What can I use a second desktop for? (server, maybe?)

[Red Hawk]

I have an old Dell rig sitting around unused. No parts can really be sold, so I'm wondering what I can use it for that would be to my benefit. Can I set it up as some kind of server? Possibly a server for my whole house? (we currently have 5 internet capable computers in the house, so a server to manage it all would be nice).

Long story: I recently upgraded to a new rig, salvaging some parts from my then-current rig. However, once everything was transferred, the skeleton of my old rig still had a fully functional CPU, mobo, and memory. The only component I would have to pay for to get it functional again is the power supply. Without anything other than that, the specs would be a Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4 GHz, Radeon X1300 Pro, Windows XP Professional, and 4 GB of RAM (through an address extension).

So, yeah. What can I use this for? If I want to set it up as a home server, what would I need to do?

EDIT: If I want to use this as a sort of web server, how much of a difference would using a Core 2 Quad Q6600 (also 2.4 GHz) instead of a Duo E6600 make?

 

[Zap]

Unless your web site did a lot of server side processing (big database?) then for the most part a web server is just file serving, so no need for a quad core.

 

[corkyg]

I use mine for a backup system, and when our kids and grandkids visit, they have it to use for whatever.

 

[Ken g6]

See my sig. :sneaky:

 

[mfenn]

You've got a Q6600, which supports virtualization extensions. I vote for a free ESXi server. Let's you learn a lot about real virtualization and you get as many servers as you want!

You used to require specific NICs to work with ESXi, but I've found that 5.0 works great even with cheap Realteks. You will also be somewhat limited in the number of virtual machines that you can run, but ESXi's memory management is good enough to allow you to oversubscribe your physical memory by a decent amount.