How do you make full use of your old PC?

[TurquoiseA]

Hello, so I am building a new PC due to some research and entertainment needs. I think my current PC that I am retiring is still thriving so I wonder, instead of selling it, how would you make use of it? I am currently thinking about making it a linux server and run scripts I usually do on my lab PC :P. 

 

Here's the config:

• MOBO: ASUS Maximus IX Hero
• CPU: i7-7700k
• RAM: Will be moved to the new PC so I need to buy a new kit if not selling
• GPU: Strix 1070 OC

Thanks!

[Vishera]

I use mine for game servers,SQL databases,FTP server,web server and more.

[fUnDaMeNtAl_knobhead]

Mine coins or use it as a server or a NAS

[adarw]

Unpopular opinion: 

 

i would sell it, there isnt much you can do with it. its also way too powerful/power hungry,

[Somerandomtechyboi]

6 minutes ago, adarw said:

Unpopular opinion: 

 

i would sell it, there isnt much you can do with it. its also way too powerful/power hungry,

It even has a maximus board so yea that would prob sell for alot cause noobs buying maximus boards without knowing anything on oc

[TurquoiseA]

8 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

It even has a maximus board so yea that would prob sell for alot cause noobs buying maximus boards without knowing anything on oc

STOP TALKING ABOUT WHO I WAS 5 YEARS AGO, FRANK! 

[Somerandomtechyboi]

40 minutes ago, TurquoiseA said:

STOP TALKING ABOUT WHO I WAS 5 YEARS AGO, FRANK! 

Bruh i wasnt implying on you xD

 

I was implying on whatever noob that would buy a maximus board even if its an old one, aka you can just rip em off and get a decent amount of money back

 

Dont worry i feel your pain too cause i bought this garbage p5q over something better like a gigabyte ep45, even more pain is massively overpaying for a pos g41 board when i was building a computer my first time in ~2018, could have bought a giga ep45 for that money

[Kopaka]

Power prices are skyrocketing, don't use a secondary pc and waste power if you don't have a need. Many people would be happy to buy a used pc with a 1070 currently.

[LogicalDrm]

Thats still capable build. I would part it out and sell it. Or sell it as whole if you know someone in need of gaming PC (adding the parts you are missing ofc). I just paid €350 for similar GPU, it really is sellers market for all parts now.

[BetteBalterZen]

My typical go-to-plan with an old PC is either a simple file server or NAS

[adarw]

5 minutes ago, BetteBalterZen said:

My typical go-to-plan with an old PC is either a simple file server or NAS

you dont need this much power for a nas, its wasted money, and electricity.

[BetteBalterZen]

1 minute ago, adarw said:

you dont need this much power for a nas, its wasted money, and electricity.

Well that is absolutely true

[Beerzerker]

Or just do what I do with my older stuff - Bench the crap out of it and have some fun.
That's what I'll be doing in a little while with my 3770K and Z77 OCF on Ln2, live streaming that of course for my peeps at the bot.

As for the setup you have, it's capable but know the board you have isn't a RAM-champ. I've got one of those and it's...... OK but not great for RAM speeds in general. All else seems OK though so if that's what you want to do with it, go for it.

However repurposing it for the uses you mentioned isn't a bad way to go either..... Or just selling it and reinvesting the $$ into something else is what to do with it. 
Up to you.

[RageTester]

Sell GPU for sure, don't need that in a file server. If you got the space and need for a server at all.

Raspberry Pi is enough for single user server though if you consider power cost it makes no sense to have i7 CPU...

[Arika]

-wrong thread-

[COAGULOPATH]

Sell the GPU and use it to pay your rent for a few months.

[LTTFan16538228]

Try to convert it into a powerful Plex server. Although you should invest in some Noctua's as you probably don't want noise.

[DarkSwordsman]

I think your best bet would be to use Promox on it. Other people may recommend UNRAID or VMware, but Proxmox is 100% free (no licensing BS unless you want very enterprise-level features) and you actually work with VMs or LXCs instead of vaguely dealing with docker containers.

 

This gives you an opportunity to make a neat little homelab where you can run pretty much any service you want. And if you really wanted to, you could create a VM/LXC that has docker containers inside it. This could actually be really cool if you wanted to play with Kubernetes. Each LXC can be a node and the docker containers are the pods.

 

For example, these are all my current VMs on my old 1700X system, with 48 GB of RAM, SAMSUNG OEM 500 GB TLC drive, and a 1070:

 

Some of them are test LXCs and VMs, but most of them are services I use. From top to bottom:

• My nextcloud server for sharing files with people.
• My NGINX reverse proxy for my services, so I only need to open one port (though, I was thinking of moving to wireguard).
• arr is currently only for Radarr, but I may also put Sonarr on it.
• mongodb-test-1 is a test LXC that I'm using to develop some software. Uses very little resources and hosts a mongodb instance. Runs great.
• Jellyfin is my media server (like Plex, but more features for free), which is the start of the VMs. Can use the 1070 for transcoding, and has about 8 GB of RAM.
• My arr VM has Sonarr, but only because I didn't start using LXCs until after I made it, and the software I'm writing aims to replace Sonarr
• TrueNAS is obvious. I pass two 8 TB drives into it and share a pool across the VMs/LXCs, which get 10 GbE virtual interfaces and get good read/write. Needs 16 GB of RAM.
• qbt should be obvious

Everything except TrueNAS and Jellyfin I could ideally move to an LXC to use less resources. For example, a stock Debian LXC can use about 200 MB of RAM, 700 MB of disk, and that's it. You can also set the resources very low on them as a result.

