Im sorta a computer hoarder but what can i do with some older desktops?
Over the past few years ive gotten desktops from various smaller thrift stores but not i feel like i have too many and im not sure what to so with them? Do i save them and turn them into a bugger project? Do i make a nas out of one of them? Im stumped theres so many things to do with a pc that i dont know where to start, or if this is even the right place to post in?
I pretty much saved theses from e-waste and scalpers but most of the machines are devices nobody wants or has a issue.
einkorn @feddit.org - 7day
Repair what's broken, slap Linux on them and donate to charities.
66
unexposedhazard @discuss.tchncs.de - 7day
Yeep there are quite a few of these that get them into the hands of disadvanteged people or underfunded schools and such.
theres so many things to do with a pc that i dont know where to start
Pick the first project that you think of and chase it down. If it sucks, then reformat the drive and do something else. Video game systems and file servers are great. So is installing a different OS on each, just to experience the differences side by side.
For any machines that are too inefficient to be worth continuing to compute with, you could at least save the power supplies for electronics projects. I've got some 12V addressable RGB Christmas lights being powered by an old ATX power supply, for example.
12
cepelinas @sopuli.xyz - 6day
I power my 3d printer with a dodgy atx psu but it is like 700 watts xD a little overkill.
1
Digit - 6day
Some ideas:
webserver (e.g. for a little personal website, maybe even host some fediverse things)
irc
weather monitor
distro tester
local LLM ~(they're getting more and more efficient)~
If you've several of similar performance, you could:
host lan parties, for classic games. Maybe some Quake, OpenTTD, Luanti
10
FuckBigTech347 @lemmygrad.ml - 5day
weather monitor
I'm intrigued, are there any daemons for this out there that you can recommend? Would be neat.
2
aquacat - 7day
How old are we talking?
Anything before core iX series is not recommended to be used as a server (missing instruction sets, low efficiency etc.).It could still be used for fun projects like installing gentoo or old redhat with plasma 2.
If you have Core iX cpu (preferably 3rd gen or newer) you xan host some services, but look into c/selfhosted if you're interested in that.
You could also experiment with Kubernetes and combine lots of bad PCs into one less bad PC.
In the end PCs are useful only if you can run useful sodtware on them, but besides nostalgia there ain't much use I see in them.
9
bad_news @lemmy.billiam.net - 7day
You can eke a lot of use out of an old computer as long as it's not a public server. I ran my sister's old Celeron laptop as a Debian server for doing local sftp file transfers at my parents' house when visiting there for holidays, which it was perfectly useful for until like 2018, when it finally fully died. In the end it ran as a server more years than it was useful as a windows workstation.
3
Grumpy404 @lemmy.zip - 7day
I have a mix of eras of computer ranging from ddr to ddr3. most of what i have is from the windows 7 era, my "collection" mostly contains dell OptiPlex's or whatever looks neat.
Ive heard you can do alot with a dell OptiPlex but i want to make a nas but im unsure how well it would be to store personal files with?
2
aquacat - 7day
Since there are a lot of OptiPlexses with different specs I will give you a general advice for making home servers.
Use newest desktop you have and/or the one that took the least beating since you will need all the perfotmance and uptime you can get.
If you opt for used storage (like some hard drives you have), make them into RAID with redundancy (at lrast one possible drive failiure, preferably two if you can).
Also look for power efficiency, so if you have a laptop (and can add at least 2 drives in it for RAID) or a recent i3 or i5 dekstop (or even i7 if undervolted) that would be your best bet.
Also look for decent network interface card. Try to avoid 10/100mbit and look for 1gbit, though I doubt that old PCs can even push 1gbit. Also make sure that the LAN plays nice with linux.
For the OS, use something stable like debian, or if you want to thinker Alpine is fun and also really stable. Also Ubuntu Server is a solid choice.
When deploying services like a file server if you just want something that works (or at least should be easier than other options) YunoHost or CasaOS are your friends, but you can learn docker (or run without encapsulation) and nginx (or other reverse proxy I don't care).
