What do you use YOUR server for?

[JayzisLazy]

Do you have any servers running around your house? or home media servers etc. if so, what do you use them for? what are the specs? have any big plans for that server? share your ideas. feel free to brag.

[N36fSL3A]

I have this big old Dell Optiplex GX110 that I used as a media server. Just with standard specs. I want to sell it to a collector though.

[1yR4jE8b]

I'll give you $0.40 for it.

[Daleth]

I once knew a guy who had a central server that all the desktops in his house were connected to. He set it up so that he could download software on just the server, so it could be used by all the desktops connected to it.

[N36fSL3A]

A normal PC or an actual server?

[chrisname]

Or a server being used as a PC or a PC being used as a server... the only real difference is intent -- any computer can be used as a server, it just has to serve requests to qualify -- although servers tend to have certain characteristics (like having lots of small, fast disks in RAID configuration) and having multiple processors (not just cores, but physical processors also) and a lot of RAM.

[3qX21hU5]

I'm currently running a ReadyNAS server in Raid1 for my central storage at home. It actually is very handy since I can keep all my projects on the server and access them on any of my computers and even remote access it when I am out and about. It also consumes a lot less power then having a standard PC running 24/7 which is a big plus.

So basically I just use it for file storage, remote access and I also stream my ITunes off it.

[Mathhead200]

I (rarely, but sometimes) use my old desktop as a server, either to test network programs I write (like a chat program), to run games (like minecraft, or byond games), or to run a JSP web server: Tomcat. I even have a sub-domain redirect to my IP address/port :)
Nothing fancy though. Just for learning purposes really.

[chrisname]

I'd like to build a cluster of cheap computers (maybe Raspberry Pis) to use for a server. Ideally I'd either be able to have the whole cluster run a program in parallel (using MPI) or have specific nodes run specific programs, or even have some nodes run one program in parallel while other nodes run specific programs. That way I could dedicate some units to running various servers - http, smtp, etc., or others of my own creation - while the rest would be running some program in parallel. And then I could reassign the dedicated ones to help with the parallel program if it was being slow due to lack of processing units. If I could do all that dynamically, it would make me a happy programmer. Then I'd just need another computer to act as a terminal and also controller of the cluster. I wonder if clusters can have heterogeneous architectures so long as they're running compatible software...