Inherited PC - use as NAS?

[jcwillia1]

I have inherited a Dell Dimension E310 which my mother in law gave me. The hard drive is clearly on its last legs but I wonder if I could replace the HDD, flash it with a different OS (suggestions?), load it up with big HDDs full of movies and use it as a media server - not to watch / decode, only to serve files.

Best Practices / Thoughts?

 

[microchip]

Looks good. I have a similar machine running here. It's a minimal Linux install (IceWM as window manager) which runs MiniDLNA. My TV doesn't have DLNA but my Blu-ray player does, so I use it to decode and stream films to my TV. Works perfectly here

 

[jcwillia1]

Looks good. I have a similar machine running here. It's a minimal Linux install (IceWM as window manager) which runs MiniDLNA. My TV doesn't have DLNA but my Blu-ray player does, so I use it to decode and stream films to my TV. Works perfectly here

Know of any decent walkthroughs or demos for that setup?

 

[AdvHomeServer]

I just googled a Dell e310. It's circa 2006 technology with a pentium 4 processor. 80GB was on the review machine. Sorry to say, but it looks like landfill material.

 

[microchip]

Know of any decent walkthroughs or demos for that setup?

Nope, I did everything myself but then again I've been using Linux for 14 years now.

Setting up MiniDLNA is really easy. Install it and configure its config file /etc/minidlna.conf to watch directories with movies you put in. It can watch multiple ones so if you have 3 or 4 independent disks with movies, you just tell minidlna which folders to watch. The config file of minidlna is very easy to set up and is by default very well documented. See attached example below

 

[jcwillia1]

I just googled a Dell e310. It's circa 2006 technology with a pentium 4 processor. 80GB was on the review machine. Sorry to say, but it looks like landfill material.

What? I was planning to add hard drives but why cant a pentium 4 be a file server box?

 

[microchip]

I just googled a Dell e310. It's circa 2006 technology with a pentium 4 processor. 80GB was on the review machine. Sorry to say, but it looks like landfill material.

This is enough for a media server + minidlna. All it has to do is read films from disk and server them through minidlna. There is no decoding or anything else involved so CPU usage will be very minimal. Also Linux runs fine on such a machine provided you don't used some full-blown desktop like KDE/GNOME

 

[jcwillia1]

Nope, I did everything myself but then again I've been using Linux for 14 years now.

Setting up MiniDLNA is really easy. Install it and configure its config file /etc/minidlna.conf to watch directories with movies you put in. It can watch multiple ones so if you have 3 or 4 independent disks with movies, you just tell minidlna which folders to watch. The config file of minidlna is very easy to set up and is by default very well documented. See attached example below

I googled easy install for linux and this was first hit :

http://www.linux.com/learn/tutorial...y-linux-the-absolutely-easiest-and-safest-way

Thoughts?

 

[AdvHomeServer]

What? I was planning to add hard drives but why cant a pentium 4 be a file server box?

A Pentium 4 has a passmark score of 1xx to 2xx. This is ancient technology with almost no capability. Buying a new drive for this pc for the purpose you stated is not a good use of money. A mid range Core 2 Duo has a pasmark score of about 1100. A Sandybridge i3 in a low end laptop I own has a passmark of about 3300. It's your money, though.

Besides, I doubt SATA drives would even work with something that old. You would probably have to find an old obsolete pata drive of also small size since none are very large, or add a sata card with a suitable driver that hopefully will work on something that old. More and more, your efforts are sounding heroic.

 

[jcwillia1]

This is enough for a media server + minidlna. All it has to do is read films from disk and server them through minidlna. There is no decoding or anything else involved so CPU usage will be very minimal. Also Linux runs fine on such a machine provided you don't used some full-blown desktop like KDE/GNOME

ok so I did some light reading - how do you feel about xubuntu?

trying to find an install that is both simple and extremely thin/lightweight.

 

[sinshiva]

i agree with AdvHomeServer.

the machine you are working with might barely pass for a router. that cpu is going to drink electricity and give you no performance for it.

junk it and buy a cheap NAS if you want/need it.

