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Server idea that may or may not work

A

acb2000

Junior Member
Hello!

My current computes are getting a bit old and they are getting slow, because of that I needed to come up with a solution that: didn't involve upgrading my current ones (they are 6 years old so it would be a waste of money) or replacing them (because I have no use for my current ones then).
I was thinking and I got an idea that I don't even know is possible. The idea consists in having a very powerfull server that instead of letting me access files, would let me use the actual computer, I thought about VNC Viewer or Team Viewer but I have more than one computer and I might use more than one at a time, so those don't work that well, what I thought was that I would power my current computers and instead of login in to the computer I would log into the server and use that instead, only using my computer to mirror what the server is doing.
As I said I don't even know if such thing can be done but if it is I'll probably look into it. If it is possible I also have some requirements, it would need to: be able to have multiple sessions going on at once, be fast and powerfull, not use much energy (it can use more than a regular computer but I don't want to have the highest electrical bill in my town), and I wouldn't wan't it to cost more than 3000€ (4 056.6 US$), it can be big but it can't be the size of a room and it should have a lot of storage space (4+ TB).
Tell me what you think and please let me know if this is possible or not.

Thanks!
 
It can be done but there are certain tasks that wouldn't work too well if you have them running on a server and then accessing them via remote sessions. We need to know what you plan on having this server run along with any websites that you may be purchasing equipment from. One task that would definitely have some issues would be any gaming as there will be a fair bit of latency between the server and the client PC. I have to ask though why you think upgrading the current PCs would be a waste of money? Unless they are proprietary systems built by the likes of Dell at the very least you should be able to re-use the case, optical drive and possibly the PSU which would save you some cash.
 
If you have 3k to play with, you can build a couple of midrange systems.

What is it you want to do and what kind of hardware do you have now? I mean, heck, if you're just doing office stuff, adding an SSD and more RAM to an older Core 2 rig will bring it up to modern standards for cheap. If you have a gaming rig in every room of the house, that's a different story.
 
Multiple computers, with Windows Pro for easy remote desktop (but, only 1 session per PC), is going to be the most cost-effective route, and your budget can build 2-4 of such boxes, depending on peripherals and specs.

How many PCs do you have now? What are their specs? How many PCs do you need? What do you actually use them for? What software do you use on them? Do you need to access them remotely?

New PCs will use less power while on than older ones, and if remote access isn't needed, will happily spend most of their time asleep, using just a few Watts.

If your current ones are too old, but you have that big of a budget for replacing them, why not replace them? Wipe your stuff off them, and sell them cheap.
 
You want a REALLY crazy idea? Provision a Windows 2008 virtual server on something like Amazon AWS and host your files on something like that. Then you can get to it anywhere using Terminal Services without having to set up port forwarding on your home router.

It might sound crazy, but I just took a startup development course at Stanford that set up their class development systems like this.

Depending on how much you use it and your bandwidth usage, it would cost you less than $40 a month.
 
the OP can also install logmein and Remote desktop from his smart phone for free if thats all he is wishing for.

Im lost in exactly what the OP wants to do...
 
aigomorla said:
the OP can also install logmein and Remote desktop from his smart phone for free if thats all he is wishing for.

Im lost in exactly what the OP wants to do...
Click to expand...

It sounds like he wants a file server with a remote desktop on it for accessing his files. It also sounds like he wants the same desktop anywhere, even when remote.

I'm still liking my AWS idea. It might be overkill, but I bet that it would be a lot more responsive when working remotely. Nobody has as much bandwidth at home than Amazon does 🙂
 
nsafreak said:
It can be done but there are certain tasks that wouldn't work too well if you have them running on a server and then accessing them via remote sessions. We need to know what you plan on having this server run along with any websites that you may be purchasing equipment from. One task that would definitely have some issues would be any gaming as there will be a fair bit of latency between the server and the client PC. I have to ask though why you think upgrading the current PCs would be a waste of money? Unless they are proprietary systems built by the likes of Dell at the very least you should be able to re-use the case, optical drive and possibly the PSU which would save you some cash.
Click to expand...

Regular usage and some video editing, not much into gaming.
 
dave_the_nerd said:
If you have 3k to play with, you can build a couple of midrange systems.

What is it you want to do and what kind of hardware do you have now? I mean, heck, if you're just doing office stuff, adding an SSD and more RAM to an older Core 2 rig will bring it up to modern standards for cheap. If you have a gaming rig in every room of the house, that's a different story.
Click to expand...

I have two machines a laptop (old Toshiba Tecra A8) and a HP Pavillion Desktop, ram for the laptop is just stupid expensive (2 GB for 50+ $), the ssd is probably something I would do.
 
Cerb said:
Multiple computers, with Windows Pro for easy remote desktop (but, only 1 session per PC), is going to be the most cost-effective route, and your budget can build 2-4 of such boxes, depending on peripherals and specs.

How many PCs do you have now? What are their specs? How many PCs do you need? What do you actually use them for? What software do you use on them? Do you need to access them remotely?

New PCs will use less power while on than older ones, and if remote access isn't needed, will happily spend most of their time asleep, using just a few Watts.

If your current ones are too old, but you have that big of a budget for replacing them, why not replace them? Wipe your stuff off them, and sell them cheap.
Click to expand...

I have two PCs, a laptop and a desktop, and I will probably get a new laptop but the desktop I don't really want to upgrade, if i get or build a new one what will I do with the one I have? It uses too much power to be an effective server, I don't know if anyone would buy it if I sold it, it was craaaazy expensive for me (1123€) so I would probably sell it with a huge loss.
I use my PCs for regular usage (web, word, mail, etc.) and for video editing and transcoding (with sony vegas and others)
 
You can probably do normal office work via Remote Desktop as long as you are not super picky when it comes to latency. Anything that uses GPU-acceleration to draw screen elements (video editing, not encoding) isn't going to work out too well though.
 
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