sadisticsaviorx Posted November 1, 2006 Share Posted November 1, 2006 Recently I traded a mobo and cpu for a dell dimension 2400, but im not sure what to do with it. Specs - Pentium 4 2.6ghz - 512mb ram - 200gb hdd (added) I wanted to turn it into a nas...but it seems like a waste.. so i wanted to put stepmania on it. Does anyone have any suggestions for something to do with it or how i can reach my goal of a "Stepmania NAS". :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VaKo Posted November 1, 2006 Share Posted November 1, 2006 Just install freeBSD, then use it as a second desktop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sadisticsaviorx Posted November 2, 2006 Author Share Posted November 2, 2006 Without a spare monitor to go long with it... its kinda pointless.. :( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparda Posted November 2, 2006 Share Posted November 2, 2006 FOLDING box? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thisiam Posted November 2, 2006 Share Posted November 2, 2006 how about a KVM cable Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VaKo Posted November 2, 2006 Share Posted November 2, 2006 You don't really need a monitor with freeBSD, apart from the initial install. Just make sure you enable SSH at install time and then use Putty to login from your main machine. It makes a great little system that way, and you can get a suprising amount learnt by using SSH on a headless system. In "the real world" your not going to have monitors on server or appliance boxes so its a good learning expirence to get used to it like that. Then you can run your NAS, FTP, maybe a little webserver as well... stuff like that. I'm mainly recommending this to you as your machine seems to powerful to waste on a stand alone NAS, and without a monitor for it your not going to be running it as a Linux Desktop. Why FreeBSD? Its just (IMHO) a little more logical and easier to learn than linux, and you can do more with it in a shorter space of time than with a comparable linux install. IMHO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Famicoman Posted November 2, 2006 Share Posted November 2, 2006 That would make one hell of a Folding@Home Box Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macker Posted November 2, 2006 Share Posted November 2, 2006 I would go with NetBSD and stick Xen on it, and use X over SSH. Then you can use it as a testing ground. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
take it take Posted November 2, 2006 Share Posted November 2, 2006 How about MythTV? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sadisticsaviorx Posted November 3, 2006 Author Share Posted November 3, 2006 You don't really need a monitor with freeBSD, apart from the initial install. Just make sure you enable SSH at install time and then use Putty to login from your main machine. It makes a great little system that way, and you can get a suprising amount learnt by using SSH on a headless system. In "the real world" your not going to have monitors on server or appliance boxes so its a good learning expirence to get used to it like that.Then you can run your NAS, FTP, maybe a little webserver as well... stuff like that. I'm mainly recommending this to you as your machine seems to powerful to waste on a stand alone NAS, and without a monitor for it your not going to be running it as a Linux Desktop. Why FreeBSD? Its just (IMHO) a little more logical and easier to learn than linux, and you can do more with it in a shorter space of time than with a comparable linux install. IMHO. I like those ideas, but o don't know how i can fit stepmania into that. Im sure it can be done and i should try to, but i dont have much experience with any other OS besides Os X and windows. If someone is willing to help me out im willing to give it a try. EDIT: oh, and thanks for all the suggestion! EDIT2: I installed FreeBSD 6.1 last night and i cant get kdm to come up and i dont know how to do all the things you suggested... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spartain X Posted November 9, 2006 Share Posted November 9, 2006 That would be nice folding@home rig just install folding@home and VNC and then just network share the hard drive and you have a nas box that in the spare time fold's for a cure. ou can just put it some where in a closet and just remote control it through vnc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burn Posted November 9, 2006 Share Posted November 9, 2006 I heard about some NAS software called FreeNAS but I've never used it and can't comment on how well it works (or doesn't work). Folding@Home sounds good. As for distros, FreeBSD is good and will give you some really good Unix experience, though I don't know how many businesses run FreeBSD (we run it so there's at least one :)). You can also load Xen on it and run as many different OS's as you want (Debian, Gentoo, Fedora Core, FreeBSD). I hear setting up Xen is a lot easier if you start with a Fedora Core base system. Richard Bejtlich (http://taosecurity.blogspot.com) is a huge FreeBSD advocate and has an excellent security blog if you're into that sort of stuff. If you've never used Linux (or FreeBSD) before, then you're in for a world full of learning. Everything you need to do is an experience. You'll start off with a specific task in hand and by the time you figure it all out you've learned a lot more than you thought you would. You'll also soon realize that Linux (or FreeBSD) is so much more powerful than Windows (not as pretty, but more powerful :)). Good luck with whatever you choose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karterius Posted November 9, 2006 Share Posted November 9, 2006 I like the idea of a myth TV box, I have been pondering with getting a shuttle size computer and building one. Would be great to be able to record, save, and burn shows without having to tie up my desktop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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