[TurquoiseA]

On 1/28/2022 at 7:18 AM, BetteBalterZen said:

My typical go-to-plan with an old PC is either a simple file server or NAS

Yeah I would've turned it into a NAS if I didn't buy the ds220+ last BF. That price was freakingly hot.

[TurquoiseA]

15 hours ago, LTTFan16538228 said:

Try to convert it into a powerful Plex server. Although you should invest in some Noctua's as you probably don't want noise.

Got 4 NF-A14 iPPC 3000 for the new one. Let's rock... I mean take off

[TurquoiseA]

11 hours ago, DarkSwordsman said:

I think your best bet would be to use Promox on it. Other people may recommend UNRAID or VMware, but Proxmox is 100% free (no licensing BS unless you want very enterprise-level features) and you actually work with VMs or LXCs instead of vaguely dealing with docker containers.

 

This gives you an opportunity to make a neat little homelab where you can run pretty much any service you want. And if you really wanted to, you could create a VM/LXC that has docker containers inside it. This could actually be really cool if you wanted to play with Kubernetes. Each LXC can be a node and the docker containers are the pods.

 

For example, these are all my current VMs on my old 1700X system, with 48 GB of RAM, SAMSUNG OEM 500 GB TLC drive, and a 1070:

 

Some of them are test LXCs and VMs, but most of them are services I use. From top to bottom:

• My nextcloud server for sharing files with people.
• My NGINX reverse proxy for my services, so I only need to open one port (though, I was thinking of moving to wireguard).
• arr is currently only for Radarr, but I may also put Sonarr on it.
• mongodb-test-1 is a test LXC that I'm using to develop some software. Uses very little resources and hosts a mongodb instance. Runs great.
• Jellyfin is my media server (like Plex, but more features for free), which is the start of the VMs. Can use the 1070 for transcoding, and has about 8 GB of RAM.
• My arr VM has Sonarr, but only because I didn't start using LXCs until after I made it, and the software I'm writing aims to replace Sonarr
• TrueNAS is obvious. I pass two 8 TB drives into it and share a pool across the VMs/LXCs, which get 10 GbE virtual interfaces and get good read/write. Needs 16 GB of RAM.
• qbt should be obvious

Everything except TrueNAS and Jellyfin I could ideally move to an LXC to use less resources. For example, a stock Debian LXC can use about 200 MB of RAM, 700 MB of disk, and that's it. You can also set the resources very low on them as a result.

Your answer is more interesting than I expected. I have to admit I am fairly new to docker and these container topics even though I am running some on my lab PC. I do have a couple of questions

• If I am going to make it a personal server, I would definitely have a deep interaction with Linux, that makes the OS either Ubuntu or CentOS. In this case, do I still need VMs like Proxmox or VMware?
• Is there a way I can control this a linux server like this via LAN, just like a local teamviewer? I do not intend to get another monitor for this server. Is it possible through WAN?
• Even though I am currently in CS as student, I don't have the experience as a CS bachelor would have. I was in math then stat and now cs in ml. Would you care sharing some forums or websites regarding these fun stuff? Like where can I watch people do cool things with code, etc.

Anyways, thanks a lot for sharing your experience. I will definitely check them all out!

[WhitetailAni]

For this build specifically? Sell it. It’s a capable machine.

For me personally? I host a small Minecraft server. It’s currently down for repairs though, I made a stupid hardware mistake.

[frozensun]

On 1/28/2022 at 1:26 AM, TurquoiseA said:

Hello, so I am building a new PC due to some research and entertainment needs. I think my current PC that I am retiring is still thriving so I wonder, instead of selling it, how would you make use of it? I am currently thinking about making it a linux server and run scripts I usually do on my lab PC :P. 

 

Here's the config:

• MOBO: ASUS Maximus IX Hero
• CPU: i7-7700k
• RAM: Will be moved to the new PC so I need to buy a new kit if not selling
• GPU: Strix 1070 OC

Thanks!

I'm running all possible games with my 6700K and 2080 S though...Old PC is my Athlon FX 8120 dude.

[tkitch]

That box would be awesome as a HTPC.  16GB RAM and it'll do 4K display output for video w HDR.

 

Netflix and other apps will support the 1070 for proper 4K support as well.

 

Add a bunch of MAME or other emulators, and have a bitchin' time! 

[IPD]

On 1/31/2022 at 9:23 AM, tkitch said:

That box would be awesome as a HTPC.  16GB RAM and it'll do 4K display output for video w HDR.

 

Netflix and other apps will support the 1070 for proper 4K support as well.

 

Add a bunch of MAME or other emulators, and have a bitchin' time! 

HTPC is my go-to choice.  My existing laptop gets demoted to HTPC, and old HTPC gets donated somewhere.