Repair what's broken, slap Linux on them and donate to charities.
this post was submitted on 05 Dec 2025
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Yeep there are quite a few of these that get them into the hands of disadvanteged people or underfunded schools and such.
This.
theres so many things to do with a pc that i dont know where to start
Pick the first project that you think of and chase it down. If it sucks, then reformat the drive and do something else. Video game systems and file servers are great. So is installing a different OS on each, just to experience the differences side by side.
Do NOT continue "analysis paralysis".
Pretty sure there should be some nonprofit that will gladly get and assemble them so i.e. children on remote places can have a computer.
For any machines that are too inefficient to be worth continuing to compute with, you could at least save the power supplies for electronics projects. I've got some 12V addressable RGB Christmas lights being powered by an old ATX power supply, for example.
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Some ideas:
- webserver (e.g. for a little personal website, maybe even host some fediverse things)
- irc
- weather monitor
- distro tester
- local LLM ~(they're getting more and more efficient)~
If you've several of similar performance, you could:
- host lan parties, for classic games. Maybe some Quake, OpenTTD, Luanti
XMPP server would be another idea, those will happily run on anything and barely require resources.
weather monitor
I'm intrigued, are there any daemons for this out there that you can recommend? Would be neat.
How old are we talking?
- Anything before core iX series is not recommended to be used as a server (missing instruction sets, low efficiency etc.).It could still be used for fun projects like installing gentoo or old redhat with plasma 2.
- If you have Core iX cpu (preferably 3rd gen or newer) you xan host some services, but look into c/selfhosted if you're interested in that.
- You could also experiment with Kubernetes and combine lots of bad PCs into one less bad PC.
In the end PCs are useful only if you can run useful sodtware on them, but besides nostalgia there ain't much use I see in them.
I have a mix of eras of computer ranging from ddr to ddr3. most of what i have is from the windows 7 era, my "collection" mostly contains dell OptiPlex's or whatever looks neat.
Ive heard you can do alot with a dell OptiPlex but i want to make a nas but im unsure how well it would be to store personal files with?
Since there are a lot of OptiPlexses with different specs I will give you a general advice for making home servers.
Use newest desktop you have and/or the one that took the least beating since you will need all the perfotmance and uptime you can get.
If you opt for used storage (like some hard drives you have), make them into RAID with redundancy (at lrast one possible drive failiure, preferably two if you can).
Also look for power efficiency, so if you have a laptop (and can add at least 2 drives in it for RAID) or a recent i3 or i5 dekstop (or even i7 if undervolted) that would be your best bet.
Also look for decent network interface card. Try to avoid 10/100mbit and look for 1gbit, though I doubt that old PCs can even push 1gbit. Also make sure that the LAN plays nice with linux.
For the OS, use something stable like debian, or if you want to thinker Alpine is fun and also really stable. Also Ubuntu Server is a solid choice.
When deploying services like a file server if you just want something that works (or at least should be easier than other options) YunoHost or CasaOS are your friends, but you can learn docker (or run without encapsulation) and nginx (or other reverse proxy I don't care).
For a file server everyone has their preference, but I use SeaFile since it is crossflatform and simple with good integration.
As I said, for any questions about selfhosting just hit c/selfhosted and ask away.
Cheap Linux desktops for a charity?
First of all: get rid of the broken ones. You’re not doing anything with the running systems, so there’s no need to hang on to the ones that don’t run.
Next, make a list of the things you want to do and start doing them.
If you’re worried about power consumption, don’t be. If you’re still worried about power consumption, get an inline watt meter (a kill-a-watt), take some measurements, do the math and feel at ease. If you don’t feel at ease, look up wake on lan. You can have powered down computers turn back on when they get a packet so you don’t need to worry about power consumption.
When you feel like you’ve done enough stuff, get rid of the computers you’re not using.
A nas or home server with one of them is a great idea
Put Linux on them and give them away to people who need them?
I have some hardware from like 2008 running my entire home's infrastructure. Jellyfin, Kavita, home automation, etc.
A lot, depending on your interests and the hardware itself. I'm running a NAS (TrueNAS) on an old machine that also runs a bittorrent client and immich as TrueNAS "apps." I'm running an *arr stack and jellyfin on another old machine. I've got another old machine running an i2p router, hyphanet node, and a few other services. In the past, I've used old machines as routers (pfsense), openhab/home assistant machines, game servers, ZoneMinder server, etc.
