What’s your favorite way you’ve repurposed an old, underpowered machine? reddit / selfhosted ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Grizzlechips · 2023-10-09 19:07 I found an old [Zotac Zbox](https://www.amazon.com/ZOTAC-Memory- Desktop-Computer-ZBOXNANO-AD10-PLUS-U/dp/B006HFVYUC) mini PC from 2015 sitting in a box in our house. All I see is potential for this lil guy. Thankfully, I already have a Plex server (and associated services) running on my main box, so no need for that. (And good anyways because this thing would STRUGGLE to transcode anything! 😅) What are some of your favorite ways you’ve repurposed some old hardware into a fresh specialty machine? Thanks! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ItsPwn · 2023-10-09 20:03 make it a nas with Synology is my favorite way using /r/xpenology boot loader and wiki: https://github.com/AuxXxilium/arc/releases 2 minute job to install and have an amazing all around Nas ! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- mystarkfuture · 2023-10-09 20:04 I bought a used Dell Chromebox with a 4th Gen i3 processor for $50. The chromeOS was past end of life. Installed Mr.Chromebox UEFI firmware and replaced ChrkmeOS with Debian. I had 8GB RAM lying around from my laptop upgrade. And I added 256GB SSD. Total cost : $70 This turned out to the most resilient home server I’ve had ever. I used ARM SBCs and then an Intel Atom based mini pc. They all had issues. This one has none. I still use that for *arr stack, samba client to mount the Plex library that is shared from my Nvidia Shield. It was a pretty streamline setup. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- valdecircarvalho · 2023-10-09 20:40 DONATE! There are a ton of people out there, that could use this machine to learn and get a job ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ASouthernBoy · 2023-10-09 21:12 Add ram, install proxmox and some lxc like nginx, play with proxy services, pi-hole, dashboards , calibreweb to read books...these are all low resources ---------------------------------------------------------------------- lilolalu · 2023-10-09 21:27 Thats around the generation of a zotac mini I own, and yes they are extremely underpowered because they usually don't even have AES-NI. I think they make good Home-Assistent / Smarthome boxes with i.e. a connbee ZigBee stick. Or an off site backup server with an external HDD. Or try RetroArch in it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- EndlessHiway · 2023-10-09 22:19 porn ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Grizzlechips · 2023-10-09 22:43 This is a sick recommendation I would have never even thought of myself. Thanks! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Grizzlechips · 2023-10-09 22:54 I mean, I’d love to, but wouldn’t a NAS work best if it had, like, slots for storage? This thing is like the size of the palm of my hand, and only a couple of inputs in the back. It’s not really got in the features department. Its main appeal is how compact it is! 😅 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- large_running_moose · 2023-10-09 23:18 Laptops, workstations, or servers...everything eventually becomes: \#1) A offline server thats waits to be called upon. Or #2) I stuff it full of drives to be a file server. (Choice #2 is brought to you by: r/DataHoarder) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- GoTeamScotch · 2023-10-09 23:33 Installed LibreELEC onto an old 2015 ARM mini-pc and it now lives as a media client for my home Jellyfin setup. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ryfromoz · 2023-10-10 00:13 Sonarr/radarr etc server ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nik_h_75 · 2023-10-10 00:38 Old company macbook pro with 7th gen i7 and 16 GB ram. Added 2 DAS units (4 x 2.5 inch and 2 x 3.5/2.5 inch). Installed OMV and docker - runs everything under the sun and hardly breaks a sweat (except transcoding as I don't have plex pass). Been solid as for 2+ years. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DarkKnyt · 2023-10-10 00:48 I bought an iMac for $25. It was a pain in the ass but I got ubuntu loaded on there and I run proxmox backup server in an lxd, backing up my most critical files to another 8 TB external hard drive. Plus I have another computer, ssh terminal to screw around with. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- st8ic88 · 2023-10-10 01:07 I use an original Raspberry Pi B+ as a secondary pihole server. If anything happens to the main server, the house won't lose DNS resolution. It's actually saved me a couple of times and it's a great job for an old machine since Pihole will run on a potato. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Simon-RedditAccount · 2023-10-10 04:46 Another option: use it as a dedicated always-offline, airgapped machine for security stuff, like generating/renewing your GPG keys, setting up your PKI etc. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 12Superman26 · 2023-10-10 07:52 Do the online Features work with it? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ItsPwn · 2023-10-10 07:55 Sure , its all in Wiki on their webpage , dev is super active and updates github often quick connect works , all features i use like syno acct etc work. abb has to be activated using another tool from git hub ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 12Superman26 · 2023-10-10 10:12 great will check it out ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ZAFJB · 2023-10-10 10:15 Called a recycling company to come and pick it up. Get rid of crap. But good used stuff that fits your use case properly. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ZAFJB · 2023-10-10 10:16 Not always the greatest of ideas. Too old, and people cannot use it to learn modern, relevant skills. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- valdecircarvalho · 2023-10-10 10:58 Why not! Anyone can learn to code on a Raspberry Pi! OP machine is way better and powerful ---------------------------------------------------------------------- VettedBot · 2023-10-10 11:08 Hi, I’m Vetted AI Bot! I researched the **'ZOTAC AMD E 350 Dual Core Mini PC'** you mentioned in your comment along with its brand, **Zotac**, and I thought you might find the following analysis helpful. **Users liked:** * Small size allows for flexible placement (backed by 3 comments) * Capable of running media center software and playing high definition video (backed by 4 comments) * Easy to set up and install operating system (backed by 2 comments) **Users disliked:** * Usb 3.0 ports do not function properly (backed by 1 comment) * Limited gaming capabilities (backed by 1 comment) * Difficult setup for inexperienced users (backed by 1 comment) According to Reddit, **Zotac** is considered a reputable brand. Its most popular types of products are: * Graphics Cards (#2 of 15 brands on Reddit) If you'd like to **summon me to ask about a product**, just make a post with its link and tag me, [like in this example.](https://www.red dit.com/r/tablets/comments/1444zdn/comment/joqd89c/) This message was generated by a (very smart) bot. If you found it helpful, let us know with an upvote and a “good bot!” reply and please feel free to provide feedback on how it can be improved. *Powered by* [*vetted.ai*](http://vetted.ai/reddit) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- spazonator · 2023-10-10 12:10 A router, conference room style multi media controller (as there's several video ports on that thing), I have a couple Ham friends that I'll ask if they need hardware (that's a whole category of uses). I also really dig the donate option. If you know a bright young kid, introduce them to running their own server, maybe run a minecraft host. This is one of the factors that got me into computers professionally. Growing up I had access to all sorts of old office workstations I'd build things with. First project was an Unreal Server for my friends and I. I'm still so grateful the operations guy at that business saw I'd take to understanding the innards if only I had a machine I could screw with that wasn't the family computer. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Fluffer_Wuffer · 2023-10-10 13:16 Sell it on eBay... at a certain point, machines become more of a burden than benefit, this could be lack of resource, or even just power consumption. Even if I only spent £50 on upgrades, that a substantial amount that could go towards something more powerful, more power efficient and last your several years... You can get a mini PC with an N100 on AliExpress for a little.over £100.. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- h311m4n000 · 2023-10-10 13:17 I had a ZBOX with 2 nics I used as a firewall for years. Great little boxes. Now I converted it to a simple PC where I hooked up a scanner for paperless. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PaulEngineer-89 · 2023-10-10 13:49 Marion 8200 dragline had the original MG sets in the back but we went AC VFDs so those were no longer needed electrically. We needed ballast so we kept a lot of the parts, cut them up and added to the ballast tanks in back as counterweight. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- throwaway53377329 · 2023-10-10 14:04 Idk, but in 1989, I had a 286, 2Mb ram, with a 40 Mb Seagate partitioned into 10-30 because DOS at the time couldn't handle more than 30 Mb. Facts ---------------------------------------------------------------------- throwaway53377329 · 2023-10-10 14:11 I wish I still had it. I remember they said you couldn't run Win 3.0 on a monochrome monitor. If you renamed the install files and fool it, you could. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- jdblaich · 2023-10-10 14:11 Recently used a rpi 2 as a quorum node in a proxmox cluster. It had been sitting for a couple of years. Later switched to a dell slimline (Intel 4th Gen cpu) for the quorum as it can also run some tiny lxc containers such as an ssh jump host that doesn't need to be on the main proxmox nodes. Set up HA and replication in case it goes down. Used another rpi 2 to sense if a door is opened and have it send me an email. Used an old cell phone running k9 mail to let out a notification tone when an email ccomes in on that email address used by the 2nd rpi 2. I can get notified when the door is oopened and I'm in the back room. Use another rpi 2 as a temp sensor to monitor the room with my servers. Turned some 6th Gen Intel dell slim computers into BSD wworkstations running kodi used to play media and stream videos from newpipe. Put an nvidia gtx 1050ti into proxmox server to passthrough the gpu for a win 10 VM. This dramatically speeds up the vm when using it. I'm not using it to play games or videos. It is just to speed up the desktop. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DoTheThingNow · 2023-10-10 18:25 I did this for awhile too until the 2nd ethernet port decided to burn out. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- IllegalD · 2023-10-11 03:55 I bought an old Zotac Zbox for $50, threw a 1TB SSD in it, and it's now a perfect little rtorrent server. Great little machine. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Grizzlechips · 2023-10-11 13:07 I didn’t even know one could do that! What!? I thought this thing was basically a tiny little black box. What SSD did you end up grabbing? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- IllegalD · 2023-10-11 13:42 Funny story, it's a Zbox AD13 (AMD E2-1800), I popped it open after I bought it and noticed an mSATA slot. About a year later, I was shucking a defective USB SSD, it was an mSATA drive inside the enclosure. Took me another week to remember that slot in the Zbox heh, been going hard for a few years now.