11 ms·

On the flipside, does anyone know if there's any caveats to "recycling" a laptop's motherboard? I've got a laptop that has awful thermals but decent hardware. O

by d3nj4l 6y ago

On the flipside, does anyone know if there's any caveats to "recycling" a laptop's motherboard? I've got a laptop that has awful thermals but decent hardware. One of the fans is dead, and I've attempted to replace it but I guess the header itself is busted.* The processor and GPU are just wasted in there as they throttle hard on basic workloads. So, I've been meaning to rip the board out and make an HTPC out of it. I'm not too experienced with electronics to know if there's any issues I could run into, so I've been holding off on it. I would love to see if anyone else has done something like that. * Unfortunately, it possible that my attempt to fix a dead fan is what busted the header. I'm not sure because the previous fan was dead and the new fan I put in didn't spin, but that's part of why I don't feel comfortable just winging it.

Abishek_Muthian 6y ago
>does anyone know if there's any caveats to "recycling" a laptop's motherboard? The biggest caveat in re-using old compute hardware IMO is power consumption, power-efficiency has been one consistent improvement in every new generation of computer chips. So, a new Raspberry Pi is almost always as capable as your old hardware for HTPC but more power efficient. Except maybe say extremely high quality video, say 8K 10 bit video. >Unfortunately, it possible that my attempt to fix a dead fan is what busted the header. You can try passive heatsink or passing the fan thermal management to separate unit altogether like Corsair Commandar(I haven't tried it). You can also use your hardware for only GPGPU applications & HW accel on GPU to reduce load on CPU e.g. Separate stream encoding machine.
- walrus01 6y ago
  > The biggest caveat in re-using old compute hardware IMO is power consumption, power-efficiency has been one consistent improvement in every new generation of computer chips. So, a new Raspberry Pi is almost always as capable as your old hardware for HTPC but more power efficient. yes but your typical laptop rarely exceeds 30W, so if your electricity is priced at $0.12 per kWh, and you run that laptop 24x7 for a year: 22.32 kWh per month same as $2.67 of electricity
  - arcticbull 6y ago
    Or 3.6% of a Bitcoin transaction per month haha
    - DJBunnies 6y ago
      Being snarky is fun, but in this case misleading. Transactions don’t consume this electricity, competing for the next block does.
      - arcticbull 6y ago
        The block of transactions lol literally a problem for division. I could have written “1% of the energy required to process of a block of 3 transactions”
        DJBunnies 6y ago
        The quantity of transactions here is irrelevant, so is the power cost per transaction.
        arcticbull 6y ago
        lol, ok, then the power cost per block of 3 transactions. Multiply by 3.
        DJBunnies 6y ago
        You multiply by zero as the transactions do not contribute to energy usage.
        arcticbull 6y ago
        haha, without transactions you wouldn't need to mine anything would you. The network is already secure and the data valid. If there were no transactions the ledger wouldn't need to be appended to, and in that case you could just throw it into read-only storage and call it a day. Transactions are the only thing that contributes to energy usage.
- d3nj4l 6y ago
  First of all, thanks! > The biggest caveat in re-using old compute hardware IMO is power consumption This is a relatively recent laptop (it has a GTX 1060 inside!), and I can't get hardware that capable for cheap enough for it to be worth it. My only reason for making it an HTPC is that I don't want to see it gather dust on a shelf for no reason. > You can try passive heatsink I've considered that + other cheap ways, but I'm concerned about mounting. The CPU runs hot, even when well cooled, so I'd need some way to get good contact with the die without harming it. There's a few screw slots around it, but those are for the heat pipes it comes with. That's the biggest challenge in this project from my perspective. > You can also use your hardware for only GPGPU applications & HW accel on GPU to reduce load on CPU e.g. Separate stream encoding machine Unfortunately, I don't have any use cases where that could come in handy. Working a full-time job killed my dreams of producing content :'). I just want this to sit at my 4K TV and play content without snooping on me, like all the big name boxes do.
  - hattmall 6y ago
    Mineral oil submersion for cooling may work
    - dmos62 6y ago
      Or, keeping it in a moisture-conditioned freezer. Or, ... That's it, that's the only impractical idea I had. Oh wait, water cooling!
  - sgtnoodle 6y ago
    I have a 5 year old laptop whose display died after 2 years. Rather disappointing that high-end stuff doesn't last and manufactures don't seem to care, but that's another rant. I plugged it into my TV to use for emulators. It's fun to play occasionally, but overall I hate it because of how whiny and high maintenance windows 10 is. Every single freaking time I want to use it, I have to pull it out from under the blu-ray player and reassure it of its insecurities. Every few days it will randomly wake up and start loudly revving its fans up and down too, just to remind me that it exists to torment me.
