I've had a knack for repurposing Android phones for most of my life.But I never considered doing the same for old, junk computer hardware, at least until I started self-hosting and building a tiny homelab last year.Ever since I fell down this rabbit hole, my perspective on old tech in general has shifted completely.
Where the old me saw "e-waste," I now see gold.It started with a broken laptop My first two home servers were just old laptops I saved from the bin I had this cheap 11" Ollee laptop lying about in a drawer somewhere.The screen was broken, and it was too old to run a desktop operating system.
For obvious reasons, it seemed like it belonged in the bin.This ended up being the first home server I put together.I actually got my feet wet by learning to deploy services on my regular PC before I even thought about setting up a dedicated home server.
Eventually, I did feel the need for one when I had to turn the PC on just to access a service.I wanted something lightweight; something that took very little power to run.That's when the light bulb went off—I already had the perfect piece of hardware for this job.
The mini laptop's screen was busted, but I had no need for a screen because I would only ever access it over SSH.Plus, it had a built-in battery backup to keep the server up if the power went out.It barely drew any power, especially after I ripped the broken screen off.
What made it useless as a regular computer was exactly its strength as a server.I chose the DietPi operating system for it because it's built to run on underpowered hardware like single-board computers.The DietPi OS has a nice and intuitive terminal user interface (TUI) that guides you through the setup and post-setup process, which I found helpful as a beginner.
It also has a TUI software store where you can get popular server apps with one click.Very handy.I used it for testing quite a few lightweight services, mostly deployed as Docker containers.
It comfortably ran Vaultwarden, SearXNG, my notes app, a lightweight web server, a notification daemon, and Tailscale for secure access.It even managed to run Pi-Hole at the same time, but there was noticeable lag, so I gave up on that.Instead, I dusted off another laptop I had with a broken keyboard and put Pi-hole on it.
I still run it 24/7 as a Pi-hole.Zettlab D4 NAS Brand Zettlab CPU RK3588 The Zettlab D4 NAS features four 3.5-inch hard drive bays with a M.2 NVMe SSD slot, perfect for your home storage server needs.The powerful RK3588 chip features built-in AI acceleration that is leveraged throughout the OS.
There's also a built-in SD and microSD card slot on the front for automatic backup of your photos, videos, and more.$700 at Zettlab Expand Collapse I turned a decade-old tower PC into a Proxmox machine This became my tech playground I eventually outgrew the mini laptop servers when I wanted to try more resource-hungry stuff like media servers and full-fat VMs.My job is just playing with tech and writing about it, and Proxmox fits snugly into that requirement.
Proxmox is a special kind of operating system where you can run containers and virtual machines side-by-side, accessible through a dedicated web interface.It gives me a playground to test things in isolation.The problem was I needed hardware to run it, and my laptops wouldn't cut it.
I have an old tower PC from 2014 which had been my main workstation for years, until it got too slow for daily use.I upgraded to a new machine, but couldn't find any particular use for it.So it, too, was just collecting dust.
I cleaned it, put in a new SSD, installed Proxmox on it, plugged in an Ethernet cable, and it was ready to go.It consumes a lot more power than laptops, so it is a bit more costly to run 24/7.However, in return, it gives me more than a terabyte of storage space and enough processing power to run pretty much everything I need.
That includes Jellyfin, Docker, Frigate, as well as Linux and Windows virtual machines.It's also an excellent playground because Proxmox makes it super easy to create throwaway containers.The GPU inside this machine is an ancient NVIDIA GeForce 750Ti, and Proxmox is failing to install the drivers for it.
So I'm still trying to get the GPU passthrough working on it.But as far as a "work in progress" goes, I'm pleased with it.Repurposing an Android TV Box It's a lot harder than I thought I have an old, no-name Android TV box lying around too.
My plan is to use it as a lightweight web server for my static dashboards and productivity trackers.Or I could turn it into a Paperless server because I usually have to dig through random emails, notes, or USB sticks to find my school documents or work contracts and invoices.However, repurposing these generic TV boxes is a lot harder than regular computer hardware because you need to find an ARM-based server OS that's compatible with the exact chip inside the TV box.
Also, they can't boot from USB, so you have to flash the OS using a microSD card.This project is still in progress, but I'm excited to see what this tiny TV box can do.I actively look for old, discarded hardware now Whenever I come across "e-waste," my first thought is always: what can I do with it? Even if the process presents a significant challenge, like an Android phone with a locked bootloader, I feel that it is worth the effort.
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