If you've been building PCs for years, you have probably collected more than your fair share of old or dead hardware that's been gathering dust in your storage. Unless you have sold them off or given them to a friend or family member already, you can use your old PC components in fun and creative ways, repurposing them into full-fledged devices or using them to learn a new skill.
I've purposely excluded DIY projects requiring advanced skills so that as many users as possible can experiment with their old PC parts to create interesting stuff. Some of the projects included here might require additional hardware, but the time and effort you invest will undoubtedly be worth it.
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10 Honor your old CPU à la Tony Stark's "heart"
Proof your old PC has a heart
If you're an MCU fan, you might remember the scene from the first Iron Man movie where Pepper Potts sends Tony his old arc reactor inside a glass case, as a token of his humanity. If you have your old CPU lying around, you can pay it a tribute in a similar way, commemorating all the good times you had together. It can be a classy addition to your desk setup or something that can adorn some other dedicated corner in your home.
Firstly, make sure you don't want to use your old CPU for any other purposes, such as repurposing it for a DIY NAS. Once you're sure you wish to proceed, all you need to do is uninstall it from your old PC, find an appropriately sized glass case, and use a small column that will be affixed to the bottom of the case and the CPU at either end. You can use your creativity to put other props inside the case or glue an elaborate structure around the CPU itself.
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9 Learn soldering with old or dead parts
Never too late to pick up a useful skill
Source: Vishnu Mohanan via Unsplash
Soldering and desoldering electronics isn't something one does regularly, but if you're DIY-minded, you'll need to learn this skill sooner or later. So, what better way to do it than with old or dead PC components that aren't serving any other purpose? Simply pick up your ancient motherboard, outdated graphics card, or even a power supply, get a soldering iron, and start learning the ropes.
There are enough tutorials on YouTube for your reference. A word of warning though -- when working with power supplies, ensure the unit hasn't been connected to a wall outlet in weeks. If you don't have enough confidence to work with a soldering iron or to dismantle internal components of PSUs or motherboards, you can pass on this one.
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8 Supercharge your laptop with your old GPU
External GPU + laptop = beast gaming machine
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An old laptop without a dedicated GPU and an old but still powerful discrete graphics card can be a match made in heaven. If you're willing to jump through some hoops, your old graphics card can become just the thing your laptop needs to become a powerful gaming laptop. All you'll need is an external GPU enclosure to house your graphics card. Although it's pricey, it will cost much less than buying a new gaming PC.
Depending on the capabilities of your laptop's integrated graphics, you might be able to make this eGPU investment worth it. Although external GPUs suffer from limited bandwidth and portability issues for your laptop, this project might still be worth it to be able to utilize your old graphics card that can't offer much compared to your main desktop's GPU.
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7 Use an old GPU for projects where new GPUs have issues
Old is gold indeed
Pixelmator failing to boot on a macOS Ventura VM
For the home lab enthusiasts out there, working with virtual machines and virtualization platforms like Proxmox is probably second nature. Newer GPUs can have a variety of compatibility issues with older code libraries and outdated standards. Your ancient graphics card can come in clutch in such situations, perfectly bridging any older software.
A spare graphics card from a few generations back can really come in handy, not only for VM projects, but also as a backup GPU or to drive extra monitors in your multi-monitor setup. You will need multiple PCIe slots on your motherboard and a PSU that can handle more than one GPU, so keep that in mind.
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6 Get yourself a test bench, thanks to your old motherboard
Why spend on another PC when you have one lying around?
If you often need a secondary system to test review units, diagnose issues with your main PC parts, or just mess around with fun experiments, a test bench is absolutely indispensable. Your old PC probably has a working motherboard and other core components that can double up as your new test bench, offering a safe and inexpensive method for all of your DIY testing projects.
Whether you want to use your old computer as-is or ditch the case for a cool-looking test bench, that's your discretion. The kind of components you'll be able to test on your old PC will, of course, depend on the motherboard platform and its compatibility with some newer components.
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5 Use your old PC as a viewfinder for your phone camera
When your phone's screen isn't enough
This one might not be as universally applicable as others, but I'm sure some users would appreciate a larger display when taking photos or videos. A smartphone is highly convenient as a camera, but the limited screen space can be a hindrance. Viewing the live feed from your phone's camera on a Windows laptop (something that's also portable) can be a neat trick to solve the problem.
All you need to do is connect your phone to your Windows laptop using Windows' built-in protection feature to wirelessly stream your phone's feed to the laptop. You can also use a wired connection, trading some of the convenience for eliminating any delay between what your camera is seeing and what you're seeing on your laptop screen.
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4 Repurpose old components for a silent, fanless PC
Ditch the fans for a completely silent PC
Building a spare silent PC can be a fun challenge to take on, especially if you need to use your old components in creative ways to eliminate any fans inside the PC. A fanless PC is ideal when you want to remove any source of noise inside the PC, but this introduces challenges of its own. Without any fans, it can be tough to cool the PC effectively, but you can manage with a passive CPU cooler, fanless PSU, spacious case, and neat tricks for cooling the RAM, SSD, and graphics card.
With your old CPU taken care of by the fanless cooler, you can use a high-performance thermal paste on the memory, SSD, and graphics card combined with some custom heatsinks. The stock heatsinks on most RAM modules, M.2 SSDs, and graphics cards might not be the best at cooling, so you'll need to arrange aftermarket heatsinks for them. This project will need some investment, especially for the passive CPU cooler and fanless PSU, but it can be one of the highlights of your PC building career.
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3 Put old HDDs to good use for your media server
Don't write off hard drives yet
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Chances are your old PC has one or two hard drives that you abandoned after jumping to fancy NVMe SSDs. Fortunately, they are still fast enough for mass storage on your home media server, NAS, or home lab. You can create a media server with Raspberry Pi and use your old hard drive as the storage, so it isn't an expensive project at all.
NAS users will need multiple hard drives, so if you only have one from your old PC, try buying old hard drives on the cheap. Often older drives tend to develop faults after 3 to 5 years, but as long as your old HDDs are working fine, you should repurpose them in useful projects instead of throwing them away.
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2 Convert an old CD-ROM drive to a CD player
Fancy yourself a retro music player?
I'm not sure how many of you will still have a computer with a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive, but if you do, you can finally use it for something. Turning an optical drive from your PC into a music player needs some work, but it's surely one of the best uses of old hardware. You'll need a power supply as well, so use an old PSU or create one that can supply 5V and 12V power.
You'll also need an amplifier, speakers, and, of course, some audio discs. Check YouTube for detailed tutorials on the process, and enjoy your makeshift music CD player for some authentic retro vibes.
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1 Salvage constituent parts from old PC components
Give them a good look before the scrapyard
Finally, you can salvage small parts like capacitors and CR32 battery sockets from motherboards, neodymium magnets from CD drives, and inductors, small heatsinks, fans, and AC sockets from power supplies. These parts will be useful for your future DIY projects, especially the ones that cost too much to purchase individually.
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Reusing old PC components is great for you and the environment
Instead of discarding old or dead PC components, relegating them to the scrapyard, you can find creative ways to repurpose them into useful devices, nostalgic projects, or classy collectibles. A DIY spirit, some extra time and a bit of money, along with some handyman skills are all you need for many of the projects listed above. In the end, I'd just like to add that donating your PC to someone less fortunate or a scientific cause is still on the table, aside from these DIY projects.