Enthusiast assembles home server entirely from landfill-scavenged PC parts
A Reddit user known as Tsuto has built a Proxmox home server using components recovered from a county landfill's electronics recycling bin. Weekly scavenging trips have yielded SSDs, HDDs, GPUs, RAM, and even an Asus ROG laptop that only needed a new battery. The finds highlight how much usable hardware is discarded, especially during component shortages.
Tsuto's weekly landfill raids have produced a working Proxmox server configured with mirrored 256GB SSDs for the operating system, a 1TB SSD for fast access, and three 2TB drives arranged in RAID1 for ZFS storage. The scavenger still purchased a Core i7-7700 CPU and 64GB of RAM from Amazon to complete the build, acknowledging that not everything could be sourced from the dump.
The recovered Asus ROG laptop, equipped with a quad-core Intel Core i7-4710HQ, 16GB of memory, and a GeForce GTX 860M, required only a $25 replacement battery before becoming usable for the owner's son. The finds underscore how much functional hardware gets discarded, particularly notable during ongoing component shortages that have pushed even mid-range parts like RTX 3060s and DDR4 to premium prices.
This story could resonate with budget-conscious hobbyists and tinkerers who may see landfill scavenging as a viable alternative to inflated retail prices during component shortages. It may also prompt reflection among everyday consumers about the environmental cost of discarding still-functional electronics, potentially encouraging more repair and reuse habits. However, the practice raises practical concerns about safety, data security, and legality, as many municipal recycling sites restrict removal of items, meaning this approach may remain a niche activity rather than a widespread trend.