Is there any use for my old laptop? reddit / selfhosted ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Big-Finding2976 · 2023-10-27 17:12 I've recently bought a Lenovo ThinkPad T480, i5-8350U, 16GB, 256GB SSD, which does everything I need from a laptop (I mainly use my desktop PC anyway). My old laptop is a Travelmate 5720, Core 2 Duo T7300, 4GB, 128GB SSD. It boots fairly quickly and it's usable for basic stuff like browsing, but running Windows 10 the CPU is at 99% most of the time just from the background Windows processes, so the noisy fan is running at full speed, and doing Windiws updates takes ages It's not worth spending any money to upgrade the RAM or SSD, but I could replace the DVD drive with a spare 256GB that I've got. The current SSD is almost full but that's because I've got dual-boot Windows and Linux installed, so if I was only running Linux it would probably be sufficient. Before I scrap it (I'll keep the SSD), I was just wondering if there's anything that it might be better suited for than my desktop, laptop, M700 SFF PC (which is my main self-hosted machine and backup server) and my various RPis? Maybe being portable gives it an advantage for some task over the other machines? The battery isn't great, probably runs for an hour or so, but at least I can disconnect it from the power and move it around without shutting it down, and it will keep running for a while if there's a powercut, or I have to turn off the mains to do some DIY. Of course, my modem/router wouldn't have any power then, not would any of my other PCs, but I could use my phone as a temporary hotspot to maintain connectivity for whatever is running on the laptop. Or maybe having a keyboard and monitor gives it some advantages over the RPi for some particular task I haven't thought of? The M700 won't have a keyboard or monitor connected most of the time either, but I'm not sure it matters when I can just SSH or VNC into these machines from my desktop. Or maybe there's some software I might want to run permanently on a dedicated machine, rather than having it on my new laptop or my desktop, where I need to reboot into Linux or Windows for different tasks (and with the new laptop I'll sometimes want to take it out with me), so they won't be able to run any software permanently? Although if that's the only reason, a RPi would probably be just as good for this. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- thekrautboy · 2023-10-27 17:36 Laptops arent meant to be run 24/7 as a kind of server. But of course some people will crawl out of the woodwork and say "but ive been running mine for 23 years and my house has not burned down!". Fine. Since you already have your SFF and a bunch of Raspis, i dont see too much value in keeping that old laptop around, especially with just a core duo and 4 gig. It would be neat to run smaller stuff on it but i would say you have that alreay covered with the Raspis and also at a lower power consumption and better efficiency. Why not donate that old laptop to someone who doesnt have anything to run their stuff on yet? You could contact a local school if they take it, or some kind of Maker place in your town, i dont know. Plenty of places that are happy about such donations. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Big-Finding2976 · 2023-10-27 18:10 Yeah, I didn't really think it made much sense to keep it, but I wanted to check whether there was something I hadn't thought of before I disposed of it. Donating it is a good idea. It's probably not really suitable for running Windows but hopefully I can find a school or something where they could use a Linux laptop. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- kennyquast · 2023-10-27 18:31 Something I was considering an old laptop for was for security cameras. It would be able to have built in backup power. Provided the cameras also have backup power I could still stay recording incase or power outage. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- acbadam42 · 2023-10-27 18:43 Home assistant ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Big-Finding2976 · 2023-10-27 18:46 You could probably do that with a RPi with a SSD to record to and a USB battery pack, and it would be more compact (I bought a camera module for one of my RPis to make a door camera, but I haven't had time to install it yet). If you've already got the laptop though, it might make sense to use that rather than buying new stuff. It looks like I can't even donate my laptop, as schools, etc. only want machines that are less than 8 years old and this is about twice that. Maybe someone will buy it on eBay for the battery or some other parts. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Big-Finding2976 · 2023-10-27 18:48 Maybe, but I'm not sure it's worth having a dedicated laptop just for that, when you can run it on a RPi or SFF and access it from any desktop, phone or tablet. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- acbadam42 · 2023-10-27 18:59 I guess that's just what I do... I have an older i5 540M laptop with 8 gigs of RAM that I have dedicated to HAOS at home while I have it virtualized in proxmox at work. Both of my setups are a combination of things I got for free things I got for cheap and things I got for way too expensive lol. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You_Wen_AzzHu · 2023-10-27 19:32 Limit the cpu to run at 30% . Remove the battery .then you are fine. