Build Server and PC from old PC

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mikesway79

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Jan 23, 2018
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Gotta fun project here. I have a 4 year old (Xeon) PC that I want to upgrade to a new (Ryzen 5) PC. What I want to do is to take the old drives out of the current (old) PC and put them into the new PC. I also want to take the old PC and create a server for gaming with friends and/or a home server for data/media between 3 computers.

I am a beginner with servers. My thoughts were that I could use an old SSD (120GB) and put one of the flavors of Linux on that drive, swap the parts, and get a new 3TB drive or two for server storage (which I forgot to buy!). From what knowledge I have, I should just be able to format and install Linux on the 120GB SSD, swap parts, and turn everything on, but begin a n00b at servers (and Linux to be honest) I may have bitten off more than I can chew here.

Any ideas? Am I on the right track?
 
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James Mason
Your idea sounds rights.
You'll definitely want to reinstall windows though for the new PC. (being AMD and Intel don't play nice together like that)
The server doesn't really need an SSD except to reduce bootup times, and definitely not one as large as 120gbs.
A new gaming PC should definitely have at least a 240gb SSD for the OS and a couple important games.
The problem with a new PC, is you'll have to reinstall all your games/programs, so transplanting the old drives into the new system (with data on them) isn't going to work great, UNLESS they're steam games, those are the only ones that are reliably transferable. (As you just tell steam to look at the steam library the games were already installed in, and then "install" the game...
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James Mason

James Mason

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Jan 2, 2014
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Your idea sounds rights.
You'll definitely want to reinstall windows though for the new PC. (being AMD and Intel don't play nice together like that)
The server doesn't really need an SSD except to reduce bootup times, and definitely not one as large as 120gbs.
A new gaming PC should definitely have at least a 240gb SSD for the OS and a couple important games.
The problem with a new PC, is you'll have to reinstall all your games/programs, so transplanting the old drives into the new system (with data on them) isn't going to work great, UNLESS they're steam games, those are the only ones that are reliably transferable. (As you just tell steam to look at the steam library the games were already installed in, and then "install" the game and steam will look at the files already there and just do a few minor fixes)

One Minor/Major problem with a new gaming PC, is that GPUs are currently horrendously overpriced, so the only affordable way to get a GPU is to buy a prebuilt system.
 
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Sedivy

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Dec 17, 2016
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You can also get bundles like mobo+gpu or gpu+monitor and such to get the price within a reasonable range. These are not constantly offered though so you'll have to look at more than online stores and keep up with deals.
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Mar 16, 2013
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What you list does not sound far fetched.

A "server", at this level, is just software. Any capable PC hardware can do this.
 
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mikesway79

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Jan 23, 2018
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Thanks James. This was a learning experience to say the least. I was able to swap my drives relatively pain-free, though I did have to make a call to Microsoft customer service to avoid paying for a new Windows 10 license. It only took an hour and a half....... All I had to do was swap my old product key for a new one.

Luckily I haven't noticed any major issues with the AMD / Nvidia mix. I did notice that a couple of games that were optimized on the old (Intel) PC are not capable of being optimized on the new (AMD) PC through the Geforce Experience. I did find a place that had RX580 cards at slightly above MSRP before creating this thread, but they were out of stock, and surprise(!) the're still out and have absolutely no idea when they will be restocked.

I appreciate the help.
 
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mikesway79

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Jan 23, 2018
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Thanks Sedivy. I was trying to save money buy using my old monitors. They're not fantastic for gaming, but they are good for the video post work at the time I bought them. I'll keep this in mind before purchasing.
 
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