Just a quick post here before my latest projects all escape me.  I snagged a used PC off Freecycle a couple of weeks back and swapped out my web server – reformatting and installing the latest FreeBSD at the same time, then reinstalling all the ports from scratch.

In fact my needs have simplified considerably since standing up the old server, as I’m now using a TomatoUSB-flashed WRT54GS as my router / gateway instead of the webserver box – meaning I no longer needed dhcpd, natd, an elaborate pf.conf, dyndns client, a second NIC, etc.

Interesting specs: 2.0ghz Celeron (old machine 1.3ghz Pentium4), 384MB SDRAM (old: 128mb RDRAM).  Gigabit ethernet card.  Two SATA ports.  On-board GFX using 16mb shared ram (could put in a PCI card to get that back, if I really need it)  Most everything is up and running as before – a few side projects have dependencies I haven’t reinstalled yet.  In fact the biggest challenge was updating the BIOS, because all my floppy disks are dying… I managed to do it using two half-damaged disks, one for the flasher and one for the ROM, and even then command.com didn’t want to boot so I needed to use the flasher as the interpreter : )

The old machine is going to be fitted into the gutted Galaxian cabinet and run dedicated MAME – win98se stripped, off a CF card.