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Reasonable-Bear5084 · 2023-10-27 20:46 Install linux on it and I'm sure the CPU won't get higher than 10% ---------------------------------------------------------------------- xardoniak · 2023-10-27 20:57 The main advantage of a laptop in a homelab is the "built in UPS" but they're not designed to be left on 24/7 Realistically though, that's pretty old hardware. Do you know what the power consumption is like? It may be cheaper over 6 months to buy a raspberry pi or thin client and use that instead. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- dazchad · 2023-10-27 20:59 It's not normal for a computer to be using 99% CPU with background tasks only. I'd format and reisntall windows. If that doesn't work, there's a chance there's a rootkit infection. In that case, the laptop is a no-go for anything. In any case, as others have pointed out, I don't see a lot of benefit of hanging with this laptop if you already have other computers. Unless you want to retire those devices and use the laptop only? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Big-Finding2976 · 2023-10-27 21:07 I just reinstalled Linux Mint on the whole drive and even with that it uses 60-80% of the CPU when updating. Synaptic used about 40%, right now two instances of rsync are using about 40% between them, dpkg sometimes uses 30-43%, so I'm not surprised that Windows with all its background processes and telemetry would use more. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Big-Finding2976 · 2023-10-27 21:10 Yeah, running it without the battery (if that works, I don't think it does with all laptops) is safer but that loses the advantage of having the battery backup, and if you can't leave it running 24/7 that rather limits what you can use it for. I've got a smart plug that measures the power used, so I'll see what that shows. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- dazchad · 2023-10-27 21:12 It's fine to have high CPU usage when something is actually running. I meant that it's not normal to have background tasks (open programs that aren't actively being used) consistently consuming too much CPU. 0~5% would be healthy. Maybe even 10%. Most definitely not 75%+. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Big-Finding2976 · 2023-10-27 21:15 Windows always seems to be running something in the background, either Defender updates or telemetry, so Linux should be much better once the updates have finished. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PMaxxGaming · 2023-10-27 22:15 I repurposed an old laptop that wasn't running very well by taking the guts out of it and stuffing it into an old 1U server chassis and installed Proxmox on bare metal. Currently running a HAOS VM, Docker in an LXC, and I'm in the process of trying to set up WireGuard in an LXC. I honestly can't remember the exact specs of the laptop, but it's very old, and with what I'm currently running I've still got tons of overhead left. I do have a monitor/kbm plugged into it and I'm running XFCE just incase I want to check on something locally while I'm downstairs, but generally the monitor is turned off (in case the power goes out, it won't be an unnecessary drain on my UPS) and I just ssh in or use one of the Web-GUI's, depending on the service I'm working on at the time. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Beastmind · 2023-10-27 22:24 Anything and nothing really. One time in a small company we used a laptop as pfsense network entry point 🤷‍♂️ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Vampire_Duchess · 2023-10-27 22:27 hi, i started another laptop a sony xps with core duo cpu and just 4gb ram. I don't have any spare ssd for that so I used a 500GB black Western Digital. The battery is removable. so far is running dietpi (debian) and running some docker containers, including a metube to download videos/music from YouTube. but also added navidrome for music streaming and works fantastic. Also added wireguard server via PiVPN and mostly I'll be using this to sharp some linux, docker, ansible, and dev skills. is not 24 hrs but mostly is a lab. doesn't have kvm or vm instructions so not sure it can handle proxmox but ram is limited. but has more cpu/86 than my raspberry pi. but consume more power. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- alsdhjf1 · 2023-10-27 22:29 That’s quite a lot, I have a brand new tower I just built that pulls 53w when idle. 10 core intel gen13 with 3 nvme, 2 ssd, and 2 spinning drives. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DyceFreak · 2023-10-27 22:44 Install both XP and Win7 on it and dual boot, use it as a nostalgia machine. I have about 10 of them myself for old school LAN parties, laptops are way easier to keep around than desktops. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Big-Finding2976 · 2023-10-27 23:20 That's an interesting idea. I could install some 90s games (Warcraft, Command & Conquer, StarCraft) that my friends and I used to play when we built our first PCs. I think there are a few modern RPG that can support 2 players on the same PC (one using K&M and the other using controller), so the laptop could be used for player 2 to stream the game from my desktop PC to their own screen using something like Parsec. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Big-Finding2976 · 2023-10-27 23:22 Yeah, it's not great. My RPi with an SSD and 6 USB HDDs is only drawing 45W, and about 30W of that is the HDDs. I'll check what my M700 draws later. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Big-Finding2976 · 2023-10-27 23:31 I guess I should just try using it for various things, including HAOS, to see whether I find it useful to have them running on a dedicated machine. If I lived in a big house I'm sure it would be handy to have a laptop in every room, even if I only used it as a terminal to remote into other machines, but I live in a 1-bed flat so all my computers are in the living room. Maybe I'll find something to use it for in my parents house. