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[-] resurge@lemmy.ml 22 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Yeah, using a 9 year old work laptop as my home server. Then with the surging energy prices last year I decided to switch out that laptop with a raspberry pi 4 as server.

Conclusion: I now have a laptop and a RPI running 24/7 🤦‍♂️

[-] TheInsane42@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

My RPi4s and 3s will out perform my older laptops, apart from the just retired P50 (gpu nearly died). That one is 6y, the others are 11y old HPs and a 16y 32 bit Xxodd (wierd brand). tje RPis are sufficient for normal server use, the nwew laptop (last gen i9 with 64G mem) can host (nested) kvm clients, so no need for extra hardware. (And still I save them, just in case ;) )

[-] somedaysoon@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I wouldn't recommend a RPi for a server for anyone looking into this. Something like a ThinkCentre M92P will cost less and run circles around a RPi4, at not much more power. It will also support x86 and has Quick Sync tech which makes is great if you use something like jellyfin and need to do transcoding.

Even if you really need a low power SBC then a RPi4 was never the best option. The RockPro64 was released an entire year prior to the RPi4, and has a faster CPU. It supports booting from eMMC, and could boot from USB for like 2 years before the RPi figured it out. It also has a standard PCIe slot for adding SATA cards or extra ethernet ports instead of using the weird hat thing.

Personally though, I don't think the tiny/mini/micro PCs can be beat, I run two of them at home for all my services.

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[-] marswarrior@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

Conclusion: I now have a laptop and a RPI running 24/7 🤦‍♂️

Sounds like a win to me. lol

[-] penguin_knight@lemmy.world 10 points 2 years ago

i disaseemble all my laptops so they are just a motherboard, screw them into sheets of MDF, place vertically, and use them as servers.

NAS, pihole, plex, etc

[-] Rain@lm.melonbread.dev 5 points 2 years ago

Do you have any photos of this?
Would love to see how this looks in practice!

[-] AkatsukiLevi@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

Up! Also would love to see how it looks

[-] lom@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 years ago

You have a tutorial? That sounds awesome.

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[-] I_Miss_Daniel@lemmy.world 10 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I turned my ten year old Toshiba i7 with a cracked LCD into a virtual fish tank after the last fish died.

[-] tpihkal@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years ago
[-] rockhandle@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago

I salute your creativity haha

[-] lemme_at_it@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

Cool. A friend had one in a fireplace that played a fire video in the evenings - with the crackling sounds too.

[-] Peereboominc@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

That is so awesome!

[-] AcidOctopus@lemmy.world 9 points 2 years ago

I'm patiently waiting for someone (anyone) I know to decide to throw out an old laptop.

Gonna bite their hand off for it, install Linux and proceed to fuck around and find out.

[-] lemme_at_it@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

When you do, take a look at howtoforge.com.

Then throw on a bunch of containers from [linuxserver.io]https://www.linuxserver.io/)

Quick & easy for testing & learning.

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[-] pcgaldo@lemmy.ml 7 points 2 years ago

My laptop for home use is almost 15 years old. My desktop is almost 11 years old. My work laptop is 8 years old. Here they are talking about more modern and powerful equipment, defining them as obsolete. I don't know, maybe we should start questioning if these consumption dynamics are a bit harmful.

[-] phthalocyanin@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

based and sustainability-pilled

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[-] Mugmoor@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Do you mean a server with a built-in UPS, monitor, keyboard AND mouse? Hell yeah! My old Samsung Laptop has been running my game servers for quite a while now, and I have an old Asus running PiHole and Headcale. Works great!

[-] BaldDude@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 years ago

My first NAS was an old IBM X40 and two USB3-Disks.

those where the days :)

[-] Thade780@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago

My (very) old Vaio from 2013 just had a disk change with an SSD and is now a fantastic domain controller.

[-] Elegast@lemm.ee 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

yep!

I used to run an old Dell R610. Used a decent amount of power.

Switched to an old 4th gen quadcore i7 laptop.

Been running great, uses less power, has a built in display and keyboard.

Linux base, Docker Env for most everything else.

