RX6400 would be awesome for it.

you need faster low latency ram due to apu, ,OR install an rtx 2000 mounted externally

External SAS controller. What I would use.

This looks like a high spec machine for a thin client. The PCIe might be better put to use with either additional 1GB NIC slots x4 and make an opensense/pf sense box, or an m.2 board for additional storage and use it as a host for proxmox/virtualisation or a nas. May be even 2.5Gb or 10 gb NICs

Man, great review on a mostly low spec product that costs about U$850 new. This is more a "lean" than a "thin" client. You'll be better buying a new tiny Lenovo for the same price and if you're tight on your budget you can't miss a U$100 Intel 8th gen M720Q with a U$20 riser card with tons of expandability. For a little more, you can find a M920Q with also double NVME M.2 slots. Keep the good work!

Maybe turn off the sound effects for transitions

Interesting video, but terrible with the background noise.

Over 155 comments at this point, so I won't scan to see if my notes are already posted. As you said, there are a myriad of options for old PCs. Others I can share are a hardware firewall for your home network. Linux based systems such as PFSense and several others are perfect for this, as you can use as little as 512MB's of RAM to run them efficiently. PFSense will hide your entire network from hackers. If they hit your system, they will only find your firewall PC. Better still, the OS configures and burns to a CD with YOUR SELECTED parameters. Hackers CANNOT rewrite to a CD. Another use for old PCs is a Smart Mirror. This first requires building a large wooden frame, detaching a monitor screen to use behind the mirror, then using the PC guts to run it. There are several vids on KZbin with DIY instructions for the adventurous. Once you install your Linux OS of choice, download and run "Smart Mirror", and you're ready to go. Smart Mirror is useful for posting daily info: i.e., news, weather, etc., is voice command ready, and can also retrieve and play audio from your media files. Or use the mirror to comb your hair. You can also load an old PC with thousands or millions of pictures, GIFs, or videos to build a wall mounted slideshow. Just add a monitor where you want it, then connect the PC. That's all I got here. I've seen several other videos on old PCs, so do a search. You'll be amazed at all the options available.

They make great door stops and paper weights.

turn down the music, todd

I'm using a 2011 Dell Optiplex 790 Ultra Small Form Factor as my media/download/network hub, a 2011 HP Probook 4430s as my test subject for hardware/software experiments, and a 2017 Lenovo Thinkstation p320 as my media server. I've been tempted to pick up some other older model SFF desktop units, but presently have no use for them, though I have considered doing something similar to the "smart home" concept, but with a car. Camera controls, lights, music, (maybe even movies for passengers), etc.

I have a great 17 inch laptop acer from 2012. I installed Linux Mint Debian edition. It’s great! I can run 1080p KZbin and use it for libre office. Really nice video watching dvds! I also setup tons of old pcs with Antix and families love the simple games and tools.

I'm running Plex on a Raspberry Pi 4 with 4 GB of RAM. I have no issues with it.

Install Linux and Firefox. Done. Fully functional computer.

OMFG! I CAN'T HEAR SHIT OVER THE MUSIC. *throws hamburgers at screen*

I used XBMC and KODI for years, but the TVDB killed it for me; One day, the first entry in my list of movies and TV was "All the crap you should not add to the TVDB". On investigation, it turned out that the guys running the TV database were a couple of childish, argumentative, ban-happy edgelords. These days I use a VivoMini witn Windows as an HTPC/downloader box and remote into it using tight VNC, or control it with an airmoouse when watching stuff. You can't beat just using windows file manager to launch stuff, with VLC set to automatically resume and go full screen. I've put together several Batocera PCs for friends and family, superb piece of software. I love mini PCs, if I had the money i would start a collection. As well as the VivoMini, I have an ASrock A300 as my daily driver/couch PC and Lenovo M53 for mucking about.

Very informative, the back ground music actually worked with what you was presenting and took me back with a bit of nostalgia. Great job keep up the work and also you have given me a lot of ideas now that I am working on building my off net network.

going to setup a AceMagic AMD 5700U mini PC that I bought with a whole archived Flash games library called Flashpoint Archive it's about 1.68TB of flash games it has a 512GB SSD that it came with and I added a 2TB and swapped the 16GB of Ram out for 64GB which is total overkill for flash games

The top two suggestions provided by articles and videos about reusing old computers are media server and retro gaming. Call me old and boring or just too busy, but I have no need for either. The HomeAssistant suggestion sounds intriguing. I've started doing a little bit of home automation, and I quickly ran into the problem where a "smart" item you're interested in isn't available for your ecosystem of choice, and HomeAssistant looks a lot like the One Ring to Rule Them All (I'll take the fall for the pun, even though I don't own any Ring products). I do have some old computers lying around, although none are SFF; one's a minitower, a couple are late '90s full towers and there's one custom build in a bulky, heavy rack enclosure that aspires to being pressed back into service in a rack someday, most likely with new innards. The minitower, which used to be my primary desktop, occasionally gets hooked back up, booted from a utility flash drive and used to secure-wipe hard disks that are then retained for use as data recovery recipients. That's not something that most people would need, though. If I didn't find it so handy for that, I'd probably gut it and build a new PC in the case, because its case is serviceable, non-proprietary and has enough ventilation for a modern build, although not a very high end one.

I have an old mini pc with Home Media Vault on it, which took over from a Pi3 B+ which I started with, and Pi's behind all the TVs using OSMC to play the stored TV and Films.

