[aresfiend]

I never linked an MSI website...

You do know that the new pentium line on newegg and the pentium D use different architectures, right?

The pentium D is a chip with two pentium 4 dies on it and the new pentium tech is a multicore single die.

Also, the manual with the motherboard said a maximum of 4gb total DDR2 system memory.

I am rethinking converting it to a game server setup and just making it an HTPC for my parents.

I also cannot throw a new graphics card in there because it's only got 1/4 of the PCIe pins there by design.

I never linked an MSI website...

You do know that the new pentium line on newegg and the pentium D use different architectures, right?

The pentium D is a chip with two pentium 4 dies on it and the new pentium tech is a multicore single die.

Also, the manual with the motherboard said a maximum of 4gb total DDR2 system memory.

I am rethinking converting it to a game server setup and just making it an HTPC for my parents.

I also cannot throw a new graphics card in there because it's only got 1/4 of the PCIe pins there by design.

[Sasquatch]

Sorry, I was thinking about my mobo, which is an MSI, when I typed that. Regardless, those specs are pulled from the GIGABYTE link you posted.

Here are some links for you to peruse. These motherboards ARE compatible with a Pentium D. I'm not about to sit here and argue architecture, chipsets, and compatibility with you, so you just click these links, read what is posted, and decide for yourself.


One of the first reviews, dude is talking about his Pentium D setup. Granted, it's the newest revision of that mobo, but it uses the same chipsets, which gives proof of concept.

Check out the compatible processors. It specifically states Pentium D chips, on your exact motherboard.

Old Ebay listing that pulled product info straight from their database. Check the processors.

Database full of random stuff, including your motherboard. Check the processors.

Database full of motherboards and compatible CPU's for each model and revision. Notice that it even specifies the CPU I linked for you as compatible.

Wait, and let's not forget the ram. Page 10.Specifies compatibility up to 8gb of ram. Straight from their manual in PDF.

The only thing you may have shot down is the video card idea. I have a good feeling that you could get an older card, like an X850 or something similar, put it in, and it would just run on the x4 channel that is provided. It would be slower, but at lower graphics settings I would imagine it would work fine. This issue seems to be mixed from what little research I just did on it. If you have a spare card, it couldn't hurt to try.

This post has been edited by Sasquatch: 18 January 2012 - 01:21 PM

[aresfiend]

Sasquatch, on 18 January 2012 - 01:20 PM, said:

Straight from their manual in PDF.

I have a different manual... Page 10 has a motherboard diagram. I am going to note that my uncle bought this the day they released in a bundle deal with a case and power supply and gave me the motherboard.

I guess that 8gb of ram is the max but I still don't see where this is underpowered being that there is going to be no commonly active device other than my phone and that is only when I need to retrieve something so this computer is going to sit 95% of it's time idle while only being down for a few hours each month. Besides, being $135 for 8gb ram I want to get off with 4gb if it won't hamper me getting an assignment for school here or there or a song on my phone. I guess that I will be going with the pentium D now seeing as the conflicts I was informed of between P4 architecture processors and the G41 chipset were lies.

[Sasquatch]

Being such a hardware enthusiast, I tend to think everything is underpowered, including my own systems. Then again, I also tend to think of servers in terms of Windows, not Samba, or whatever you were going to use. Considering you wont have to install 12gb of random software and services in order to get this server running how you would need, and you wont have 4gb of active ram from all that stuff, you can probably get away with going less.

Fair warning though, I was the administrator on a file server when I was in Korea. It had a single core P4 at around 3GHz, and 4gb of ram, running Server 2003, and it was slow as dirt. Both in configuration and general use, and file transfers. I don't know how much better having that second core will make things unless you are doing multiple file transfers at once. And I don't think streaming music would have been smooth at all, if I was able to do that. But like I said, you will be using a different OS and might have better results.

[aresfiend]

Sasquatch, on 18 January 2012 - 05:56 PM, said:

Being such a hardware enthusiast, I tend to think everything is underpowered, including my own systems. Then again, I also tend to think of servers in terms of Windows, not Samba, or whatever you were going to use. Considering you wont have to install 12gb of random software and services in order to get this server running how you would need, and you wont have 4gb of active ram from all that stuff, you can probably get away with going less.