For a file server everyone has their preference, but I use SeaFile since it is crossflatform and simple with good integration.
As I said, for any questions about selfhosting just hit c/selfhosted and ask away.
4
MonkderVierte @lemmy.zip - 6day
Cheap Linux desktops for a charity?
7
stupid_asshole69 [none/use name] - 6day
First of all: get rid of the broken ones. You’re not doing anything with the running systems, so there’s no need to hang on to the ones that don’t run.
Next, make a list of the things you want to do and start doing them.
If you’re worried about power consumption, don’t be. If you’re still worried about power consumption, get an inline watt meter (a kill-a-watt), take some measurements, do the math and feel at ease. If you don’t feel at ease, look up wake on lan. You can have powered down computers turn back on when they get a packet so you don’t need to worry about power consumption.
When you feel like you’ve done enough stuff, get rid of the computers you’re not using.
7
James R Kirk - 7day
A nas or home server with one of them is a great idea
6
leastaction @lemmy.ca - 6day
Put Linux on them and give them away to people who need them?
6
sobchak @programming.dev - 6day
A lot, depending on your interests and the hardware itself. I'm running a NAS (TrueNAS) on an old machine that also runs a bittorrent client and immich as TrueNAS "apps." I'm running an *arr stack and jellyfin on another old machine. I've got another old machine running an i2p router, hyphanet node, and a few other services. In the past, I've used old machines as routers (pfsense), openhab/home assistant machines, game servers, ZoneMinder server, etc.
5
tinfoilhat - 6day
I have some hardware from like 2008 running my entire home's infrastructure. Jellyfin, Kavita, home automation, etc.
5
quick_snail @feddit.nl - 6day
Solar panels and cryptocurency mining
5
cy_narrator @discuss.tchncs.de - 6day
Explain the former
4
LeFantome @programming.dev - 6day
I think they mean use solar to keep the price of the electricity consumption down. It is probably a joke since old gear is going to drink a lot of juice cryptomining.
4
quick_snail @feddit.nl - 6day
Go to a local solar shop and give them money.
3
IngeniousRocks (They/She) - 6day
Explore weird OSs! I got an old Celeron D workstation just for playing around with weird old operating systems.
Its got a 32 bit bios but 64 bit celeron, so the grub stuff has been fund 😅
5
solrize - 7day
If less than 10 years old they're probably usable with some upgrades here and there. Finding a use for them is harder. Maybe just get them working and give them to friends who can use them.
5
fruitycoder @sh.itjust.works - 6day
I recently turned every old junker and some nicer ones into a Harvester cluster. The really old ones I use as cold storage devices that I actually shut off when I don't need them.
4
crimsonpoodle @pawb.social - 6day
Dope
1
LeFantome @programming.dev - 6day
Turn them into a Kebernetes or a Proxmox cluster.
4
burrito @sh.itjust.works - 6day
And use CEPH as your filesystem.
1
curbstickle - 7day
What kind of machines are we talking about here?
A recent-ish tiny/mini/micro is a vastly different answer than a kaypro luggable.
4
Grumpy404 @lemmy.zip - 7day
Mostly dell optiplex desktops with ddr3 from the windows 7 era. Or whatever neat looking device i could find.
2
curbstickle - 7day
Potentially 1st to 3rd (mayyyybbbeeee 4th) gen Intel iX series. On the edge of useful for common tasks. Can support most DEs, but not necessarily a great experience depending on what you want running.
Best use for them is going to be light server tasks, but just to mention, latter versions were drastically more efficient, so you may pay more in a power bill than it would cost to look for more recent ewasted hardware. I generally pick up 6th gen or newer, for reference, though I have a 4th gen doing... Something. I think all thats on there is some webserver stuff, DNS, etc.
Could also be usable as a kids PC for gcompris, emulation for the less modern environments, etc. If you would consider a raspberry pi, its a solid fit.
Without more spec details it would be tough to say more.
8
utopiah - 5day
IMHO fix whatever you can, donate it all locally (HackerSpace, RepairCafe, Linux non-profit, etc) as there are quite a few people dedicated to refurbishing computers for schools, people who need a computer to find work, etc.
