Desktop replacement
March 14, 2012 5:00 PM Subscribe
Looking for options to replace my old WinXP desktop.
So our desktop is getting a bit long in the tooth so looking for a replacement of one kind or another.
Primarily we use it for storing scores of photo's with Picasa, ripping and serving movies back to our TV (via DLNA/Serviio) and that's about it at this point really.
What do you guys think the slickest solution to my use case would be?
So our desktop is getting a bit long in the tooth so looking for a replacement of one kind or another.
Primarily we use it for storing scores of photo's with Picasa, ripping and serving movies back to our TV (via DLNA/Serviio) and that's about it at this point really.
What do you guys think the slickest solution to my use case would be?
Response by poster: Budget not much of a concern but wondering what kind of hardware will work - NAS plus a tiny desktop, iMac something I haven't heard of...
posted by zeoslap at 5:36 PM on March 14, 2012
posted by zeoslap at 5:36 PM on March 14, 2012
I built up an Ars Technica Budget Box last year after ordering all the parts from NewEgg. I had never built a system from scratch before and found it to be very easy. Probably took me 2 hours to put the box together and another two to install Windows 7 Ultimate and other software. Highly, highly recommended: you get a lot more for your money than you do if you buy an off-the-shelf desktop from a recognizable manufacturer.
posted by killdevil at 5:38 PM on March 14, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by killdevil at 5:38 PM on March 14, 2012 [1 favorite]
Apart from the ripping, I'd suggest a NAS box, so if 'NAS plus a tiny desktop' is an option, go for that.
That said: what is 'long in the tooth' about your current system? Could you continue to use that for ripping, and then find a NAS that does DNLA (I've got a Netgear NV+, and have no real complaints)?
posted by pompomtom at 5:50 PM on March 14, 2012
That said: what is 'long in the tooth' about your current system? Could you continue to use that for ripping, and then find a NAS that does DNLA (I've got a Netgear NV+, and have no real complaints)?
posted by pompomtom at 5:50 PM on March 14, 2012
Response by poster: It's a big monstrous tower thing that I built a while back running xp, slow ripping movies, loud, and takes up a bunch of space with a small monitor. What would be a ripping fiend to pair with a nas?
posted by zeoslap at 5:59 PM on March 14, 2012
posted by zeoslap at 5:59 PM on March 14, 2012
The whole point of big monstrous towers is to be upgradeable.
The whole point of Windows is to make upgrading so painful as to make people go "ah, fuggit" and buy a new machine with a new version of Windows on it.
So if I were you, I'd
posted by flabdablet at 9:23 PM on March 14, 2012 [1 favorite]
The whole point of Windows is to make upgrading so painful as to make people go "ah, fuggit" and buy a new machine with a new version of Windows on it.
So if I were you, I'd
- Buy a big new screen.
- Blow all the dust out of your existing tower to make the fans run less often.
- Replace the power supply with one that has a 12cm fan to quiet things down.
- Replace any case fans with 12cm fans to quiet things down even more.
- Buy a new 2TB internal SATA hard disk and install Debian Squeeze 64-bit on it; give it an 8GB partition for swap, 20GB for / formatted with ext3, and the rest for /home formatted with ext4, and choose XFCE4 as your desktop environment instead of Gnome.
- Install the minidlna, libdvdcss2, acidrip, and wine packages, then use Wine to run Google's Windows installer for Picasa.
posted by flabdablet at 9:23 PM on March 14, 2012 [1 favorite]
If you want to ditch the bulky and loud desktop for something smaller, quieter, that uses less power, then I suggest a nettop. They are about as cheap as you can get for a barebones PC, have decent heft for graphics/video and isn't more noticeable than a router. I use mine as a combined NAS (I attached a couple 1TB external drives to it) and headless server running Ubuntu Server headless, but you could just as easily use it with Windows 7 to be a ripper and media streamer. As long as you don't need something faster (which it sounds like you don't) or care about being able to upgrade it, it's a great way to have a small desktop.