Check into XPENology You’re hardware + Synology OS

I have one cheap old computer connected to my TV as a hybrid entertainment centre. It's way better than the under-powered, locked down and bloated crap delivered with my 'smart' TV. Just install your Linux distribution of choice, in my case Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, and whatever software you want. Firefox, Thunderbird, MPV, Libre Office, Calibre and Okular are just a few examples. Works just fine with a wireless keyboard and headset.

Homeassistant YES on tiny low power PC with SSD. It's a joke on Pi. Fast restart is key for developers, esp32 etc devices for me. And yeah pls Stop with the background music. Ugh

PLEX lifetime is the best deal, around black Friday, was $90 for me. Pay once n use for life. Create as many servers as u like I think. I use a super low power unit for only music, and a large tower with 18TB for video. I can have them start up and shut down on Demand by remote.

I have really been loving Nova Media Player on my $20 android box kodi is a little sluggish and even vlc same but nova has been grerat for my NAS Usb stick

What a nice video. I love the music. However there is a voice in the background. Anybody else notice it?

File server

Great suggestions, thanks!

Neat Todd you really scored. You could use your phone to snap a photo of the info behind the panel on the thin client. Dude I'm envious. Cool!

Very cool. I am shocked how much I related to this video. From my OG Xbox modding days and xbmc and kodi and fire stick mod to retro games and emulation to my haswell optiplex I just got tired of Billy the kid and windows and switched back to Linux, I upgraded the haswell to 16GB of RAM. I got the haswell from thrift store for $30 and the Ram upgrade was $15. I am literally sitting on 12 OG Xbox because every time I see one at the thrift I have to rescue it. I know it's insane, now you got my wheels turning on retro pie for that haswell. I have archive the Xbox iso site that Nintendo took down. I got a media vault NAS that because of smb protocol Microsoft was giving me a hell of a time about security. Cab I run open media vault on my haswell? Or does it replace hp media vault firmware? Can I run it with Ubuntu? Many questions.

Do a vid on Jellyfin. I use Kodi all the time and loved Plex, until about 6 years ago before the unbearable bloat.

Usually I custom build a Tower computer as my main PC. Got a couple of older smaller so this gives some good ideas on how to repurpose them.

I have a 20+ year old white box pc from A former employer.the has a 266MHz cpu running Windows XP that I use to record audio streams from OTA or the imternet. Rock solid.

I tried listening using my phone speakers. I could finally hear you talk. But with headphones on, ALL I heard was the music/sound effects overriding the volume of your voice. I’d be interested in seeing one of those old slim factor PCs used as a NAS - just plug a bunch of USB drives into it? 🤷🏼‍♂️

Is this a promo for sound effects? If so, I kept hearing some guy trying to talk over the background sounds.

Our household (free tier) plex server runs on a 2006 Mac Mini that I got for free and upgraded to a faster processor ($8) and 2007 firmware ($0), it runs plex on linux great. Just don't ask it to do the transcoding and everything'll be fine.

You can add Plex as an Add on to Kodi to have the best of both worlds. This vid has me thinking about ideas for the old HP T610 plus i have sitting on a shelf...

Subbed because you enjoy old tech as I do! Your video style also feels a little like maybe a community TV channel, which I like. And what good dad doesn't embarrass the kids once in a while?😛 1) Cheap to get. I've had people give me laptops and other electronics just to clear out the clutter. The used market is so huge that you can literally pay whatever you want to pay. 2) Easier to upgrade than newer stuff. I love my old Thinkpads! 3) So gratifying because of the huge performance differences from stock to modified. 4) Huge value proposition. I've paid a great bit for some laptops that perform no better than the upgraded older stuff. 5) Keeps useful items out of the landfill. 6) Indescribable thrill of sticking it to the Man.

Great video but the pornbass is reduculious. Thanks for a few good ideas

the 1 major advantage witha a rpi 345 is there is no intel management engine that is why i bought my rpi4b.

Listening on my phone, the music had some high points that made it challenging to hear, but i managed just fine. To be honest, it made me listen more intently. With that being said, i loved the content! Especially the alternative software to true nas and plex/jellyfin. Ive watched several videos on the subject, and this is the first time hearing about an alternative. True nas definitely seemed a bit intimidating for a new casual user.

What an awesome deal. I buy second hand SSDs off eBay. Usually they're half the price and have barely been used, tho it's uncommon to see sizes over 512G.

If you're looking for a good storage solution, Synology are great. I have a couple of 4-bay systems. They're Linux underneath so you can never lose access to your data, they come with an easy web interface. You can also run the Synology software in a Docker container called "virtual-dsm". If I built a NAS from scratch I would look into that and OMV.

I have a pair of those HP t530 thin clients running everything. Caddy, Nextcloud, FreshRSS, VPN, etc. They're champions and do it without a sweat. Cost US$20 each. Those XBMC screenshots were great to see again. I had a box in a datacentre back then and I seeded a third of all XBox AID torrents ever!

You can get a Kodi remote control app for your iPhone or Android phone which works great if all you use your box for is Kodi no need for keyboard/mouse.

Dude, im interested in maki g an Arcade Game

Thanks man! New Sub here! I sell Android Boxes as well as IPTV, so have been dealing with Kodi for a long time. I like Kodi

Found a 2016 Dell Inspiron at a thrift store for $13 not too long ago. After noticing that the donor carelessly left the OS and tons of personal information on the hard drive, I reformatted with a fresh Linux install and began using it as a semi-portable PC to do graphics work with. It's just powerful enough to handle it up to a certain point and I figure once I need to do more, I can start using it for something else. I also have another I use exclusively for Recalbox gaming and Kodi. Works like a charm for the most part!

On an old PC I created a MAME Arcade cabinet with a Plex server running in the background

Jellyfin has my vote!! FOSS FOREVER