What are old tower PCs good for today?

>>105697421 (OP)
computing

>>105697421 (OP)
Either a xubuntu internet machine for your dad to post on facebook and watch jewtube with or just make it a porn server as God intended.

Recycling.

>>105697421 (OP)
Dell optiplex 9010
And slap a and r7 200 series GPU

>>105697421 (OP)
Chuck in an SSD, maybe some cheap RAM if you don't already have 16 GB, and possibly a better CPU if they're available; browse the internet, do office tasks, get groomed in a dozen different discord servers, code, make music/art, and watch anime.

Add a low profile GPU like a GTX 1650 and you'll have something that can play a vast library of older games, and maybe even do shit with Blender or video editing if GPU acceleration is supported by your software.

>>105697421 (OP)
I have a Optiplex I call the little engine that could.
It has a 4790, 32 GB DDR3 and a low profile 6400. I use it for GameCube emulation on my tv.

>>105697578
I also threw in a wifi 6 card and bluetooth

Most of them are basically worthless given their size and power draw if too old. The tiny office boxes in the I-5 6500 or newer sort of gen are useful for basic PC crap.
Like I run one in my living room connected to a DAC as a music juke box. It still hardware over kill for basic crap.

>>105697421 (OP)
media center pc, retro pc gaming, fucking around machine

>>105697421 (OP)
Depends on how old. I use a HP Elitedesk 800 G4 SFF with an i5-8500 in it as my home server. It'd be perfectly fine as a day to day desktop machine too if you don't care about gayming. It pulls around 7W at idle and has an 80 Plus Platinum-rated PSU, so it's fairly efficient, though obviously not as much as a Raspberry Pi or N100 mini PC would be.

>>105697421 (OP)
I use one as a router with OPNSense. Who knew that the Core i5-4570 was a perfect router CPU all along? I've also got a newer system I've stuffed with hard drives and an Nvidia GPU for a Jellyfin server.

:)
https://libreboot.org/docs/install/dell9020.html

>>105697688
I tried something like this, but I needed wireless for my family to connected their honeypot samshits, is it as simple as chucking an atheros pcie wifi card antenna thing?

>>105697421 (OP)
Throw it at a synagogue. Watch Jews fight over the copper

>>105698093
What is the point of libreboot, anyway? I have a 9020 with an i5 4570 that's gathering dust.

>>105698221
>muh freedumbs
>muh neutered intel backdoor
>muh hardware whitelist
>muh faster boot
>muh exploits in long abandoned OEM firmware
That's the ones that comes to mind.
I have been a lifelong laptop user, but I just finished a build of a libreboot Precision T1700 with a top spec xeon and a 1650 super as a $150, 99% FOSS workstation.

>>105697688
>https://libreboot.org/docs/install/dell9020.html
Same with a slightly newer HP SFF machine. i5-6500 does route my 10/10Gbit at around 8Gbps with iperf3 data. The router is pfSense inside a Proxmox VM with PCIe-forwarding of the 10GbE NIC.

And it's super silent, and does some other things on the side in other VMs (Vaultwarden, Immich, some Docker containers).

>>105698110
Hook up a switch and plug in an access point, you don't want to use a Wi-Fi card.
>>105698278
Interesting. Best I could get was 100 Mbps on a gigabit link in Proxmox, which is why I went for a bare metal setup for my router.

>>105698319
I get the 8Gbits going from a docker host VM where I ran iperf3, via virtual ethernet to the pfSense VM, and out to the internet from the PCIe-passthrough-NIC. I haven't invested in upgrading any of my other network hardware to 10GbE yet, shit's fucking expensive.

Any hints on affordable fiber optics for getting 10Gb into the rest of the house?

>>105698319
>plug in an access point, you don't want to use a Wi-Fi card
Is that just a speed thing? Because I don't have high requirements and I'm a stingy fuck. Already have a wifi card on hand. Plus the access point will be another wall socket and will have to sit on the sff.

>>105697421 (OP)
I use one to run my 3d printers.