posted by burnmp3s at 5:46 AM on March 15, 2012
posted by burnmp3s at 5:46 AM on March 15, 2012
@flabdablet - the problem is that the asker did not specify the specs of the existing machine. You can't assume it's upgradable even if it's a desktop. I had a Dell desktop. I now know that:
* the power supply was proprietary. You could not put a standard ATX power supply in the case because the cutouts in the case did not have room for the standard ATX power supply's power switch. May make sense for Dell--cuts down on support calls of "my computer won't turn on" when the reason is that the power supply is turned off--but also makes the power supply non-serivceable without Dell parts.
* The cooling arrangement was non-standard. There was one case fan that was located near the CPU, with a shroud to pull air over a large heatsink over the CPU. There was no separate CPU fan. Don't try this with another motherboard.
* The motherboard connected to the front audio and USB ports using a nonstandard ribbon cable. Easier for Dell to hook up, impossible to find elsewhere.
A Dell case is fine if you want to upgrade the hard drive or the optical drives or the memory. Forget about switching out anything else--that you would want to switch out the motherboard anyway, as Windows is locked to a code in the BIOS, so it won't run on another motherboard at all.
Of course I have no idea if zeoslap has a Dell, but it wouldn't surprise me if other desktop PCs are similar. Just don't go out and buy a bunch of parts expecting to put them into a mass market desktop unless you really know what you are doing.
posted by massysett at 11:53 AM on March 15, 2012
* the power supply was proprietary. You could not put a standard ATX power supply in the case because the cutouts in the case did not have room for the standard ATX power supply's power switch. May make sense for Dell--cuts down on support calls of "my computer won't turn on" when the reason is that the power supply is turned off--but also makes the power supply non-serivceable without Dell parts.
* The cooling arrangement was non-standard. There was one case fan that was located near the CPU, with a shroud to pull air over a large heatsink over the CPU. There was no separate CPU fan. Don't try this with another motherboard.
* The motherboard connected to the front audio and USB ports using a nonstandard ribbon cable. Easier for Dell to hook up, impossible to find elsewhere.
A Dell case is fine if you want to upgrade the hard drive or the optical drives or the memory. Forget about switching out anything else--that you would want to switch out the motherboard anyway, as Windows is locked to a code in the BIOS, so it won't run on another motherboard at all.
Of course I have no idea if zeoslap has a Dell, but it wouldn't surprise me if other desktop PCs are similar. Just don't go out and buy a bunch of parts expecting to put them into a mass market desktop unless you really know what you are doing.
posted by massysett at 11:53 AM on March 15, 2012
I read "It's a big monstrous tower thing that I built a while back" as meaning something other than "It's a big monstrous tower thing that I bought off the shelf from a company notorious for vendor lock-in at every level", and I write as the happy owner of a completely satisfactory big monstrous tower thing built around this case and 4TB of drives and Debian.
posted by flabdablet at 4:25 PM on March 15, 2012
posted by flabdablet at 4:25 PM on March 15, 2012
Response by poster: flabdablet is right - it is indeed upgradeable and has been upgraded a couple of times already but I'm looking for something a little more unobtrusive while still being a very capable media centric machine. My case is from circa 1998...
I specced out a system based on a mini-ITX board in this Silverstone case that I think will fit the bill.
Thanks for the pointers.
posted by zeoslap at 9:30 AM on March 16, 2012
I specced out a system based on a mini-ITX board in this Silverstone case that I think will fit the bill.
Thanks for the pointers.
posted by zeoslap at 9:30 AM on March 16, 2012
Five inch fans were really really rare in 1998.
Five inch fans are good things.
posted by flabdablet at 9:51 AM on March 17, 2012
Five inch fans are good things.
posted by flabdablet at 9:51 AM on March 17, 2012
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by goblinbox at 5:25 PM on March 14, 2012