

Any tips on how to setup a minecraft server on this?

Mine Minecraft server is easy, just follow one of the many tutorials on YouTube 

 

But you'll want a Decent cpu speed and at least 8gb, if not 16gb ram. 

[reverix]

4 minutes ago, tkitch said:

Mine Minecraft server is easy, just follow one of the many tutorials on YouTube 

 

But you'll want a Decent cpu speed and at least 8gb, if not 16gb ram. 

I'm not sure where to find your YouTube channel, could you possibly link it for me?

[Gimmick21]

10 hours ago, iLikeBananas said:

How much would a setup like this cost in electricity? I have a old pc lying around, i5 6600 + no gpu and a 500 watt power supply. If I turned that thing into a server to host files, and had it running 24/7, would it absolutely destroy my electricity bill?

To safe energy you can underclock it, use wake-on-lan, reduce the fans to the absolute minimum.

 

[Jaesop]

13 hours ago, James Evens said:

Btw. Never use Windows for anything reassembling a server. Linux will be less work and more reliable in the long run.

I'd always use Linux and would suggest people give it a shot, but no - Windows can absolutely be less work and completely reliable depending on your need.

[ahuckphin]

Can Windows' software RAID be trusted?  

 

I guess LMG did use software RAID previously for an extended period of time with their first all SSD server. 

 

EDIT: was unaware of "Storage Spaces". Was previously only aware of disk management. 

[tkitch]

4 hours ago, bindydad123 said:

Can Windows' software RAID be trusted?  

 

I guess LMG did use software RAID previously for an extended period of time with their first all SSD server. 

 

EDIT: was unaware of "Storage Spaces". Was previously only aware of disk management. 

It's not a hardware solution, so it's only software based.  

 

It's decidedly NOT an enterprise grade solution, but at home, just running a small RAID like this?  100% fine.  You can absolutely do this safely, and can recover after the fact, if something happens, relatively easily.

[Zer0FluxGiven]

For anyone that wants a little more of a challenge (and assuming your old PC has at least 8 gigs of RAM to run at least 2 virtual servers), VMware vSphere Hypervisor (formerly ESXi hypervisor) is completely free. You just need to setup a free account with VMware.

 

https://customerconnect.vmware.com/group/vmware/evalcenter?p=free-esxi7

 

I've been running this hypervisor for almost a decade now, and couldn't be happier. The flexibility it offers in unparalleled. One a single host server I am running a separate headless virtual server for each: DHCP, DNS, VPN (for remote management), Plex, and Remote/Local file storage. I have another server to loaded with hard drives, running TrueNAS, and combing this with a hypervisor is just wonderful.

[Colty]

11 hours ago, poochyena said:

I don't really see the point? What would I gain by having a home server? Why not just add more harddrives to my main PC

I've got Plex, fileshare, ect. running on my main rig. I have considered setting up a secondary machine for these things, but only because I want those things in a Linux environment. There's really no downside to having it all on one machine.

[swimtome]

15 hours ago, CWH said:

 

I didn't have an issue with the Pulseway sponsorship until I went to the link on the youTube page.  There's currently nothing on that page indicating the cost of Pulseway.  Some advertising and a sign up button with a discount.  "Just sign up, and we'll tell you the price later."

 

You have to do an internet search to see that it has a $32 monthly fee with an 'onboarding' fee of $149.

 

My problem is that it feels shady.  Go to the link, see a big picture of trustworthy Linus on the Pulseway webpage along with sign up buttons.  No mention of pricing, no visible links going to the main Pulseway page.  I'm not saying it's a scam, but it comes across as slightly off.

 

 

22 hours ago, samcool55 said:

Umm, how as a complete noob and home user am I suppose to use pulseway?

I don't have a business or anything and it's just a 14-day trial, maybe any alternatives that someone can suggest?

 

 

These sum up my only issue with the Pulseway sponsorship @CPotter.  I'm not rambling about "OMG you threw it in here and are shoving it down our throats".  It's just that Pulseway seems to be designed as a business application, not a simple personal rig tool.   Last time LMG showcased them I thought cool it'll let me know when something is down.  Signed up, saw most of useful features were paywalled... ok already annoying.  But then I got TWO phone calls asking me if I needed help or had any questions about subscribing.  I'm sorry that's not excusable in personal tinkering land.  Send me emails sure, but (IMHO) I should not be getting phone calls AT ALL, never mind hey we want you to sign up now (even if its wrapped in a 'how can we help you' bow) !

