I just got a new toy to play with!
My friend Randy gave me a 1U rackmount PC - an older computer system he didn't want anymore. Except, it doesn't just have 1 PC in it... it has 2! Two completely separate motherboards, power supplies, memory, cpu, network/video/mouse/keyboard ports, everything.
Both machines are identical - AMD Athlon 1.2GHz with 1.5GB RAM (maxed out), with a small hard disk (1 each). He was running Win2000 on both of them. But I know the real potential of these boxes: Linux web servers! Windows has way too much overhead, especially with each next release that comes out. It makes you think you need faster and faster machines, older ones have to be discarded. But with Linux, you can install just the parts you need with nothing else; bloat cannot happen on Linux because of this. I can install just what it takes to have a web server and/or mail server and/or database server, then I can create virtual hosts, user accounts, remote-access, etc, all I want.
Randy says the box has overheating issues. I opened the box and checked it out, they only have 4 tiny 1.5" fans to move air thru the whole double-pc-system. The design causes the front mobo to overheat the rear mobo; I think I found a way to add 2 or 3 little 1.5" fans to fix it. And there's a couple other basic maintenance things to do on it (power cable breaking; needs bigger hd's)
People don't realize that a low-end home-pc for single-user use needs to be way beefier than a low-end web server with 2 dozen web sites on it. Drawing YouTube videos with audio is fairly large demand; opening 10 apps at the same time takes a lot of memory. Because of that, people's old discarded Windows PCs can actually be re-used as Linux-based web servers, if you know what you're doing.
The only downside is, once you have 5 or 6 of these low-end linux boxes running, you're drawing a lot of power (and generating a lot of heat) - more than if you just broke down and built a brand new server for $2000 that has the capacity of all of those systems combined, with far less power requirement and heat generation.
I love fixing up old computers and giving them a new purpose, allowing them to be useful again. It's fun.
My friend Randy gave me a 1U rackmount PC - an older computer system he didn't want anymore. Except, it doesn't just have 1 PC in it... it has 2! Two completely separate motherboards, power supplies, memory, cpu, network/video/mouse/keyboard ports, everything.
Both machines are identical - AMD Athlon 1.2GHz with 1.5GB RAM (maxed out), with a small hard disk (1 each). He was running Win2000 on both of them. But I know the real potential of these boxes: Linux web servers! Windows has way too much overhead, especially with each next release that comes out. It makes you think you need faster and faster machines, older ones have to be discarded. But with Linux, you can install just the parts you need with nothing else; bloat cannot happen on Linux because of this. I can install just what it takes to have a web server and/or mail server and/or database server, then I can create virtual hosts, user accounts, remote-access, etc, all I want.
Randy says the box has overheating issues. I opened the box and checked it out, they only have 4 tiny 1.5" fans to move air thru the whole double-pc-system. The design causes the front mobo to overheat the rear mobo; I think I found a way to add 2 or 3 little 1.5" fans to fix it. And there's a couple other basic maintenance things to do on it (power cable breaking; needs bigger hd's)
People don't realize that a low-end home-pc for single-user use needs to be way beefier than a low-end web server with 2 dozen web sites on it. Drawing YouTube videos with audio is fairly large demand; opening 10 apps at the same time takes a lot of memory. Because of that, people's old discarded Windows PCs can actually be re-used as Linux-based web servers, if you know what you're doing.
The only downside is, once you have 5 or 6 of these low-end linux boxes running, you're drawing a lot of power (and generating a lot of heat) - more than if you just broke down and built a brand new server for $2000 that has the capacity of all of those systems combined, with far less power requirement and heat generation.
I love fixing up old computers and giving them a new purpose, allowing them to be useful again. It's fun.
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