Question Good uses for an 8th Gen Intel Laptop?

ibex333

Diamond Member
Mar 26, 2005
4,086
119
106
A client gave me her old Lenovo 330-17IKB(Type 81DM) Ideapad as he didn't need it anymore after purchasing a new machine.

This laptop is completely busted cosmetically, as the plastic case completely fell apart and is barely holding together. I used some clamps to keep everything in place and connected a keyboard and mouse as the screen is working fine. This is a big, heavy laptop which is not portable at all. Its more of a desktop replacement machine.

Normally, I would sell this thing, but in this condition, no one will look at it. Still its working great, and has an i5-8350U, and 4GB DDR-4 RAM. I threw in a 512GB SSD instead of the 1TB 5400 RPM HDD it had inside, and added another 8GB RAM I had laying around for a total of 12GB.

Now I just cannot think of a use for it as I already have two computers. Do you know of any cool uses?

Maybe install Steam OS on it? Maybe Batocera?

Any cool projects such as what people do with PiHole on RasPi? Seems like a way overpowered machine to be used in such fashion.

Thanks!
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,226
9,990
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Recycler?

I've got an IdeaPad with a 3050e APU in it, 4GB RAM (soldered). The hinge and the casing near the power jack disintegrated, or is severely cracked.
 

mxnerd

Diamond Member
Jul 6, 2007
6,799
1,100
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A DIY NAS. OpenMediaVault, XigamaNAS, DietPi, and possibly TrueNAS?


DietPi does let you install and run Pi-Hole directly. Not sure about others.

If you install any lightweight desktop add-ons that DietPi comes with then you can use it as a casual desktop too.

If you add a USB ethernet then you can install pfsense and use it as firewall.
 
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Oyeve

Lifer
Oct 18, 1999
21,899
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I have an old ASUS 17" laptop that I got used around 7 years ago. Pretty thin for the time. I think it was one of their first touch screen laptops. Anyway, The hinges worked but the screws on the chassis came apart and every time you opened the screen it would lift the top and bottom panels and all sorts of wiring and things were exposed so my job tossed it. So i bought some of this stuff and put it in the hinge area and the laptop works like a charm. I can never open it up again but it works.

 

ibex333

Diamond Member
Mar 26, 2005
4,086
119
106
I have an old ASUS 17" laptop that I got used around 7 years ago. Pretty thin for the time. I think it was one of their first touch screen laptops. Anyway, The hinges worked but the screws on the chassis came apart and every time you opened the screen it would lift the top and bottom panels and all sorts of wiring and things were exposed so my job tossed it. So i bought some of this stuff and put it in the hinge area and the laptop works like a charm. I can never open it up again but it works.


I was thinking that too, but in my case the plastic around the hinges broke in so many places that I wasn't confident anything would be enough. I tried epoxy but as soon as I opened the screen the epoxy snapped apart!

I ended up buying two metal clamps normally used to hold wood or steel together. Ugly, but does the job!