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.

  • Admiral PatrickEnglish
    3•6 months ago

    Yeah, it would make a beefy router for sure. Wouldn’t be very power-efficient, but would handle the job well.

    Outside of that, you’re most limited by the 512 MB RAM. Adding a larger drive would be an easy/cheap upgrade (though it may be SATA II speeds or possibly SATA I).

    If you use OpenWRT for your router OS, you can also install AdGuard and get a bit more use out of it.

    If you can add an HBA for better SATA speeds, and have room in the case, it might make a halfway decent NAS (or backup NAS).

    • @reddit_suxOPEnglish
      5•6 months ago

      I have an old Raspberry Pi as PiHole and another Pihole running on as a virtual machine. I have an ryzen PC running as a NAS and Jellyfin.

      I was trying to get a half decent PC to make a firewall router out of.

      • Admiral PatrickEnglish
        5•6 months ago

        Aside from being a little power hungry, then that should do the job. opnSense or OpenWRT should run really well.

        • @reddit_suxOPEnglish
          4•6 months ago

          I read on OPNSense guide it needs 2gb ram to run, it would be difficult to even get a 1gb ram for it. Not to say expensive too.

          • Admiral PatrickEnglish
            4•6 months ago

            I read on OPNSense guide it needs 2gb ram

            Good to know, thanks. I haven’t deployed it in years (have been using OpenWRT which will run on a potato). Getting ready to build a new router/firewall myself, but I don’t think the 2 GB is gonna be a problem. Have been debating sticking with OpenWRT or going to OPNSense.

            • @reddit_suxOPEnglish
              4•6 months ago

              Nice to be of your help.

              How’s OpenWRT to use and install. Though pretty experienced with linux. This is the first time trying to do the hardcore networking stuff.

              • Admiral PatrickEnglish
                6•6 months ago

                Most of my devices I was able to flash it right to it (or TFTP boot the installer and go through the steps via console cable). On x86, you just flash a boot image with dd. The hardest “install” was to a batch of enterprise APs where I had to attach a programming clip to its flash chip and use a Rapberry Pi to burn the image. After that, though, I could update them normally

                If you’ve reached this point in your OpenWRT install, turn around. lol. I only kept going because I thought I was bidding $12 on a single Aruba AP-105 and ended up getting a lot of 20 (for $12), so I had to figure out some use for them.

                Usage is pretty straightforward through the web UI (LuCI). For some more complex configs, it’s sometimes challenging to figure out the UCI syntax to configure (when I was playing around with B.A.T.M.A.N for example) but otherwise is pretty nice.