this post was submitted on 08 Jan 2025
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It's not absolutely shit, it's a Thinkpad t440s with an i7 and 8gigs of RAM and a completely broken trackpad that I ordered to use as a PC when my desktop wasn't working in 2018. Started with a bare server OS then quickly realized the value of virtualization and deployed Proxmox on it in 2019. Have been using it as a modest little server ever since. But I realize it's now 10 years old. And it might be my server for another 5 years, or more if it can manage it.
In the host OS I tweaked some value to ensure the battery never charges over 80%. And while I don't know exactly how much electricity it consumes on idle, I believe it's not too much. Works great for what I want. The most significant issue is some error message that I can't remember the text of that would pop up, I think related to the NIC. I guess Linux and the NIC in this laptop have/had some kind of mutual misunderstanding.
Solid. My backup is a T440p, and behind that a X230, fucking bulletproof.
Yeah, absolutely. Same here, I find used laptops often make GREAT homelab systems, and ones with broken screens/mice/keyboards can be even better since you can get them CHEAP and still fully use them.
I have 4 doing various things including one acting as my "desktop" down in the homelab. But they're between 4 and 14 years old and do a great job for what they're used for.
@ripcord @GnuLinuxDude The lifecycle of my laptops:
- years 1-5: I use them.
- years 5-10: my kids use them (generally beating the crap out of them, covering them in boogers/popsicle juice, dropping them, etc).
- years 10-15: low-power selfhosted server which tucks away nicely, and has its own screen so that when something breaks I don't need to dig up an hdmi cable and monitor.
EDIT: because the OP asks for hardware: my current backup & torrent machine is a 4th gen i3 latitude e7240.