 

[jcwillia1]

Nope, I did everything myself but then again I've been using Linux for 14 years now.

Setting up MiniDLNA is really easy. Install it and configure its config file /etc/minidlna.conf to watch directories with movies you put in. It can watch multiple ones so if you have 3 or 4 independent disks with movies, you just tell minidlna which folders to watch. The config file of minidlna is very easy to set up and is by default very well documented. See attached example below

ok I watched this and I confess my head spun a bit but I think this is what you may have been referring to?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndAYZ0DJ-U4

 

[microchip]

ok I watched this and I confess my head spun a bit but I think this is what you may have been referring to?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndAYZ0DJ-U4

Just get Xubuntu on disc and install it. It's all graphical so you just follow the steps. And don't listen to the guys above. A P4 *is* capable of working as a file server. File servers don't use much CPU anyways. I still have a P4 running a custom-made openSUSE as a home server. It's more than capable of doing its job and I haven't seen a single hiccup thus far while it servers my movies

In case you wonder how I made the custom openSUSE, we at SUSE have a site where you can build your own distribution based on SUSE, all through the web interface https://susestudio.com/

That said, the guys above do make one valid point about the disks. It'll be hard to find PATA disks if the Dell doesn't support SATA. There are two options there. Get second hands PATA disks, or buy a PCI SATA card and use new disks. Last option is a bit limiting as the PCI bus has a theoretical max throughput of 133MB/s (in reality it'll be lower). The first option is also limiting as there are no PATA disks above 1TB (if I'm not mistaken)

PS: my old lappy has an Intel T1300 (single core) @ 1.3GHz and it runs a full-blown KDE desktop. Believe it or not, it works pretty fluently and that CPU is slower than a P4 Northwood or Prescott

 

[jcwillia1]

That said, the guys above do make one valid point about the disks. It'll be hard to find PATA disks if the Dell doesn't support SATA. There are two options there. Get second hands PATA disks, or buy a PCI SATA card and use new disks. Last option is a bit limiting as the PCI bus has a theoretical max throughput of 133MB/s (in reality it'll be lower). The first option is also limiting as there are no PATA disks above 1TB (if I'm not mistaken)

PS: my old lappy has an Intel T1300 (single core) @ 1.3GHz and it runs a full-blown KDE desktop. Believe it or not, it works pretty fluently and that CPU is slower than a P4 Northwood or Prescott

Discs are SATA. Looking forward to trying this.

 

[AdvHomeServer]

Discs are SATA. Looking forward to trying this.

My mistake. It came with a std 80GB SATA but would support 160GB Raid 1. The CPU passmark score is in the 3xx range. Fast Ethernet std, not gigabit. Still a waste to upgrade in my estimation.

Since you have to buy a drive anyway, why not put it in a decent NAS box for under $100 and it will serve media well. Or plug a USB drive into your router and end up in the same place for not much outlay. The savings in power consumption will pay for the NAS box over the old desktop, fairly quickly I would guess.

I really wonder why some people ask for advice when all they really want is someone telling them what they want to hear.

If you really want to play with building a NAS for a hobby or with alternate operating systems, why not just use VirtualBox and go to town on a modern PC. If you're using Windows 8 pro, start up the Hyper-V feature and you're ready to go without anything else, plus you'll get experience with a modern type 1 hypervisor (although VMware will probably rule the roost in data centers)

 

[jcwillia1]

I really wonder why some people ask for advice when all they really want is someone telling them what they want to hear.

Because you're insensitive and rude. Calling my mother in law's computer "landfill material" is deliberately baiting a fight. If you can please stick to the facts, perhaps you could actually help.

Now that we've got that out of the way...

My mistake. It came with a std 80GB SATA but would support 160GB Raid 1. The CPU passmark score is in the 3xx range. Fast Ethernet std, not gigabit.

I wasn't planning on upgrading - I was planning on adding a 4TB WD and running the thinnest server I could on it to push MKV's to my WDTV Live.

The 160GB comment concerns me - does that mean the MB can't handle big drives?