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Big-Finding2976 · 2023-10-27 23:33 I don't think there's any way to limit the CPU in Linux, and removing the battery removes one of the main advantages of using a laptop (battery backup and portability). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Big-Finding2976 · 2023-10-27 23:42 I hadn't thought of putting the guts into another case. I don't think I'll do that with this laptop, as it's running OK and it has a functional monitor and kbm (mostly, the v key is a bit unreliable), but if I definitely wanted to use it as a headless machine to run 24/7 off the mains (with a UPS backup instead of the battery) that would be an option. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Big-Finding2976 · 2023-10-27 23:52 Maybe I could use this laptop as a pfsense machine. It's got a Gigabit Ethernet port and it looks like I can get a USB2 to Gigabit Ethernet adapter for about £15, so if that would be sufficient to maintain full speeds with my Gigabit fibre Internet, that could be an option. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- antek2220 · 2023-10-28 00:45 I used my at that time 8 year old ThinkPad T400 as a server for 24/7 for 3,5 years and Dell Precision M4800 for more that a year until February without any issue. Your old laptop isn't very powerful, but it surely will be able to host some lighter apps. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Big-Finding2976 · 2023-10-28 00:50 I haven't measured my M700 yet but the TDP of the i5-6500 is 65W. For the same price that I paid for that, I can buy a G3 mini PC with the i5-7500T which is slightly faster and has a TDP of 35W, same 8GB RAM and larger 500GB SSD vs 256GB, so I'll probably add one of those to my collection. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- techwiz002 · 2023-10-28 00:51 Unsure if you have a 3D printer, but I have absolutely loved having a small dedicated laptop to monitor and drive mine. Only boot it up when I need to use it, peripherals are included, and gigabit LAN to the rest of my home server means file transfers to be printed are quick enough for my needs. Even set it up in such a way that I can use the webcam to monitor print progress, it's turned out to be quite handy. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Big-Finding2976 · 2023-10-28 01:03 Hmm, I guess I could keep it on a table in the corner to use it as a terminal to control music streaming from my server, so I don't need to turn on my main PC (or let guests use my main PC) for that. Having a spare laptop I can use on the sofa to experiment and learn stuff without worrying about messing up anything important might be useful too. I might be able to do that just as easily by using my new laptop as a terminal to SSH or VNC into my RPi or M700, and if I'm using docker there may be little risk of messing up anything important, but there's always a bit of a risk, and if I mess up badly on a spare laptop I can just quit until I feel like reinstalling it and starting again, whereas if I mess up on my RPi or M700 and break something important I'd need to fix it immediately, when I might not have the time or energy to do that. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Big-Finding2976 · 2023-10-28 01:06 I don't, but I've been thinking of getting one for my Dad, so that could be a good use for this laptop. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- omnichad · 2023-10-28 03:38 Higher CPU usage is good. It means it's not IO bound and it will finish sooner. The problem comes when your CPU scheduler doesn't give priority to keeping the system responsive. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- omnichad · 2023-10-28 03:42 My understanding is that FreeBSD doesn't work well with non-Intel hardware and a USB adapter is probably Realtek. You can get an adapter card to plug into the Wi-Fi slot to get a second PCIe NIC. But if you have a managed switch you might be fine with just a physical switch with VLAN tagging for your modern and your router WAN interface. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- omnichad · 2023-10-28 03:44 I would try out ChromeOS Flex ---------------------------------------------------------------------- katrinatransfem · 2023-10-28 08:48 If it is a machine you don't use frequently, then Windows Update + Windows Defender will use a lot of CPU at startup until they have finished what they are doing, which could take many hours. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Big-Finding2976 · 2023-10-28 10:15 Ah, OK. I don't have a managed switch yet but I'm going to buy a Netgear GS305E, so I'll try that to see if it makes pfsense unnecessary for me. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Big-Finding2976 · 2023-10-28 10:17 Linux definitely seems much better in that respect than Windows. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- omnichad · 2023-10-28 11:05 Windows is very bad at this. If you try to change priority of a task in Task Manager, you literally get a warning that it might make your system unstable. And they don't prioritize responsiveness of the GUI so any time a virus scan starts or Windows Update kicks off, most computers feel extremely slow. Those should both always be background tasks that should only be using spare cycles only. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- kmisterk · 2023-11-06 18:54 ## Post Removed Hey, Big-Finding2976! Thanks for your submission on selfhosted. 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