- sgtnoodle 6y ago
  If you're worried about power consumption from a cost perspective, it's going to take a long time to break even from the cost of new hardware, even for a cheap pi. If you're worried about it from an environmental perspective, it often takes more energy / resource mining / pollution to manufacture a new piece of hardware than the total amount saved from not running older hardware over a longer lifetime. Running a computer / smartphone / tablet until it doesn't work well enough for its purpose is generally better for the environment than upgrading because shiny, because it slightly reduces the demand for new hardware.
  - sgtnoodle 6y ago
    I had a nightmare last night that my 3 year old smartphone's screen got horribly scratched enough to be a constant nuisance but not bad enough to interfere with its function, and I had to decide whether or not to give up and upgrade.
    - rland 6y ago
      This isn't necessarily related to the discussion at hand, but it reminded me: I got a huge crack (https://ibb.co/1mPxC6C https://ibb.co/1mPxC6C) in my smartphone's screen right around New Year's. One of my goals was to use my phone less (less social media). The crack is a big, ~.25in black diagonal line across the screen, but the touch still works. Because it's a diagonal crack, I can still read whole text messages/emails/etc, I just have to scroll the right way. It's now March and I still haven't fixed my screen, mostly out of laziness since I'm home all the time, but also because it's done wonders to my smartphone use. I practically don't idly scroll anymore, just because it's really annoying to do so, and I don't miss it at all. Everyone thinks I'm nuts, but I haven't read twitter in like 3 months so who's the crazy one? I'd say, don't bother upgrading! Enjoy that the addictive quality of your smartphone is diminished.
      - sgtnoodle 6y ago
        Lol, thankfully it was just a dream and my screen is still flawless! I did stop bothering to put protective glass on it after that cracked a few months ago. The only thing I read obsessively on my phone these days is hacker news. :-) I stopped using most social media 6 or 7 years ago.
- alias_neo 6y ago
  This is the key for me, and a major reason I've always avoided the cheap, older hardware off of eBay for home use. My server rack consists of new (released) at time of purchase hardware with power efficiency as a major focus. One measurement which really surprised me was that my 2019 XPS 13 idles with about 1.5W, screen on according to powertop. That's less power than a Raspberry Pi takes to idle!
swirepe 6y ago
You could sit the whole thing in front of a normal desk fan until you can get a usb one, if everything else seems functional.
- d3nj4l 6y ago
  I've mentioned this in a sibling comment, but my concern with that is that it wouldn't be enough for a 45W CPU that runs fairly hot.
whymauri 6y ago
I did this for my younger sister's first computer. We didn't have a lot of expendable cash, so I took my old laptop, stripped the motherblard out, mounted it on a makeshift open-air rig, and hooked it up to a second-hand monitor (laptop screen was irreparably broken). Served her well for three years or so.
- d3nj4l 6y ago
  How did you get good contact with the CPU die? I've considered an open air setup even before I had a backup PC to be bold with the laptop, but I wasn't sure it could cool the CPU.
  - moftz 6y ago
    It won't be pretty but if you can access the CPU from the top or bottom, you can strap a desktop heatsink down with zipties running both ways around the laptop.
    - rolleiflex 6y ago
      I did this with a 2015 MacBook Pro, because I needed it to go full tilt and didn’t want it to throttle. https://twitter.com/nehbit/status/1243329494481432581?s=21 https://twitter.com/nehbit/status/1243329494481432581?s=21 In my case, the weight of the fan connected to a 12v motorcycle battery was enough to make it not throttle at indefinite 100% load, I didn’t have to zip tie anything. Mind that I did not remove the existing fans, just used thermal interface material on top of the existing heat sink, add some salvaged aluminium passive cooling sinks on top, and then on top of that, have the fan screwed into an Amazon shipping box so that the fan blades didn’t hit the sinks.
flower-giraffe 6y ago
You could just getting a 5v fan with a USB connector and plugging it into a USB port.
userbinator 6y ago
Leaked schematics are available for a lot of them (even famous ones like Apple, as Louis Rossmann can tell you...) Component-level repair can be possible.
prvc 6y ago
This is a pretty popular video, so many may already be aware of this type of project, but just in case: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3fnsGHe8eE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3fnsGHe8eE
- rzzzt 6y ago
  Let me add three additional DIY Perks video links, as they are also relevant to the original topic (hopefully I'm not going overboard with these): - Build a DIY screen out of recycled parts for cheap: https://youtu.be/CfirQC99xPc https://youtu.be/CfirQC99xPc - Building a USB-C touchscreen monitor: https://youtu.be/DrqdHVeBkp4 https://youtu.be/DrqdHVeBkp4 - Transform a Damaged Laptop into an all-in-one desktop PC: https://youtu.be/8jeLCQ62vFk https://youtu.be/8jeLCQ62vFk The Lenovo with the bent bottom case appeared in many episodes as illustration, until it finally got repurposed!

