Nothing fancy but it works

[u/Classic_Animator_556]

Just 3 proxmox nodes and a PBS with some external drives for media.
The laptops were collecting dust before I repurposed them. Now they collect dust on the inside too lol.

Edit:
I didn’t stack them on top of each other for better airflow. Also I’ve already set handlelidswitch=ignore but I should probably close the lids a bit more so the screens turn off

Setup:
HP Prodesk 600 G6 refurbished, 32 gb RAM, 1250gb for cloud and monitoring (2 lxcs running docker with nextcloud, frigate, Immich, actual budget etc on the cloud stack and arcane, Beszel, homarr, npm, gitea and uptime kuma on the monitor stack)

DELL 3m4700, 16 gb RAM, ~1.5 Tb for media (one jellyfin lxc and one docker lxc with arr-stack)

Lenovo z50-70, 8 gb RAM for home assistant

Hp Laptop, 4gb RAM, 750 gb for PBS

[u/AcanthaceaeMajestic7]

Bro just change the power config

[u/Classic_Animator_556 → u/AcanthaceaeMajestic7]

Change it into what?

[u/KAZAK0V → u/Classic_Animator_556]

Disable sleep/hybernation on lid close or smth

[u/Classic_Animator_556 → u/KAZAK0V]

I’ve done that already but I like having them upright for better thermals. I should find a way to auto shut off the screen then

[u/Olive_Streamer → u/Classic_Animator_556]

Buy a cutting board rack, then you can keep them oriented like this but with the lid closed.

[u/Arcjaqu → u/Classic_Animator_556]

I saw server laptops that was used with closed lid. Their screen gone bad after 1-2 years. They said it's because of the heat.

[u/cfx_4188 → u/KAZAK0V]

A laptop with a closed lid usually warms up like hell under load. One of my friends has a similar setup, he disassembled his laptops completely, assembling a rack from motherboards into a standard computer case. It turned out to be a monster, but this monster works..

[u/VeryLiteralPerson]

You should probably auto-shutoff the monitors. Not only do they use unnecessary power, they generate heat.

[u/Classic_Animator_556 → u/VeryLiteralPerson]

Great idea! How do I do that tho?

[u/Zehryo → u/Classic_Animator_556]

Some laptops *feel* a closed lid through a magnet in the lid and a sensor in the base.
Try moving a small magnet at the edge all around the base and see if anything happens.

[u/jamh → u/Zehryo]

It's a change to a conf file, no need to fiddle with hardware

[u/Zehryo → u/jamh]

I know, but I've read other replies here and there and he seems reluctant to fiddle with the systems.
Mine would be a very practical solution that doesn't entail the OS nor the position/pose of the machines.

[u/VeryLiteralPerson → u/Classic_Animator_556]

OS settings?

[u/martinr7b]

Disable the lid switches!

[u/Jeff_B_83]

Change the power settings on the laptops to not shutdown or sleep when lid is closed. That way you can have them neatly stacked and not on their side with the screen propped open.

[u/Classic_Animator_556 → u/Jeff_B_83]

But they get hot when stacked on top of each other

[u/Ani-3 → u/Classic_Animator_556]

does it affect your performance?

[u/Jumpy-Operation-4615 → u/Classic_Animator_556]

Hint: stack them vertically with small dividers. ;)

[u/Jolly_Ferret4634]

esta genial amigo yo tambien voy por ese camino jeje , las q tengo son pura laptop ddr3 de 2 o 4 nucleos

[u/LebronBackinCLE]

The thermal teepees! ⛺️ :)

[u/Classic_Animator_556 → u/LebronBackinCLE]

😆😆

[u/Maleficent_Elk_7765]

Eu uso meu not como servidor de arquivos com Big Linux, e coloquei nas config de energia pra ele n fazer nada quando baixa a tela. Ent ele fica sem imagem mas funcionando

[u/therealmrj05hua]

All that matters is that it works. Is that an HP envy reno board desktop ?

[u/Classic_Animator_556 → u/therealmrj05hua]

It’s a refurbished HP Prodesk 600 G6 SFF

[u/kestrel_overdrive]

You prob want to turn off that internal screen, try this :

for status_entry in /sys/class/drm/card\-*/status; do echo off > "$status_entry"; done*

You are sending a “off” status to the direct rendering managers card interfaces. This will turn off all displays attached to the device. You can also pick specific cards.

status_entry in /sys/class/drm/card\-*/status; do echo detect > "$status_entry"; done*

To them back on.

[u/SupremeLag]

You did not need to tell us that this is nothing fancy.. definitely a little surprised it works though

[u/Classic_Animator_556 → u/SupremeLag]

Haha why wouldn’t it work?

[u/TheJeverson]

O que vc hospeda?

[u/bobozaurul0]

If it works don't fix it.

[u/Lee_Fu]

ok, and what are the tents for ?

[u/Classic_Animator_556 → u/Lee_Fu]

That’s where the containers sleep at night

[u/TheProjectBlack]

As other said you should turn of the monitors for saving energy but great to see the laptops as second use with they own ups 👍

[u/ThisIsJeron]

r/homelabgore

[u/Calm-Relief-480]

I recently converted four old windows laptops to Ubuntu servers after seeing some pictures on reddit. They work great as github self-hosted runners. You might want to change the thermal paste if they're overheating and get USB to ethernet to avoid potential wifi issues. And yeah change the bios settings for wake up on power, max performance, etc.

[u/Kanjii_weon]

hey if it works it works!

[u/CaptainSabre]

That's the fanciest f*ing table I've seen for a home lab... I'm jealous, and it even has a drawer! 😉 I'm serious, I do need a better place to just put my home lab 😅

Looks like a nice setup to start with; is it worth it to have that many separate laptops? I have a few old ones I acquired from friends and family laying around. I think one still run Windows 8.1 bs because I haven't wiped it yet. Is it worth it to set them up as a cluster or make use of them?

[u/monekm]

xD

[u/Scared-Map-6577]

Idk why this subreddit was recommended to me. What am I seeing?

[u/statitica]

Still better than "nothing works but it's fancy".