unCubeme

Up until recently I have primarily used my laptop as my everyday pc and my desktop as a file server, print server and heavy computing when needed. My previous desktop was an IBM Intellistation Z Pro which is a workstation and almost a server. This bad boy had dual Xeon HT processors, 2GB Ram, 500+GBs of HD space, DVDRW and DVD drives. This machine was powerful and it actually was the type of machine that I used at one of my Engineering jobs for CAD applications. The problem with this machine is that it is very loud, and warm. I had this machine in my room when I was living in a small apartment and would have to turn it off because it would make my room so hot. I got used to having it off and started using my laptop primarily but no longer had access to my large amount of media files and printer when it was off. I first bought a Network Access Storage (NAS) drive to use as a file Server. I purchased the 500GB MyBook World edition which is a great piece of hardware. This machine is actually a linux machine with a hard drive, there are websites dedicated out there to hack it and provide a lot more functionality that I have not tried out. This fixed one of my issues but I still had the printer issue to work out. I guess I could just hook up my laptop to the printer when I needed to print but I’m too lazy and to use to doing it wirelessly. Then while looking at woot.com they had a nice belkin wireless printer and wireless bridge. This way I could have my printer connected to this and use this to hook up non wireless devices to it. Honestly, I should have ditched my TWO printers (1 is an all in one and I use it for scanning) and got a wireless printer, but I rarely print anymore so I figured a $20 piece of hardware could retrofit my exisiting hardware. This setup works great, unless you need media streamed or other services you need running that you don’t want slowing down your laptop. My laptop is a Dell Latitude D430 and its not that powerful, so I try to keep the applications on it very lite.

 In my case, I have a PS3 and I read that with this application called PlayOn that it will stream Netflix, Hulu, CBS, CNN and ESPN web content to the PS3. This is what pushed me to purchase a pc to run applications like that. I initially looked at the Atom based Eee Box nettop PCs which are basically a Netbook with no monitor. This would be perfect but after searching and what I was using it for I found I could buy a Dell Optiplex SX280 which is an Ultra Compact Form Factor PC which is small but not Eee box small. These PCs are typically business oriented and used as Point of Sale (POS) systems. The Optiplex SX280 I purchased was a 3Ghz P4 HT, 1GB Ram, and 200GB drive for $125 (I paid an extra $25 to have the 200GB drive versus a 40GB). I initially initially installed Windows XP on this machine and that setup was working great. Access to my files any time, print anytime I want and now can watch videos on my PS3. I later then connected it to my other TV so I can watch hulu and such on that TV.

I always like to get full usage out of my PCs and I felt like I was wasting the potential of this PC. Then when I was listening my music website Pandora, I saw an add for the HP Windows Home Server and then I had an epiphany ….. I would turn this PC into a Home Server. That way I can still run all the software I had on the PC before but also stream the media files I have. With this new setup I would no longer need the NAS Mybook World. In my next blog article I will describe my transformation of this tiny Dell Optiplex SX280 into a highly used Windows Home Server and Media Center PC!