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2023-11: Warosu is now out of extended maintenance.

/diy/ - Do It Yourself

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326967 No.326967 [Reply] [Original]

Hey i have a ton of hold desktops / labtops..i have no idea what to do with them help?

I AM NOT LOOKING TO SCRAP THE COMPUTERS.


2nd question - How can i build a house in my backyard? It needs to be quick and easy but not open to the outdoors.

>> No.326972

House
>>>No.324655

>> No.326993

Get mortar and use computer chassis as bricks. Enjoy computer house.

>> No.326994

>>326967
Fix up the PCs so they will run a web browser very easily. Sell them cheaply. Take that money and use it to buy material for a house.

>house
>quick and easy

Pick one.

Pitch a tent. "How do i build a house" is a question with a shit ton of answers that all rely on what you want for the house and how big it will be.

>> No.327000

Fix the computers up and sell them. Or donate them to an under-funded library or school. What else would you really be able to do with them?

Also, give more info about the "house" if you want to tap into /diy/s insightful minds. Someone somewhere is revving up their shipping container file

>> No.327006
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327006

>>326967

Gib me dem processas.

I want da gold.

>> No.327008

As for the PCs, I don't know, if you can code, code together someway to link them together as a cluster, ala supercomputer cluster.
As for the house, slab foundation, cinder blocks, and a tin roof are your friends.

>> No.327080

>>327000
this. My professor does this.
Install ubuntu and donate them to a school or third world country.

>> No.327095

There are a few charities that take in old computers and stick linux distros on them for old and disabled people to use. They might take them.

Alternately, if they were made in the last decade, you could make a sweet cluster for doing rendering or whatever.

>> No.327107

Two birds with one stone:

House made out of old Desktops.

>> No.327110

You could give them away on here.

>> No.327147

If they're worse than core 2, then scrap them. They're not worth the electricity they will waste.

>> No.327180

>>327008
>link them together as a cluster, ala supercomputer cluster

This will consume so much energy that you could have bought a single high end processor of similar equivalent power and come out ahead financially.

This will continue to be the case while the world at large remains too busy arguing about energy sources to actually build power plants.

>> No.327186

Bitcoin farm.

>> No.327187

>>326967
OP, look into building shipping container houses. It's dirt cheap, you can frame it up, wire it, and hang all the sheetrock in under a week, and it'll be up to code, not to mention weatherproof.

As for what to do with the computers, you could make a radius server, build a self compiled network for storage, or fix them up and sell them off on craigslist. To pay for that house.

>> No.327190

>Hey i have a ton of hold desktops / labtops
>hold desktops / labtops
>hold
>labtops
whycantiholdalltheselabtops.jpeg

>> No.327192

>>327180
Not true, people who work in embarrassingly parallel fields would kill for that many processors, even if they are low powered.

Beowulf clusters are amazing.

I'd make a big cluster wall with a nice controller GUI and monitor, it would be a like a feature wall. Gorgeous.

>> No.327195

>>327192
No they wouldn't. They could go and buy a top end graphics card and get more flops out of it than a farm of shit-tier 5 year old office computers.

>> No.327222

>>327195
Well what is this board called? DIY. I don't see how instead of using what you have but buying new stuff instead and forking out money is DIY, its just paying someone money for technology that will be old tech within the year.

>> No.327231

>>327222
Too often we're seeing these threads of "Hey /diy/ I have (insert items here) what should I do with them?" Just because some here refer to themselves as mac/diy/vers doesn't mean we can turn a rubberband, paperclip, and chewing gum into a moon rocket. Come up with a project, then come back to us for help and advice on it.

That aside, posters have given you the basic ideas of what to do with your old PCs. You can fix them and sell/donate them, scrap/recycle them, build your outhouse out computer cases, or set up a cluster. The sad reality that you don't want to face is that a cluster of old Pentium 4 class Dells is going to consume a ton of power. Unless you are somewhere that provides you electricity at no cost such as university, that's going to mean a hefty electric bill. Now what are you going to do with your cluster that will be worth the electricity you pour into it?

