Tech & Auto
5 Surprising Ways To Use Your Old PC Tower
By DANIEL TROCK
Portable Garden
If you need a portable spot to start growing your plants to brighten up a dreary space, try transforming an old PC tower into a portable garden.
All you need is a lighting fixture within the case, a fluorescent growing bulb, and maybe a portable power supply to activate the case’s fans to help circulate air within the case.
Novelty Mailbox
A novelty mailbox can add some pizzazz to your home, giving passersby an idea of your personality. If you love computers, you can use an old PC tower as a mailbox.
Remove the internal components and drill in a support board on the bottom or sides. Those PC towers with disc drives already have a convenient letter slot that just needs a flap.
Shelving
Rather than purchasing shelves for your home that might not fit the dimensions of your available space, you can use one or more old PC towers as modular shelves.
After removing the internal components, remove the outer panels fastening screws and turn them around. Use them to secure the tower to the wall, preferably into a wall stud.
Workstation
Transforming your old tower into an entire workshop workstation can give you a place to store all your tools for any project you’re working on.
A PC case has plenty of room for small, rectangular storage containers, which can be mounted to the inside with a combination of fasteners and existing mounts.
Barbecue
PC towers are surprisingly heat resistant, as they need to keep the internal components from melting. This makes them perfect for transforming them into barbecues.
Once you’ve removed the internal components, just lay the tower horizontally, remove the side panel, place a little tub of charcoal within, and lay a grill grate on top.