Fair warning though, I was the administrator on a file server when I was in Korea. It had a single core P4 at around 3GHz, and 4gb of ram, running Server 2003, and it was slow as dirt. Both in configuration and general use, and file transfers. I don't know how much better having that second core will make things unless you are doing multiple file transfers at once. And I don't think streaming music would have been smooth at all, if I was able to do that. But like I said, you will be using a different OS and might have better results.

I actually don't plan on streaming music as that would piss the living daylights out of my mom by doing so much to the bandwidth. I am just going to have access to music so I can download it from my server to my phone, nothing more.

[Sasquatch]

Hopefully it works for you then. Have you already figured out how to link a phone into a computer network in order to access everything remotely? Do they have an app or something that allows it?

[aresfiend]

Sasquatch, on 18 January 2012 - 06:38 PM, said:

Hopefully it works for you then. Have you already figured out how to link a phone into a computer network in order to access everything remotely? Do they have an app or something that allows it?

You did see what I plan to do, right? I have done this with my laptop, but I plan on setting the computer on a static IP that I would put into my browser of choice being phone or computer and after input of a password I use my file browser of choice to access the filesystem. It actually works similarly with a VPN like hamachi but without actually having to be on that VPN.

I have no idea on how it is going to be done but as far as I understand it that is what should be going on.

[Stix]

aresfiend, on 18 January 2012 - 07:04 PM, said:

Sasquatch, on 18 January 2012 - 06:38 PM, said:

Hopefully it works for you then. Have you already figured out how to link a phone into a computer network in order to access everything remotely? Do they have an app or something that allows it?

You did see what I plan to do, right? I have done this with my laptop, but I plan on setting the computer on a static IP that I would put into my browser of choice being phone or computer and after input of a password I use my file browser of choice to access the filesystem. It actually works similarly with a VPN like hamachi but without actually having to be on that VPN.

I have no idea on how it is going to be done but as far as I understand it that is what should be going on.

Just a tidbit of a suggestion, try setting up a DynDNS web-address redirect to the network you'll be setting up on, that way you can just type in the address to access your files.

[aresfiend]

Stix, on 18 January 2012 - 07:58 PM, said:

Just a tidbit of a suggestion, try setting up a DynDNS web-address redirect to the network you'll be setting up on, that way you can just type in the address to access your files.

Memorizing an IP address is not that hard, plus if anybody does happen to be watching they won't have a chance to memorize my IP whereas a web address is comparatively easy to memorize.

[Stix]

Touche sir.

[Sasquatch]

aresfiend, on 18 January 2012 - 07:04 PM, said:

Sasquatch, on 18 January 2012 - 06:38 PM, said:

Hopefully it works for you then. Have you already figured out how to link a phone into a computer network in order to access everything remotely? Do they have an app or something that allows it?

You did see what I plan to do, right? I have done this with my laptop, but I plan on setting the computer on a static IP that I would put into my browser of choice being phone or computer and after input of a password I use my file browser of choice to access the filesystem. It actually works similarly with a VPN like hamachi but without actually having to be on that VPN.

I have no idea on how it is going to be done but as far as I understand it that is what should be going on.

Well, by that nature, you would probably want to be setting up an FTP server using something like Filezilla or CuteFTP. Then you would just need to find an FTP app for your phone and laptop. Biggest hitch would be setting up the user accounts/permissions, and getting your server routed into the public domain. Your router should be able to set port forwarding to allow the FTP ports (21 and 22) to be continuously accessed as needed, and might have some basic address translation, that you can manually set to change the private side IP of the server to your public IP coming off your modem.

If you get all of that set up properly, it will literally be typing in your public IP to an FTP program, putting in your login credentials, and browsing through your directories to select a file.


EDIT: And just a quick search in my iPod app store, there is one called FTP On The Go Pro that looks like a solid choice for you, if you have an iPhone.

Stix, on 18 January 2012 - 07:58 PM, said:

aresfiend, on 18 January 2012 - 07:04 PM, said:

Sasquatch, on 18 January 2012 - 06:38 PM, said:

Just a tidbit of a suggestion, try setting up a DynDNS web-address redirect to the network you'll be setting up on, that way you can just type in the address to access your files.

That would just be more work to do. Anyone can memorize an IP address. Hell, I have had an entire spreadsheet of about 150 IP's memorized at one time.

