I have a spare desktop that is mostly sitting unused and collecting dust: a standard tower case, RTX 2080 Ti, Intel i5-12400, 16GB DDR4-2400 RAM, ASRock B660M Pro RS DDR4 motherboard, a 1TB SSD, 500GB HDD, 256GB SSD, and a Noctua NH-U12S redux cooler. I originally used it for games like World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy XIV, but since having a baby I mostly play on a Switch 2 and use an M1 MacBook for office work. The graphics card belongs to my company, so I cannot sell it without permission, although it may not need to be returned. I also have a homebrew Switch, a PS5, an iPad Pro M4, and a Synology DS224+. What would be a practical or fun way to reuse this computer, or would it make more sense to sell the other components and keep the GPU situation separate?
4 Answers
If you do not want another project, sell the case, processor, motherboard, RAM, drives, and cooler as a partial build, then return or separately retain the company GPU according to its policy. The exact value depends heavily on your local used market, but listing each part separately may bring more than selling the rest as one bundle.
You could build a retro or arcade machine with Batocera or a similar front end. It would be a fun project for older console and arcade games, and the hardware is massively overqualified. Just make sure you use game files you legally own.
For something more family-friendly, turn it into a couch-gaming machine. A compact case, Steam, and a living-room interface such as Bazzite could make it useful for games when friends or family visit. The 2080 Ti is more than capable for that, although Nvidia setup may require a little driver troubleshooting.
If the company allows you to keep using the graphics card, this would make a strong home server. Jellyfin or Plex could handle streaming around the house, and you could also experiment with DNS services, virtual machines, game servers, or local automation. The Synology can provide the main storage while this PC handles heavier processing.
A media server is probably the most useful option if you already have phones, tablets, and TVs around the house. You could start with the existing drives and expand storage later.