[ColinLTT]

13 hours ago, alphaLONE said:

Apart from the obvious need to integrate the subject of the sponsor, I don't really get the point of not using something else directly. Windows is a real resource hog and there's not much of a learning opportunity in making a windows server for your own home (Active Directory skills maybe? I'd want to avoid wasting my time learning skills that will be restrained by convoluted licensing schemes). So why not directly adopt good practices by installing TrueNAS (or even a Linux system) and then installing Plex and setting shares up on that?

 

It might be a bit more complicated to the completely unexperienced but it's a cool learning activity and, to be honest, the fun is in the journey. Someone that just needed network shares or a Plex server could grab a Synology or spin PMS up in two clicks on their local machine (as others have mentioned in this thread). It'd be more power efficient, simpler and more reliable. This just feels like the worst compromise.

This is the beginning, not the end. 

[tkitch]

34 minutes ago, ColinLTT said:

This is the beginning, not the end. 

Have you looked at Splashtop.com for the remote access?

 

It's a pretty solid solution we use at work for remote access, and they have home-user scaled accounts.  60$/yr for a 2 computers you can remote into.  (99$/yr for a 10 PC "business" license, and you can pay extra to share access with additional user accounts.)

 

solid app, decent performance, and remote clients you can use from most platforms, including phone.  

[samcool55]

2 hours ago, tkitch said:

Have you looked at Splashtop.com for the remote access?

 

It's a pretty solid solution we use at work for remote access, and they have home-user scaled accounts.  60$/yr for a 2 computers you can remote into.  (99$/yr for a 10 PC "business" license, and you can pay extra to share access with additional user accounts.)

 

solid app, decent performance, and remote clients you can use from most platforms, including phone.  

And if you just wanna remote into your server locally, it's free!

https://www.splashtop.com/personal

I mean, if you just want to get started that's ideal. Make sure you get the hang of it in your own home and once the basics work fine and you want to do remote stuff from anywhere, then you can easily upgrade.

 

Also there's teamviewer which, yea... It's free but it can be very nagging. Also really bad customer support so if you are actually planning to pay for it, probably not what u want.

[Itsairwick]

Dug up a Dell Precision 3420 that I got from work a while back. Currently has no drives in it and is running a i7-6700.

 

I was considering on doing a few things to it to make it into a server but wanted to run it by some people for some opinions. My plan goes as follows.

 

1. Buy a cheap 256gb Inland M.2 to toss onto the Motherboard as it supports it to use as a boot drive.

2. Buy two 2.5in 1TB Seagate Barracuda Drives to run in RAID.

 

Would this be a viable option to do?

 

I know the Barracudas aren’t built for raid but this server would be use to just store some files of mine mainly and possibly have Plex set up as well. The main problem for me is not really having any room in the case to run 3.5in NAS drives in it. I can fit two 2.5 drives if I run an M.2 which is why I even considered throwing it in such an older system. At this point would it be better to spend the extra $60 to get just 2 Inland 2.5in 1TB SSD to run in raid instead?
 

If this isn't good, what would be a better option if there is one?

[Zer0FluxGiven]

5 hours ago, Itsairwick said:

Dug up a Dell Precision 3420 that I got from work a while back. Currently has no drives in it and is running a i7-6700.

 

I was considering on doing a few things to it to make it into a server but wanted to run it by some people for some opinions. My plan goes as follows.

 

1. Buy a cheap 256gb Inland M.2 to toss onto the Motherboard as it supports it to use as a boot drive.

2. Buy two 2.5in 1TB Seagate Barracuda Drives to run in RAID.

 

Would this be a viable option to do?

 

I know the Barracudas aren’t built for raid but this server would be use to just store some files of mine mainly and possibly have Plex set up as well. The main problem for me is not really having any room in the case to run 3.5in NAS drives in it. I can fit two 2.5 drives if I run an M.2 which is why I even considered throwing it in such an older system. At this point would it be better to spend the extra $60 to get just 2 Inland 2.5in 1TB SSD to run in raid instead?
 

If this isn't good, what would be a better option if there is one?