[-] karlthemailman@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 years ago

And a built in ups if your battery is still good

[-] RoyalEngineering@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Old laptops can are actually great servers—hear me out:

  • Built in KVM
  • Low power consumption
  • Battery = UPS for power blips
  • SSD (sometimes)
  • Wifi + Ethernet = Redundant NICs
  • Quiet (sometimes)
  • Small form factor
[-] utopianfiat@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

The battery is usually long gone by the time it becomes a server though.

Really old laptops have PCMCIA slots too that you can hook into newer interfaces. I used a PCMCIA eSATA card for a laptop NAS!

[-] Olgratin_Magmatoe@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

The battery is usually long gone by the time it becomes a server though.

Absolutely. I still have my laptop from high school, and it's battery has been long gone. The screen is on its last legs.

Maybe it will be a server one day, but for now it's my DnD laptop. Sucks a bit when somebody bumps the power cord and the battlemap turns off. But it's still limping by.

[-] Kazumara@feddit.de 3 points 2 years ago

No, I use the old desktops for that.

Old laptops usually seem to go to other people:

  • My first one I gave one to a girl who's house burned down in my street.
  • The second one went to my ex who is on really hard financial times and the old Macbook she got from another good soul died on her.
  • The third one I traded in with my mom who really wanted a light one, and in exchange she contributed to...
  • My fourth one that had more power for compiling things in my studies. This one I still have and use occasionally.
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[-] cowmouse@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

They're usually very inefficient energetically though

[-] Aceticon@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

For years I had an Asus EEE PC as my home NAS.

[-] green_dragon@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

Oh no! It's the EEE PC!

[-] Dax87@forum.stellarcastle.net 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

when I first explored the world of kubernetes my nodes consisted of discarded laptops I've dubbed "half-tops," or truly "headless" servers. it was a beautiful abomination.

[-] tristan@aussie.zone 2 points 2 years ago

I use old Lenovo tiny units... Can pick them up cheap when businesses upgrade, chuck in a bit extra ram, a new SSD, add it to my proxmox cluster... Then look for excuses to use it so I can justify having yet another one

[-] sv1sjp@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 years ago

I used to use my 10 year old old netbook (intel atom n270 2gb ram - ubuntu server) as a server for Plex, calibre, pihole, ssftp.

Now I am using a Raspberry Pi 4 8GB Ram, as it consumes less electricity. Old laptops are consuming (except HDDs/SSDs) 10-30 watt. Raspberry Pi in indle consumes 2watt and when i am using it at mac power with an external hdd consumes 12watt.

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[-] silverfish@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

Got a laptop with a busted up screen running Plex and it's pretty awesome! We don't need screens where we're going!

[-] TeoTwawki@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

A busted up acer netbook on a shelf in my basement ran a Final Fantasy XI private server for several years till it died and I migrated to something sturdier.

Display was wrecked, keyboard destroyed, trackpad gone.. but a single usb port and a vga port still worked so I was able to install an OS. then I removed those and only ever remoted into it. I actually removed the busted display and keyboard to it'd vent heat better - it ran pretty hot and the ventilation on that thing was designed poorly. The reason the keyboard died was actually heat related, melting its underside and warping it.

FFXI Private servers will run on a 2 decades old potato, so this worked until it finally died despite some seriously pathetic specs.

(1gb ram upgraded to 2gb, 1 ghz intel atom single core cpu, yes really)

[-] BeardyGrumps@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 years ago

At work we had lots of old laptops, poor battery life, small hard drives, etc. I cleaned them up and installed pfsense on them and gave them to colleagues as home firewall/kid web filters. Others we popped xp on them and set up mame / emulator to give to their kids.

[-] Resonosity@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

Wait you can do that???? I have one right now!!!

[-] hukaulaba@pawb.social 2 points 2 years ago

My first server box was a laptop that was ten years old at the time.

[-] phx@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

The big issue with laptops tends to be cooling, but something with a decent CPU and enough RAM can still do a good job since in many cases you're not tapping the graphics chip/core, which is often the biggest source of heat.

That said, for small personal services even an 8GB Pi4 can do a pretty decent job.

[-] jerrimu@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

Omg that’s a great idea I have an 8 thread 4 core from 2012 that was my main laptop 3 years ago.

[-] MrGeekman@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

Nope. I’m using a Dell Optiplex 990 that my uncle no longer wanted.

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this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2023
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