Received a small micro atx pc. What should I do?

[Navdakilla]

So a friend of mine was throwing stuff out, and one of the items was this small core2duo dell pc. I told him to give it to me instead of tossing it (for a case of beer of course) so now I have this pc and not sure how I can have it fit into my apple ecosystem. Here is where I need all your help

I have a regular router, I was thinking of adding a storage drive to the pc and connect it to the router and create a time machine (is that possible?)

Another option if the previous isn't possible is to add a hard drive to the pc and turn it into a nas. Would I be able to do this? (and just have it show up on the finder as a external drive)? Sorry guys I'm a noob when it comes to this stuff so hopefully someone can help.


Also to add more information I currently have about 2tb of media (on a external connected to my iMac) that is not being backed up right now, I was going to buy a time capsule/nas once I got some money, but I think maybe I could use this pc somehow

 

[atomicbloke]

You can paint an Apple logo on it and use it as a footstool.

 

[Angelo95210]

Install Debian on it and learn linux. You can do a file server this way...

 

[waw74]

as angelo said, install linux, i use ubunutu server (a flavor of debian)
you can use either the server (command line only) or the gui version. but why waste all the processing on making pretty pictures that you'll never see.

you can then install a couple of programs, and use it for file sharing.

netatalk - apple file sharing, has Time machine support
avahi - bonjour, so it will advertise itself on the network.

lots of guides on how to get it all setup on the web.

you can share all or part of a drive, so make 2 folders on a drive "time machine" and "other", create separate shares in netatalk, and enable time machine on the one,
you can limit the size of the time machine share in netalk so it doesn't take over your drive, or even add more shares so you have "Bills time machine" and "Teds time machine" if you have roommates.

you can also install rTorrent for your torrenting needs.

 

[ckmoose]

I like these ideas...

 

[reebzor]

Check this out: http://www.kremalicious.com/2008/06/ubuntu-as-mac-file-server-and-time-machine-volume/

Turn it into a Mac file server running ubuntu.

I have a file server with 18TB at home running Ubuntu (I loosely followed this guide) and it works great. All of my other machines are Macs and it fits in perfectly. You can also find guides to set up VNC (Screen Sharing) so you dont even need a monitor/kb/mouse plugged into it.

 

[ljonesj]

install freenas that way its a nas drive or make a vpn server so you can get into your network from when ur on vacation

 

[blevins321]

Depending on volume, size, and specs, you might be able to turn that into a dandy little HTPC running Windows or Linux. Plex on Windows, or XBMC on Linux (no front-end for Plex on Linux..only the server).

 

[reebzor]

no front-end for Plex on Linux

not true

 

[marzer]

So a friend of mine was throwing stuff out, and one of the items was this small core2duo dell pc. I told him to give it to me instead of tossing it (for a case of beer of course) so now I have this pc and not sure how I can have it fit into my apple ecosystem. Here is where I need all your help

I have a regular router, I was thinking of adding a storage drive to the pc and connect it to the router and create a time machine (is that possible?)

Another option if the previous isn't possible is to add a hard drive to the pc and turn it into a nas. Would I be able to do this? (and just have it show up on the finder as a external drive)? Sorry guys I'm a noob when it comes to this stuff so hopefully someone can help.


Also to add more information I currently have about 2tb of media (on a external connected to my iMac) that is not being backed up right now, I was going to buy a time capsule/nas once I got some money, but I think maybe I could use this pc somehow

Load it up with a beefy hard drive or two (int or ext), Windows and your media library to make a headless file and iTunes server. Hang it off the central router/switch for out-of-sight network access. You could use Linux as well but that'd give you only vanilla (DLNA) media serving, not full iTunes (i.e. Home Sharing/device syncing) functionality.

And yes, using the well published terminal setting (Google "Backup My Fruit"), you can use it as a Time Machine host.