What to do with an extra PC and some hardware…

Hey everyone,

I’m a Network / Communications Management major and I have an extra PC (Intel Xeon) as well as a Cisco catalyst 3750 that I can play with. I’m just breaking into my core classes (JUST BARELY started working with Packet Tracer and setting up small networks and that sort of thing) so I wanted to get some ideas as to what I can do with the extra hardware. I was originally just going to set it up as a server to run programs like a Ventrilo server as I like to game occasionally but I figure why not turn this into a learning experience. I have no experience with Linux so I guess that could be something. Any suggestions are welcome. Thanks!