Explore weird OSs! I got an old Celeron D workstation just for playing around with weird old operating systems.
Its got a 32 bit bios but 64 bit celeron, so the grub stuff has been fund 😅
If less than 10 years old they're probably usable with some upgrades here and there. Finding a use for them is harder. Maybe just get them working and give them to friends who can use them.
IMHO fix whatever you can, donate it all locally (HackerSpace, RepairCafe, Linux non-profit, etc) as there are quite a few people dedicated to refurbishing computers for schools, people who need a computer to find work, etc.
Then for the tinkering aspect, keep one, that's enough.
Honestly even 1 isn't really required. Pretty much everything listed here can be done more efficiently without an actual physical computer :
- your current computer can be a server, just turn off the screen or even accept (which I'd argue is a fair assumption) that at night it will be off. If you want external access put WireGuard or another VPN on it.
- Want to test distributions or anything else? QEMU or containers, no need for actual hardware
Turn them into a little server that you can host self hostable services on
I'm in a similar boat. I use old computers for spare parts and hobby projects (e.g. I did Linux From Scratch on an old second-hand Thinkpad I picked up on a whim). I think cheap second hand computers are great for tinkerers e.g. you can flash custom firmware without worrying about bricking the mobo.
You could also use them as servers if you have any services you want to host.
Also if you truly have no use for them, fix them up, install something like Linux Mint on them, and give them away.
I recently turned every old junker and some nicer ones into a Harvester cluster. The really old ones I use as cold storage devices that I actually shut off when I don't need them.
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What kind of machines are we talking about here?
A recent-ish tiny/mini/micro is a vastly different answer than a kaypro luggable.
Mostly dell optiplex desktops with ddr3 from the windows 7 era. Or whatever neat looking device i could find.
Potentially 1st to 3rd (mayyyybbbeeee 4th) gen Intel iX series. On the edge of useful for common tasks. Can support most DEs, but not necessarily a great experience depending on what you want running.
Best use for them is going to be light server tasks, but just to mention, latter versions were drastically more efficient, so you may pay more in a power bill than it would cost to look for more recent ewasted hardware. I generally pick up 6th gen or newer, for reference, though I have a 4th gen doing... Something. I think all thats on there is some webserver stuff, DNS, etc.
Could also be usable as a kids PC for gcompris, emulation for the less modern environments, etc. If you would consider a raspberry pi, its a solid fit.
Without more spec details it would be tough to say more.
Solar panels and cryptocurency mining
Explain the former
I think they mean use solar to keep the price of the electricity consumption down. It is probably a joke since old gear is going to drink a lot of juice cryptomining.
Go to a local solar shop and give them money.
If you want something out from the ordinary, maybe build a retro gaming/tech museum and make it open for the public. You can even host events like gaming competitions, or thematic presentations. Charge a small make up for the costs, and maybe you can even make it your living later in life.
You could make a Kubernetes cluster. Otherwise I don't think running multiple old computer really makes sense.
Make an awesome homeverver out of them! Cancel your streaming subscriptions
Rip the parts out and pour epoxy all over them and make sure there are no Bibles in the pour.
Have giant tabletop made of computer
I've never seen one in person but they look soooo sick online
Sacrilege. Op, if you want Bibles in the pour, you can certainly do that. I'd recommend Leviticus.
Lmao wth autocorrect, the Bible was supposed to be bubble.
There should be a funny autocorrects community here lol
I know, I know. I'm just busting your Bibles.
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To expand on this thought, I take broken electronics and make what I call art from them. They already come with neat patterns and colors, some surfaces are dull, some are shiny, they have the added effect of generating shadows with their shapes and can easily be modified in various ways. I'm sure there's probably copyright issues and health hazards so I'm unlikely to ever put it out on display but I feel they add a sort of dirty cyberpunk look to my apartment. For an example, this is my "Love bug" that hangs out on top of my desktop tower, offering its broken hearts to whomever wants it. Made from a broken GTX 7800. https://i.imgur.com/ySS3fes.jpeg
How old are these machines, from oldest CPU model to newest CPU model?
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