Does repurposing an old laptop have drawbacks?

Hardware Questions and Recommendations
1

I am currently using a NanoPi R4S and it worked perfectly when I had slow connection of only 100mbps, but now I got 1gpbs down and 350mbps up docsis and it can only do around 650mpbs.

I get noticeable bufferbloat on games without Cake SQM especially when other people are using the network.

I was hoping to get an intel N100 or an ARM A76.

I looked at mini PC and SBC options, but they are all insanely overpriced here in USA.

I found dirt cheap used laptops with Intel i5 1135G7 a gigabit ethernet for dirt cheap and it looks like this has way better CPU performance while still having relatively low TDP.

I am hoping to use CAKE SQM on the built in ethernet to do bufferbloat mitigation and add a USB to ethernet for LAN.

I also considered getting a used thin client with Intel N5105, but I heard it doesn't have hardware acceleration if you choose to use VPN.

2

Does repurposing an old laptop have drawbacks?TL;DR, No.

You can run it on x86.
1gpbs?

A pi4 will suffice; given the work. (lots of 'work' on PIs)
But if 1G is demanded, you can build it with USB3..

3

Just go buy the cheapest filogic 820/830 based router. Idles at ~5w and does gigabit sqm. Flint 2 hits ~$120 on sale; has dual 2.5G ports for future network expansion. 2.5G WAN will allow you access to overprovisioned gigabit service.

4

...but, will it work?

That was the OP.
While we all have hardware 'suggestions' (help me with the 6000!!!!) the thread is: 'will it work?'.

Not:
'Shoehorn my hardware suggestion'.

5

Don't, laptops aren't made for running 24/7, you'll probably kill the fan in less than two years.

A HP T740 will cost around $100 on ebay, add a $10+ single, dual or quad port low profile NIC, and you got yourself a beefy router.

6

Are you sure it's the router and not your docsis connection?
Have you tried an iperf3 test running on 2 computers with the R4S in the middle?

7

Filogic 830 according to the spec sheet has Quad-Core A53 @ 2GHz.

It would be a downgrade to NanoPi R4S which has Dual-Core A72 @ 2GHz + Quad Core A53 @ 1.5GHz

8

I get the full gigabit speed when I turn off Cake SQM.

9

okay...

Fine, what specs are the laptop?

My hand to... sky.
If it has USB3, it will burn up fans,(tip 2 @frollic) but work...

10

You seem to be all over the place...

First, SQM runs single-threaded, so Gigabit SQM imposes certain requirements on the processor. A recent processor running at 2+ GHz can do it; with a less recent one, you may need 3 GHz.

Second, there is no "choose to use VPN"; Gigabit VPN is even more processor-hungry than Gigabit SQM, so you need to plan for a VPN in advance. In what way, depends on the VPN. There are three separate cases, (1) OpenVPN, (2) OpenVPN with DCO, and (3) Wireguard. Those have very different hardware needs. Briefly, traditional OpenVPN runs single-threaded and benefits from AES-NI support, OpenVPN with DCO can take advantage of multiple threads and still benefits from AES-NI, and Wireguard runs multi-threaded and doesn't care about AES-NI.

Now, since you mentioned you're in the U.S., you have lots of secondary market options. Which one(s) would fit your needs, I can't tell because of the VPN issue, but if you clarify, I'll be happy to give you some pointers.