What can I do with a spare pc?

[IR76]

My parents gave me their 

ASUS - Desktop - Intel Core i5 - 8GB Memory - 1TB Hard Drive - Silver and Red

 

 

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-desktop-intel-core-i5-8gb-memory-1tb-hard-drive-silver-and-red/5070700.p?skuId=5070700

 

(I put in an SSD for them and made it the windows 10 os but for some reason I can't wipe the hdds os partition as it says it's in use when it's not.)

 

And I have it spare for side projects but I don't know what I should do with It?

I was considering making a media server for my dvds but I found out in the UK you can't rip any dvds with TPM or TMP (can't remember the security name) which is almost every dvd.

 

If you have any ideas of what I can do with it and cool ideas that may make my life easier or fun side projects to tinker with please suggest any and everything I'm happy to learn new stuff.

Thank you very much.

[Poinkachu]

3 minutes ago, IR76 said:

(I put in an SSD for them and made it the windows 10 os but for some reason I can't wipe the hdds os partition as it says it's in use when it's not.)

Format usually works.

 

Quote

If you have any ideas of what I can do with it and cool ideas that may make my life easier or fun side projects to tinker with please suggest any and everything I'm happy to learn new stuff.

Thank you very much.

NAS, Questionable file's vetting rig, DIY router, etc

[BoomerDutch]

Could be nice nas server like truenas

So.. it can be backup or media server or code server or syncthing or even local web hosted games like emulator its all in truenas applications 

 

Or it can be nice virtual server which is proxmox and create VMs to tinker windows or linux and try modify to your needs.

 

And yeah you can have DIY router inside proxmox and passed through to other Vms etc.

 

I'd use proxmox because you can even install truenas inside proxmox and run there multiple ways to do it really.

 

So all in the end I'd choose proxmox and tinker away.

 

(I've managed to fit multiple Vms in restricted ram space like 8 gig.)

Ram upgrade would give much more space to run more Vms.

[aisle9]

Skylake i5s still aren't bad. They're not exactly great now that an uber-low end Alder Lake-N Celeron like the N100 has equivalent CPU performance and better graphics (aside from the whole single-channel RAM thing...f you Intel). Could be used as an HTPC, a very power-hungry NAS, a programming testbed, a Linux machine, a low-powered gaming PC for indie side-scroller type stuff, an emulation rig...lots of options with Skylake CPUs that still have some life in them.

 

Wiping the SSD is easy. Just reinstall Windows on it from a USB you boot directly into.

 

Can't help you on the DVD thing. That's inching close to a piracy discussion, which is not ok here.

 

 

[FI Fheonix]

3 hours ago, IR76 said:

My parents gave me their 

ASUS - Desktop - Intel Core i5 - 8GB Memory - 1TB Hard Drive - Silver and Red

 

 

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-desktop-intel-core-i5-8gb-memory-1tb-hard-drive-silver-and-red/5070700.p?skuId=5070700

 

(I put in an SSD for them and made it the windows 10 os but for some reason I can't wipe the hdds os partition as it says it's in use when it's not.)

 

And I have it spare for side projects but I don't know what I should do with It?

I was considering making a media server for my dvds but I found out in the UK you can't rip any dvds with TPM or TMP (can't remember the security name) which is almost every dvd.

 

If you have any ideas of what I can do with it and cool ideas that may make my life easier or fun side projects to tinker with please suggest any and everything I'm happy to learn new stuff.

Thank you very much.

If all else fails, crypto?