What to do whit old low end PC?

[Shaggy25]

Hi, I have an old PC and I'm looking for ideas on what to do whit it, the thing is, it's really on the low end side and it's around 10 years old.

 

I don't want to get rid of it because it has some sentimental value as it was my first pc and served me well for some years for school and even to play some old games (it ran GTA SA pretty decent).

 

I was thinking about turning it into some kind of NAS or home server, I'm a web developer so I thought maybe using it to host demo sites or test, but I'm afraid it might be to slow. I also thought about just installing Lubuntu and having it as a backup in case anything hapens to my main system or any need I had for another PC.

 

Specs:

CPU: Intel Atom D410 1.66Ghz, 1 core, 2 threads (x86)

RAM: 2GB DDR2 800Mhz

GPU: Integrated graphics

PSU: Generic 400w

 

It had a 250GB HDD but it died so I currently don't have any storage for it. Btw, did I mention the CPU is freaking passively cooled?!?!

 

Any suggestions are welcome.

 

Pictures of the system:

Spoiler

 

 

 

[ZippN]

First off, DEFINITELY get a fan for the CPU. But I would probably double the ram and get a new SSD. I have no experience with upgrading old systems, so I can't tell you much else though.

[kimsejin5]

You could turn it into an emulation machine, just for fun, to run old Nintendo games and whatnot, if that's your cup of tea (think arcade). Or, you could use the system as a low-end media server (just get a new hard drive) for storing things like music and movies using Plex and a host OS like FreeNAS, which has that functionality built in (you just need to activate it). So many possibilities!

Because the system is running an Atom processor, you don't need a fan for the CPU, despite what @ZippN says. Atom CPUs were designed with low TDPs in mind, and were made to be passively cooled. You can get a fan for the CPU if you'd like and jury-rig it on, just for fun, but I wouldn't worry about it. You'll be pretty limited in how you get to upgrade the system, but I'm sure you can figure something fun to do with it! Let us know if you need more suggestions, and be sure to share the final project with the community! We'd love to see it!

[ZippN]

I guess I didn't know that. Sorry.

[Shaggy25]

2 minutes ago, ZippN said:

I guess I didn't know that. Sorry.

Don't worry, tbh I'm not even sure I can remove the passive cooling.

8 minutes ago, kimsejin5 said:

You could turn it into an emulation machine, just for fun, to run old Nintendo games and whatnot, if that's your cup of tea (think arcade). Or, you could use the system as a low-end media server (just get a new hard drive) for storing things like music and movies using Plex and a host OS like FreeNAS, which has that functionality built in (you just need to activate it). So many possibilities!

Because the system is running an Atom processor, you don't need a fan for the CPU, despite what @ZippN says. Atom CPUs were designed with low TDPs in mind, and were made to be passively cooled. You can get a fan for the CPU if you'd like and jury-rig it on, just for fun, but I wouldn't worry about it. You'll be pretty limited in how you get to upgrade the system, but I'm sure you can figure something fun to do with it! Let us know if you need more suggestions, and be sure to share the final project with the community! We'd love to see it!

Yeah, as I said my first option was some kind of home server/nas, but I like the emulator machine idea, I might look into it, thanks.

[kimsejin5]

Just now, Shaggy25 said:

Don't worry, tbh I'm not even sure I can remove the passive cooling.

Yeah, as I said my first option was some kind of home server/nas, but I like the emulator machine idea, I might look into it, thanks.

 Excited to see what you come up with! I know that some PCBs, notably from Intel, actually solder the heatsink on. One of my NICs has a soldered heatsink, which is super annoying. Good luck!

[PlayStation 2]

I honestly thought I was reading a laptop's specs until I saw the PSU.

Uh... I guess you could turn it into a music box?

[kiloalpha09]

Am in a similar dilemma. I have an old Intel Atom D945GCLF2. Opened it up after 10yrs to clean it, just finished migrating the board+HDD to a smaller Mini-ITX cabinet and thinking of converting it into a DVR for CCVT surveillance for my home (the dedicated DVR burnt off due to voltage fluctuation while cameras are intact) suggestions welcome.