Hello self hosters,
Recently I came into possession of an old Desktop PC. Its configuration is,
I was planning to put a ethernet card and use it as a router. It was to theown as garbage. Is what I am planning feasible or a good idea. Or it would be better as trash.
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There are purposes for it, but with the power it would use for basic tasks, I think it is better recycled.
Total e-waste and a power draw (almost constant 95W). Even a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B can beat it to oblivion:
https://browser.geekbench.com/v6/cpu/compare/6390478?baseline=5583060
I wouldn’t run it as a router due to its high power consumption, but it would be a fine computer for retro gaming for games up until ~2005 if you add a graphics card.
Keep the case and put a modern PC inside to make it a sleeper PC. Drill speed holes in the side for extra airflow that your computer will desperately need.
Birds’ nest.
Pentium D processors are pretty power hungry, so factor that into your thoughts. Also make sure you put a modern OS on it that is getting security updates. It probably has Win XP or Vista installed which isn’t safe to connect to any network.
It should work fine as a router as long as you don’t enable any of the packet inspection features. For basic routing and firewalling for a home network it should be plenty powerful. I would personally put a small SATA SSD in it as the main drive and ditch the 90GB HDD.
As an additional idea, if you put a larger SATA drive or two into it you could make it a NAS.
Thanks i was planning to put OpenWRT or DD WRT on it ditching Windows XP
You do not want a 200W router, ma dood. This thing is ancient, and not going to be optimized for power usage whatsoever.
You can buy a significantly more powerful and power efficient device for less than $100. It’s not really useful for anything besides nostalgia imo.
Take the intestines out and make a flower box.