Do you have an old Computer?
If you have a Desktop PC computer you might want to sell, WAIT! Here is what you can do do instead.
I had an old desktop that was just sitting there collecting dust and I didn’t know how to use it. I’ve been learning about AI and have been meaning to set up a server to run AI agents in docker containers but my first instinct was to purchase a VPS on Hostinger. I’ve already bought one from them for 2 years at $145 to host my n8n setup.
But then I also felt that it’d be a waste of money since I already have a pretty powerful computer just sitting around. I just didn’t know how to set it up.
I had a in-depth discussion with Claude to figure out what to do and HOW to use my old Desktop PC I built in 2018… it might have been 2019, i don’t remember.
Asking the AI was helpful to weigh all the pros and cons and then decide for myself what choice to make. I’m too lazy to gather all the information myself in this case.
The specs for my computer are:
- Operating System: Ubuntu Server
- Storage: 1TB SSD
- Memory: 32GB
- Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 2700X Eight-Core
- GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti
Why Linux instead of Windows or MacOS?
Short answer is because it’s FREE but the long answer is: I’d want to run Linux over Windows even if it wasn’t free.
I have regrets about installing Windows 11 a month ago. But the regrets are small since reformatting it into a linux server was easy, especially since I haven’t move any files onto it yet. Thank goodness!
Because I’m using it as an always on server, I don’t need it to have a graphical interface or a monitor attached to it (I would just log in through my personal computer), so…
I decided to convert it into an Linux Ubuntu server because it’s the most efficient and the most reliable according to all the tech people I know personally and follow online.
My main concern is that Windows comes with a lot of bloat and would randomly need to restart because of updates and that would be a pain in the butt.
And as for MacOS, well, I can’t install it on this machine because it’s not compatible. This old desktop has to be either Windows or Linux and Linux won.
But as a side note, I want to address that everyone and their moms, are going out to buy mac minis to set up a home AI agent server.
I was tempted to go and buy one too but it seems like you can get all the functionality that you’d need for running AI agents with a Linux machine without any of the headaches.
Getting things was a lot easier and FASTER than I thought compared to getting a server set up on a Mac. I just saved myself $500 to $1000.
You can read about how I set up my linux server in this article.
What I’m using my Linux Ubuntu Server for
It all started because I’ve started running docker containers.
After building spinning up some docker containers on my macbook air (500GB storage and 16GB RAM), it was too much for my laptop to handle AND the containers would not be accessible if I closed the lid.
I already have a PC that I built years ago but never really used because I like to move around a lot and being tied to a desk didn’t sit that well with me. I just defaulted to using laptops and cloud compute.
And also because the overhead of learning linux was too overwhelming.
Honestly I probably wouldn’t have set up my server if I Claude (the AI I spoke to) didn’t exist.
I really like to compare pros and cons when diving into something and if I don’t have answers I get pretty stuck.
At first I was going to keep it running Windows 11 on it… but after talking with Claude and sharing that my main priorities were to run docker containers, I was convinced that Linux was the way to go.
Claude was able to give me all the commands I needed to run to get my server set up. It would give me the commands, i’d run it and if I ran into any issues I’d be able to ask it to help me resolve it immediately.
It was also answer my questions about the Linux Operating System so that I could make decisions on how organize my files to best suit my use case.
I now have 3 docker containers running AI agents, a container running a photo sharing app called Immich, and a container running an audio streamer called Navidrome.
The Immich and Navidrome apps server my media files that I have stored on a 2TB external drive.
My server basically acts as a network attached storage (NAS) as well as a development server where I produce code to build web and mobile apps.
I know a lot of people hate AI right now but I try to focus on the silver lining. It’s going to exist even if you don’t like it so I’m going to use help me do things that I wasn’t able to before.
Currently I pay Anthropic to use Claude (I bought the 1 year plan so it breaks down to $17 a month for me to use Claude).