The Barracudas should be fine for RAID, just be sure to use RAID 1 so you have some redundancy. If you were building a higher-tier file server that had specific storage needs, you could dig into getting the perfect drives to support that functionality. But for most projects like this, a drive is a drive (usually. There are obviously outliers to this statement).

 

Additionally, you did not specify if the Barracudas were SSDs or HDDs. If they are SSDs, I think the Inland drives are DRAMless, so you might see some decrease in write performance on the Inlands. If they are HDDs, you will certainly see a performance increase with Inlands, but you might be able to find some DRAM SSDs for a good price, especially with holiday sales coming up.

 

If you are trying to save space inside the chassis, some people might suggest that you install the OS to a USB drive. I would AVOID THIS at all cost, as doing so for a server instance where the OS is in constant use, will burn out the USB drive very quickly.

 

Other than that, I personally don't see anything wrong with the build.

[Itsairwick]

1 hour ago, Zer0FluxGiven said:

The Barracudas should be fine for RAID, just be sure to use RAID 1 so you have some redundancy. If you were building a higher-tier file server that had specific storage needs, you could dig into getting the perfect drives to support that functionality. But for most projects like this, a drive is a drive (usually. There are obviously outliers to this statement).

 

Additionally, you did not specify if the Barracudas were SSDs or HDDs. If they are SSDs, I think the Inland drives are DRAMless, so you might see some decrease in write performance on the Inlands. If they are HDDs, you will certainly see a performance increase with Inlands, but you might be able to find some DRAM SSDs for a good price, especially with holiday sales coming up.

 

If you are trying to save space inside the chassis, some people might suggest that you install the OS to a USB drive. I would AVOID THIS at all cost, as doing so for a server instance where the OS is in constant use, will burn out the USB drive very quickly.

 

Other than that, I personally don't see anything wrong with the build.

Sounds good! Thanks for your insight. I think I might settle for the Barracudas to run in raid 1. As for the Inland M.2 that will be my OS drive just for space saving reasons.

[tkitch]

2 hours ago, Itsairwick said:

Sounds good! Thanks for your insight. I think I might settle for the Barracudas to run in raid 1. As for the Inland M.2 that will be my OS drive just for space saving reasons.

That box should have one built in 3.5" bay, and you may be able to squeeze a second with a ltitle work? 

[finest feck fips]

On 12/13/2021 at 2:53 PM, ColinLTT said:

How much work or parts will it take you to reduce your cost by  20€ per year? Is it worth it? 

As for windows update bricking the system, not only is that rare in the first place, we used WinAero Tweaker to disable windows update to prevent exactly this. 

I've got a video coming out very soon (currently in editing) about running VMs in Windows 10/11

Does Windows still limit the number of open connections for SMB/CIFS to just a handful on editions other than workstation and server? Back in the day (Linus will love this), browsing via KDE file managers (not sure if Dolphin was around yet back then, or it was Konqueror) used to render Windows-based CIFS shares unusable, because Dolphin/Konqueror opened multiple connections in order to speed up operations, and the (pointless, totally artificial) connection limit built into Windows was absurdly low.

 

[Etch]

Maybe not the right thread forum for this but I'm new to these forums so I'll plead ignorance.  I saw the topic YouTube video and had recently set up a home server but discovered that my pc was pulling a ton of power.  It was an old gaming pc with, if I recall correctly, an Athalon 955 black, 16Gb of RAM, 500 Gb HD, and an old Radeon graphics card.

 

I tried it on a few circuits in the house but it would occasionally trip the breaker wherever it was.  Has anyone seen something similar happen when installing Linux (Ubuntu 20.04) on an old gaming PC?  Could it just be a bad power supply or of the like?  Does Ubuntu have an issue with power management?

 

I'm good with software and had a docker swarm running on the server but there was minimal traffic.  I'm at a bit of a loss on the server hardware side.

 

Thanks for any help, or perhaps a redirect to a better forum for this question.

[Colty]

5 hours ago, Etch said:

Maybe not the right thread forum for this but I'm new to these forums so I'll plead ignorance.  I saw the topic YouTube video and had recently set up a home server but discovered that my pc was pulling a ton of power.  It was an old gaming pc with, if I recall correctly, an Athalon 955 black, 16Gb of RAM, 500 Gb HD, and an old Radeon graphics card.

