I have an unused desktop that was mainly used for World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy XIV. It has an RTX 2080 Ti, an Intel i5-12400, 16GB of DDR4-2400 memory, an ASRock B660M Pro RS DDR4 motherboard, a 1TB SSD, a 500GB hard drive, a 256GB SSD, and a Noctua NH-U12S redux cooler. The case is just a basic tower.
Since having my daughter, I mostly play on a Switch 2 and use an M1 MacBook for work. The PC is taking up space and collecting dust, but the graphics card belongs to my company, so I can't sell it. I may be able to keep using it, though, since the company has newer systems with RTX 4090 cards.
What would be a worthwhile use for the machine? I also have a homebrew Switch, a PS5, an iPad Pro M4, and a Synology DS224+ if that opens up any interesting projects.
5 Answers
A smaller micro-ATX case could turn the hardware into a home-theater PC. It could serve as a Steam machine, play local media, and stream games to the TV. That’s probably a better fit than building a dedicated server if you don’t already have a specific service you want to run.
Before choosing a project, check the value of the non-GPU parts separately. The CPU, motherboard, memory, storage, and cooler still have some resale value, and you could either sell them as a partial system or keep the drives and build a small server. If the GPU cannot legally be transferred, returning it to the company may be the cleanest way to avoid storing an otherwise unused tower.
It would make a good home server. You could run Jellyfin or Plex for streaming media, use it for backups, host services alongside your Synology, or experiment with DNS, virtualization, and containers. The 2080 Ti is more than enough for media transcoding and small local AI experiments, although its 12GB of VRAM will limit larger models.
Turn it into a couch-gaming or emulation machine. Batocera can handle older arcade and console games, while SteamOS-like setups such as Bazzite can make it feel more like a console. You could connect it to the TV, enable Steam Family Sharing and parental controls, and use it when friends or family visit.
If you’re allowed to keep the graphics card, the easiest option is to sell or reuse the rest of the system and put the GPU in a smaller case. A compact build would take up less room while still giving you a capable living-room or desk gaming PC. If the company ever asks for the card back, make sure you can return it without complications.
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