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.
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.
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 😅
Install Win7 to make retro gaming machine?
Install Linux to make a retro gaming machine?
I’m sure OP has enough machines to do both.
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 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.
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.
Do NOT continue “analysis paralysis”.
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.
You could make a Kubernetes cluster. Otherwise I don’t think running multiple old computer really makes sense.
Turn them into a Kebernetes or a Proxmox cluster.
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
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.
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.
Make an awesome homeverver out of them! Cancel your streaming subscriptions
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?
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’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.
