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Re-purposing an Old Machine

dak1220
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Go to solution Solved by Captain_WD,

So it seems as if accomplishing both tasks (media server and game server) is very difficult? If that's the case I could use my old computer as a game server, then buy a 2 or 4-bay NAS enclosure for the media server?

 

Not really. You can use the same OS for both as long as your system is powerful enough. 
Having a separate NAS is also an option, but you don't need to spend additional funds on it.
In case you'd like to check them out, here's WD's NAS solutions: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=6UkY3U
 
Captain_WD.
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So in the coming weeks I will be building a new computer. My current machine is starting to show its age, however, it is in perfect working order. I was trying to figure out a way to make use of this machine. I had high hopes and feel as though what I want to do isn't possible. In a perfect world, this computer would be able to store all of my media files as well as backups of my new computer with redundancy. Separating the media from my computer would allow me to play it back on multiple devices and have redundant storage. In addition, I would love for it to be able to host servers for games like Minecraft and Assetto Corsa for my friends and I to play on. I could stick it in a closet somewhere and remote access it with some program whenever I need to change something. The reason for this is I would like for my new computer to only have drives in it for the OS and games, leaving me with an extra 300GB Velociraptor and a 1TB WD Black drive from my current build that I could use. Of course I would have to buy more hard drives in order to create some sort of RAID array. With an OS like FreeNAS, it would be the perfect media storage like I want, but without the ability to host 24/7 game servers. This got me wondering if an OS like Windows Home Server would work for what I want to accomplish?

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So in the coming weeks I will be building a new computer. My current machine is starting to show its age, however, it is in perfect working order. I was trying to figure out a way to make use of this machine. I had high hopes and feel as though what I want to do isn't possible. In a perfect world, this computer would be able to store all of my media files as well as backups of my new computer with redundancy. Separating the media from my computer would allow me to play it back on multiple devices and have redundant storage. In addition, I would love for it to be able to host servers for games like Minecraft and Assetto Corsa for my friends and I to play on. I could stick it in a closet somewhere and remote access it with some program whenever I need to change something. The reason for this is I would like for my new computer to only have drives in it for the OS and games, leaving me with an extra 300GB Velociraptor and a 1TB WD Black drive from my current build that I could use. Of course I would have to buy more hard drives in order to create some sort of RAID array. With an OS like FreeNAS, it would be the perfect media storage like I want, but without the ability to host 24/7 game servers. This got me wondering if an OS like Windows Home Server would work for what I want to accomplish?

 

Hey dak1220,
 
What you needs seems to be a normal NAS with features such as PLEX and some other minor additions. your build seems good enough for such thing and any of the NAS OSs should work fine. I would recommend using NAS/RAID class drives for such things since they are designed for this specific purpose. I wouldn't recommend putting a non-RAID drive in a RAID array as you'd have a higher chance of data corruption/loss and a drive dropout. One such drive is WD Red. You can consider getting a couple of these drives for the server and reuse the older drives in your new build alongside a SSD.
 
Captain_WD.

If this helped you, like and choose it as best answer - you might help someone else with the same issue. ^_^
WDC Representative, http://www.wdc.com/ 

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Hey dak1220,
 
What you needs seems to be a normal NAS with features such as PLEX and some other minor additions. your build seems good enough for such thing and any of the NAS OSs should work fine. I would recommend using NAS/RAID class drives for such things since they are designed for this specific purpose. I wouldn't recommend putting a non-RAID drive in a RAID array as you'd have a higher chance of data corruption/loss and a drive dropout. One such drive is WD Red. You can consider getting a couple of these drives for the server and reuse the older drives in your new build alongside a SSD.
 
Captain_WD.

 

So it seems as if accomplishing both tasks (media server and game server) is very difficult? If that's the case I could use my old computer as a game server, then buy a 2 or 4-bay NAS enclosure for the media server?

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So it seems as if accomplishing both tasks (media server and game server) is very difficult? If that's the case I could use my old computer as a game server, then buy a 2 or 4-bay NAS enclosure for the media server?

 

Not really. You can use the same OS for both as long as your system is powerful enough. 
Having a separate NAS is also an option, but you don't need to spend additional funds on it.
In case you'd like to check them out, here's WD's NAS solutions: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=6UkY3U
 
Captain_WD.

If this helped you, like and choose it as best answer - you might help someone else with the same issue. ^_^
WDC Representative, http://www.wdc.com/ 

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