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rolnics
April 20th, 2012, 01:48 PM
It's happened again, my trusty old P4 has thrown the rattle out of its pram again, this time its the video card. I've picked a £5 card off ebay, finally got to install it last night and the monitor just said it couldn't run the resolution. Put the hard drive back into another machine I've borrowed and the "bad /non-bootable disk" error came up! At which point I gave up, it's probably just playing up because I moved it, I'll have a look at it over the weekend.

So I'm now thinking shall I really bother with it all or should I get with the times? I was planning to make some pc purchases this year as I want to get a server together as well. I'm thinking along the lines of the server doing the following file sharing of pictures, audio and video. Mail serving, as I have accumulated several email addresses over the years maybe even a proxy server. Along with a torrent box and the backend for mythtv or the like. I know I'm not asking for much! lol And to be honest, I don't think it will happen, not through lack of knowledge or such, but money. However I'm in no big rush for this project as I'm in the research phase, so the money part might not be as big a problem.

Anyway back to the subject in hand. Is it worth bothering with resurrecting my P4 or bite the bullet and get a new pc? Or could I reincarnate my P4 into some of the ideas I have in the above paragraph. Such as the mail server, torrent box and for now a file server?

I'm open to suggestions.

mips
April 20th, 2012, 02:26 PM
I would get a new PC. The Ivy Bridge stuff is also coming out this month.

morgan141
April 20th, 2012, 03:14 PM
I would get a new PC. The Ivy Bridge stuff is also coming out this month.

^ This

rolnics
April 20th, 2012, 03:45 PM
I would get a new PC. The Ivy Bridge stuff is also coming out this month.


^ This

Yeah I'd noticed that, but I don't like throwing things out, still got my p3! lol But I suppose there is a time where enough is enough....time for a clear out....

Anyone else with any suggestions even the points for more research....?

Bandit
April 20th, 2012, 04:50 PM
I would get a new PC. The Ivy Bridge stuff is also coming out this month.

I hope its better then the Sandy Bridge-E

mr-woof
April 20th, 2012, 06:37 PM
I vote resurrect the P4, keep the retro spirit alive. A P4 is still a capable machine for browsing the web, emails etc

Johan Ryberg
April 20th, 2012, 06:53 PM
Not - Old machines tends to be noisy and use to much power.... but it's not good to the environment to buy new hardware all the time but it's more fun =)

-- Johan Ryberg

for.i.am.root
April 20th, 2012, 07:47 PM
If the hdd is dead run it off of a CD and use a cheap-o USB for persistence. Then run it as a mail server / proxy server.

Total investment:

1 blank CD
~ 10 bucks for an 8GB USB
~ 10 bucks for a GB PCI card
Raising the dead: Priceless!

morgan141
April 21st, 2012, 10:05 AM
Yeah I'd noticed that, but I don't like throwing things out, still got my p3! lol But I suppose there is a time where enough is enough....time for a clear out....

Anyone else with any suggestions even the points for more research....?

Well put it this way, no matter how much you spent on it initially you certainly got your monies worth :p.

For my work I need a fast computer, so perhaps I'm the wrong person to talk to. Still, I don't think the time and effort required to fix an extremely old PC is worth it in the long run. As a fun side project yeah that's great, but as a main computer no.

mips
April 21st, 2012, 10:41 AM
Well put it this way, no matter how much you spent on it initially you certainly got your monies worth :p.


+1

I gave my old PC to my folks and it has served all of us very well. As of late several things have been dying one after the other. First it was the PSU, then the HDD followed by GPU and just three weeks ago the onboard sound died. So far I have replaced all those things over time (about 1yr) but thinking back now I should have just got them a new PC considering the money I pumped into the old one and a new one would have been faster with a warranty.

I'm not a person that likes throwing old stuff out but some times it just does not make sense to hang on to some old stuff. Other stuff like my old NAD 3020 amplifier is going to the grave with me :biggrin:

rolnics
April 21st, 2012, 01:04 PM
@ for.i.am.root
Good suggestion and will keep it in mind! The HD didn't want to work, cos some stupid idiot......didn't give it power! DOH! lol

@ morgan141 & mips
I hadn't thought of it like that, and yes, I've got more than my money's worth out of the machine!

