• Resurge@lemmy.ml
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    1 year 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 🤦‍♂️

    • dotfiles@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

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

      Sounds like a win to me. lol

    • TheInsane42@lemmy.world
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      1 year 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
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        1 year 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.

        • TheInsane42@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I’m glad I don’t need computing power then. It just runs a webserver, 2 databases, mail environment, puppet master, icr client and some random stuff I just start and forget.

          It does the trick here and it and it’s predecessor Rpi3 and 2 managed, are quiet and enough for here. Both 3s boot from microsd and run from USB SSD for the OS, data is on nas. All are stock, no extentions, apart from an extra USB nic on my firewall. (Somehow having 2 different physical interfaces sounded preferable to me for a firewall)

          The old 3s are now interface for my smart meter and a domoticz system.

          BTW I see the Thinkcenter you mention for €250 online, My RPi4 cost me as kit €108 (8GB version). That was before all prizes went trough the roof though, as I see the separate board now for €125.

          • somedaysoon@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            BTW I see the Thinkcenter you mention for €250 online, My RPi4 cost me as kit €108 (8GB version). That was before all prizes went trough the roof though, as I see the separate board now for €125.

            They can be had for < $100 on eBay, like even down to $50-70 sometimes. I’m not saying you shouldn’t use a RPi if you already have them, but RPi has not been worth it going back to the RPi3. If anyone needs to get hardware to setup their server, the tiny/mini/micro lines are better.

            https://www.servethehome.com/introducing-project-tinyminimicro-home-lab-revolution/

            I was put off of RPis since the RPi3 too, the way they misled people with their marketing about it having a gigabit port which was on a shared bus so it was not really true put me off of them. And Pine64 boards have been better with the RockPro over the RPi3, and the RockPro64 way better than the RPi4.

            • TheInsane42@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              undefined> I was put off of RPis since the RPi3 too, the way they misled people with their marketing about it having a gigabit port which was on a shared bus so it was not really true put me off of them.

              Yeah, that was the main drawback of the 3, the 1 GB port that was linked to the USB hub, which couldn’t do more then 480 Mbps, in total, shared over all USB devices. At least it did a GB handshake and managed more then 100 Mbps. ;)

              The 4 However, has a separate chip for the on-board GB interface and I manage over 900 Mbps with it. When you use one as firewall and want to use 2 separate interfaces, you still have to use an USB interface, which here results in 300 Mbps trough both interfaces (after kicking the internal interface irq handling from cpu0). I’m probably one of the few so crazy to use an RPi that way. I came from 50 Mbps line, so anything faster is ok by me. (especially for the same monthly fee ;) )

  • I_Miss_Daniel@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

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

  • penguin_knight@lemmy.world
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    1 year 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

      • Bitlummo@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        This article talks about turning a laptop into a rack mounted computer. Each computer will be different recreating something like this based off what ports it has and where.

        • dotfiles@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I’m talking about the LCD/monitor. Maybe @penguin_knight keeps the LCD and mounts it to the board as well. If not, it’s headless. Mouse and keyboard are not the issue. I always set up raspberry pi headless because the OS allows it. All you have to do is add an ssh file to the /boot dir and wpa_supplicant.conf file in root dir. Other distros typically don’t, they need a monitor to be installed.

          • Kadath (she/her)@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            I know, that’s why I wrote external peripherals and not external inputs. I don’t want to sound cocky or be an asshole (we all know how easy it is by just reading a message someone you don’t know wrote), but after 24 years of being in system administration/engineering/architecture I may have sufficient grasp of what I am talking about. 😅

  • RoyalEngineering@lemmy.world
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    1 year 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
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      1 year 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
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        1 year 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.

  • ChillPill@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I’m actually hosting things on my 2 year old gaming pc (which is no longer used for gaming) and using my 8 year old laptop daily… How the turn tables.

  • O Galdo@lemmy.ml
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    1 year 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.

  • sv1sjp@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year 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.

  • Gerowen@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    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.

  • Kazumara@feddit.de
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    1 year 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.
  • AcidOctopus@lemmy.world
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    1 year 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.

  • Sunrosa@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    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.

    • cat@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      You could maybe rent a cheap VPS and use that as a reverse proxy. Using Tailscale to create a VPN tunnel so you don’t need port forwarding

    • kucing@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Any way to use other firmware? My shitty ISP is giving private IP address, so I just use tailscale instead.

      • Sunrosa@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        That’s the whole thing. I was on CGNAT, and decided to pay $10 monthly to fix it and get a public ip. But NOW I find out the fucking router doesn’t even work. It’s apparently this exact model that has the issue. And only this one. I don’t know if I could replace the firmware.

  • ComplexLotus@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    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?

    • sgtgig@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      In Linux it is possible to turn the screen off after a timeout and keep the system on with the lid closed.

  • forvirretfugl@feddit.dk
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    1 year ago

    Looked into selling my old gaming laptop just recently, and it just doesn’t seem like its worth selling them, if they are any older than 5 years, and not top spec. Making a server/node/test machine, might be the best option. Still not comfortable with the laptop battery as ups thing.

    • kroy@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Still not comfortable with the laptop battery as ups thing.

      what do you mean comfortable? It’s basically designed for it.