Need help turning my old PC into a server?

SuperMorto · 2012-02-24, 02:58 PM

Hi all,

I have an old computer and im needing it to be turned into a a server I can run from my office. Now, I know I could just set it up and be done with just that, but im looking for it to perform certain things, and would like to know if there is a way/ways I can optimise it to do them and act more like a server than a desktop.

I'm wanting to run TS server from it and a full TV stream to TwitchTV.

It an XP system and XP is maxed out on it, well it was when it was built, 3.2 duel core 3 GB of ram and a GTX 460. (should I remove GPU and use it as a second GPU for this machine? It has a GTX 590 in it. Or will it help the older PC as a server?,

Cheers in advance, if you need an more info let me know.

Morto.

NivexQ · 2012-02-25, 06:09 PM

I would suggest installing linux. Do you have any experience with any linux os?

Also, does your mobo have onboard video? If so, then yes, you can remove the gpu. If it doesn't then it will be pretty much impossible to set up with a gpu

Fenrys · 2012-02-26, 04:14 AM

I know a thing or two about file servers, but not streaming servers.

If you were building a file server, I'd say ditch the discrete GPU and use the integrated one on your motherboard or buy a less power hungry discrete card for ~$30 if your motherboard lacks integrated graphics. I'm not sure if you'll need any GPU power for streaming video, but I suspect not. Check the documentation for the software you'll use.

Windows XP is not a good OS for a file server. Windows Server or Linux would be more ideal.

If many people try to connect all at once, the bottleneck will probably be either your disk system or your network. A good SSD can help, and so can RAIDed hard drives.

What kind of ISP do you have? How many people do you want to be able to stream to at once and at what bit rate?

Sentrosi · 2012-03-06, 01:24 PM

If you just want a file server, perhaps FreeNAS is up your alley. I'm looking to do just that with an old P4 rig I have lying around. Want to throw a couple TB drives mirrored for failover protection.

Ailos · 2012-03-06, 02:08 PM

Originally Posted by NivexQ

I would suggest installing linux. Do you have any experience with any linux os?

Also, does your mobo have onboard video? If so, then yes, you can remove the gpu. If it doesn't then it will be pretty much impossible to set up with a gpu

What he said.

If you don't know where to start, I'd recommend to begin with installing Ubuntu. It comes in desktop and server flavors, but the server has no GUI, so if you're completely unfamiliar with linux/server technologies, start with the desktop version - you can install all the server runtimes on it, too, they're just not standard. You'll also probably find it easier to find your way 'round if you start off with the desktop version.

Also, like Nivex said, unless your mobo has no onboard video, it's unlikely that the thing will even start - a desktop mobo without a GPU attached will fail the POST (server mobos are obviously different). I'd keep that GPU in there though. There are Linux extensions that can actually put that puppy to work crunching data for you - we use a rather similar setup to do Monte Carlo simulations here in our lab.