So here's where I'm at : I can spend $100 or so and get a 4TB hard drive to jam in this thing and run it as a server or my original plan was to get a 4TB My Cloud Drive and hook that up for $150-ish (waiting for Best Buy to run another sale).

Obviously the MyCloud solution is simpler and potentially better performing. I have a previous generation "MyBook Live 2TB" that works amazingly well.

Either way, I'm not spending more than $200 all-in to upgrade my current setup.

 

[microchip]

My P4, which also has native SATA150 has 4 Seagate disks of each 2TB in size. It has no problem detecting their full size. Remember that the MBR supports a max of 2TB. Anything above 2TB has to use GPT partitions for the disks

I suspect that the Dell also has SATA150, no? If so, the disks won't reach their full speed potential but it's more than enough for streaming films.

In regards to RAM, officially a 32-bit system can address a max of 3GB - the so called 3GB barrier, but depending on the BIOS, it can support more but then you'll need a Linux kernel with Physical Address Extension (PAE) and if I'm not mistaken, most 32-bit Linux kernels are already set up by the packagers with PAE enabled. (openSUSE has, don't know on other distros)

@AdvHomeServer

Don't stare yourself blind on synthetic benchmark numbers on CPUs. If a 600 MHz MIPS router won't be able to run Linux smoothly, then my P4 won't be able too. Both my P4 server and my MIPS router prove you wrong.

 

[AdvHomeServer]

I wasn't planning on upgrading - I was planning on adding a 4TB WD and running the thinnest server I could on it to push MKV's to my WDTV Live.

The 160GB comment concerns me - does that mean the MB can't handle big drives?

So here's where I'm at : I can spend $100 or so and get a 4TB hard drive to jam in this thing and run it as a server or my original plan was to get a 4TB My Cloud Drive and hook that up for $150-ish (waiting for Best Buy to run another sale).

You should google the specs to see if the upgrade makes sense. That's what I did. I'm not going to do any more research for you since facts appear to upset you so much. Technically, it's not landfill material. Rather, it should be sensibly and respectfully recycled in an appropriate manner to protect the environment. You replying 'Thank you' to me would have been the appropriate response as all of my replies are fact based. Do what you want.

 

[AdvHomeServer]

@AdvHomeServer

Don't stare yourself blind on synthetic benchmark numbers on CPUs. If a 600 MHz MIPS router won't be able to run Linux smoothly, then my P4 won't be able too. Both my P4 server and my MIPS router prove you wrong.

You stated you're running a laptop. The Dell is a desktop and uses multiple times more power. Your P4 has approximately a 2x higher passmark score. You are comparing apples to oranges.

Fast ethernet @ 100mbps theoretical is a fraction of actual USB2 speeds even when at theoretical ethernet maximum. In reality you will be looking at speeds more like internet download speeds or a little faster. Not a good use of cash, if you ask me (which the original poster did.)

 

[azazel1024]

You stated you're running a laptop. The Dell is a desktop and uses multiple times more power. Your P4 has approximately a 2x higher passmark score. You are comparing apples to oranges.

Fast ethernet @ 100mbps theoretical is a fraction of actual USB2 speeds even when at theoretical ethernet maximum. In reality you will be looking at speeds more like internet download speeds or a little faster. Not a good use of cash, if you ask me (which the original poster did.)

I agree completely. If you absolutely MUST use this because you are constitutionally opposed to recycling it, by all means.

However, an inexpensive single disk or two disk NAS will run circles around it, the learning curve is tiny on setup and will only run you $100-200 to purchase, which you'll probably save back in 1-2 years of operation on your electric bill compared to trying to reuse an ancient P4 machine.

Or if you want a project and a full computer to operate as a server (though it sounds like you only want basic file serving and maybe DLNA, which almost any NAS currently on the market can do easily), just custom build on. A basic Haswell celeron, basic H85/87 or H95/97 board, 2/4GB of RAM, case and power supply if done right is going to be less than $200. Then you just need the harddrive.

Or if you want free and you have a router that supports it, just hang a USB drive off the router. It is almost deffinitely going to have better performance than the P4 machine if it has a gigabit port and is newer than 4 years old (again, limitations of a fast ethernet port).