Uses for an old PC?

lumencreative · 22 Jan 2015 at 10:30

I've got an old AMD Athlon X2 PC sitting in my conservatory with 4GB Ram in and I was just wondering if anyone could offer any advise as to what I could use it for, before I choose to sell it?

It's not really good enough to be used as a main PC and I already have a Synology NAS. I'm thinking of maybe a Plex Server, but any thoughts would be appreciated

Andre · 22 Jan 2015 at 10:53

Heater? It's what mine ended up being used for, for a while - as they throw a fair amount of heat out.

You are better off selling it and buying an Intel 2820 NUC and using that as a HTPC/Plex server IMO

varkanoid · 22 Jan 2015 at 11:21

doubt you would get much for it 2nd hand.

Donate it to a charity.

lumencreative · 22 Jan 2015 at 11:51

varkanoid said:
doubt you would get much for it 2nd hand.

Donate it to a charity.

That was my thought which is why I was wanting to find a use for it.

window · 22 Jan 2015 at 13:07

lumencreative · 22 Jan 2015 at 15:04

window said:
htpc

I've got a Samsung Smart TV which has a Plex app so I was thinking of using it as a Plex server to use with my TV.

wazza300 · 22 Jan 2015 at 17:49

mame machine

or could throw it out of a hotel window in an attempt to look cool?

lude1962 · 22 Jan 2015 at 19:49

OpenELEC

Trebz · 22 Jan 2015 at 20:44

lude1962 said:
OpenELEC

What he said.

theMilitant · 22 Jan 2015 at 21:08

Plex server sounds good to me.

murah · 22 Jan 2015 at 21:08

Could run folding @ home on it, check out the distributed computing section

bonus: free heater!

window · 23 Jan 2015 at 13:01

lumencreative said:
I've got a Samsung Smart TV which has a Plex app so I was thinking of using it as a Plex server to use with my TV.

Should do this then

lude1962 · 23 Jan 2015 at 14:03

Is cpu good enough for plex server?
The Guideline

Very roughly speaking, for a single full-transcode of a video, the following PassMark scores are a good guideline for a requirement:

1080p/10Mbps: 2000 PassMark
720p/4Mbps: 1500 PassMark

Only a couple x2's even reach 1500...

lumencreative · 23 Jan 2015 at 15:07

lude1962 said:
Is cpu good enough for plex server?
The Guideline

Very roughly speaking, for a single full-transcode of a video, the following PassMark scores are a good guideline for a requirement:

1080p/10Mbps: 2000 PassMark
720p/4Mbps: 1500 PassMark

Only a couple x2's even reach 1500...

Thanks for all the suggestions guys. I do like the look of OpenELEC so may try that.

In response to the above, the videos will already be transcoded so it would literally just be serving the files to my TV.

In all honesty, I was hoping my Synology Nas would do this but the Plex server app won't run on my Nas