 

I tried it on a few circuits in the house but it would occasionally trip the breaker wherever it was.  Has anyone seen something similar happen when installing Linux (Ubuntu 20.04) on an old gaming PC?  Could it just be a bad power supply or of the like?  Does Ubuntu have an issue with power management?

 

I'm good with software and had a docker swarm running on the server but there was minimal traffic.  I'm at a bit of a loss on the server hardware side.

 

Thanks for any help, or perhaps a redirect to a better forum for this question.

You should probably put post this as a thread over here - https://linustechtips.com/forum/46-troubleshooting/

Quick thoughts though, I would check the PSU since it's tripping the breaker. PSU testers are cheap and a handy tool for DIY oriented people. None of the specs you mentioned are power efficient, but it shouldn't trip the breaker unless something is wrong. 

[Chiyawa]

Here's my take on this 'turn old PC into server':

 

1. Old PC is not fast, very very limited in terms of technology and efficiency. It still runs fine, can serve a limited amount of clients at a time, and generally, a good way to turn your old PC that is sitting in the attic or garage collecting dust into a new purpose.machine. However, they are very limited in terms of serving many clients at once. The old processor may not have enough threads to run everything. Gen 3 Core i5 processor only has 4 cores and 4 threads. Core i7 will be a better choice as it has 8 threads. New PC (if it is not because of the pandemic and scalpers) actually cost less in price to performance ratio. In 2019, I can get a brand new Ryzen 5 3400G, a cheapish X470 motherboard, 16GB RAM and a 4 4GB HDD with Windows 10 Pro OS at around USD1000, which gives better performance and better efficiency, because using DDR4 RAM helps a lot. Running Minecraft server is way more smoother than this old PC. That server was then upgraded to 3800X, GT1030 and additional 32GB RAM to host more servers. For Optiplex, well, you're mostly sitting ducks.

 

2. Personal Cloud Storage is probably the best use case I can think of for this old PC. I'm using one of the old PC in my company and repurpose it as a personal storage. But one thing if you use Dell Optiplex (especially slim desktop or SFF): Just don't. Like in the video, you only have one 3.5 inch HDD and that's it. You can repurpose the ODD into a 3.5 HDD drive bay, but you are severely limited. All optiplex that I come across only has 4 SATA ports. They only have 1 PCIe x16 slot and 1 PCIe x1 slot. Very very limited if you want to expand (mind you, we use salvaged HDD, and most HDD is in 500GB, 1TB or 2TB). Getting a 14TB drive in Malaysia is going to cost you about half of your monthly salary. I will steer clear these Optiplex machine and get a more consumer custom desktop PC which provide more SATA ports and PCIe ports to add PCIe to SATA add in cards. If you are okay with low capacity storage (maybe up to 8GB) I think this Optiplex can still handle it, but getting more expensive high capacity drives doesn't justify for me.

 

3. If you are using Windows Home Edition, good luck on turning your old PC into server. You can always get Linux based server OS, though. Windows 10 Pro actually comes with many things you need to make a simple server. However, whether spending for a Windows 10 Pro license on an old PC is justifiable for its price is up to you.

 

So, in conclusion then: Would I recommend this setup? Well, if you only need some basic function such as personal cloud storage, a small hosting server for LAN party or Minecraft, then I think this machine is sufficient. If you want advance server functionality or plan to host multiple servers then this is not for you, well, not the Optiplex that they show in the video anyway.

[MinionToGaming]

Hey! Not sure if anyone can help me with this but im having a problem with the network file share. It will randomly not work. I will have access on both pcs one minute then only 1 the next. Then sometimes it just outright won't work at all. Then switch from one pc working to the other. I have no idea what i did wrong. I just shared a folder in the advanced sharing section. Any ideas?

[Chiyawa]

2 hours ago, MinionToGaming said:

Hey! Not sure if anyone can help me with this but im having a problem with the network file share. It will randomly not work. I will have access on both pcs one minute then only 1 the next. Then sometimes it just outright won't work at all. Then switch from one pc working to the other. I have no idea what i did wrong. I just shared a folder in the advanced sharing section. Any ideas?

Not sure if you have set this, but can you check if this 'Limit the number of simultaneous users to:' is set to more than 1?

 

 

I think you might get a better respond if you post it to Networking category.