Then for the tinkering aspect, keep one, that's enough.
Honestly even 1 isn't really required. Pretty much everything listed here can be done more efficiently without an actual physical computer :
your current computer can be a server, just turn off the screen or even accept (which I'd argue is a fair assumption) that at night it will be off. If you want external access put WireGuard or another VPN on it.
Want to test distributions or anything else? QEMU or containers, no need for actual hardware
4
Dr. Moose - 5day
Turn them into a little server that you can host self hostable services on
4
communism - 6day
I'm in a similar boat. I use old computers for spare parts and hobby projects (e.g. I did Linux From Scratch on an old second-hand Thinkpad I picked up on a whim). I think cheap second hand computers are great for tinkerers e.g. you can flash custom firmware without worrying about bricking the mobo.
You could also use them as servers if you have any services you want to host.
Also if you truly have no use for them, fix them up, install something like Linux Mint on them, and give them away.
4
lemmyseikai @lemmy.world - 7day
Goodwill has a recycling partner that can take most e-waste .
You could make a Kubernetes cluster. Otherwise I don't think running multiple old computer really makes sense.
3
morto - 7day
If you want something out from the ordinary, maybe build a retro gaming/tech museum and make it open for the public. You can even host events like gaming competitions, or thematic presentations. Charge a small make up for the costs, and maybe you can even make it your living later in life.
3
cricbuzz [he/him] - 6day
Make an awesome homeverver out of them! Cancel your streaming subscriptions
How old are these machines, from oldest CPU model to newest CPU model?
2
confuser - 7day
Rip the parts out and pour epoxy all over them and make sure there are no Bibles in the pour.
Have giant tabletop made of computer
I've never seen one in person but they look soooo sick online
2
JasonDJ @lemmy.zip - 7day
Sacrilege. Op, if you want Bibles in the pour, you can certainly do that. I'd recommend Leviticus.
10
confuser - 6day
Lmao wth autocorrect, the Bible was supposed to be bubble.
There should be a funny autocorrects community here lol
5
JasonDJ @lemmy.zip - 6day
I know, I know. I'm just busting your Bibles.
5
thenextguy @lemmy.world - 7day
Well, he did say he wanted a bugger project. So, Leviticus sounds appropriate.
1
lattrommi - 7day
To expand on this thought, I take broken electronics and make what I call art from them. They already come with neat patterns and colors, some surfaces are dull, some are shiny, they have the added effect of generating shadows with their shapes and can easily be modified in various ways. I'm sure there's probably copyright issues and health hazards so I'm unlikely to ever put it out on display but I feel they add a sort of dirty cyberpunk look to my apartment. For an example, this is my "Love bug" that hangs out on top of my desktop tower, offering its broken hearts to whomever wants it. Made from a broken GTX 7800. https://i.imgur.com/ySS3fes.jpeg
2
data1701d (He/Him) - 4day
A suggestion: if you can't find anything else for them, keep them around as parts machines.
There should still be useful components in them. For instance, a lot of the Wi-Fi modems may still be perfectly good for other things as long as they're mini-PCIE (I don't know if they use those in desktops). They may not be the absolute newest standard, but should still do the trick; it certainly came in handy when my sister's laptop's Wi-Fi modem decided to be a brat - I just swapped in an Intel modem from a laptop from 2016.
I might not fully trust the SSDs or the HDDs, but they can still have their uses. There's one SSD from an old desktop that I currently have hooked up to my Wii U.
1
pastermil @sh.itjust.works - 6day
Install Win7 to make retro gaming machine?
1
AndyMFK @lemmy.dbzer0.com - 6day
Install Linux to make a retro gaming machine?
15
dewritoninja @pawb.social - 6day
Depending on the hardware windows might be the getter option. For example I have a laptop with a GPU that doesn't support Vulkan or OpenGL 4.3, but it can run dx11 very well
2
pastermil @sh.itjust.works - 6day
I'm sure OP has enough machines to do both.
