A SATA drive or two, perhaps? A laptop was born to work with those at least, the not-so-recent ones are. Do you want a display attached to your project for your notification or video playback needs? It was born to have a display, just make sure you have a suited cable and a compatible LCD panel – usually, most of them from the same date range. The CPU can pack a punch, and as a rule PCIe, USB3, and SATA ports are easily accessible with no nonsense like USB-throttled Ethernet ports.Īpart from unparalleled availability all around us, laptop motherboards can help you add a range of cool features to your project, without reinventing the wheel! Want some hardware-accelerated video encoding? The CPU’s integrated GPU is at your service, and if there’s a discrete GPU, it might be just what you’re looking for in a DVR project of yours. They’re way cheaper, way more diverse, and basically omnipresent. Let’s hack! I’d like to show you how a used laptop motherboard could be the heart of your project, and walk you through some specifics you will want to know.Īnd what a great deal it could be for your next project! Laptop motherboards can help bring a wide variety of your Linux- and Windows-powered projects to life, in a way that even NUCs and specialized SBCs often can’t do. Electronics recycling or eBay, chances are you can score a laptop with at least some life left in it. Or perhaps someone you know is looking to get rid of a decent laptop with a shattered case. But if you look in your closet, you might find a decently-specced laptop with a broken screen or faulty hinges.

Sometimes a Raspberry Pi will not cut it – especially nowadays, when the prices are high and the in-stock amounts are low.

Mac mini a1347 ram