How to repurpose your old server hardware

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I upgraded my motherboard, CPU, and memory in my unRAID setup a while back when I decided to upgrade to a newer version of unRAID and discovered my Gigabyte motherboard installed an HPA on one of my drives.  That left me with the basic hardware for another PC.  I'm a hardware geek to some extent and I'm always tinkering with new hardware updates, which leaves me with a lot of old PC parts lying around.

 

I had been having issues with my network for some time and couldn't really isolate them so I decided to get a new router and see if that would help.  Somewhere along the way I stumbled across some info about building my own router using pfSense, which is a freeware open source firewall distribution based on FreeBSD. 

 

I'm sure this isn't news to a lot of you, but it was to me and I found it intriguing so I thought I'd give it a shot.  I had a old PC case, a spare PSU, and a 40GB IDE hard drive salvaged from an old Tivo, so I put together a router almost completely from spare parts.  I did end up purchasing a mini-tower case for about $30 from Newegg and a dual-port Intel NIC on ebay for about $25.  Other than that, I had everything else already on-hand.

 

The router works great and has an extensive web-based UI with more features than I'll ever understand.  The dual-port NIC provides interfaces for the WAN and LAN side connections.  Initial setup was easy using a connected monitor.  Further tweaking is done via the web gui just like any commercial router.

 

I can't say that it fixed my network issues, but it was a fun project and quite simple to put together.  My old unRAID server got a new lease on life.  I love it when I can find a good use for old hardware instead of just putting it out to pasture.

[mrow]

I've got lots of old parts that would make a great pfsense router. I've thought many times about setting it up but I've never been able to bring myself to do it. I have an Apple AirPort Extreme router and it's hands down the best router I've ever owned, and I've owned many. Lots of features and never had a single issue with it. All the pfsense would give me is a higher electricity bill that comes with running an additional PC 24/7. I still get the itch though..

[captain_video]

I agree about having the extra PC running 24/7.  It's the only thing about it that's making me think twice about it.  Now that I have the pfSense router up and running I'm starting to look at the ALIX single board computer systems that are configured with pfSense.  It kind of defeats the purpose of using old PC parts, but it would still give me a powerful router with low power consumption and a small footprint.  I'm just not sure I want to shell out about $205 for one at this point in time.  For now I'll probably stick with the pfSense PC and make the switch when I can afford it.

[twolf]

I've been using two old machines as router and server for years, but recently decided to get away from that. Modern hardware is just so much more energy efficient, especially on light system loads. The router is in the process of getting replaced by an Alix solution, while the server will get virtualized on my new ESXi machine alongsize unRAID and other virtual machines.

 

At a certain point, the old hardware is obsolete even for tinkering purposes. 

[captain_video]

I've been using two old machines as router and server for years, but recently decided to get away from that. Modern hardware is just so much more energy efficient, especially on light system loads. The router is in the process of getting replaced by an Alix solution, while the server will get virtualized on my new ESXi machine alongsize unRAID and other virtual machines.

 

At a certain point, the old hardware is obsolete even for tinkering purposes. 

Absolutely.  I recently upgraded the motherboard and CPU in my HTPC and I have a Kill-O-Watt meter connected to it.  The old setup was using about 118 watts on average.  The new setup only uses about 75 watts.  I also just added a Radeon HD 7770 graphics card and the usage only increased by a couple more watts.  This is exactly why I'm now considering the ALIX computer.  Recycling old gear is a nice idea, but not if it's going to add a sizeable chunk to the electric bill.  The new hardware will probably pay for itself in savings on the bill over the next couple of years.

[c3]

Do not overlook the option of buying a quality router, far less power than most PCs. This is lounge so I'll put this out there, but you can spend plenty of time in the area.

 

I use the ASUS RT-n66u with TomatoUSB from shibby, but it starts out with open source WRT firmware which means AsusWRT-Merlin firmware available with just fixes. This configuration has been field tested supporting more than 50 wireless devices on 802.11n 5Ghz.

 

Nothing on pfSense, but you can do pretty much anything with WRT. This hardware platform is simultaneous dual band radios and plenty of processing/RAM and gigabit ports.

[captain_video]

I haven't overlooked that possibility at all.  In fact, I had purchased an Asus RT-N56U wireless router from Newegg on Black Friday just prior to trying out pfSense.  I was having issues getting it to obtain an IP address from Verizon, but I eventually sorted that out with the pfSense router.  I was actually searching the web for info on routers when I stumbled across the pfSense website.  I figured, why not give it a shot since I already had the hardware on hand to build it?

 

I have since sold the Asus router on ebay.  The ALIX setup would only cost me slightly more than any quality commercial router I'd consider using, although I really don't need wireless since my whole house is hardwired for gigabit.  For now, I'll stick with my homebrew pfSense router until I can afford the ALIX kit.