Hello everyone! I see there are quite a few threads asking for build advice. With so many different hardware configs, I suppose it's a necessary evil. I just decommissioned one of my home office PC's running XP pro. I was going to sell it but it basically isn't worth much. So after reading here in the forums I was thinking about turning it into a NAS running Open media vault. I'm just not sure if the hardware is suitable for what I want to use the NAS for. First the specs. It's a home built running an Intel dual core processor, attached to an MSI P6N SLI platinum mobo. It has two gigs DDR2 Corsair RAM. It has a Nvidia Geforce 9500 GT graphics card, and a 500 gig OS drive. Also a Corsair 550 watt PSU. So, as you can see, a pretty mediocre system.
With that said, my needs are pretty basic. I have ROKU 3 streaming boxes in my bedroom and living room attached to big screens. I mainly use the ROKU's for watching Netflix, and other streaming channels. But, I also run Plex server from one of my office PC's and use it for streaming music to my ROKU's in the other rooms. I also have my photos on this same office PC and enjoy sharing them with my friends and family via my Roku when they are over visiting. I am also a heavy user of imaging software for my important office systems. These images are currently being stored on a 2nd internal hard drive on each system. As you know images take up quite a bit of space. It would be nice to be able to store these images on a NAS with way more storage capacity than my internal drives have.
Although I use imaging software, I really don't like having to leave one of my office PC running to use the Plex server to listen to music at the other end of the house. This system has important data on it. I run a construction business and like to use my office PC's strictly for work.
So, that is why I was wanting to maybe convert this older system into a NAS. My main concern is being able to run my Plex server from this NAS. If the hardware is not suitable for that, and I'd still have to use my office PC to run my Plex server, then I would just be defeating the purpose of building this NAS from my old system.
Thoughts on the above listed hardware on the old system would be appreciated.