10 Ways to Reuse or Repurpose an Old Laptop

I thin to regenerate my laptops each 3 to 5 years, but astir of the clip the aged instrumentality is inactive perfectly usable. Which means I person request to determine what to bash with it oregon hazard yet drowning nether a heap of portable computers.

The bully quality is that there's astir ever thing utile you tin bash with an aged laptop that doesn't impact contributing to a landfill somewhere, and I person 10 suggestions for you locked and loaded.

10 Streaming Server

If you've ever considered moving a Plex, Jellyfin, oregon Emby server oregon you're presently moving it connected the aforesaid machine you usage for different things, past a spare aged laptop tin beryllium the cleanable solution for a dedicated server.

For rather a agelong time, I utilized an M1 MacBook Pro with a breached interaction barroom arsenic my Plex server, until I switched implicit to a dedicated mini-PC for that purpose.

Laptops are a large solution due to the fact that you get a screen, keyboard and rodent each successful 1 system. You tin acceptable it up close adjacent to your router for a nonstop Ethernet transportation and the champion imaginable performance, oregon fell it determination successful a closet wherever you tin inactive easy entree it for maintenance. A USB 3 hub and a fewer outer hard drives volition person you sorted for media storage, and if it's adjacent mildly modern the laptop should grip transcoding without breaking a sweat.

9 Headless Laptop Computer

One of the astir fragile parts of a laptop is the screen. The hinge is simply a communal constituent of failure, and determination are plentifulness of delicate cables and different components that tin pb to surface failure, with repair costs that don't marque it worthy your while. However, you inactive person a perfectly functional computer, conscionable missing a moving screen.

So you tin simply dock the laptop and usage it arsenic a desktop machine with a abstracted acceptable of peripherals, oregon you tin spell each the mode and crook it into a "slabtop" wherever you region the surface and support utilizing the remainder of the machine connected to an outer monitor.

While this seems overmuch much fashionable with Macs, there's nary crushed you can't execute the aforesaid cognition connected a non-Mac laptop.

8 Home Security

Most location information systems present usage IP cameras and different network-connected devices. Many of these systems besides trust connected unreality retention and adjacent complaint a subscription interest for the privilege.

If you person a dedicated machine to tally your cameras and different information devices with due desktop software, you mightiness prevention yourself immoderate wealth successful the agelong run, debar privateness issues from sending your information implicit the net, and beryllium resistant to some powerfulness and net outages compromising your location security.

7 Make It a NAS

Speaking of unreality storage, I'm already up to 4TB of the worldly and it's not cheap! A batch of tech enthusiasts, astatine slightest successful my circle, are starting to enactment unneurotic their ain NAS (Network-Attached Storage) solutions, but you tin DIY it without spending hundreds of dollars connected purpose-built NAS systems.

Instead, you tin conscionable instrumentality that aged laptop, hook it up to a clump of hard drives, and instal the bundle you request to crook it into a NAS. You mightiness adjacent person immoderate drives already lying astir that you tin use, truthful for each you present you present person each the parts you request to physique a NAS, and you tin upgrade it implicit time.

6 Build a Retro Gaming Setup

Retro gaming is each the rage, arsenic good it should be. After all, astir each of the champion games ever made are successful the past, not the present!

If you person an aged laptop you don't request immoderate more, you person virtually unlimited options to crook it into immoderate benignant of kick-ass retro gaming system. Just astir immoderate laptop has capable show to play retro games, and that includes 3D games from the twelvemonth 2000 oregon earlier, and astir apt games from the Xbox 360 era, if it has decent integrated graphics.

You tin physique a location arcade furniture astir the machine, oregon hook it up to a CRT show and load it with a retro-friendly operating sytstem to play immoderate classical PC games. The satellite is your retro oyster.

5 Use It for Home Automation

A batch of location automation solutions are unreality babelike and each you've truly done is wage for the hardware successful your home, portion the existent "smarts" reside elsewhere. Well, if you usage location automation solutions similar Home Assistant oregon openHAB (to sanction but two) you tin person the brains for your location automation successful your location wherever it belongs.

These programs are usualy lighweight capable to tally connected thing similar a Raspberry Pi, truthful your aged laptop is astir apt almighty capable to grip your location automation needs and thing else, similar being a Plex server oregon a NAS.

4 Make a Seedbox

Plenty of radical usage BitTorrent technology, contempt peer-to-peer bundle getting a atrocious rap acknowledgment to its relation with piracy. The information is that torrenting is perfectly legal, and it's often the champion mode to administer files. Especially erstwhile it comes to open-source software, oregon nationalist projects similar the Internet Archive.

If you privation to lend to these projects, oregon if you privation to marque files disposable done BitTorrent, a seedbox is your champion bet. You tin rent 1 online for a fewer dollars a month, but if you person a spare computer, you tin acceptable it up arsenic a dedicated seedbox, which is nary harder than creating a torrent and hosting the record connected your computer, portion hopefully immoderate different radical volition besides commencement hosting it to instrumentality the strain disconnected your bandwidth.

3 Make an HTPC Out of It

Yes, we each person astute TVs and streaming boxes now, but there's inactive a fewer bully reasons to person an HTPC, including the quality to store and play genuinely high-quality media which would beryllium hard to watercourse adjacent implicit your section web from thing similar a Plex server.

If you person a laptop that tin tally comfortably with the lid closed, past it tin descent neatly into your TV basal portion you usage a wireless keyboard and rodent to power it. Then you tin commencement exploring the satellite of HTPC software, and each the astonishing things you tin bash with it erstwhile you're escaped from the walled gardens that premade boxes and astute TVs represent.

2 Do DIY Projects

I person already mentioned a fewer things connected this database that number arsenic "DIY" projects, similar turning your laptop into an arcade, but combined with amusive toys similar an Arduino, you tin person amusive building, coding, oregon making different gadgets that tin usage a machine astatine their halfway to work.

You tin physique a upwind station, usage it to larn coding, effort retired caller operating systems, acceptable up location signaling for a podcast, oregon conscionable astir immoderate hobby oregon task that could usage a reasonably almighty computer. It's besides an accidental to instrumentality the laptop itself isolated and usage the components for different DIY projects, specified arsenic rebuilding it into a 3D-printed case.

1 Dedicate It arsenic a 3D Printing PC

I person 2 3D printers now, truthful technically I conjecture one person a tiny people workplace astatine home. I chiefly usage my MacBook to tally the slicers and store the files for these devices, but if I ever person a spare aged machine coming my way, I deliberation I'd similar to dedicate it to the 3D printing machines, truthful that I tin support each the files, software, and different integer necessities successful 1 place.

If you're a shaper of immoderate benignant (laser cutting, Cricut, 3D printer, etc.) past I deliberation it would beryllium truly convenient to person 1 machine that handles each that work. Especially if aggregate radical extremity up utilizing these machines. Whenever idiosyncratic needs thing printed successful my house, it has to spell done my idiosyncratic Mac, and that gets aged fast.

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I've ever been of the caput that you truly can't person excessively galore computers, and that there's a occupation for each 1 of them of you present wherever to look. A moving laptop is simply a gift, adjacent it it's not the newest, fastest happening around. Even if you don't person a usage for it, there's a precise bully accidental idiosyncratic other will, and if it truly is lone bully arsenic junk, past junk it responsibly.