Suggestions for uses of old computer hardware?
I recently “upgraded” my wife’s computer, since it was about 7 years old and I think the WiFi chip in the motherboard was starting to go (and the motherboard wasn’t Windows 10 compatible either, and she wanted to upgrade to Windows 11).
Of course, upgrading the motherboard to the latest WiFi standards meant upgrading the CPU (also swapped from Intel to AMD), which resulted in getting new RAM as well (a rough time for that, given the prices).
All of that to say, I’m now sitting on a mostly functional old motherboard, cpu, and ram. Basically an entire computer sans case and power supply (I’m sure I have a hard drive laying around somewhere).
Any thoughts on what I could do with it? I’d thought of trying to build out a NAS (or some other home server of sorts), but I’ve been thinking that for 2 years and haven’t done it yet because I haven’t really found a “need” for one. I basically just use my computer for gaming, and I don’t really have or plan to have media collections with seem to be the main use case of a hobby NAS.
I've been experimenting with Linux on a similarly old machine. It's been surprisingly easy to install and work with, games support is much better than in the past, and it seems to run faster versus the old Win10 install. Plus no worries about Microsoft ads, telemetry, or AI boondoggles.
(And in case it's a coincidence, one of the most popular and user-friendly distros is Zorin OS. 😉)
I second this suggestion. Learning Linux is a fun way to increase your overall understanding of computing. You'll be surprised the sort of neat things you can discover outside the Microsoft ecosystem.
Here's what a variety of old machines are doing in my house:
HTPC - This gets used every day. My wife and I watch TV on it and my kids play games.
Gaming - An old gaming laptop setup next to the HTPC so both kids can play Minecraft together or just whatever game they want at the same time.
PiHole - Running alongside my network equipment for adblocking
Arcade cabinet - I have a Cocktail Arcade. Admittedly, this one isn't in use yet because I need to disassemble the cab and take out the old hardware, which is currently in use. But the computer is all setup and ready to go in.
Garage PC - For research and checking shop manuals while I work on my cars. Paired with a cheap thrift store monitor and keyboard that I don't care about getting greasy or nasty.
This isn't including my other regular PC's I use, such as my desktop which is my File Server/AI Server/Gaming machine and also my laptop and Surface Go. Plus I have two quite old machines, a laptop and a desktop that are currently sitting, which I haven't found a use for yet. A lot of this stuff has either just found its way to me or back to me after getting rid of it (giving it to family) many years ago, so I just try and find random uses for things.
I do highly recommend a PiHole. It takes some configuration, but it's 100% worth it.
2nd the Pi-Hole recommendation. Have an old PC I turned into a Linux machine that just constantly runs Pi-Hole on my network. It's fantastic since it uses like no resources and will block a lot of ads on mobile that normally would sneak through due to no ad-blocker (Firefox mobile on Android notwithstanding).
I need to get off my "lazy" bum and make a pihole, but the problem is that I am an introvert and the few spare hours I have at home I'm trying to avoid anything productive and just play video games... (currently in a stage in life where I have very little "free" time but also I can't find my Pi haha)
And I'd just put it on the router, as I suck at the networking but I believe the tutorial I have works for putting the router directly to it. (Also, please correct me if I'm wrong. I often am.)
So the way mine is set up is I have it running on a dedicated Linux machine 24/7, and all you do is update your router to point to the DNS to the one the Pi-Hole generates, so you don't have to actually install it on the router itself. It will just route all traffic through the ad-blocking DNS on your entire network.
That sounds definitely doable as I'm thinking of setting up a personal cloud computer. That would cover the 24/7 Linux, though I'll have to quit using a wired connection on my desktop I guess...
How big is the disk? If you don't back up your main machine, you could mirror some data to this older machine, maybe in the basement or a closet somewhere, so if something awful happens to your main machine you don't lose everything. My home NAS/server journey started doing exactly that for my music library: I mirrored it, then realized I could just host it from a central machine with Jellyfin... and now I've got a 36TB NAS that I use for backups, music, TV, movies, a VPN, dynamic DNS, and more. Truly a gateway drug, so be cautious!
But also a nice way to check out Linux risk-free if you have the Windows 11 AI/ad blues.
Something to note in general (although probably not for a computer less than ~10 years old these days) is that running old hardware is rarely practical. Sure, you can plonk Linux or NetBSD on an ancient Pentium III system and have it run useful services, but a Raspberry Pi will be faster, more convenient to fit in your house, better-supported, and use a tenth the energy.
For a 2018-vintage desktop system, though, this is somewhat less true. Sure, the Pi is more energy-efficient, but it's also significantly slower, and arm versus x86 architecture will limit what software you can run on it. (I would strongly advocate for only running open source software where this is unlikely to be an issue, but arm will make that decision for you.) My homeserver is actually somewhat older than that: the core of it is a midrange gaming PC from 2011, which a handful of updates and a pile of hard drives attached.
Some things to do with a homeserver:
Yeah, the biggest issue with using it is probably the CPU - it’s a power hog (i7-7700k).
Now, I do have an RPi 5 from my college senior project…and a Mac mini, from trying to skill into iOS/Mac development when applying for jobs.
I have a glut of computers…I should at least turn one of the raspberry pi’s I have into a PiHole.
Could consider power limiting / restricting it in the BIOS so it uses less power if its performance is overkill for whatever use case you decide on. While nowhere near as efficient as a Pi or whatever, it's at least an option if you still want to use the hardware but make it run more lightly
Turn it into a NAS and use it to store backups of your normal use computers. You can alternatively use it as a media server if you actually own your own media. You could do both, but if its meant to store backups, it’s not ideal to only have your media on it because the media won’t be stored redundantly.
Do you have any friends without a gaming PC/with older parts and would be interested? That's been the deal in my friend group, I do the labor for free, pass the spare parts to somebody else -- they don't know what to do with them any way. Or in a case of an upgrade like that, let it serve as a starter for another person's build.
A firewall? I recently repurposed an old office computer - adding two NICs and installing OPNsense - and now it's serving as my network front line.
That + a small switch and one or more standalone wireless access points, and you've replaced your standard ISP router with a more flexible and powerful system (mind you I'm still using my ISP router for switching and wireless until I get hardware I'm happy with)
What I did was buying a wireless mini keyboard with a trackpad, installing linux mint on it, and plugging it into my TV, a lot of stuff can be done well using a real browser with some addons.
It is truly a smart TV now, since my gaming setup is right next to it, I can use it as a 3rd monitor for opening wikis or to play some videos for background music.
I also have my jellyfin server installed into it. So when I'm watching normally, it would be just a direct play using jellyfin media player, when I'm away, I can stream from it using a VPN.
There are other stuff installed, but most of the things I use it for is done using jellyfin and the browser.
If the PC doesn't have an NVME slot, a sata SSD would help a lot.
Other commenters have pointed out, NAS is a good option. I was in a similar position to you a few years ago and didn't see much value in one but gave it a go anyway. I have just upgraded from that old set up and have a pretty beefy one that I use for heaps of stuff.
The other suggestion I would make is to put Proxmox on it. With it you can run heaps of virtual machines, so the focus is less on storage and more on functionality. There's already been mentions of running pihole, I had been running that for a while but I'm in the middle of migrating to Adguard which I would recommend instead. You could also run something like Tailscale as your own VPN.
Next to the NAS suggestions, I’d like to throw in another media-adjacent idea, but rather via online streaming instead of local data: Plug a computer that’s capable of installing and using a browser (with ad-blocker) into any old TV’s HDMI port and you got yourself a smart TV.
Run a copyparty-based NAS!