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    Converting Inspiron to a Home Server?

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by Wigster, Jan 15, 2008.

  1. Wigster

    Wigster Notebook Guru

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    I am about to upgrade my old Dell Inspiron 600m, and I had the thought that maybe it could be put to good use as a server.

    I am thinking of having a server which will run Windows Home Server, house and serve the media library and keep the backups of my laptop's hard drive.

    It would seem that the 1.6 GHz Pentium M and 2 Gb of memory I have in the Inspiron could be great for such a server, especially considering the low power requiments.

    Is anyone selling motherboards that could be used for such a setup? I'd scavenge the CPU and RAM, the motherboard would provide an Ethernet and SATA connectors for 3.5" drives.

    Can this be done cheaply?

    Thanks.
     
  2. InlawBiker

    InlawBiker Notebook Evangelist

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    I don't think so. If special parts existed to take laptop hardware it would be expensive. The parts would be worth more as a functional laptop you could sell or use.

    You can build a pretty fast home desktop machine for $300. Or, you could use the laptop as the server. If you're worried about disk speed you can get an eSATA card and plug in an external SATA drive enclosure.