>>105698371
No, it's a "You'll wish you were dead" thing if you tried to use that Wi-Fi card. In OPNSense, the best you can get for Wi-Fi is up to bgn support and only with a few Wi-Fi cards FreeBSD supports. You'd have better luck with OpenWRT since it's Linux based, but likely you'll also only get BGN speeds as well as dogshit signal range (like, attenuation not even out of the immediate room it's in dogshit). And beyond that, setting up a Wi-Fi card like that in OpenWRT even is a pain in the ass, I've tried. If you want a basic bitch access point, you can purchase a Linksys Velop VLP01 from Amazon for $20 and flash it with OpenWRT, or just keep the stock firmware and set it up in bridge mode. I've done both, the second option's easier but you don't get WPA3 authentication. This lil fella will do up to Wi-Fi 5 and has decent range despite its size. I use one for my guest Wi-Fi subnet and it works great for this.

>>105697561
Update, I had a look inside my 9020 and realised it can only take a single slot low profile card in the x16 slot, which is unfortunate. It's possible to put a GPU in the X4 slot above it though, but I don't know how badly that would affect performance. Might try testing it with my 1650.

What single slot LP GPUs even exist any more, aside from the 750 Ti eBay specials?

>>105698110
You can buy cards that sports the same wifi chip APs use.
Usually you'd have to buy 2 cards, one for 2.4 one for 5 and they're really expensive too, but there's a MT7916 card that can do both and is only $40 or so.

>>105698540
kek freetard wifi drivers are a disaster
even netsh wlan hostednetwork is faster for me on windows than using loonix

>>105699046
>reading comprehension
Meanwhile I'd like to see you run a proper wifi 7 AP adapter on wangblows

>>105697421 (OP)
>What are old tower PCs good for today?
I don't have high requirements, and a 10 year old pc would honestly be more than enough for like 95 percent of the stuff I do. I use some AI stuff from time to time though that'd suck on an old pc.

>>105698540
Shit okay, I'll have to get on that. I actually have a TPlink whatever running librecmc but the documentation is so myopic I have no idea how to update it and having an out of date router is just a great idea innit.
>>105698978
>MT7916
Thanks anon, looks interesting, if not a little out of my wheel house.

>>105697421 (OP)
I have an optiplex with a gtx 750 thats more than enough to emulate ps2 and gamecube games, plus watch youtube and any random shit on vlc.

Find one with a i3 or Pentium, slap an RTX A2000 in there and put that shit in a basement running folding@home. Quietly churning away drawing almost no power at all.

>>105698122
Hebrew Gypsies

>>105697421 (OP)
sticking up your ugly ass

>>105698272
I have a T1700 with 1660 Super as my main machine, can you share a libreboot guide for it?

>>105699084
He's not wrong, we're dependent on proprietary drivers for our Wi-Fi devices on Linux, it sucks ass.
>>105699326
I recommend an AP anyway, even if you were using a regular ass router. They're just better and more easily expandable across your property, with more configuration choice. I have four APs set up across my house that are configured to connect wirelessly to the Wi-Fi network to act as APs and range extenders, covering the entire property with decent internet without having to run Ethernet through the 1950s walls with pinholes for wire run spots. This is a configuration you'd struggle pretty badly with setting up if you were trying to do that in OPNSense, not because I believe you're not technically inclined, but because it would be hundreds of hoops to jump through to pull that off. The age of the DIY Wi-Fi router isn't here yet unfortunately.

>>105697421 (OP)
At my work we just threw 20+ of these way, sense they can't use Windows 11 they are just e-waste basically.

>>105699470
>can you share a libreboot guide for it?
>>105698093 is the guide for the t1700 actually, since the motherboard is identical to the 9020MT but with ECC support.
All librebooting goes the same anyway, just watch one of the gays do it on jewtube to get a general idea, then follow the device specific documentation.

>>105699530
They can run W11

>>105699593
See, I know you can do it without TPM 2.0. The problem is that the place I work for says that isn't safe and there will be security risks if we don't

>>105697421 (OP)

RAM in these old PCs can either be really cheap if they were mass produced like the Optiplex's, or they can be really expensive if they're some sort of esoteric build. I snagged a SFF Optiplex 7090 for pennies with a 512 GB NVME drive inside, 7th Gen Intel and 32 GB RAM.. I slapped a 2 TB HDD in there, and now it runs my Proxmox Hypervisor. You can get really creative with these old machines, and they don't suck a lot of juice.

The 'tiny' version of these are where it's really at. You can fit them almost anywhere. I bought a bunch of tiny 5070s off ebay, and tested out some Hyper-V clusters, PRoxmox cluster.. One is segmented off my home network as a P2P device with an external HDD connected via SATA.

