Advantages/Disadvantages to build a home server?

[antisober]

I've recently been researching on what to do with old computer parts and i've seen a lot of people saying build a home server (or a torrent box). I don't really want to recycle them so I thinking of taking this route but what I want to know is if it's practical? How useful is a home server really or am I just making another heap of junk? Also I'd like to know how well personal web hosting would work for someone running their own website. Thanks.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Web hosting out of your house is very 1990s. It depends on your upstream internet connection, and frankly, it's probably more expensive to do that than simply leasing server space somewhere else (like Amazon.)

There are a multitude of uses for a home server - network nerds like running customized firewalls and routers, I use mine as a PLEX server and file server (backing up my laptop, desktop, housemate's laptop, etc.) You could also set it up to do printer sharing, etc. (Maybe enable AirPrint for iOS devices on printers that don't normally support them.) You can also set up personal cloud services for when you travel.

If you're a gamer, it's certainly nice to host your own server for a game you like, so you can play with your friends with mods or house rules.

The big catch is that your hoard of parts may be worse than useless for a server. Either because they're noisy, draw too much power, or don't perform well enough for what you want to do. This is often the case when repurposing older Core 2 Duo machines for servers - maybe they don't have gigabit ethernet, or DDR2 RAM is too expensive, or it's an old gaming rig with an OC'd CPU, and it draws way too much power to be economical.

So what do you have and what do you want to do?

 

[antisober]

Web hosting out of your house is very 1990s. It depends on your upstream internet connection, and frankly, it's probably more expensive to do that than simply leasing server space somewhere else (like Amazon.)

There are a multitude of uses for a home server - network nerds like running customized firewalls and routers, I use mine as a PLEX server and file server (backing up my laptop, desktop, housemate's laptop, etc.) You could also set it up to do printer sharing, etc. (Maybe enable AirPrint for iOS devices on printers that don't normally support them.) You can also set up personal cloud services for when you travel.

If you're a gamer, it's certainly nice to host your own server for a game you like, so you can play with your friends with mods or house rules.

The big catch is that your hoard of parts may be worse than useless for a server. Either because they're noisy, draw too much power, or don't perform well enough for what you want to do. This is often the case when repurposing older Core 2 Duo machines for servers - maybe they don't have gigabit ethernet, or DDR2 RAM is too expensive, or it's an old gaming rig with an OC'd CPU, and it draws way too much power to be economical.

So what do you have and what do you want to do?

Athlon 64 X2 4200+, 4GB DDR2, 160GB SATA, 300W PSU (generic). I'll probably change the PSU out though.

I'm not really sure what I want to do actually. The most practical thing for me would be to make a torrent box because I'm constantly downloading blu-ray rips and it'd be nice to store all my stuff in one place. And running a game server since a lot of my friends still play Counter-Strike so doing that is a definite too. I was just looking for maybe some other practical uses for it as well. I've pretty much canceled out the website hosting idea so thanks lmao.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Decent rig. It'll need a lot more storage for torrenting, though.

As long as you're attaching that much storage to a 24/7 box, you might as well use it as a backup destination for other computers too. (I'm assuming a laptop/desktop/both for you, how many other people in the house?)

Linux would work well for a Counterstrike server and Torrent box. Would also be free and a little lighter-weight (assuming you don't already have a Windows license.)

 

[antisober]

Decent rig. It'll need a lot more storage for torrenting, though.

As long as you're attaching that much storage to a 24/7 box, you might as well use it as a backup destination for other computers too. (I'm assuming a laptop/desktop/both for you, how many other people in the house?)

Linux would work well for a Counterstrike server and Torrent box. Would also be free and a little lighter-weight (assuming you don't already have a Windows license.)

There are only two people in the house (myself and my girlfriend) and all she does it web surf lol. And yes you are most definitely right about the space. I've seen some really good prices for some 2TB internals on newegg so i'll pick up a few of them. I considered running linux too though I dont know much about it. I have previously used Fedora 6 (not really my cup of tea) and I believe the other one was Mandriva (?) which I actually kind of liked. Similar to Win XP. What would you recommend?