How to Use an Old Windows PC

Repurposing an aged PC is 1 of the champion ways to compression immoderate much beingness retired of hardware that mightiness different extremity up successful the landfill. Here's however to get started fixing up an aged PC you've salvaged, and a fewer amusive uses for one.

Where Can You Find an Old PC?

You tin find aged Windows PCs conscionable astir anywhere. I've pulled them retired of dumpsters, rescued them disconnected thoroughfare corners, received them from radical who conscionable wanted to get escaped of them, and purchased them disconnected Facebook marketplace.

Of those, Facebook marketplace is the champion if you privation to store for circumstantial specs, but purchaser beware: determination are a ton of overpriced PCs retired there. I inactive regularly spot GTX 1060s priced good implicit 200 dollars, and PCs with 10-year-old processors selling for 500.

I hesitate to telephone these sellers scammers exactly, but it is decidedly not tenable pricing, and you should debar them. The extremity present is to prime up a inexpensive PC truthful that your costs are minimal, adjacent if you request to adhd much RAM oregon an SSD successful the future.

On the different hand, rescuing 1 from the trash means you person nary outgo overhead. You conscionable request to contend with the information that the specs are a lottery heavy biased against you.

Cheaply Refurbish the PC

Regardless of wherever you get it, erstwhile you person it, you request to execute immoderate basal checks to marque definite everything is successful moving order. Lots of radical and organizations region hard drives (or SSDs) and dispose of those separately, since they often incorporate delicate information, truthful you should program connected buying an SSD to propulsion into immoderate PC you prime up.

Don't interruption the slope here—you bash not request the latest and top successful PCIe SSDs, immoderate aged SATA SSD volition bash you conscionable fine.

Retro oregon Low-End Gaming

If you privation a dedicated PC for retro gaming, oregon you conscionable don’t privation to ammunition retired for a high-end gaming PC, an aged Windows PC tin spell a agelong way.

Many of the greatest games successful gaming history are present connected the older side, and they don’t necessitate a state-of-the-art PC to tally them rather well. Consider titles similar Skyrim, Half-Life, each the Bioshock games, Portal 1 and 2, and the pantheon of Star Wars games that were released earlier LucasArts was shuttered. All of those games would easy tally connected a present 10-year-old gaming PC, and galore of them would tally connected adjacent less.

If you dial backmost the timepiece adjacent further, the demands shrink astir exponentially. Games from 2000 volition tally connected immoderate PC from 2015 without it breaking a sweat, though you mightiness tally into immoderate compatibility issues.

If you’re truly looking for a project, you could besides try putting unneurotic an era-appropriate retro gaming PC.

If you're emulating aged consoles (especially handhelds), an aged PC mightiness adjacent beryllium up for the job.

Automate Your Home and Smart Devices

If you're into DIY projects, you tin bash each sorts of chill things with location automation and a spare PC.

Home Assistant is the reigning king here. While it doesn't tally natively connected Windows—normally it runs connected Linux—you tin easy tally it connected WSL connected Windows 11 oregon on a virtual instrumentality moving Home Automation OS.

Once you person Home Assistant installed, you tin automate each of your astute devices, marque them pass with each other, respond to conditions successful your home, and adjacent effort your manus astatine self-hosting your precise ain dependable adjunct if your PC has the hardware for it.

If you've digitized your postulation of carnal media, you tin easy crook an aged Windows PC into a media server.

The existent drawback present is hardware. Really aged PCs won't enactment modern hardware decoding (like H.265) connected their CPUs, which means you'll beryllium relying connected bundle decoding oregon the GPU, if you person one. Software decoding tin beryllium unusably slow, truthful your mileage whitethorn vary.

Which programme you take for truly depends connected what you'd similar to do. Do you privation a server that tin watercourse to each of your devices, oregon bash you privation a Home Theater PC—a PC that stores your videos and straight connects to your TV?

Create a Streaming Server

If I were mounting up a streaming server, my archetypal prime would beryllium an open-source exertion called Jellyfin. Jellyfin ticks each the boxes for a streaming server: it lets you watercourse immoderate audio oregon video record you load in, including movies, TV shows, music, and more.

Install the Jellyfin server connected your Windows PC, prime the folder wherever your files are stored, and you're bully to go—just instal the subordinate connected whichever instrumentality you want.

There are apps for Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, and astir astute TV platforms, which means you're not apt to tally into compatibility issues.

Create a Home Theater PC (HTPC)

There are a ton of options if you privation to usage the PC arsenic a media center, but Kodi is an casual mode to commencement experimenting. Kodi, dissimilar Jellyfin oregon Plex, is designed to beryllium a self-contained HTPC solution.

Instead of streaming your media from a server to a 2nd instrumentality that plays it, you enactment the files and Kodi connected the aforesaid PC, past plug it into your tv oregon receiver with an HDMI cable.

There are apps disposable for Android and iOS that fto you usage your telephone arsenic a remote, but you tin besides usage a wireless controller—like a Xbox controller—if you similar that.

Host Game Servers

Game servers thin to beryllium little demanding connected hardware than the games themselves, unless you're hosting an MMO. The archetypal PC I ever rescued from a curbside trashcan hosted a Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy and Minecraft server for galore years without an issue.

If you're caller to self-hosting crippled servers (usually called a dedicated server), I'd urge starting with a Minecraft server. The authoritative documentation is precise extensive, and determination are thousands of pages of questions and answers disposable connected the net if you tally into trouble.

Valve has besides provided an invaluable assets here: astir Steam games person server bundle you tin download done Steam. Head to your library, click the drop-down paper astatine the apical of your crippled list, past prime "Tools." You tin past instal a crippled server arsenic easy arsenic the crippled itself.

You tin besides usage SteamCMD to big a crippled without utilizing Steam itself, though you'll request to read done the authoritative documentation first—it tin beryllium a spot involved.

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If you can't get a implicit PC from Facebook marketplace, your basement, oregon the trash, don't beryllium acrophobic to portion 1 together, either. Take what works from 1 and slot it into another, assuming each the components work.