by d3nj4l 6y ago

Abishek_Muthian 6y ago

>does anyone know if there's any caveats to "recycling" a laptop's motherboard? The biggest caveat in re-using old compute hardware IMO is power consumption, power-efficiency has been one consistent improvement in every new generation of computer chips. So, a new Raspberry Pi is almost always as capable as your old hardware for HTPC but more power efficient. Except maybe say extremely high quality video, say 8K 10 bit video. >Unfortunately, it possible that my attempt to fix a dead fan is what busted the header. You can try passive heatsink or passing the fan thermal management to separate unit altogether like Corsair Commandar(I haven't tried it). You can also use your hardware for only GPGPU applications & HW accel on GPU to reduce load on CPU e.g. Separate stream encoding machine.

walrus01 6y ago
> The biggest caveat in re-using old compute hardware IMO is power consumption, power-efficiency has been one consistent improvement in every new generation of computer chips. So, a new Raspberry Pi is almost always as capable as your old hardware for HTPC but more power efficient. yes but your typical laptop rarely exceeds 30W, so if your electricity is priced at $0.12 per kWh, and you run that laptop 24x7 for a year: 22.32 kWh per month same as $2.67 of electricity
- arcticbull 6y ago
  Or 3.6% of a Bitcoin transaction per month haha
  - DJBunnies 6y ago
    Being snarky is fun, but in this case misleading. Transactions don’t consume this electricity, competing for the next block does.
    - arcticbull 6y ago
      The block of transactions lol literally a problem for division. I could have written “1% of the energy required to process of a block of 3 transactions”
      - DJBunnies 6y ago
        The quantity of transactions here is irrelevant, so is the power cost per transaction.
        arcticbull 6y ago
        lol, ok, then the power cost per block of 3 transactions. Multiply by 3.
        DJBunnies 6y ago
        You multiply by zero as the transactions do not contribute to energy usage.
        arcticbull 6y ago
        haha, without transactions you wouldn't need to mine anything would you. The network is already secure and the data valid. If there were no transactions the ledger wouldn't need to be appended to, and in that case you could just throw it into read-only storage and call it a day. Transactions are the only thing that contributes to energy usage.
d3nj4l 6y ago
First of all, thanks! > The biggest caveat in re-using old compute hardware IMO is power consumption This is a relatively recent laptop (it has a GTX 1060 inside!), and I can't get hardware that capable for cheap enough for it to be worth it. My only reason for making it an HTPC is that I don't want to see it gather dust on a shelf for no reason. > You can try passive heatsink I've considered that + other cheap ways, but I'm concerned about mounting. The CPU runs hot, even when well cooled, so I'd need some way to get good contact with the die without harming it. There's a few screw slots around it, but those are for the heat pipes it comes with. That's the biggest challenge in this project from my perspective. > You can also use your hardware for only GPGPU applications & HW accel on GPU to reduce load on CPU e.g. Separate stream encoding machine Unfortunately, I don't have any use cases where that could come in handy. Working a full-time job killed my dreams of producing content :'). I just want this to sit at my 4K TV and play content without snooping on me, like all the big name boxes do.
- hattmall 6y ago
  Mineral oil submersion for cooling may work
  - dmos62 6y ago
    Or, keeping it in a moisture-conditioned freezer. Or, ... That's it, that's the only impractical idea I had. Oh wait, water cooling!
- sgtnoodle 6y ago
  I have a 5 year old laptop whose display died after 2 years. Rather disappointing that high-end stuff doesn't last and manufactures don't seem to care, but that's another rant. I plugged it into my TV to use for emulators. It's fun to play occasionally, but overall I hate it because of how whiny and high maintenance windows 10 is. Every single freaking time I want to use it, I have to pull it out from under the blu-ray player and reassure it of its insecurities. Every few days it will randomly wake up and start loudly revving its fans up and down too, just to remind me that it exists to torment me.
sgtnoodle 6y ago
If you're worried about power consumption from a cost perspective, it's going to take a long time to break even from the cost of new hardware, even for a cheap pi. If you're worried about it from an environmental perspective, it often takes more energy / resource mining / pollution to manufacture a new piece of hardware than the total amount saved from not running older hardware over a longer lifetime. Running a computer / smartphone / tablet until it doesn't work well enough for its purpose is generally better for the environment than upgrading because shiny, because it slightly reduces the demand for new hardware.
- sgtnoodle 6y ago
  I had a nightmare last night that my 3 year old smartphone's screen got horribly scratched enough to be a constant nuisance but not bad enough to interfere with its function, and I had to decide whether or not to give up and upgrade.
  - rland 6y ago
    This isn't necessarily related to the discussion at hand, but it reminded me: I got a huge crack (https://ibb.co/1mPxC6C https://ibb.co/1mPxC6C) in my smartphone's screen right around New Year's. One of my goals was to use my phone less (less social media). The crack is a big, ~.25in black diagonal line across the screen, but the touch still works. Because it's a diagonal crack, I can still read whole text messages/emails/etc, I just have to scroll the right way. It's now March and I still haven't fixed my screen, mostly out of laziness since I'm home all the time, but also because it's done wonders to my smartphone use. I practically don't idly scroll anymore, just because it's really annoying to do so, and I don't miss it at all. Everyone thinks I'm nuts, but I haven't read twitter in like 3 months so who's the crazy one? I'd say, don't bother upgrading! Enjoy that the addictive quality of your smartphone is diminished.
    - sgtnoodle 6y ago
      Lol, thankfully it was just a dream and my screen is still flawless! I did stop bothering to put protective glass on it after that cracked a few months ago. The only thing I read obsessively on my phone these days is hacker news. :-) I stopped using most social media 6 or 7 years ago.
alias_neo 6y ago
This is the key for me, and a major reason I've always avoided the cheap, older hardware off of eBay for home use. My server rack consists of new (released) at time of purchase hardware with power efficiency as a major focus. One measurement which really surprised me was that my 2019 XPS 13 idles with about 1.5W, screen on according to powertop. That's less power than a Raspberry Pi takes to idle!