This post has been edited by Sasquatch: 18 January 2012 - 09:20 PM

[aresfiend]

Sasquatch, on 18 January 2012 - 09:15 PM, said:

Well, by that nature, you would probably want to be setting up an FTP server using something like Filezilla or CuteFTP. Then you would just need to find an FTP app for your phone and laptop. Biggest hitch would be setting up the user accounts/permissions, and getting your server routed into the public domain. Your router should be able to set port forwarding to allow the FTP ports (21 and 22) to be continuously accessed as needed, and might have some basic address translation, that you can manually set to change the private side IP of the server to your public IP coming off your modem.

If you get all of that set up properly, it will literally be typing in your public IP to an FTP program, putting in your login credentials, and browsing through your directories to select a file.


EDIT: And just a quick search in my iPod app store, there is one called FTP On The Go Pro that looks like a solid choice for you, if you have an iPhone.

Yeah.... about that. I cannot just go around installing FTP software on the computers in my school because, unlike many colleges, my school does not allow laptops during class. That's why I need to do in browser, I also don't care too much for per-system profiles but more of a single password to gain entry into my files.

I don't think I am going to have anybody trying to breech my secret vault of homework and music

[Sasquatch]

Alright, now you are confusing me. Let me try and get this straight.. You can't use computers during class, where you would want to be accessing your homework, so instead, you want to access your homework via phone?

If that's right, I'm not sure where you are getting the browser based FTP requirement. Regardless, you should still be able to fix up an FTP server to do what you want for your phone:

Filezilla to set up an FTP directory.
Username and Password set up inside Filezilla to allow external connections
Router and modem settings to push FTP ports and dedicated private to public IP management
FTP app on your phone that has a file manager built in.


For computer use, you might be able to type in the IP (ie; ftp://192.168.1.1) in the browser, which would bring up a UN/PW prompt, and would let you access everything. I don't remember off the top of my head what needs to be done to accomplish this, though.

[aresfiend]

Sasquatch, on 18 January 2012 - 10:50 PM, said:

Alright, now you are confusing me. Let me try and get this straight.. You can't use computers during class, where you would want to be accessing your homework, so instead, you want to access your homework via phone?

Okay, I cannot use my own computer in class but I can use school computers between class or in class depending on the class. Since I have to use the school computers I cannot install FTP software so I want to go with an FTP that I access with my browser to copy files instead of having FTP software to access the files.

Samba does work for this with little more software needed...

[Sasquatch]

Alright, that makes more sense.

My next question is this, though: Does your school's computers let you plug in a USB stick? If they do, you can actually put Filezilla on a USB stick as standalone software that doesn't need to be installed to be used. All you would have to do is load that software onto the stick, plug into your school computer, connect to your FTP server through the software, and transfer your files to your stick.

Then again, I keep forgetting you want to use Samba, and this is all Windows based as far as I know. So maybe I should shut up for now.

[ChefTech]

Does your school network even allow ftp traffic?

This little project will actually be a very good learning experience.

Forgot to add, I run Windows Home Server and it is awesome, but does cost money. It has a secure webpage (meeting your browser log in requirement), remote access to PC's on your network, plug ins for streaming, etc. Again, this is all Windows based.

This post has been edited by ChefTech: 18 January 2012 - 11:44 PM

[aresfiend]

Sasquatch, on 18 January 2012 - 11:21 PM, said:

Alright, that makes more sense.

My next question is this, though: Does your school's computers let you plug in a USB stick? If they do, you can actually put Filezilla on a USB stick as standalone software that doesn't need to be installed to be used. All you would have to do is load that software onto the stick, plug into your school computer, connect to your FTP server through the software, and transfer your files to your stick.

Then again, I keep forgetting you want to use Samba, and this is all Windows based as far as I know. So maybe I should shut up for now.

They allow USB sticks but if I run any application from one I actually can potentially be expelled.

ChefTech, on 18 January 2012 - 11:34 PM, said:

Does your school network even allow ftp traffic?

This little project will actually be a very good learning experience.

Forgot to add, I run Windows Home Server and it is awesome, but does cost money. It has a secure webpage (meeting your browser log in requirement), remote access to PC's on your network, plug ins for streaming, etc. Again, this is all Windows based.

My school does allow FTP traffic, although I am NOT going to go with windows server because I already know the basics of samba and I know it will work for free.

[CrazyLittle]

Honestly I think you're overthinking this problem. Take a loot at FreeNAS. It's NAS on a stick. http://www.freenas.org/

[aresfiend]

I was hoping an Admin would read a thread....


I WANT TO STAY WITH SAMBA

Thank you, have a nice day.