What's The Best Use for Some Older Motherboards

[Jimbo]

I have an Intel Atom DN2800MT Micro-ITX with 4GB of RAM a 32GB mSATA SSD, and a great Intel WiFi card that was a failed experiment in building an ultra low-powered media server. Even with the Crystal HD decoder, it just barely had the 'grunt' to serve up 720P videos at an acceptable rate, and only to one device at a time.
It has a consumer IR receiver built in to that can be controlled by a remote, if that info matters.

Well, times have moved on and it getting replaced with a much more powerful Plex box.

Could I make this into a cloud server (it has two 2TB drives internally) because I was thinking of making a cloud storage device that my friends and neighbors could use.

In the past, when I had more money, I'd just give my old (but still pretty current) hardware away to needy friends, but they are all squared away now and financially doing better, and so this box is kind of an orphan.

Any thoughts?
Could I turn it into a super firewall maybe if that cloud thing does not work out?
Maybe a micro storage server NAS?

I just don't know, and I'm looking for ideas.

Thanks.

 

[Sabrewings]

I turned an old laptop into a home media server with NAS4Free. I also have an old computer sitting around that I need to find a use for.

 

[smitbret]

I have an Intel Atom DN2800MT Micro-ITX with 4GB of RAM a 32GB mSATA SSD, and a great Intel WiFi card that was a failed experiment in building an ultra low-powered media server. Even with the Crystal HD decoder, it just barely had the 'grunt' to serve up 720P videos at an acceptable rate, and only to one device at a time.
It has a consumer IR receiver built in to that can be controlled by a remote, if that info matters.

Well, times have moved on and it getting replaced with a much more powerful Plex box.

Could I make this into a cloud server (it has two 2TB drives internally) because I was thinking of making a cloud storage device that my friends and neighbors could use.

In the past, when I had more money, I'd just give my old (but still pretty current) hardware away to needy friends, but they are all squared away now and financially doing better, and so this box is kind of an orphan.

Any thoughts?
Could I turn it into a super firewall maybe if that cloud thing does not work out?
Maybe a micro storage server NAS?

I just don't know, and I'm looking for ideas.

Thanks.

Just to clarify, you said the old box didn't have the HP to "serve up" 720p video. I am assuming that was being used as a Plex server and you were transcoding with it. If that's the case, this is were the CPU was falling short. I am not sure where the Crystal HD Decoder even comes in to play for a server. Transcoding, especially for HD content. requires a pretty powerful CPU and works independently from your video card and/or hardware decoder, as you learned. However, just about any other normal server activity would be just fine. It really doesn't take much to serve up files to multiple devices simultaneously.

It will certainly have enough power for any traditional server task.

 

[Jimbo]

I wasn't using that for Plex but XBMC/Kodi.
Kodi did use the card for decoding, but they dropped support for it.

Actually, it did OK with 720p, but no more than that.

Yeah, I'm thinking a file server of some kind.

 

[dealcorn]

The Crystal HD decoder never was the best video solution for your board which I also owned. I second Smitbret's suggestion that this board has adequate power for traditional server roles. The issue is that a 'nix OS is clearly preferred over Windows for these applications and few users are willing to learn something new even if it comes with a reasonably attractive web interfaces. I added a second NIC to mine and ran Debian 24/7 with Shorewall (firewall and router with NAT), NFS (file sever), Dnsmasq (DNS and DHCP server), Amule-daemon (P2P), and 6-8 miscellaneous utilities. I lost my board in an electrical surge and I still miss it.

Pre Silvermont Atom boards are not great for energy use so be aware of that issue. Currently I am working on setting up a NOS D410 (single core) board to act as a normally off, headless, almost disk less DVR using MythTV backend and a used Hauppauge 1600. Due to the use of wake-on-lan (driven by a 24/7 router), I expect it will be very attractive from an energy use perspective. My local cable provides only analog signals.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Maybe this phenomenon -- surplus hardware -- is just the downside and cost of being a geek-enthusiast.

I keep motherboards and other parts for these reasons:

-- Replace a board "gone South" with something similar
-- Re-deployment for some server I use or want
-- Give away to friends who like to "tinker"

Ultimately, you need to make a decision at some point over some item still in the collection. Will I ever use it again? Did I get my money's-worth?

I also keep a box to fill up with cyber-junk. ONce every few months, I take it across town to the county recycling facility. And -- be done with it.

