what do you do with your old computers / hardware?

[Maezr]

I have a bunch of spare parts lying around that aren't really the worth the trouble it'd take to sell them. network attached storage sounds neat but they always look rather expensive. I've never actually used one so I'm not sure what to expect, but would it be possible to just build your own? case, HDD's, wifi/ethernet/usb2.0 ports, etc.

what software would you suggest? is there stuff out there built for this? would it basically just be windows with things configured for it? any downsides to the DIY version?

 

[Seekermeister]

I don't know the first thing about NAS, but building your own rig is very easy. But, I'll leave any specifics to someone that knows more than I do.

 

[corkyg]

I don't sell anything - I give it away to those less fortunate than myself. I am always sending stuff to friends that don't have much and are on limited incomes.

 

[nineball9]

Originally posted by: corkyg
I don't sell anything - I give it away to those less fortunate than myself. I am always sending stuff to friends that don't have much and are on limited incomes.

I do the same; there are many people in my apartment building living on limited incomes. I often wind up being the tech support person but I don't mind. Many can not afford internet access, but the machines are still useful for light gaming and word processing etc.

 

[Atheus]

Originally posted by: nineball9

Originally posted by: corkyg
I don't sell anything - I give it away to those less fortunate than myself. I am always sending stuff to friends that don't have much and are on limited incomes.

I do the same; there are many people in my apartment building living on limited incomes. I often wind up being the tech support person but I don't mind. Many can not afford internet access, but the machines are still useful for light gaming and word processing etc.

No free internet in USA? Not even dialup? Weird.

OP:

There are specialized operating systems like FreeNAS, and plenty of other (less specialized) free ones that will do fine. You could try any of the Linux distributions for example.

System requirements:

- Pentium pro or greater.
- 32MB RAM, but just put in as much as you have.
- Network card.
- Hard drives.

 

[Maezr]

if it's that simple, why do the "regular" NAS machines go for so much? I've seen some without drives go for 1,000$+

 

[Atheus]

Originally posted by: Maezr
if it's that simple, why do the "regular" NAS machines go for so much? I've seen some without drives go for 1,000$+

Because consumer electronics is a rip off.

/edit: and enterprise level computing is even worse...

 

[piasabird]

You can take a nice case and an integrated motherboard and make your own NAS. You dont need a powerful processor or video card just a nice integrated motherboard and a mediocre processor and a little RAM. Something like Suse LINUX would work as well as an extra copy of XP. It does not take much.

 

[AMCRambler]

Yeah I end up giving the parts away usually too, or building a system out of them for somebody. I usually wait as long as possible between upgrades, so the parts really wouldn't pull in that much money anyway. Gave my old case, and Geforce 4600 to my friend for a pc he was building his girlfriend. I had a second box I had built just for fun that I parted out, to build a new pc for my girlfriend's parents. Other stuff I just stick in a parts box in my room that I'll go check if I need a part, or someone is looking for something. Got some modems in there, a couple cdroms, spare network cards, old pc100 ram, an Intel Pentium 2 and motherboard, el cheapo power supply. I think at one point I actually built a pc from my spare parts box contents minus the case, jsut to see if I could get it to boot, lol. Network attached storage though, what for? Hard drives are so cheap now adays, I've got like 400gb in my pc and another 400gb worth of spare drives sitting on the shelf. As long as there's room in the case, throw the drives in your main pc.

 

[Seekermeister]

Atheus,

No free internet in USA? Not even dialup? Weird.

Not since the crash of internet a few years ago. However, I pay less than $5 a month for dialup, so I'm not complaining.

 

[soydios]

Just set up Windows to share a directory over the network, and voila, you have an NAS. Share a printer over the network, and you have a print server.

 

[Maezr]

Originally posted by: AMCRambler
Yeah I end up giving the parts away usually too, or building a system out of them for somebody. I usually wait as long as possible between upgrades, so the parts really wouldn't pull in that much money anyway. Gave my old case, and Geforce 4600 to my friend for a pc he was building his girlfriend. I had a second box I had built just for fun that I parted out, to build a new pc for my girlfriend's parents. Other stuff I just stick in a parts box in my room that I'll go check if I need a part, or someone is looking for something. Got some modems in there, a couple cdroms, spare network cards, old pc100 ram, an Intel Pentium 2 and motherboard, el cheapo power supply. I think at one point I actually built a pc from my spare parts box contents minus the case, jsut to see if I could get it to boot, lol. Network attached storage though, what for? Hard drives are so cheap now adays, I've got like 400gb in my pc and another 400gb worth of spare drives sitting on the shelf. As long as there's room in the case, throw the drives in your main pc.

I have a rather absurd number of drives. I'd much rather have one or two that I can keep quiet than 8 in my PC. NAS seems like the natural solution. not to mention only so many drives can fit in my HTPC case.

the prices of NAS's still completely baffle me though