Turning my sad gaming PC into a media server

30 August 2026

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In 2016, I built my very first gaming PC, armed with a PCPartPicker list and a ton of Reddit research. We had some good times together: Fallout 4, The Witcher 3, Divinity: Original Sin, various Batman games. Then we got a PS4, then a PS5, then a Steam Deck - the final nail in the coffin - and poor Calculon (for that was its name) sat neglected under my desk, a coffee-stained glorified (but not very ergonomic) footrest.

Its giant tower was taking up a lot of room under my desk, and it was too shit to play any modern games. When I looked into the logistics of upgrading any of it, it seemed I’d have to completely gut it and start again, and I really didn't have much use for a gaming PC, let alone the desire to spend that much money. Where do old computers go when they’re no use to anyone any more? That’s right, they become media servers.

The first job was to downsize so it could sit nicely in the spare room without taking up too much space. I could have left it as-is, and saved several days of my life, but I didn’t do that. I bought a smaller case - a second-hand Lian Li A3-mATX - which fit my motherboard but only had room for one HDD. (And it’s PRETTY.) So I backed up what I needed to, took the machine apart, and carefully reassembled it in the new case, sans one hard drive. PCPartPicker was helpful here, as I still had the old list from when I built the PC in the first place, and swapping out the case in the list told me what header adaptors I needed to buy for the USB connectors.

On the left, a small form factor black mesh computer case, with a slatted wood panel on the front. On the right, a much larger PC tower, coffee-splattered, with loose screws sitting on top. In the background, some stickers on a corkboard: one that says Perceivable & Operable & Understandable & Robust & Punch Nazis, a Keith Haring New York sticker, and one that says 'My heart says yes but my vocal range says no'. — Don't talk to me or my son ever again

When I say carefully, I managed to dislodge the heatsink on the CPU, which caused it to instantly overheat and turn off. I screwed it back in, and it worked for a little while but then eventually powered down, and the BIOS showed it running at around 71°C from boot, climbing steadily. I looked it up, and according to the internet you’re meant to replace thermal paste on a CPU every 2-5 years, and it had been 10.

I dug out the remainder of the thermal paste from my Steam Deck repair, cleaned the old stuff off, and applied it to the CPU. I also got it on the floor, and all over my hands, but it also got to the places it was supposed to get to, and when I turned the machine on again it was motoring along at a much happier 35°C.

So now it was turning on... sort of. My PC had been running Windows 10 installed onto an SSD (the C drive), with two 1TB hard drives for media and games. I’d naïvely assumed that when I installed Windows on the C drive, that was where Windows was installed. But as soon as I removed the HDD, it wouldn’t boot at all. I plugged the drive back in, and Windows started freezing every time it loaded. I couldn’t even get into recovery mode, and there was no way I could reinstall it.

So I did what any Windows user would do in this situation: I gave up and installed Linux. I asked at work what Linux OS is recommended these days for people who don’t want to mine their own ore for their computers, and Ubuntu was still a top recommendation, but I actually went with Linux Mint. I’ve been really impressed at how simple everything is - it’s been a minute since I last tried Linux in general, and last time I tried to get an Ubuntu machine up and running for dev stuff it took me days to sort it out. Mint has Software Manager, a GUI for installing apps. It’s lightning fast, and everything just works in a way it really didn’t with Windows. I can still access drives over the network from my Mac via Samba, and I can remotely control the Linux machine via SSH or RDC. If I didn’t have a Mac I’d consider using Linux Mint for my daily driver.

The only thing I really miss from Windows is MusicBee, the best music management software, but it just about works via WINE so I’m still able to use most of the features.

Given the reduced HDD capacity in the new case, I swapped out the two 1TB hard drives for a refurbished 4TB HDD I picked up for a good price on eBay. I’d thought that storage would be considerably cheaper ten years later, but of course all computer hardware is more expensive in the age of AI because there’s more demand for resources.

The 1TB HDDs have become backup drives. I discovered the existence of external HDD docking stations (sorry for Amazon link) for computers, which require external power (as HDDs do) and are connected via USB. They just plug in, and it feels like it shouldn’t just work, but it’s great and worked totally seamlessly with Linux. I’ve set up regular backup jobs for my music and video collection with Pika Backup.

The server in its new smaller case, with its wire mesh sides and wooden front panel. Two hard disk drives are docked into a unit that's plugged in via USB. A white USB DVD drive sits on top.

For the media server itself, we’re using Plex because my husband has a lifetime pass, but I’ll also give Jellyfin a try at some point. I tried AirPlaying music from Plex on my Mac (from the server) and it was dreadful. But I can stream from the server to my iPad while I’m cooking, and the TV has a Plex app as well.

My only complaint is that the new case doesn’t have an indicator light, so I can’t actually tell from the front if it’s switched on (but my graphics card glows a garish red, which is enough of a clue). But it’s a nice little glow up for trusty old Calculon, and I’m happy it’s got a new lease of life.