Profitable uses for old computers?

I've recently acquired a bunch (10+) of old computers. Mostly ~5 year old desktops, but some laptops too. They are not terribly powerful and not all of them have GPUs, but hey, they were free.

I'd like them to earn their keep. Are there any profitable uses for a large quantity of old computers or a cluster made out of a large quantity of old computers? My first thought was mining, but is that effective if you don't have dedicated hardware or high-quality graphics cards? I don't expect these to pay my rent, but I'm hoping they will at least be able to make a profit after their electricity.

Mostly I'm just trying to find something that could be a fun project, so if you have a cool idea that wouldn't make money, I'd be happy to hear it. Esoteric ideas are fine too.

This is impossible as far as I'm aware.

If I had free electricity I'd be using my computers to generate Gridcoins. Crunching away at numbers to get crypto currencies seems like a pointless waste of electricity to me, I'd rather sell my unused computing power for credit that would allow me to purchase some if I need to crack a hash or something.

Old hardware is worthless today other than as a source of rare metals.

As best as I can currently tell, the computers should each cost less than a dollar a day to run. Is making more than a dollar a day really impossible? Is my math obviously wrong? Selling the extra power for credit does seem like it might be useful, also, but I'm not sure what I would end up using it for.

You can sell them for pretty good money in about ten years, provided they're in good shape.

well, i think that you can turn it into server... file server, mail server, dns server, or even router with mikrotik software... or even small game server... i dont know any other uses... they are not very capable of browsing modern shitweb

Why's that?

Melt everything and extract gold

Pic Unrelated

Do people actually do that?

Just go on eBay and buy computers?

Yes, but they tend to be smarter than the person you responded to made them out to be. Buying a second-hand computer tends to be normie repellent to begin with, not to mention using eBay.

For certain types of old machine, I'd make them into near-instant-on X Terminals to have around the house (well, bedroom, living room, shed). A nice display+keyboard+mouse, and gigabit ethernet that netboots a thin-client X system.

... actually, brb, doing that now.

Hipsters with nostalgia goggles.

Put all the best parts in a few machines,
then sell those with windows 7 installed - precracked, it doesn't matter if it is in the local paper or similar.

This requires being familiar with stripping/building machines.

For the rest, sell the working ones dead cheap, and the remaining components.

Some components might be worth more than others.

Unless you have a really good application or reason for burning electricity with old, inefficient machines - it isn't worth setting them to work.

You could open a shitty webcafe though.
Or rent the laptops out - with a large deposit to cover inevitable damage.

Start some meme SaSS service for testing software on old hardware.

Don't be a nigger, install a KMS emulator. No need to half-ass it, it takes 5 seconds.

Call me a pussy but I feel like that'd bite me in the ass if anyone found out. It's not illegal to sell a comp with trial Win 7, though.

Besides, your average normalfag would buy Win10 and install it, anyway, eliminating the problem

Start up a RuneScape botting farm.

This. Except don't be a jew. Pirate Windows 7 (Or 10 if the specs can handle it) and Office 2016, then use DazLoader on it. Market it as a work/school computer and wait for it to sell. Go to your local thrift store and pick up a mouse/keyboard for dirt cheap then bundle it for $10 more.

Unless you have some killer website that is guaranteed to break even in two months, you're wasting your time making money off them.

It would. Selling it on eBay with a bogus license is a huge risk and could get you b&.

You could sell it with trial Windows 7 but if the buyer is your above-average normie or ends their free trial 30 days before the sale, eBay's buyer protection policies make it very difficult for you to stand a case.

Many of them have Windows XP licenses, actually. Would it be more effective to have XP on them for the people who remember it fondly, or would 7 still be better?

I think the beta version of 10 is free, also. Would that be worthwhile just so they can appear more modern?

I was reading recently that botting in Eulora, where the devs are nice enough to package the bot inside of the game itself, can make $5-6/day. Is RuneScape botting actually at all effective? They probably could run a lot of bots in parallel...

...

Install ChromiumOS, slap Chrome or Google stickers on, then sell them as Chromebooks or Chromeboxes. Works especially well for laptops.

tip; the more Apple-like it looks, the more it'll sell for

I almost want to try it just to see, but I really do not think these laptops will be able to pass for Chromebooks. Most of them are well over an inch thick. They have been upgraded since they were first built, and they aren't as old as they look since they were corporate designs, not consumer ones, but they really, really don't look like anything a self-respecting consumer tech company would produce.

Is a neural network cluster something you can just sell access to? I was under the impression they were very task-specific, although my only experience is playing around with a single-task RNN.

Go for it man, worst case scenario is they don't sell. You could also install gay ubuntu and sell it to redditfags.

Or just use Windows Loader or a multi-OEM disc (like some of the Generation2 discs on torrent sites) that will auto activate it if your PC came with 7. Install Libreoffice and you'll be able to flip them without having to worry about licensing bullshit. eBay will fuck you over hard if you install a non activated version of Windows.


It's miles better than Amazon since you can search for specific items and you can oftentimes get good deals on something, especially if you need something specific.


Retrogamers who insist on playing all their games on real hardware, collectors, hipsters, and businesses who need to keep old hardware/software running in (CURRENT YEAR) after their computer died on them one day. I've seen specific models of computers go for high prices for this very reason.


Installing Linux works just as well and plus whoever buys it can do more with it out of the box. Just be sure to give them the password for the OS.

Buy a batch of old LCDs and transform them into barcades, then sell them to hipsters.

It's not worth it.
They chug too much power for comparatively shitty results.