1
Sims - 7day
I a year you might have an agent to manage them all. They could be edge devices, or different nodes in your/your ai's work flow. Don't get rid of them unless you hate AI, or for good causes.
-2
Ithral @lemmy.blahaj.zone - 7day
Budget desktops are and will remain effectively useless for AI not enough RAM, not enough GPU oomph. And cost more to run than they provide unless they are serving a static web page for a small business or something. Shill your bubble somewhere it could actually be utilized.
5
data1701d (He/Him) - 5day
I mean, depending on the budget desktop, it might be much better than a Raspberry Pi 5, which I hear is already occasionally used for such things.
1
Ithral @lemmy.blahaj.zone - 5day
You can do object detection, not generative stuff, at least not with anything resembling useful results
1
data1701d (He/Him) - 4day
From what I can tell, people have supposedly run LLMs on it with not great, but not necessarily horrible results; Certainly has to be better than those clickbait posts about people running llama on Windows 98.
A lot of budget desktops from the past decade can at least match, if not significantly outclass a Raspberry Pi 5. Heck, that barely beats my i5 from 2009, and the performance of CPUs has increased significantly since then.
Then again, I'm not particular interested in gen ML, self-hosted or not, so I don't really care.
Grumpy404 in linux
Im sorta a computer hoarder but what can i do with some older desktops?
Over the past few years ive gotten desktops from various smaller thrift stores but not i feel like i have too many and im not sure what to so with them? Do i save them and turn them into a bugger project? Do i make a nas out of one of them? Im stumped theres so many things to do with a pc that i dont know where to start, or if this is even the right place to post in?
I pretty much saved theses from e-waste and scalpers but most of the machines are devices nobody wants or has a issue.
Repair what's broken, slap Linux on them and donate to charities.
Yeep there are quite a few of these that get them into the hands of disadvanteged people or underfunded schools and such.
This.
If you're anywhere near PDX,
Free Geek
Pick the first project that you think of and chase it down. If it sucks, then reformat the drive and do something else. Video game systems and file servers are great. So is installing a different OS on each, just to experience the differences side by side.
Do NOT continue "analysis paralysis".
Pretty sure there should be some nonprofit that will gladly get and assemble them so i.e. children on remote places can have a computer.
How do i find a charity/place who will take them?
🤔 Here you go.
For any machines that are too inefficient to be worth continuing to compute with, you could at least save the power supplies for electronics projects. I've got some 12V addressable RGB Christmas lights being powered by an old ATX power supply, for example.
I power my 3d printer with a dodgy atx psu but it is like 700 watts xD a little overkill.
Some ideas:
If you've several of similar performance, you could:
I'm intrigued, are there any daemons for this out there that you can recommend? Would be neat.
How old are we talking?
In the end PCs are useful only if you can run useful sodtware on them, but besides nostalgia there ain't much use I see in them.
You can eke a lot of use out of an old computer as long as it's not a public server. I ran my sister's old Celeron laptop as a Debian server for doing local sftp file transfers at my parents' house when visiting there for holidays, which it was perfectly useful for until like 2018, when it finally fully died. In the end it ran as a server more years than it was useful as a windows workstation.
I have a mix of eras of computer ranging from ddr to ddr3. most of what i have is from the windows 7 era, my "collection" mostly contains dell OptiPlex's or whatever looks neat.
Ive heard you can do alot with a dell OptiPlex but i want to make a nas but im unsure how well it would be to store personal files with?
Since there are a lot of OptiPlexses with different specs I will give you a general advice for making home servers.
Use newest desktop you have and/or the one that took the least beating since you will need all the perfotmance and uptime you can get.
If you opt for used storage (like some hard drives you have), make them into RAID with redundancy (at lrast one possible drive failiure, preferably two if you can).
Also look for power efficiency, so if you have a laptop (and can add at least 2 drives in it for RAID) or a recent i3 or i5 dekstop (or even i7 if undervolted) that would be your best bet.
