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I've inherited an old desktop pc, from around 2009, and before i chuck it in the bin, is there any mileage in using it as a storage hub on my home network?
I'd need to upgrade to Win10 for security (it's Vista currently) but i don't think the machine spec is that bad. It's a HP compaq dx2420, running an intel dual core E5300 processor (2.6Ghz) with 4GB of DRAM.
Any suggestions?
Linux would be a better bet, would make an ok server.
If you just want to use it as a NAS, simplest would be to install something like NAS4Free on it. https://www.nas4free.org/
Whether its worth it is up to you. Do you have any use for a NAS? You could set it up for UPNP if you want to stream stuff to a TV etc.
Also consider the power consumption if it will be left switched on 24/7. It would probably use a lot more power than a proper NAS box. And bigger and noisier.
My laptop is dual core T4300 / 2.1GHz / 4GB and it runs Windows 10 just fine. I would chuck it for being HP rather than the spec.
You could try it with Windows 10, vista was pretty demanding and 10 is more optimised so it will probably perform about the same if you are careful about turning a lot of useless windows 10 features off.
Otherwise stick Linux on it, mint or Ubuntu I'd suggest.
But there's not much point running a whole PC just for storage, unless you plan on putting more drives in it. just pull the drives out and re use them.
Used to run old PC as a storage server, but it was noisy, consumed a lot of electricity and running it 24/7 I had the PSU go twice, once with a bang and smoke. Decided then I needed a dedicated NAS, low power with a simple brick type PSU, so got a Synology.
Also with Win 10, Microsoft is starting to discontinue support for older CPUs in the latest major updates, although only Atom Clover-Trail at the moment. So where Win 10 does work on an old PC, it may not in the future.
I built my main desktop PC in 2006 with decent, but not top spec parts:
Core 2 Duo processor @ 3GHz and 4GB of RAM and running mechanical hard drives.
It runs Windows 10 perfectly. Am typing on it now.
Ok, thanks peeps!
I'll have to take a look at the Linux option. TBH, i don't think it will be on 24/7, more like turned on in the morning at off when i finish work. I have a couple of old mech HDs (replaced by SS ones) that i was planning to set up as a simple server. Also, it would be useful to have another internet connected machine for googling stuff when [s] working [/s] correcting someone on the internet on my other devices.....