[GhostChaser15]

Will a 2.4 GHz Pentium 4 Celeron with 1 Gb of ram be powerful enough to act as a server?

[speedwell68]

It depends on what you want this server to do?

My server is an Acer Revo R3600. It has a 1.6Ghz single core Intel Atom. When I first got it there was only 1GB of ram. I later upgraded it to 4GB, but only because I had the RAM given to me for free, there was no real issue with the operation of the machine. I run Lubuntu as the OS, I would have used Ubuntu Server but that is only available for 64bit machines. Lubuntu is a very low rent OS, if you were to use a Windows based OS then I reckon it would be less successful.

[GhostChaser15]

I want it to act as a NAS and access it from my HTPC.

But will it be fast enough for 1080p?
It's a decade old machine, which I'm thinking of using as a server.

[speedwell68]

If all you want it to do is serve up video files over a network then it will be fine, as long as you are using the right OS. I haven't found a video that mine will not stream perfectly. Mine can stream 4 1080p videos simultaneously with no problems. If you are worried then upgrade the RAM. Memory for a machine of that age should be as cheap as chips, if not free.

[Prof Yaffle]

My server is an Acer Revo R3600 ... I would have used Ubuntu Server but that is only available for 64bit machines.

A propos to nothing, the R3600 is an Atom 230 IIRC, which is a 64-bit processor. At least, my R3600 seems perfectly happy running a 64-bit build of OpenELEC, but I won't tell it not to if you won't

[speedwell68]

My server is an Acer Revo R3600 ... I would have used Ubuntu Server but that is only available for 64bit machines.

A propos to nothing, the R3600 is an Atom 230 IIRC, which is a 64-bit processor. At least, my R3600 seems perfectly happy running a 64-bit build of OpenELEC, but I won't tell it not to if you won't

I always assumed it was 32bit, but running lscpu yields a 2 core 64 bit chip. I think there shall be some upgrading. Thanks.

Edit: dmidecode confirms it...

Code:

# dmidecode 2.12
SMBIOS 2.6 present.

Handle 0x0004, DMI type 4, 40 bytes
Processor Information
        Socket Designation: Intel
        Type: Central Processor
        Family: Other
        Manufacturer: Intel            
        ID: C2 06 01 00 FF FB E9 BF
        Version: Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU  230   @ 1.60GHz              
        Voltage: 1.2 V
        External Clock: 133 MHz
        Max Speed: 1666 MHz
        Current Speed: 1600 MHz
        Status: Populated, Enabled
        Upgrade: Other
        L1 Cache Handle: 0x0005
        L2 Cache Handle: 0x0006
        L3 Cache Handle: Not Provided
        Serial Number: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
        Asset Tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
        Part Number: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
        Core Count: 1
        Core Enabled: 1
        Thread Count: 2
        Characteristics:
                64-bit capable

[FlashPan]

To a degree if you are using it like a nas then it is not streaming the actual video content. The nas is sending the file to your kodi box which then decodes the content..whether it be 1080p or 720p.

The specs on your nas look fine...even on 100mb lan I think you can "send" a 1080p file fine...but you may as well future proof yourself and go gigabit.

As for OS you can find loads of opensource nas software to run on x86 hardware..www.nas4free.org/ for instance..although am not a user myself.

Of course a better processor and more ram can help open up other options to run on a nas (web access for instance). The other factor to think about is power usage the P4's were quite hungry if I remember correctly.

Cheers