Also look for decent network interface card. Try to avoid 10/100mbit and look for 1gbit, though I doubt that old PCs can even push 1gbit. Also make sure that the LAN plays nice with linux.
For the OS, use something stable like debian, or if you want to thinker Alpine is fun and also really stable. Also Ubuntu Server is a solid choice.
When deploying services like a file server if you just want something that works (or at least should be easier than other options) YunoHost or CasaOS are your friends, but you can learn docker (or run without encapsulation) and nginx (or other reverse proxy I don't care).
For a file server everyone has their preference, but I use SeaFile since it is crossflatform and simple with good integration.
As I said, for any questions about selfhosting just hit c/selfhosted and ask away.
Cheap Linux desktops for a charity?
First of all: get rid of the broken ones. You’re not doing anything with the running systems, so there’s no need to hang on to the ones that don’t run.
Next, make a list of the things you want to do and start doing them.
If you’re worried about power consumption, don’t be. If you’re still worried about power consumption, get an inline watt meter (a kill-a-watt), take some measurements, do the math and feel at ease. If you don’t feel at ease, look up wake on lan. You can have powered down computers turn back on when they get a packet so you don’t need to worry about power consumption.
When you feel like you’ve done enough stuff, get rid of the computers you’re not using.
A nas or home server with one of them is a great idea
Put Linux on them and give them away to people who need them?
A lot, depending on your interests and the hardware itself. I'm running a NAS (TrueNAS) on an old machine that also runs a bittorrent client and immich as TrueNAS "apps." I'm running an *arr stack and jellyfin on another old machine. I've got another old machine running an i2p router, hyphanet node, and a few other services. In the past, I've used old machines as routers (pfsense), openhab/home assistant machines, game servers, ZoneMinder server, etc.
I have some hardware from like 2008 running my entire home's infrastructure. Jellyfin, Kavita, home automation, etc.
Solar panels and cryptocurency mining
Explain the former
I think they mean use solar to keep the price of the electricity consumption down. It is probably a joke since old gear is going to drink a lot of juice cryptomining.
Go to a local solar shop and give them money.
Explore weird OSs! I got an old Celeron D workstation just for playing around with weird old operating systems.
Its got a 32 bit bios but 64 bit celeron, so the grub stuff has been fund 😅
If less than 10 years old they're probably usable with some upgrades here and there. Finding a use for them is harder. Maybe just get them working and give them to friends who can use them.
I recently turned every old junker and some nicer ones into a Harvester cluster. The really old ones I use as cold storage devices that I actually shut off when I don't need them.
Dope
Turn them into a Kebernetes or a Proxmox cluster.
And use CEPH as your filesystem.
What kind of machines are we talking about here?
A recent-ish tiny/mini/micro is a vastly different answer than a kaypro luggable.
Mostly dell optiplex desktops with ddr3 from the windows 7 era. Or whatever neat looking device i could find.
Potentially 1st to 3rd (mayyyybbbeeee 4th) gen Intel iX series. On the edge of useful for common tasks. Can support most DEs, but not necessarily a great experience depending on what you want running.
Best use for them is going to be light server tasks, but just to mention, latter versions were drastically more efficient, so you may pay more in a power bill than it would cost to look for more recent ewasted hardware. I generally pick up 6th gen or newer, for reference, though I have a 4th gen doing... Something. I think all thats on there is some webserver stuff, DNS, etc.
Could also be usable as a kids PC for gcompris, emulation for the less modern environments, etc. If you would consider a raspberry pi, its a solid fit.
Without more spec details it would be tough to say more.
IMHO fix whatever you can, donate it all locally (HackerSpace, RepairCafe, Linux non-profit, etc) as there are quite a few people dedicated to refurbishing computers for schools, people who need a computer to find work, etc.
Then for the tinkering aspect, keep one, that's enough.
Honestly even 1 isn't really required. Pretty much everything listed here can be done more efficiently without an actual physical computer :
Turn them into a little server that you can host self hostable services on
I'm in a similar boat. I use old computers for spare parts and hobby projects (e.g. I did Linux From Scratch on an old second-hand Thinkpad I picked up on a whim). I think cheap second hand computers are great for tinkerers e.g. you can flash custom firmware without worrying about bricking the mobo.
