How to Build a Home Network Server from an Old Laptop

It originally looked like this:

What, you see a watermark… Don’t mind the details.

Let me 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 memory)

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

Opening the lid:

Wow, it really dazzles your eyes.

Keyboard? Touchpad? Shell? 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, the same battery as a power bank.

I have a lot of them, haha.

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

The semi-finished product looks like this.

Hmm, it’s okay, the battery life is increased fourfold, and removing the display doubles the battery life.

Put my small solid-state SSD on, and connect an external mechanical drive.

Like this:

Next, start installing the system and connect to the wireless network.

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

Later, I directly installed Win10.

Like this:

Let’s talk about a simple configuration for streaming movies online (a simple and rudimentary method)

Click here to download phpstudy

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 and such inside.

Terminal devices can access it by entering your local IP.

I chose “Dunkirk” here.

If you choose a pretty girl, I won’t stop you.

Some other utilization ideas:

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

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

3. Build it into a file server.

4. If the regional ISP allows, you can use this to set up a website.

5. Upload your written code to run it, for example, I write a Python crawler and put it up at night to check in the morning.

Advantages: low power consumption, built-in power supply during power outages. Hehe, I guess no one would put legitimate content on this…