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I got this PC from my dad when he upgraded in like December ish. I've been running Kubuntu on it and just using it like a sort of general purpose desktop for me and my wife, but I've got a hankering for some tinkering and feel like it has more potential, so I'd love some project ideas!
Install Ganeti, or K3s, and do a lot of things!
I had a 6700k until December just gone. For Linux it can do everything and anything. It’s totally usable! I only gave mine up because of CS2.
Jellyfin server!!
You'll eventually want more storage so LVM is the way to go for making your "drive" easily extendable.
I use my (very similar, just AMD and with a dGPU) for my Jellyfin server and to selfhost some AI models for experimentation, and I'm working on rolling out matrix synapse because selfhosting
Thought the same, although on a second thought Jellyfin would maybe use 1% of the resources of that CPU. But still, I started with Jellyfin and Audiobookshelf on my home server (it has approx. half the computing power of the XPS) and now it has expanded to Immich, LLMs, Nextcloud, and has basically replaced my whole cloud personality. It has a lot of disk space also, so actually - if you don't need the laptop - set it up as a home server and start with one project on it. I promise it'll grow fast, haha.
YABS
Uptime: 29 seconds
Don't worry about it, you're not in a rush to do anything. How about getting a cup of tea for starters?
Truenas Scale NAS server, just add the storage.
This looks very similar to my MacBookPro 2013 but running on endeavourOS
Just don’t try to install the patched proprietary nvidia drivers on recent kernel and relay on nouveau. Then all works pretty good so far
😮but definitely enough RAM
Jellyfin server? it'll do hardware transcode handily! Lots of RAM is good for something like TrueNAS since ZFS will use it as a cache.
Step 1. Replace plasma for something lighter like xfce or wayfire with all the fancier effects disabled
Step 2. GZDoom mods.
Imo too high power consumption for 24/7 operation so I wouldn't use it that way. If I only had this machine to work with, i'd probably use it as a media server or NAS but turn it on only as needed. Wake on LAN to turn it on and configure it to auto turn off.
If you want to get into running a home lab, this world probably be a nice start. So throw proxmox on it and host all the services you want (in containers or VMs). Media server like jellyfin, maybe a nextcloud, storage/Nas services, automate your home with home assistant.
It has a relatively large amount of memory for that generation of system, but also will probably not exactly sip power for the performance your getting. So if power is expensive where you are, think twice about it.
What is the benefit of running it in Proxmox rather than just containers on bare metal?
Depends what you want to do. If you want only docker containers, it's the wrong tool. If you want to run a mixture of VMs and LXC containers, it's literally a management interface made for it. So it's pretty good at it.
You can migrate without downtime from one proxmox host to the other
Convenience, time saved.
That is a lot of RAM. Only a quad-core processor, but I imagine should still be fine for general-purpose desktop use.
What would you want it to do? Honestly I would call that over-specced for something like a file server and would probably consume a lot of power if left on all the time. Maybe a media server which can use the discrete GPU for video encoding?
I really don't have anything specific in mind, but a media server is definitely something that's been on my list of things I'd like.
As for the ram, it kind of is an absurd amount. I think it only started with 8 gigs (maybe 16), but since it was just my family computer growing up it would get continually more and more bloated and slow, upgrading the ram was the only way my dad knew how to upgrade it so he'd do it every now and then to try and speed it up lol.
Run Docker containers on it, one for media server, one for DNS sinkhole etc.
For the media server, I recommend taking a look at Jellifyn. If you want some fancy statistics use, also give it a look at a Prometheus+Graphana config.
definetly bazzite gaming htpc if you get a sufficient gpu in it. stream games from it ota.
if you take advantage of this amount of ram to virtualize, you could do both that and a server simultaneously, maybe more, you have 2 gpus and network that can be assigned independently.
the only downside would be power consumption if kept on, but that cpu can definetly handle more server stuff than you would expect.
i think you can also get one of those chinese xeons for dirt cheap on aliexpress and it might work as a hefty upgrade if you really need more cores for a few coins.
Install Linux on...
Never mind, carry on.
Project 1: Install Gentoo on it. 🙂 Project 2: Keep Gentoo installed on it.
With that amount of ram you could make it a hypervisor and host a lot of containers and vms. Maybe proxmox would be a good fit?
Seconded! Recently switched my bunch of raspberries for a proxmox server. Would never go back!
Can't do much with these specs. You could make it headless and lose the desktop environment to make it much more useful.
Can't do much with an i7, 60Gb RAM, and a discreet GPU?
XD I mean, there are also discreet GPUs from the 90's, yet pretty much all integrated GPUs are far more performant than that.
Your discreet GPU is over 12 years old and even back then it was an entry level card. So, actually, it is very weak and, for many use cases, weaker than many current integrated ones. Not to mention possible lack of current driver support, etc...
You could also look up the other parts, I won't do that for you. But the same counts for the "i7". If the i7 is nearly as old, it's weaker than some i3s from today and definitely weaker than lots of i5s, nowadays.
Again....... Same goes for the RAM, etc... If your RAM is really slow, then the size of the RAM will only be useful for certain use cases.
Again and again.... You have to research for every part, to really know, what they are capable of. Just saying "i7" and "discreet" does not make the PC any better, whatsoever.
In short: you can use the computer for a lot of stuff, but only very limited. If you want to do something very specific, really well, then you need to find the right niché, where it might work well. Otherwise, as I initially foreshadowed, there is actually not much you can do with those specifications. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
"same thing we do everyday, pinky. try and take over the world!"
That's the last ATX compliant xps PC. I'd swap the wifi card for something else. It has some issues. That bug was patched out afaik.
(Friend has an xps 8900 and it was a unique experience)
I'd also find a cheap gpu to put in it. There is a mount for a 92 mm fan in the front. You just have to remove some tape in the front of the PC covering a vent.
Admittedly my friend games and does dev work on it.
Also it could do with a repaste.
As far as I know you can't upgrade the CPU on that past the 6700.
Home server! Not sure how CUDA support is, but exo/petals node for AI and stuff? Immich for photos, Nextcloud for files, homeassistant!
GTX 745 is weird. It's early Maxwell, not Kepler. It's not particularly fast and as it is Maxwell, only supports fp32.
Run gentoo instead!
Switch to something that always delivers the latest KDE Plasma. That's old.
Upgrade the GPU and its plenty good
it could probably run modern titles with a sufficient gpu.
My friend has a 2080 in his and he's been able to play monster hunter wilds without much issue. It does support nvme.
(He's on pop os)
Edit: that 6700 is a limiting factor in some titles. BeamMP really likes high core count CPUs.
It's a bit behind the times for gaming though it'll probably still play a decent round of Counter Strike.
I used a system even older than that (A core i7 with a three-digit part number, circa 2010) a couple years ago to rip DVDs and run MakeMKV/Handbrake, it did the job fine. Decade old computers aren't the problem, Windows is.
I have something similar, but with an old nvidia 1070.
I run a file server, nginx for my web dev, git server, postgres and, surprisingly, ollama.
The old nv 1070 is CUDA capable and it's doing an OK job for my usage.
Check if you can put your hand on an old NV card for an AI agent.
Cheers!
Lol an old 1070 is my gaming rig. Computers are so friggin powerful these days
YUNoHost-server!