You could also use them as servers if you have any services you want to host.
Also if you truly have no use for them, fix them up, install something like Linux Mint on them, and give them away.
Goodwill has a recycling partner that can take most e-waste .
https://www.ban.org/news-new/2020/10/7/gps-trackers-reveal-dell-and-goodwill-continue-to-export-your-e-waste-to-developing-countries
You could make a Kubernetes cluster. Otherwise I don't think running multiple old computer really makes sense.
If you want something out from the ordinary, maybe build a retro gaming/tech museum and make it open for the public. You can even host events like gaming competitions, or thematic presentations. Charge a small make up for the costs, and maybe you can even make it your living later in life.
Make an awesome homeverver out of them! Cancel your streaming subscriptions
https://medium.com/linux-shots/self-host-media-stack-jellyfin-radarr-sonarr-jackett-transmission-3e6a0adf716e
How old are these machines, from oldest CPU model to newest CPU model?
Rip the parts out and pour epoxy all over them and make sure there are no Bibles in the pour.
Have giant tabletop made of computer
I've never seen one in person but they look soooo sick online
Sacrilege. Op, if you want Bibles in the pour, you can certainly do that. I'd recommend Leviticus.
Lmao wth autocorrect, the Bible was supposed to be bubble.
There should be a funny autocorrects community here lol
I know, I know. I'm just busting your Bibles.
Well, he did say he wanted a bugger project. So, Leviticus sounds appropriate.
To expand on this thought, I take broken electronics and make what I call art from them. They already come with neat patterns and colors, some surfaces are dull, some are shiny, they have the added effect of generating shadows with their shapes and can easily be modified in various ways. I'm sure there's probably copyright issues and health hazards so I'm unlikely to ever put it out on display but I feel they add a sort of dirty cyberpunk look to my apartment. For an example, this is my "Love bug" that hangs out on top of my desktop tower, offering its broken hearts to whomever wants it. Made from a broken GTX 7800. https://i.imgur.com/ySS3fes.jpeg
A suggestion: if you can't find anything else for them, keep them around as parts machines.
There should still be useful components in them. For instance, a lot of the Wi-Fi modems may still be perfectly good for other things as long as they're mini-PCIE (I don't know if they use those in desktops). They may not be the absolute newest standard, but should still do the trick; it certainly came in handy when my sister's laptop's Wi-Fi modem decided to be a brat - I just swapped in an Intel modem from a laptop from 2016.
I might not fully trust the SSDs or the HDDs, but they can still have their uses. There's one SSD from an old desktop that I currently have hooked up to my Wii U.
Install Win7 to make retro gaming machine?
Install Linux to make a retro gaming machine?
Depending on the hardware windows might be the getter option. For example I have a laptop with a GPU that doesn't support Vulkan or OpenGL 4.3, but it can run dx11 very well
I'm sure OP has enough machines to do both.
I a year you might have an agent to manage them all. They could be edge devices, or different nodes in your/your ai's work flow. Don't get rid of them unless you hate AI, or for good causes.
Budget desktops are and will remain effectively useless for AI not enough RAM, not enough GPU oomph. And cost more to run than they provide unless they are serving a static web page for a small business or something. Shill your bubble somewhere it could actually be utilized.
I mean, depending on the budget desktop, it might be much better than a Raspberry Pi 5, which I hear is already occasionally used for such things.
You can do object detection, not generative stuff, at least not with anything resembling useful results
From what I can tell, people have supposedly run LLMs on it with not great, but not necessarily horrible results; Certainly has to be better than those clickbait posts about people running llama on Windows 98.
A lot of budget desktops from the past decade can at least match, if not significantly outclass a Raspberry Pi 5. Heck, that barely beats my i5 from 2009, and the performance of CPUs has increased significantly since then.
Then again, I'm not particular interested in gen ML, self-hosted or not, so I don't really care.