 

[Jimbo]

I think I'm with BonzaiDuck.
Put it a drawer and come back to the idea later.

 

[Dahak]

I think I'm with BonzaiDuck.
Put it a drawer and come back to the idea later.

Only problem with that is it starts the hording process I am sitting on about 3-4 old 775 boards now a bunch of ram, hard drives, etc

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I suppose I wouldn't (yet) be too ashamed if the "Hoarders" TV show did a spot on me. I limit my cyber-junk to four 3.5'x18"x18" Rubber-Maid chests with locking latches. When they're full, I purge them selectively for "stuff I'll likely never use."

But that's the drill. To make it worthwhile to move used parts at EBay, they have to be recent enough that people will buy at prices which supersede the trouble & inconvenience factors.

 

[cbn]

I've never made a firewall from a PC, but if I had that board I would probably at least give it a try.

For the case I would probably use a Mini-BOX M350 with their custom I/O shield and riser (designed for the DN2800MT motherboard). This with a single Intel NIC in the PCIe x 1 slot (usng the riser).

(NOTE: This custom I/O shield has been discountinued by Mini-BOX, but I am sure you could find it somewhere. It was $5 with the riser when Mini-Box carried it)

 

[Jimbo]

That's a good idea CBN!

There seems to be one in the States.
http://www.logicsupply.com/mc-bp-mtx-2443/

Do you just populate the PCIe slot with a network card that has a few ports and then install pfSense?

 

[cbn]

Logic supply still sells the I/O shield and riser, but the price has increased:

http://www.logicsupply.com/mc-bp-mtx-2443/

 

[cbn]

Do you just populate the PCIe slot with a network card that has a few ports and then install pfSense?

Since that board only has a PCIe 2.0 x 1 slot, I am pretty sure you can only use a single Intel NIC in there. (This based on some research I did a while back for my Intel dual NIC adapter (PCIe x 4 )where I wanted to use it in a open ended PCIe x 1 slot. The story as I remember was that the Intel NIC adapters still use PCIe Gen 1 and two NICs needed more bandwidth)

But I don't think that would be a problem because the board already comes with one Intel NIC already.

 

[Jimbo]

It's still cheap enough and a project that I wanted to do, but had put on the back-burner a year ago.

I have 4GB of RAM and a 32GB mSATA SSD, so it should run just fine with that.

 

[Jimbo]

Since that board only has a PCIe 2.0 x 1 slot, I am pretty sure you can only use a single Intel NIC in there. (This based on some research I did a while back for my Intel dual NIC adapter (PCIe x 4 )where I wanted to use it in a open ended PCIe x 1 slot. The story as I remember was that the Intel NIC adapters still use PCIe Gen 1 and two NICs needed more bandwidth)

But I don't think that would be a problem because the board already comes with one Intel NIC already.

I FOUND ONE!
Fits in x1 PCIe and it even runs on Intel's NIC drivers!
http://www.amazon.com/HP-NC364T-Gig...sim_147_4?ie=UTF8&refRID=15FVJQD1HBE68YYDDY7P

According to one review it detects as an Intel(R) PRO/1000 PT Quad Port LP Server Adapter.

 

[cbn]

I FOUND ONE!
Fits in x1 PCIe and it even runs on Intel's NIC drivers!
http://www.amazon.com/HP-NC364T-Gig...sim_147_4?ie=UTF8&refRID=15FVJQD1HBE68YYDDY7P

According to one review it detects as an Intel(R) PRO/1000 PT Quad Port LP Server Adapter.

That adapter is a PCIe x 4 one --> http://h20566.www2.hp.com/hpsc/doc/...367979&docId=emr_na-c00908641&docLocale=en_US, but since the Mini-BOX riser is open ended PCIe x1 it would fit.

Like I mentioned, your bandwidth will be limited by the PCIe x 1 slot (as I understand things) so you wouldn't get full 1 GbE speeds across all four ports simultaneously.

 

[Jimbo]

The specs say 1x, but yeah, since it's open-ended it will work, I just wonder if any performance degradation would even be noticeable in a 1GB x4 NIC.
It is only a network card after all.

 

[Eelectricity]

I think a firewall is a good use for this rig.

My old hardware's completely different but I am considering a firewall. I am looking for the cheapest fanless PSU so it's quiet. Oh and low wattage too.