How to Build a Home Network Server from an Old Laptop

*This article is original by: Zhonghua Yinshi Family, this article is part of the FreeBuf original reward program, unauthorized reproduction is prohibited.

This laptop was fine, but the screen just broke, so I decided to repurpose it!

It used to look like this:

What? You see the watermark… Don’t mind these details, my friend.

Let’s briefly talk about the configuration:

Processor: i5 Dual Core Quad Thread

Memory: DDR4 4G

Hard Drive: 30G SSD + 500G HDD

Graphics Card: AMD Radeon R5M330 (2G VRAM)

Since it’s a laptop motherboard, it also comes with speakers, a wireless network card (integrated with Bluetooth module), etc.

Opening the lid:

Wow, it really dazzles your eyes.

Keyboard? Touchpad? Shell? Just throw them all away.

That’s about it, the wooden board below is roughly the size of an A4 paper.

First, fix the motherboard onto the wooden board, like this, using long screws to go through, and tighten the nuts.

Next is the violent disassembly of the battery:

What a poor quality, same battery as a power bank.

I have many of these, haha.

Connect them to this module, which is taken from the original battery.

The semi-finished product looks like this.

Hmm, not bad, battery life improved fourfold, and without the screen, it doubled again.

Put my small SSD on it, and connect an external mechanical drive.

Just like this:

Next, boot and install the system, connect to the wireless network.

I originally only installed Ubuntu for programming, but then thought it was a bit overkill.

Later I directly installed Win10.

Just like this:

Let’s talk about a simple configuration for playing movies online (a simple and crude method)

Click here to download phpstudy【Read original】

After installation, download and open it.

Then enable “Allow Directory Browsing”.

Then select ‘Other Options’ menu, click “Website Root Directory” to open the website root directory.

Then put the downloaded movies or whatever in there.

Terminal devices can access it by entering your internal IP.

![XF4VID2RU{2FX7REBOB86A.png

I chose “Dunkirk” here.

You choose whatever you want.

Some other ideas for utilization:

1. For a more advanced online movie site, you can use phpstudy to build a website that links to the movies you downloaded. It’s not difficult for those who know how to set up a website; just download some source code and set it up.

2. Install Thunder software to use as a download server.

3. Turn it into a file server.

4. If the regional ISP allows, you can use this to build a website service.

5. Upload your written code to run, like if I write a Python crawler and upload it at night, I can check it the next morning.

Advantages: low power consumption, built-in power supply when power is cut off. Hehe, I bet no one would put proper content on this… There are many methods to utilize, let your imagination run wild!