swirepe 6y ago

You could sit the whole thing in front of a normal desk fan until you can get a usb one, if everything else seems functional.

d3nj4l 6y ago
I've mentioned this in a sibling comment, but my concern with that is that it wouldn't be enough for a 45W CPU that runs fairly hot.

whymauri 6y ago

I did this for my younger sister's first computer. We didn't have a lot of expendable cash, so I took my old laptop, stripped the motherblard out, mounted it on a makeshift open-air rig, and hooked it up to a second-hand monitor (laptop screen was irreparably broken). Served her well for three years or so.

d3nj4l 6y ago
How did you get good contact with the CPU die? I've considered an open air setup even before I had a backup PC to be bold with the laptop, but I wasn't sure it could cool the CPU.
- moftz 6y ago
  It won't be pretty but if you can access the CPU from the top or bottom, you can strap a desktop heatsink down with zipties running both ways around the laptop.
  - rolleiflex 6y ago
    I did this with a 2015 MacBook Pro, because I needed it to go full tilt and didn’t want it to throttle. https://twitter.com/nehbit/status/1243329494481432581?s=21 https://twitter.com/nehbit/status/1243329494481432581?s=21 In my case, the weight of the fan connected to a 12v motorcycle battery was enough to make it not throttle at indefinite 100% load, I didn’t have to zip tie anything. Mind that I did not remove the existing fans, just used thermal interface material on top of the existing heat sink, add some salvaged aluminium passive cooling sinks on top, and then on top of that, have the fan screwed into an Amazon shipping box so that the fan blades didn’t hit the sinks.

flower-giraffe 6y ago

You could just getting a 5v fan with a USB connector and plugging it into a USB port.

userbinator 6y ago

Leaked schematics are available for a lot of them (even famous ones like Apple, as Louis Rossmann can tell you...) Component-level repair can be possible.

prvc 6y ago

This is a pretty popular video, so many may already be aware of this type of project, but just in case: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3fnsGHe8eE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3fnsGHe8eE

rzzzt 6y ago
Let me add three additional DIY Perks video links, as they are also relevant to the original topic (hopefully I'm not going overboard with these): - Build a DIY screen out of recycled parts for cheap: https://youtu.be/CfirQC99xPc https://youtu.be/CfirQC99xPc - Building a USB-C touchscreen monitor: https://youtu.be/DrqdHVeBkp4 https://youtu.be/DrqdHVeBkp4 - Transform a Damaged Laptop into an all-in-one desktop PC: https://youtu.be/8jeLCQ62vFk https://youtu.be/8jeLCQ62vFk The Lenovo with the bent bottom case appeared in many episodes as illustration, until it finally got repurposed!