On 14 Nov 2015, at 19:16, steve-ALUG@hst.me.uk wrote:

Hi folks. I'm going to have to replace an ancient Pentium (2?) with 2gb ram that's run as a file server with software raid (twin disks), media server, print server, web server. None of these are high use and the web server is only internal.

Anyone got any recommendations for a low-ish power, small-ish form factor machine that will run linux that I could use?

Have a look at the https://www.serversplus.com/hp_proliant_microserver which has 4 HD bays, a dual-core celeron, and 2DIMMs for up to 16G RAM. I bought a predecessor some time ago. There are often cashback deals like http://www.serversplus.com/pdfs/ml10_65_oct15.pdf which you just missed. You could have a chat with them and see if that is likely to come back. If you want more CPU power but still a small form factor, have a browse around mini-itx.com; they have a wide range of motherboards (perhaps a Gigabyte J1900N?) and some NAS chassis (like say the CFI-A2060) too.

Existing machine is running Ubuntu, and I'd probably continue with that, or Lubuntu, or possibly debian.

Also is there any easy way to migrate from the existing machine to the new one? Presumably I can't simply move the disks from the old machine to the new one?

Wether it is even possible depends on the HDs, the motherboard, what OS you have installed, etc. But likely your existing HDs are PATA and your new machine will have SATA, so it won't fit. If your HDs are old, perhaps now would be a good time to look at replacing them before they fail anyway? I'd start over and just copy files across a network.

(This bit's a bit off topic- sorry) Also probably got to get sprog a Windows machine. It's a long time since I've delved into the wacky world of windows. Schoolwork and games like train simulator and minecraft would probably be it. Can't decide for sure, but probably a laptop. Any good deals or recommendations?

A laptop sounds sensible for school work. The Dell XPS line has some nice models, and you can often get cheaper refurbished through http://www.dell.com/uk/dfh/p/laptops The last laptop I bought came from http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk. But there are thousands of others.

-- Martijn

On 14/11/15 19:16, steve-ALUG@hst.me.uk wrote:

Hi folks. I'm going to have to replace an ancient Pentium (2?) with 2gb ram that's run as a file server with software raid (twin disks), media server, print server, web server. None of these are high use and the web server is only internal.

Anyone got any recommendations for a low-ish power, small-ish form factor machine that will run linux that I could use?

Existing machine is running Ubuntu, and I'd probably continue with that, or Lubuntu, or possibly debian.

Also is there any easy way to migrate from the existing machine to the new one? Presumably I can't simply move the disks from the old machine to the new one?

[SNIP]

This may or may not be what you have in mind, but when replacing our house server, which doesn't do anything other than DHCP, DNS caching and serving files via SAMBA, I did the following:

Raspberry Pi2 with an 8Gb card running Ubuntu and dnsmasq QNAP TS212P with 2x 1Tb WD Blue disks as a fle server.

Er, that's it!

It uses a fraction of the power the old stuff did, and so far seems to work very well. The Pi is hardly ticking over, and the QNAP, which has a learning curve attached, seems to work well as well. One thing is that it trashes the disks you put in, so migration requires some kind of holding station. I took the opportunity to go for low power new drives at about £40 each.

Anyway, just an idea for you to consider!

Cheers, Laurie.

PS. I also have a really old Pi which is attached to a TV as a media server (OSMC) which pulls its data from the QNAP box. That works a treat as well, as does the Chromecast, which I broadcast to via my Android phone, which is also pulling files from the QNAP box.