Old Hardware - what to do?

[ArminasAnarchy]

Since hardware is always coming down in price, and since it also quickly becomes obsolete, it seems inevitable that you'll build up a collection of old computers.

As well as having my own, I've also been given some stuff by relatives, meaning that I now have 2 laptops and 2 computers that are completely redundant, sitting unused and unloved.

If the worse comes to the worse, I'm perfectly happy to just amuse myself dismantling them - kind of in the Raspberry Pi spirit of learning how stuff works from the bottom up.

It would be interesting however to actually use the hardware. One idea I've got is to set up a server - it would mean I could host my own email, as well as having files backed up and available on the move. Has anyone done this? What are the specs, how difficult was it to set up/use, what OS are you running?

Another idea - which would really be something of a mega project - is to hook up all the hardware together to use it in a cluster - I've read stuff about this thing called a "Beowulf cluster". Again, has anyone any experience with this? Again, it'd be interesting to hear about operating systems in particular - I'd want something relatively easy to set up and configure since I'm not really a computer master!

[oshunluvr]

Server stuff is simple enough. Depends on what you're going to do with it. I built a low power Atom based server a couple of years ago and it's chugging along fine. In my case, I have multiple users in my home so having a stand-alone server comes in handy.

I use mine to host media files, store backups, manage two printers and a scanner and deliver content to my TV's using a DLNA server.
There's a post somewhere in the forum by SteveRiley that outlines how to set up a mail server but I've not bothered to do that yet.

The limitation with a laptop mobo will be the number of hard drives you can attach, otherwise it should be powerful enough for these kind of basics.

Cluster processing I have no experience with because I really can't find a need. Might be fun to see if you can pull it off though...

[ArminasAnarchy]

Well yeah, this is one of the problems I've thought about - is it even worth pulling off? Sure, I'd have loads of processing power, but would the added benefit do anything? I could fold with it, but I'd only really bother to run that if I was using it anyway - maybe I could have a server doing it whilst it wasn't being used (maybe see if someone could write a script, or see if there are tools available to reduce folding load when more important tasks are being performed?).
Ordinarily, I'd hook stuff up for gaming - and this might be useful as the Steam for Linux project comes along. Currnetly I've got a build similar to yours (I managed to OC up to 3.2Ghz on my Q6600 though :P) running W7 for that though. It's got a Geforce 9800GTX inside, so it's aging a little...but can still handle pretty much anything (with the exception of Crysis 2 at full settings).

[oshunluvr]

I had mine up over 3.6 for awhile (even as high as 3.8, but that made the radiator fans too loud), but after a year or so it started to become unreliable. I thought it was the CPU/Mobo not liking the O/C but I think it was the PSU - which I've now replaced. I never bothered to go back up in O/C speed I guess because I got interested in other aspects. The bottleneck is hard-drive access so I learned all about RAID and filesystem formats and tweeking. Now with SSD's most of that doesn't matter anymore either!

I'm not into Crysis and the games I play aren't as power hungry as that one is. The only thing I do with mine that really takes time these days is transcoding video. DVD::RIP has cluster computing built into it, but prefer the results I get with Handbrake. I'm not really in enough of a hurry that I've bothered trying clustering. Seems more cost effective to upgrade to a new Ivy Bridge i7 instead.

[dibl]

I've been putting old PC's with new Linux operating systems up on craigslist for a very cheap price ($40), and letting them go that way. LXDE desktop, and load it up with skype, libreoffice, googleearth, and various non-free codecs that people want, plus a couple of browsers with flash and java plugins, and advertise it as a "browser appliance". Folks who are in need can find a use for these things. Mind you, there is no profit if you count your time worth anything at all ....

[Snowhog]

Mind you, there is no profit if you count your time worth anything at all ....

I tried to get a loan once, and offered my time as collateral. They laughed. Guess it's true: your time isn't worth squat!

