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

I have an 8 core i7 Alienware 17r3 with 32GB RAM I use to host a pen-test lab. It's outdated and only runs Win10, but with Xubuntu 20.04 and VirtualBox, it makes a nice little vm server I can power up and down with plenty of resources.

I used to but the fan eventually broke. It works if I flip it upsidedown so the vents face upwards but the CPU is still hitting 90 degrees idle 💀

Yup! Usually running some local/dev docker containers for work, so I don't slow down the laptop I'm actually using with background stuff. They get hot, and I keep them in places where they get hot, but they haven't died from the heat yet.

Yup, laptop for testing, old gaming PC for production.

this is the way

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

My home server started as an HP Pavilion P6803w desktop PC. A decade later it has a better case, better power supply, more RAM, better CPU, more drives and runs Debian instead of Windows 7. The only original part is the motherboard.

I thought about it, but the additional display, made me think about power saving, how to shut off screen, while keeping the headless service loaded? ... premature optimization?

I love when people find useful tasks for older tech or extend the life of older tech. There is enough e-waste out there.

I took my first foray into media hosting by running subsonic on an old emachines laptop! ain't nothing wrong!

Yeah until it stopped working. The heat is the problem. It lasts for like 6 months of 24/7 usage.

I have one that runs my bookwyrm, owncast, calibreweb, and matrix (WIP) instances.

Gotta love self-hosting federation c:

Old laptops have little resell value. They work well as low powered hobby servers though.

I've never had an internet connection that allows normal server connections. I guess I could set it up with Cloudflare or something.

I've been more likely to use old laptops as thin clients... run Linux on my desktop, then connect to it with VNC so the laptop doesn't really have to do anything. Or set them up with a really lightweight Linux desktop like WindowMaker and use them to play music out in my studio.

I actually used to host a pretty sizable minecraft server on a laptop.

Actually worked pretty well, was able to support around 150 or so concurrent users, and this was back in the bukkit days.

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.

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

End of life Chromebooks, baby!

I have like 3 spare laptops, and another spare computer. I'm not running anything right now because this router doesn't support port forwarding no matter what I try (it's a firmware issue apparently), but they're always there for me when I need them.