this post was submitted on 06 Jun 2024
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homelab

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Hello homelabbers,

Recently I came into possession of an old Desktop PC. Its configuration is,

  • Pentium D 820, 2.8 GHz dual Pentium 4 core processor, supports 64 bit.
  • 512 DDR 333 memory
  • 90GB HDD
  • no graphics card
  • 3 PCI and 1 AGP slot

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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[–] [email protected] 15 points 6 months ago

Total e-waste and a power draw. Even a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B can beat it to oblivion:

https://browser.geekbench.com/v6/cpu/compare/6390478?baseline=5583060

[–] [email protected] 13 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Your primary issue is going to be the power draw. If your electricity supplier has cheap rates, or if you have an abundance of solar power, then it could maybe find life as some sort of traffic analyzer or honeypot.

But I think even finding a PCI NIC nowadays will be rather difficult. And that CPU probably doesn't have any sort of virtualization extensions to make it competitive against, say, a Raspberry Pi 5.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

I have a Realtek and an intel NIC which I have not tried. Both are PCI. I am more worried about software, OpenWRT or DDR WRT work with it.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 6 months ago
[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 months ago

Best use is ewasting it because of power draw.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago

It's not power efficient, you're better off buying a cheaper computer, that runs on far fewer watts

If you want to run it as a museum piece, or for archaeological purposes, go for it.

You could run it as a router, I question how much throughput you can get... But again, a cheap $20 off-the-shelf openwrt router like gli.net will be much cheaper on your power bill.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Does it have onboard graphics? It will be hard without that. If it has, you can make a vintage arcade machine, but with multiple games. You could, for example, run linux with OpenTyrian on it, which is one of my favorite games. Xgalaga++ and a lot of old games with DOS emulation should also be possible. You can strip down the OS, so only the barest minimum runs; should save some RAM and CPU.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

It has intel graphics.

That is a cool idea, perhaps a project of router thing doesn't work out.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago

I don't know how much your electric rate is, but a router or server that sucks down a hundred watts 24 hours a day may be a concern. An arcade machine would be my choice.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

You could use it for Windows 98/XP retro gaming if you add a graphics gard, but for anything else it's far too inefficient to be useful

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

N100 mini computer with five Ethernet ports make a good router. And can be bought for around $100 USD.