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Repurposing old PC components with 4 creative projects
If you're upgrading your PC, chances are you now have some older, spare components lying around. While you can toss these in the recycling bin to get rid of them, sell them, or pass them on to a friend or family member who could use some new hardware, those options just aren't enjoyable and, in some cases, may be difficult. Not all recycling centers will take old PSUs, after all.
If you're looking for a way to repurpose some old components, I've put together a few options for simple projects that can help you get extra life out of your old hardware.
Turn your old GPU into an eGPU
Get extra power for your thin devices
Your GPU is the component you're most likely to upgrade most often. So, figuring out uses for your older GPU is key. You have quite a few options, but the easiest upcycling project for your old GPU is to turn it into an eGPU for your laptop, tablet, or handheld gaming PC so you can get some extra graphics power when gaming, editing videos, or running heavy AI workloads that require a stronger GPU than what comes on your laptop natively.
Inserting your old GPU into an eGPU enclosure can be relatively straightforward, provided you have the correct power supply and connections. Some eGPU enclosures ship with the PSU already included, while others will require you to provide your own. And if you've got a spare PSU lying around, this can be a great two-for-one special. Assuming your PSU is less than 10 years old, anyway. The lifecycle of a good PSU is approximately a decade, so if yours is approaching that threshold, it may not be worth reusing due to damaged capacitors.
Turn your GPU into an emulator box
Get that real retro gaming feel
Alternatively, you can use your old GPU to power an emulator box, creating a retro console feel. Combine it with the right emulator front-end, and you've got a virtual console that can play your old-school favorites. And since it's running on older hardware, it'll take less power to run than emulating the games on your PC. Plus, there's just something nostalgic about emulating old games on a box connected to a TV rather than a desktop monitor.
Of course, you can use a Raspberry Pi to emulate older games, but you will be a bit more limited with a Pi compared to using a proper GPU or mini PC, which can handle newer graphics requirements compared to an SBC. This is also a great option if you're upgrading more than just your GPU, since you can repurpose other parts of your PC rig to the emulator box.
Use your CPU to power a home server
Turn it into a NAS or media server
An older CPU can be used to run a NAS home server or a Plex media server. Of course, if you're going to turn your CPU into a server rig, you'll be reusing more than just the CPU. You'll need to reuse the motherboard, at least some of the RAM, and probably your cooler as well.
If you're upgrading an Intel CPU to a new Intel generation, chances are you need to replace all of those components at once because Intel frequently introduces new CPU sockets. If your PC is an AMD build, this would only make sense if you were swapping from AM4 to AM5 and needed a new board and cooler. Otherwise, upgrading an AMD CPU requires a lot less part swapping.
However, if you have a collection of spare parts from your PC or want to build a new rig from scratch, converting your old build into a home server is a straightforward way to breathe new life into your old tech.
Turn your SSD into an external testing drive
There's no pain like re-downloading Geekbench for the 18th time
Whether you've got a SATA SSD or an NVMe SSD, you can use your old storage as an external testing drive or backup for key data. As SSDs age, more and more of their storage capacity will become unusable, making them less than ideal for continued use in your new PC. But you can still get some extra life out of an old SSD, especially if you mitigate the risks of write amplification.
Snagging an enclosure for your NVMe SSD or SATA SSD can allow you to turn that old storage drive into an external testing drive, so you don't have to keep re-downloading Geekbench, PCMark, or 3DMark to stress test your build when you upgrade your PC. While it may not sound like it takes a lot of time, I've wasted more hours than most downloading the same benchmarking software repeatedly. So, learn from my mistakes.
You can also use an older SSD as a data backup device; however, it's recommended to have a cloud-based backup in addition, just in case the older SSD starts to fail due to age.
You've got so many options
Whether you turn your CPU or RAM sticks into keychains, create a tech mausoleum out of your old components, or solder them into frameable art, you have plenty of other options for repurposing your old hardware.
Of course, you can turn your old PC parts into a recycling bin, or sell them, or give them to a friend or family member who needs an upgrade. Your only limit in repurposing old tech is your imagination.