Frankly, if it were me with this mess of old hardware (and no pre-existing home network), I'd build out a few of the machines as well as possible, picking out the best RAM, CPU and HDD. Then I'd put these to work as fileservers, routers, test machines for playing with alternate OS's, etc. With the remaining hardware, I'd build them out, give them to family and friends, sell them, or donate them to charity if at all possible. Given the age of the machines pictured, they're really not worth much, though.

>> No.327235

>>327222
Fixing, selling, and buying is business and business if DIY. It would be different if it was just buying and nothing else.

>> No.327249

>>326967
Why dont you post how many computers, how many laptops, specs of the computers. Also we need a list of your skills, tools, preferences, time available. etc

The same thing go for the house, We need measures of your backyard, how big do you want the house, materials you have, tools, experience etc.

Provide a list then comeback.

Fuck sometimes i hate /diy/

>> No.327354

There is gold in the computers. Inside the Processor and the motherboard. It's not that much but it's still pretty bank. You could just make mad guap from that then take the Computer Panels and build a house from it.

>> No.327360

Fix them up and use them to mine bitcoins.
>???
>profit

>> No.327377

>>326967
install gentoo

>> No.327415

>>326967
Wire those bitches together and make a fucking super computer!

>> No.327433

>>326967
Sell them, use monies to buy something useful.

>> No.327434

>>327231
>I'd build out a few of the machines as well as possible, picking out the best RAM, CPU and HDD. Then I'd put these to work as fileservers, routers, test machines for playing with alternate OS's, etc. With the remaining hardware, I'd build them out, give them to family and friends, sell them, or donate them to charity if at all possible.

> I'd build out a few of the machines as well as possible, picking out the best RAM, CPU and HDD.

Yes OP please make sure you go through all of this and pick the best out first.

Also a basic step alot of people miss is updating the BIOS

>> No.327438

>>326967
I scrap electronics all the time. Here's what's up:

1) Find a reputable scrap yard in your area. They're going to be located in the industrial area of your town. Look online, find reviews, then call. Find out if they take electronics and get a rough estimate of how much they are paying that day for your parts. Then you go on ebay and search for your bulk parts. Motherboards can go for $2.50-$3.50/lb (Oregon prices here). If the scrap yard can't compete with eBay, eBay it is.
2) Disassemble everything and sort. No magic here. Use power tools to unscrew everything, wear gloves + eye protection + dust mask, and don't be afraid to use brute force. Plastic is mostly worthless and unsaleable in small amounts, so find a place to dump it.
3) Load up your truck and bring it down to the scrap yard. You should either get cash or a check that day, or you'll get a check in the mail.

Scrapping can be EXTREMELY lucrative. It looks like you have 30+ towers. 30 x 3lbs x 2.00/lb = $180. RAM and CPUs can be sold for roughly the same price, if not more.

I'll save you some time. If those are Dell Workstations, I can almost guarantee there will be blown capacitors near the CPU. Just scrap them.

>> No.327441

>>327438
Not only are the motherboards worth cash; the PCI cards, the towers, the power supplies, the copious amount of copper wire, CD/DVD drives, HDDs, etc. I've had a similar load from an IT company liquidation and made an extra $1200.

If you can build a test rig, set one up to try each part out. Use a Linux distro and run memtest to test the RAM. CPUs are testable if they all have the same socket. PCI/AGP cards can be tested as well. Then you sell this shit as "Seller Refurbished" on eBay.

Scrapping is like being a native with a fresh-killed buffalo - nothing is wasted!

>> No.327528

>>326967
if their all good parallelize em make a cluster server, kinda kewl, other wise sort thru for good parts, and sell some shit, or find the good working ones and donate em

>> No.327574

>>326967
touching base on this thread. Is he gonna build a house made of PCs yet?

>> No.328227

>>327107
>>327107
I'm glad I'm not the only one that thought of this.