Hello self hosters,
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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There are purposes for it, but with the power it would use for basic tasks, I think it is better recycled.
It would be good for playing old XP era games or hardware. But for modern tasks?
Yeah no, that P4 wastes way too much power to be useful for anything.
Total e-waste and a power draw (almost constant 95W). Even a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B can beat it to oblivion:
https://browser.geekbench.com/v6/cpu/compare/6390478?baseline=5583060
Take the intestines out and make a flower box.
Pentium D processors are pretty power hungry, so factor that into your thoughts. Also make sure you put a modern OS on it that is getting security updates. It probably has Win XP or Vista installed which isn’t safe to connect to any network.
It should work fine as a router as long as you don’t enable any of the packet inspection features. For basic routing and firewalling for a home network it should be plenty powerful. I would personally put a small SATA SSD in it as the main drive and ditch the 90GB HDD.
As an additional idea, if you put a larger SATA drive or two into it you could make it a NAS.
Thanks i was planning to put OpenWRT or DD WRT on it ditching Windows XP
You do not want a 200W router, ma dood. This thing is ancient, and not going to be optimized for power usage whatsoever.
I wouldn’t run it as a router due to its high power consumption, but it would be a fine computer for retro gaming for games up until ~2005 if you add a graphics card.
You can buy a significantly more powerful and power efficient device for less than $100. It’s not really useful for anything besides nostalgia imo.
Keep the case and put a modern PC inside to make it a sleeper PC. Drill speed holes in the side for extra airflow that your computer will desperately need.
Birds’ nest.
