what to do with an extra CPU?

October 16, 2006 12:30 PM

What cool things can I do with a couple of extra winXP CPUs? a little

I've got my tricked out gaming system, a laptop, and a modded XBOX running XB media center. But recently I've been given a couple of old CPUs: a 2.1gHz Celeron system and a 600mHz system.
I was thinking of using the 2.1 gHz system as a file server for the XBOX and putting the 600mHz 'puter at the curb. Without a lot of space for another keyboard and monitors, I was thinking of remote desktoping to these.
What possibilities have I overlooked?

posted by Hanover Phist to Computers & Internet (7 answers total)

A KVM switch would save space if you wanted to have several computers relatively close by.

Donate one to a friend that needs a new computer.
posted by now i'm piste at 1:08 PM on October 16, 2006

Install Linux and play with it.
posted by chrismear at 1:53 PM on October 16, 2006

Check out this blog post if you would like to be able to have multiple concurrent remote logins to the XP machine. This allows XP's remote desktop to function as Windows Server's does.

For instance, you can login from your gaming machine, without logging out the local session on the file server. My file server doubles as my media center / tv, so this is most necessary and I didn't have to purchase the expensive server OS.
posted by utsutsu at 2:15 PM on October 16, 2006

Don't toss the 600Mhz box. That's plenty for a simple backup server. Stick a fatty harddrive in it, then store it at your parent's house, or at a friend's house (someone with DSL).

Set up encryption and rsync, and voila! Off-site backups for very little cost and effort.
posted by chrisamiller at 3:11 PM on October 16, 2006

I have five PCs, here's what they do:

• SLI gaming rig: purely for a high frame rate.
• Quiet PC: designed to be left on at night if need be. (Passively cooled video card and power supply, Zalman CPU heatsink.)
• TV PC: Digital TV tuner card, connected to 68cm TV. (Used to play any big video files that my Zensonic Z500 chokes on.)
• Portable PC: "Shuttle" tiny PC, if I need to take a PC somewhere. (Also has a card reader for my digital cameras.)
• Mini-ITX franken-PC: Started as a cool project, got modified so it could just play World of Warcraft

All five are often used for World of Warcraft on a Sunday morning when I host a breakfast with friends.
posted by krisjohn at 3:16 PM on October 16, 2006

Response by poster: Thanks for the comments everyone. It's good to know there are still some uses for the older machine. (it wasn't really going to the curb) Utsutsu, thanks for the link; very handy. Oh, and Linux! I should have thought of that. cheers.
posted by Hanover Phist at 6:38 AM on October 17, 2006

You could:

solve African humanitarian and health problems.

generate a huge database of Chess960 games.

forecast the climate of the Earth in the 21st century.

Find gravitational waves

help calibrate the LHC at CERN

monitor the impact hazard posed by Near-Earth objects.

find undiscovered celestial bodies within our galaxy.

predict protein structures from their sequences

test an implementation of BOINC written in Perl, and crack RSA-768.

study the structure and reactivity of molecules using quantum chemistry.

predict and design protein structures.

search for signs of extra-terrestrial intelligence (SETI).

simulate spindynamic in magnetic molecules

search for generalized binary number systems

Details here.

posted by grateful at 7:15 AM on October 17, 2006