[tek_heretik]

If the network adapters of each cluster member suck, then the cluster will suck (unless they are connected via serial ports, somebody correct me if I am wrong here), the members need to 'talk' to each other quickly, maybe upgrade them to 1Gb/s if that's possible. A cluster is really only good for intensive number crunching (scientific?), etc, unless you could get it to transcode, etc, that would be cool. A server is only really effective if it is 'up' 24/7, do you have the bandwidth (your ISP may get upset) and a use for it?

This is kind of old but... http://www.mcsr.olemiss.edu/bookshel...r.html#Cluster

And good ol' Wikipedia... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_cluster

[SteveRiley]

There's a post somewhere in the forum by SteveRiley that outlines how to set up a mail server but I've not bothered to do that yet.

Ah...one heads away for a few days, comes back, sees five pages of KFN to read, and the first one is about a server

Some time ago I converted my HP Mini 2140 into a server. It runs command-line Ubuntu (no GUI) and hosts the following:

* Postfix: SMTP email transfer agent
* Dovecot: IMAP email user agent
* Apache: HTTP server
* Roundcube: webmail server
* Spamassin/ClamAV/Amavis: antispam, antimalware for email
* Fail2Ban: blocks IP addresses of bad guys
* OpenDKIM: DKIM email signing
* Davical: CalDAV and CardDAV server
* TT-RSS: feed aggregator much like Google reader
* Quassel Core: IRC conversation collector for Quassel client
* Postgres: need a database for all this stuff
* Bind: authoritative DNS for my domain
* ISC-DHCP-Server: authoritative DHCP for my domain
* NTP: authoritative time for my domain

All the computers in the house (four humans, a dozen devices of various shapes) use it for DNS/DHCP/NTP. I'm the only one who uses it for IRC and email, but I suspect eventually other family members will want to migrate their mail. It runs reliably: no crashes, no reboots (except when an update requires one). It's behind my router, which allows certain inbound traffic from the Internet to the necessary ports. Comcast doesn't seem to mind, since I'm not actively running some kind of production web site. Outbound email is relayed via Comcast, which keeps me off the spam blocking lists.

If you want to go this route, you'll find it frustrating but also very educational. If you have to Google for how to set something up, ensure that you're reading recent guidelines. I spent a good two days trying to get DHCP-enabled dynamic DNS working right. The syntax for the various config files has changed over time.

[oznola]

i re-purposed a ibm t-42 think pad as a server a few years ago and it did really well.

i installed the desktop because that made it easier to manage. i would advise you to do this too.

one thing that pleased and surprised me was that oem wifi addapters worked perfectly well with the t-42 serving pages to the web. there was no need for cables and i could move them all over the place.

i used ubuntu server edition on this t-42.

and it ran with it's lid closed.

[sealbhach]

There are some organisations that accept donated computer equipment, refurbish them and send them to developing countries. Maybe there's a program in your area that will take them off your hands. Something to consider. This is an example of that kind of thing.

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[SteveRiley]

i installed the desktop because that made it easier to manage. i would advise you to do this too.

Nah, servers should never be physically touched, I don't want them to get all GUIey

[oshunluvr]

IMO, installing a desktop on a server is bloat unless you're doing something with it that specifically requires a desktop. I do everything on my server using ssh, Dolphin (file management via fish), and rarely; Webmin.

[SteveRiley]

Webmin.

How useful do you find Webmin? It's starting to feel a bit old, I think. Its ISC-DHCP module is very out of date, and the way it writes zone files for BIND is just wrong (but they still work). The Dovecot module is still for version 1, long since replaced by version 2.

[oshunluvr]

Honestly, as of late - not very useful. I mostly use it for package management (updates) because it's very convenient - just open a new window on the browser and click on the bookmark to it.

I've gotten sufficiently advanced in most server related tasks that Webmin is unnecessary. Besides, as a home user how much direct server contact do I really need? Not much.