Old pc parts

[Flavortown2k16]

Hi since ive updated just about all of my pc ive got some spare parts laying in my room now, Is there something that i can do with these spare parts with minimal money?
I have cpu (with no iGPU), mobo(micro atx) , psu and wreck of a case that can still hold the parts, but is just about broken otherwise.

[LizardsAreOP]

Try to do a project

[Flavortown2k16]

3 minutes ago, LizardsAreOP said:

Try to do a project

Aye but what kind of one 

[LizardsAreOP]

Try to pick some parts you dont have a case and use those parts to use before they die

[petem]

36 minutes ago, Flavortown2k16 said:

Hi since ive updated just about all of my pc ive got some spare parts laying in my room now, Is there something that i can do with these spare parts with minimal money?
I have cpu (with no iGPU), mobo(micro atx) , psu and wreck of a case that can still hold the parts, but is just about broken otherwise.

4 obvious projects:

• Network attached storage (NAS) for backups/data storage with or without
• media/home theater server (Plex, Kodi, Serviio, etc.)
• Seed box (torrent server), keep it legal unless you're related to Hillary
• Folding at home, or a similar crowd-sourced computational endeavor

I have an NAS with a media server, and a separate folding system.

 

File server - any compatible cheapy gpu gets the job done

Basic Media server is going to need an entry level GPU, say a GTX 750 or so, 4k will need better.

Seed box - any compatible cheapy gpu gets the job done 

Folding performance can be done w/o a GPU, but would be orders of magnitude better with a decent GPU.

 

- Pete

[Zyndo]

You could always make a processing farm. get some super cheap VGA card, like one of those 20-40 dollar ones. just something enough to make your computer function. then get a program like SETI@home. let that run all the time, and your PC can contribute to helping mankind map the stars! There are other ones too, like folding@home which is some sort of medical research thing. and a whole bunch of others. Basically what these programs do is when you're not using your computer, it uses your computer to do complex math to solve these mathematical problems that SETI and folding have. There is no way for them to get enough funding to build enough computers to do all these calculations on their own, so they made a screen saver program to allow civilian computers around the world to help out! Might be worth a look if you were interested in that sort of thing. Its also the sort of thing you could do on your main computer if you wanted.

[Flavortown2k16]

5 minutes ago, petem said:

4 obvious projects:

• Network attached storage (NAS) for backups/data storage with or without
• media/home theater server (Plex, serviio, etc.)
• Seed box (torrent server), keep it legal unless you're related to Hillary
• Folding at home, or a similar crowd-sourced computational endeavor

I have an NAS with a media server, and a separate folding system.

 

- Pete

nas and theater is pretty good, my dad was complaining his shitty laptop earlier but now he says he doesnt use it that much, so its a big maybe.

What parts i need for nas if its just for storage, also we have 2 internet modems with seperate connections in the house so is it possible to use it in both?

[Flavortown2k16]

5 minutes ago, Zyndo said:

You could always make a processing farm. get some super cheap VGA card, like one of those 20-40 dollar ones. just something enough to make your computer function. then get a program like SETI@home. let that run all the time, and your PC can contribute to helping mankind map the stars! There are other ones too, like folding@home which is some sort of medical research thing. and a whole bunch of others. Basically what these programs do is when you're not using your computer, it uses your computer to do complex math to solve these mathematical problems that SETI and folding have. There is no way for them to get enough funding to build enough computers to do all these calculations on their own, so they made a screen saver program to allow civilian computers around the world to help out! Might be worth a look if you were interested in that sort of thing. Its also the sort of thing you could do on your main computer if you wanted.

Its a pretty good plan, but this thing is not going to be quiet and i really cant stand the sound of it running unless im using it

[petem]

26 minutes ago, Flavortown2k16 said:

nas and theater is pretty good, my dad was complaining his shitty laptop earlier but now he says he doesnt use it that much, so its a big maybe.

What parts i need for nas if its just for storage, also we have 2 internet modems with seperate connections in the house so is it possible to use it in both?

A NAS will need a cheapy compatible GPU and hard drives.  I use freeNAS (as you might guess, it's free) - you'd need the basic version that doesn't require large amounts of memory.  Set up as many drives as are practical, and raid them according to your priorites - data integrity vs. storage capacity.  For a raid setup you will need multiple drives of the same capacity, otherwise just let freeNAS combine them into one massive volume.  You can always do the cheap approach and have 2 different volumes, with backups of the first on the second.

 

A theater system will need storage (freeNAS has a few theater add-ons), and a solid GPU for streaming.  1080p/i streaming is pretty common on even low end cards these days - even the integrated GPUs on the newer CPUs can handle it without problems.  4k will need a more powerful GPU with HDMI 1.4 or better (most GTX 950s should be fine - just make sure whichever one you get supports at least HDMI 1.4).

 

Folding at home (and probably other similar crowd computing projects - I am only familiar with folding) on a CPU is usually noisy, since it's all on or all off - but can be done quietly if you underclock the CPU.  GPU folding is very dependent on the cooling system and overclocking of the card - the "silent" cards with massive heatsinks and large fans do very well noise-wise, and an older one can be gotten on ebay for a small price hit over the regular cards.  Check out LTT's folding forums if you want more information.

 

Seed boxing just needs a basic system with an internet connection, but if you plan to download the internet, you will need storage for it, and yes, freeNAS has an addon for that, too.

 

- Pete

[Flavortown2k16]

3 minutes ago, petem said:

A NAS will need a cheapy compatible GPU and hard drives.  Install freeNAS (as you might guess, it's free) - get the basic version that doesn't require large amounts of memory, set up as many drives as are practical, and raid them according to your priorites - data integrity or storage capacity.  For a raid setup you will need multiple drives of the same capacity, otherwise just let freeNAS combine them into one massive volume.  You can always do the cheap approach and have 2 different volumes, with backups of the first on the second.

 

A theater system will need storage (freeNAS has a few theater add-ons), and a solid GPU for streaming.  1080p/i streaming is pretty common on even low end cards these days - even the integrated GPUs on the newer CPUs can handle it without problems.  4k will need a more powerful GPU with HDMI 1.4 or better (most GTX 950s should be fine - just make sure whichever one you get supports at least HDMI 1.4).

 

Folding at home (and probably other similar crowd computing projects - I am only familiar with folding) on a CPU is usually noisy, since it's all on or all off - but can be done quietly if you underclock the CPU.  GPU folding is very dependent on the cooling system and overclocking of the card - the "silent" cards with massive heatsinks and large fans do very well noise-wise, and an older one can be gotten on ebay for a small price hit over the regular cards.  Check out LTT's folding forums if you want more information.

 

Seed boxing just needs a basic system with an internet connection, but if you plan to download the internet, you will need storage for it, and yes, freeNAS has an addon for that, too.

 

- Pete

Ill try putting it inside closed room we have in the house where are the cabels go tru and set it up for nas and downloading stuff. Ill see if i can find used gpu just for the output, since the spare 960 would be bit overkill and im going to sell it anyway