My buddy is a physics major with special priveleges, those being that he took some computers and monitors that were going to surplus auction for himself. He's offered to give a few to me. I'm thinking sure, why not? They're in working order, but a bit old. PIIIs clocked at 450mhz with 128 megs of RAM. I'm trying to think of something interesting I could do with them. A renderfarm is out of the question, as they're a might slow for that. I'm thinking something along the lines of a web/fileserver, but I want to be able to do that without spending too much money on upgrades. The only things I would actually want to buy would be some harddrives.

Then again, I really don't have a website, and other than a backup for my school webspace where I store most of my projects for class, I can't think of a good way to use them. I thought about a dedicated CSS or BF2 server, but these machines are much too slow to handle that. So, I turn to you, Massassi, to give me ideas on how to use these newly acquired machines. I currently have one working tower, and another that needs RAM and a hard drive. There are a few more still in the physics building that I can get a hold of too if I need them.

Massassi, what should I do?

Those old computers make great routers. http://www.fli4l.de/e_index.htm

All you need is two NICs and if you're bored you can mod it so that it doesn't need so much power.

another dedicated jk server?!?

Why JK ofcourse! or MotS!

I say try CS:S.

Beowolf cluster

It really doesn't take that much power to run a dedicated game server. My 400mhz celery box handles CS:S well enough. But I also vouch for making it a router, which my server box does exceptionally well.

Dedicated JK server! Or maybe MoTS since there already is a dedicated JK server, even if my computer doesn't want to connect with it.

Pac-Man Machine.

hdd backup?

All decent ideas.

However, router - already have a linksys one, don't really need a firewall/another router. HDD backup - possible, but I'm not sure what this old computer can detect or handle. SATA is probably out of the question, unless I get a PCI card for it.

Dedicated MotS server is definately a possibility. But I'd have to be running windows on it for it to work. The hard drive is currently corrupted, I don't know if it can be slavaged or not. I'll try a BSD install first, then go from there. Also, only Windows version that I have that I can install on it is 2000. Shouldn't be too big of a problem, except for maybe some compatability issues.

In any case, I'll start messing with it sometime next week. If nothing else, I can always offer my services as a mirror for any files that Massassians need (legally) hosted.

[edit]I've also thought about a MythTV box, or an emulator box like the one that was showcased on here some time ago (anyone remember who did that BTW? It was a great looking piece of software. I think it might have been Shintock, but I don't remember), but I don't think it has the processing power to do either.

It was shintock, it's for linux, and it rawkz0rs.

Yes, that was Mr. Canada himself with the Emulation station

That made me LAUGH.

Sell it on Ebay.

He just wants to buy it!

I'd love one of 'em to install old games like Syndicate and Command and Conquer on without emulators.

syndicate was one of the best games ever

My PC Support class is fairly new (this is the second school year for my school) and we are looking for donations of computers.

So if ya want to donate any of em, please let me know.