Repurposing laptop with dead GPU as Firewall

Strimblaster · January 1

Hi.

I want to run pfSense/OPNsense in my home with bonus points if able to run just 2-4 containers with critical services (Proxmox + Firewall).

The ideal setup would be using something like Intel N100 or N305 passively cooled mini box with 4x 1Gbps ethernet or 4x 2.5Gbps (found in aliexpress) like the ones ServeTheHome usually shows but it's rather expensive.

So I've been cooking the idea of repurposing my I5 7300HQ + 8GB RAM laptop for this. I would have to get a Switch with vlan tagging or find a way to adapt something inside to ethernet (I don't want to use USB adapters) but by far the biggest obstacle is the GPU. The computer runs fine (using the iGPU) but the GTX 1050 is dead beyond salvation. This means that I have a dead GPU always sucking power and doing nothing.

I haven't done a test using a outlet power meter to measure the amount of power it consumes but from the battery drain it seems to be a lot. I tried to find information regarding a way to disable the GPU physically but didn't find anything interesting.

I live in Europe so energy costs are a concern.

Laptop model: Asus ROG GL553VD-5705PL1

I created this topic so I can gather some ideas because there's a lot of angles to look.

Has someone tried completely disabling a laptop dGPU?

Any sub 100€/$ mini box pc for 1/2.5G? (Obs: I live in country with a small used part market. Portugal)

I have a i5 4440 and ram but no board but I don't think it runs idle at a small enough wattage.