what OS should i install here? old Q6600, some random GPUs

[giantbucket]

i have this spare mobo+cpu+ram, and i can cobble together a machine. but i don't have a spare OS for it since originally it was set up with Win Server 2003. so, there's no XP or 7 or any other desktop-based license associated with it.

Q6600 on some intel (actual intel brand) mATX mobo
has cheapie onboard nvidia graphics, but i'll possibly toss in one of my random low-power cards
has 6G of DDR2 ram (1+2+1+2)
board has 5 sata ports, a PCIe-16, two PCIe-1, and a PCI as far as i remember
i have a corsair h55 that i could use on it, just because
and a cheap power supply that's not strong enough for a 6pin or 8pin GPU but can probably handle a simple GPU card

so anyways, what OS should i install on it, and why? i have no actual need for this as i already have 5 other machines (4 plus laptop).

i could install Win2000, or any Linux distro, or look at buying a super-cheap Win XP or 7 license. or i could install SteamOS but i could only run an old low-power card.

hmm... actually... Win2000 with an old GPU for playing old Steam (or other CD-based) games? or some old audio editing stuff, maybe?

 

[Agash]

Just install Linux mint/Ubuntu and your good to go. You can play steam, video edit with the free ones (not professional but okay) as well as using gimp for photo editing (really good). It should also run really fast, also I don't think you can run many programs with Win 2000. You can use audacity for audio editing in Linux as well.

 

[photonboy]

I don't see the point of even building the machine.

You've said about the only thing you can think to do is old games or audio edit?

1) Old games... why bother when you can do that on your existing machines?
Sure there are sites that talk about specific games that may need Win95 and specific hardware (that don't run even in Windows 7/8 with DOSBOX or whatever) but unless you actually have a scenario like that why bother... plus you still need that Windows license.

2) Audio edit?
Um... why would you do that on an old, slow machine when you've got several new ones?

Other:
Linux?
If you want to mess around with Linux distros for fun go for it. That's the only thing I can think of, though it gets boring pretty darn fast and if you did get serious you'd just want to dual-boot on a faster machine anyway.

Summary:
My advice is just donate the old parts.

 

[Agash]

I don't see the point of even building the machine.

You've said about the only thing you can think to do is old games or audio edit?

1) Old games... why bother when you can do that on your existing machines?
Sure there are sites that talk about specific games that may need Win95 and specific hardware (that don't run even in Windows 7/8 with DOSBOX or whatever) but unless you actually have a scenario like that why bother... plus you still need that Windows license.

2) Audio edit?
Um... why would you do that on an old, slow machine when you've got several new ones?

Other:
Linux?
If you want to mess around with Linux distros for fun go for it. That's the only thing I can think of, though it gets boring pretty darn fast and if you did get serious you'd just want to dual-boot on a faster machine anyway.

Summary:
My advice is just donate the old parts.

I was also thinking this. Just wanted to give input but it makes sense to just do random stuff with it since you have several other PC's.

 

[giantbucket]

yeah, i realize that i don't NEED it, but i already have all the parts for it, so might as well do something with it (useful or otherwise). i think i've narrowed it down to either a dual-boot of Win2k / Linux Mint or simply two separate swappable drives, one Win2k and the other Mint. i'm going to have Mint on my media machine anyways, so this'll give me an alternate and kind of a sandbox too.

now, i wonder if i can even get Win2k to install from a SATA DVD drive onto a SATA HDD. or from a USB-connected DVD drive. i stupidly tossed the IDE-based DVD drives i had laying around, two or three weeks ago. damnit!

 

[Math Geek]

i have a q6600 system running windows 10 on 4 gb of ram. it has no problem installing to a sata drive on win vista and above. i have never tried with less than vista but from there on it has no issues with the sata drive.

as for win 2k you might run into some issues there on a sata drive. you can probably find a driver for the dvd drive easy enough and more than likely you can use a thumb drive to get the driver into the win 2k install when it prompts for it. the mobo bios should allow the thumb drive to be read though i have never tried it with such an old os.

other than to say i did it, i can't think of a reason to bother with such an old os when the new ones work fine on this older hardware.

 

[photonboy]

I was in the same situation once and ended up putting on Linux, booting a couple times and said "that's nice" then it sat there for months until I said "this is stupid" and just donated it.