Just don't be a retarded nigger and you can find solutions.

>>105699648
Take those machines with you, pimp them with W11 and sell them on ebay

>>105699515
No we fucking don't, mt76 is open and in tree.
Try running mt76 under wang, oh wait you can't because AP NICs literally only have linux drivers.

>>105697421 (OP)
Extract its power supply and make yourself a bench/lab power supply

>>105697586
throw yourself off a cliff

>>105697421 (OP)
openwrt + libreboot
https://openwrt.org/
https://libreboot.org/docs/install/dell9020.html

- Vintage gaming.
- Vintage software that's good.

I use a hp z600 as a hackintosh for when I need anything mac related.

>>105697421 (OP)
I like to throw them off bridges.

target practice

>>105697421 (OP)
for the same thing they were useful back when they were new

>>105697421 (OP)
i use one as a media server+NAS

>>105698724
I think the Yeston RTX 3050 is the fastest.

>>105697421 (OP)
Try Linux without dual booting
Distrohop without wrecking your existing setup

>>105700504
I'm not talking about mt76, I'm talking about shit like broadcom and Qualcomm NICs that won't work in AP mode because the jew manufacturers said so.

>>105697421 (OP)
Old PCs like this are great for learning how to use a computer well. It's strong enough to have access to the modern web, but not strong enough to make everything completely smooth and easy.

I bought something like this to help learn how to tinker with PCs, as well as learn Linux. I'm still using most of the parts from that original machine to this day in a different build.

>>105697578
I mean you can do gamecube emulation on a smartphone thats screencasting to TV at this point. <5watts of power

>>105697432
this. just do computer stuff on it. i still have a dell optiplex (shoved in a presario case) im planning to make into a tiny server and my daily driver is an hp z440 (serverland is my favourite cuntry)

>>105697421 (OP)
We still have these where I work and they are perfectly sufficient for average office crap. At worst, some of them could use a RAM upgrade but those early i5s are real fuckin workhorses.

>>105705402
Impressive, certainly not cheap though, and I doubt it would be adequately cooled in a tiny Optiplex case when it's sat right next to the PSU. It would leave room for a wifi+BT card in the 4x slot though.

>>105706878
NVIDIA T600 or T1000? 40-50w.

>>105706804
Holy lagfest.

Also you have to be homosexual to care about the difference between 5w or 50w power draw.

>>105706878
At this point just get a full sized GPU and use the PC with the cover off.

Nvidia capability is usually pretty good with these old optiplexs. If you can get one with a Haswell i7 and a cheap gtx 1650 you are really cooking. $100 entry level gaming pc.

>>105697421 (OP)
prop up feet?

>>105697421 (OP)
Judging by the size of the CD drive that's not even a tower, that's a mini desktop about a quarter of the size of a modern fishtank box.

Actual tower PCs are great for pumping them full with HDDs.

i have 2old pcs in a closet pre sata. need to get rid of that shit one day.

>>105707404
send one to me, i have some pre sata drives i wanna see if there's ancient porn on

>>105697421 (OP)
I upgraded a Dell Optiplex I got for free and made it into an emulation machine. I also installed Xpenology on an older Sandy Bridge Celeron and created a nice NAS.

>>105697421 (OP)
mod a more modern hardware in it while keeping the nice old looking touch

Shoved the GTX 1650 into the 9020 and ran the 3dmark Time Spy benchmark on it both in the 4x slot (shoved inside the case) and the 16x slot (using a riser cable).
The first run in the 4x slot with no settings changed gave me a Time Spy score of 3098, then with the 16x slot 3259. I'll have to try some actual games at some point and see how playable they are and whether the 16x lanes actually make a noticeable difference, but the results indicate only a minor performance loss from the 4x slot with a relatively weak GPU.

>>105710258
It's a little cramped in there, it helps that the ambient temps are only about 15C, but I imagine after sustained gaming the GPU will start to get a bit toasty.

>>105699515
Always buy intel wifi

>>105710267
Psu wattage?
I got a 3060 for free from work as they upgraded all pcs
Want to get a 1660s
260w that everybody says is not enough

>>105697421 (OP)
giving them to milhouse, the latest and freshest meme on 4chan