Is it worth putting together these spare parts and how cheaply could I do it?

[FreakOfNature]

I recently did a major upgrade to my existing computer. Here is what I have left over:

CPU: Intel i5 2400
GPU: Nvidia GTX 560
PSU: 2 ~500w PSUs
RAM:2x4gb DDR3 RAM and 2x2gb DDR3 RAM

I was thinking I could make a small media center to watch movies on, but I'm not sure how an old GTX 560 would handle a big screen. On top of that, I'm not sure I can afford a big screen. If my computer could handle it, it would also be awesome to use it to run a small server for ARK: Survival Evolved and/or modded minecraft. If it can't handle either of those, I am interested in doing something like this: http://www.networkworld.com/article/2247149/data-center/12-cool-ways-to-donate-your-pc-s-spare-processing-power.html.

So I basically have 2 questions:

1. What is the cheapest it would cost me to fill in the gaps components wise and get a working computer?

2. What sort of jobs would this computer be capable of? If you have any cool ideas that I haven't thought of, tell me.

 

[getochkn]

It would handle media no problem. They make little dual core 1.2ghz based integrated graphics pc's that can do 4k@30fps. RAM is good enough for an Ark server as they use a good chunk of RAM over everything. Really you just need a case, hd's and a MB if you don't have it. It's far better than my media pc which is a core2duo, geforce 8600GT or something, and finally 4GB after running on 2GB and it could still run Kodi fine and play 1080p bluray rips from my main media pc over the network in full 1080p.

 

[FreakOfNature]

Wow, didn't expect I could get an ARK server! If I did, do you have any recommendations on Linux distros that would be best for that? Since it's a server I'd want something minimal, but I'm no hardcore linux guru. I'd need some amount of GUI to get around and maybe learn from. Do you have any idea how many players I could host? I am hoping for 5 of my friends. Do you think an SSD is necessary?

 

[getochkn]

SSD will load faster, takes like 5mins to load on my server but once loaded, there is like no HD access. I ran a 10 person with 8GB on a 3-core AMD APU. That's in windows, I don't mess with Linux much. lol. Too much crap.

 

[FreakOfNature]

So what you are saying is, once the server is up, all of the data is pretty much loaded into RAM and storage speed doesn't really matter? I am using Linux for budget reasons.

 

[getochkn]

Yup, once it's in RAM and the server is loaded, at least for ARK, there is no real HD loaded. I would get a regular HD as it's cheaper and more storage. ARK can take like 20GB or so on it's own for a server. your call though.

That's fine, never tried a Linux server for Ark. Have for other games back in the day.