Looking around at barebones pcs and some other cheap pc's like this one from Ebuyer. (http://www.ebuyer.com/344621-zoostorm-pentium-sandybridge-no-os-desktop-7873-1056) Ok it's not going to break any speed records by far, but it's speedier than my current rig! And better still, I could probably buy it on my next pay day or definitely the next one!

Thanks guys.

Anyone have any suggestions for research / reading as I've never built a server.

Then it will give me some more time to get my budget for my server together!

for.i.am.root
April 21st, 2012, 01:12 PM
For basic home use any rig will work as a "server" with just about any os. Just depends on exactly what you want.

I have an old P4 running as a "phone server" with Magic Jack. An e2220 running as a file / media "server".

Just install Ubuntu and go to town :-D

morgan141
April 21st, 2012, 01:17 PM
@ for.i.am.root
Good suggestion and will keep it in mind! The HD didn't want to work, cos some stupid idiot......didn't give it power! DOH! lol

@ morgan141 & mips
I hadn't thought of it like that, and yes, I've got more than my money's worth out of the machine!

Looking around at barebones pcs and some other cheap pc's like this one from Ebuyer. (http://www.ebuyer.com/344621-zoostorm-pentium-sandybridge-no-os-desktop-7873-1056) Ok it's not going to break any speed records by far, but it's speedier than my current rig! And better still, I could probably buy it on my next pay day or definitely the next one!

Thanks guys.

Anyone have any suggestions for research / reading as I've never built a server.

Then it will give me some more time to get my budget for my server together!

Have you considered building a pc from scratch? You'll probably be able to get more for your money, and have the added advantage of it being customised to exactly how you want it :).

mips
April 21st, 2012, 02:18 PM
Looking around at barebones pcs and some other cheap pc's like this one from Ebuyer. (http://www.ebuyer.com/344621-zoostorm-pentium-sandybridge-no-os-desktop-7873-1056) Ok it's not going to break any speed records by far, but it's speedier than my current rig! And better still, I could probably buy it on my next pay day or definitely the next one!

Price wise it compares very well with G620 systems sold over here which only have 2GB ram. Looks like a good deal but browse a bit more and keep you eyes peeled as you might even find something better.

Artemis3
April 22nd, 2012, 05:05 AM
If the hdd is dead run it off of a CD and use a cheap-o USB for persistence. Then run it as a mail server / proxy server.

If you are doing this, i don't see the point for a CD. You can boot from the USB stick you know... AND have persistence.

Lubuntu would be a good choice for this, it runs fairly well with 384MB+ of ram. (And yes, i have been helping donate a batch of P4s recently).

A p4 could also be a console only server, a gateway/firewall with a couple of nics, etc; a pxe server to install/run things in your home lan, dhcp; whatever.

If you are getting "out of range" errors, try to force common older resolutions such as 1024x768 (in grub, xorg, etc). I would add the option GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=text into /etc/default/grub to stop grub from being an idiot.

rolnics
April 22nd, 2012, 09:24 AM
@morgan141
yes, I'll probably be going the diy route, just I'd been looking at i3 machines as I have built all my previous machines. It was just more a quick fix!

I'll be keeping my eyes peeled!

mörgæs
April 22nd, 2012, 09:44 AM
Don't struggle with old hardware which behaves badly. You can get 4-5 years old used gear for next to nothing.

If you work at a large company, have you asked the IT department if they have some leftovers you can have?

rolnics
April 22nd, 2012, 05:44 PM
already going down that road ;) that is one good thing about my role I'm generally the first person to handle the goods! and plus the it guys have a clear out.....laptop bag anyone?! lol

I think I'm gonna bit the bullet this year and upgrade completely. I'll make do for the next couple of months and build myself a new rig. Now sandy or ivy bridge....hmmm?!