Hp proliant server

[MoultonMc]

I still have no idea what to do with this. I really wanna make it a movie server but I also feel like that's an underutilization of it's power. What are some stuff I can use this for. Also what's the parts list cause what I find online is very confusing. But I do have a question, can I use this thing to somehow boost my PC performance? Like if I put my games on it can I load them off it have the server use it's power and my regular pcs power? Split the load kinda? I got this thing for free so I don't feel too bad throwing a couple bucks at it here and there. Last question, can I throw some regular coolers on this thing so the blowiematrons don't make me lose my hearing while I sleep? Maybe liquid cooler on the CPU?

 

[dlcarrier]

It's a ten year old server, so it's fun to play around with, but a new consumer desktop processor will outperform it, even if it has both processor sockets populated.  The thermals are designed for large volumes of air flowing through the entire chassis, hence the noisy fans.  You could replace the CPU heat-sinks with modified desktop computer heat-sinks, but other devices on the board may be designed around having that airflow.

 

As far as combining its power with your regular PC, for anything real-time, like games, that strategy doesn't work well, but for computational loads, like rendering or simulation, lots of software allows for workloads to be distributed between multiple computers.  The set up is different for each program, but it's usually easy to find step-by-step examples.

[MoultonMc]

14 hours ago, dlcarrier said:

It's a ten year old server, so it's fun to play around with, but a new consumer desktop processor will outperform it, even if it has both processor sockets populated.  The thermals are designed for large volumes of air flowing through the entire chassis, hence the noisy fans.  You could replace the CPU heat-sinks with modified desktop computer heat-sinks, but other devices on the board may be designed around having that airflow.

 

As far as combining its power with your regular PC, for anything real-time, like games, that strategy doesn't work well, but for computational loads, like rendering or simulation, lots of software allows for workloads to be distributed between multiple computers.  The set up is different for each program, but it's usually easy to find step-by-step examples.

So what I'm really looking at is just a massive media server? That's ok. I feel like duel CPU and maybe a cheap graphics card will suit that. 

[Blue4130]

7 hours ago, MoultonMc said:

So what I'm really looking at is just a massive media server? That's ok. I feel like duel CPU and maybe a cheap graphics card will suit that. 

If you like throwing money away on electricty costs, sure. There is no reason that a media server needs dual CPU's or a ten year old server.