Hello folks,

What do folks recommend as good practices to use a laptop as an always on, always plugged-in server? Specifically, how to manage the battery and some of the potential cautions/dangers of keeping it plugged in.

I have a spare Dell workstation laptop that I’d like to use as a Proxmox node. I’ve seen a number of posts where folks will mention that using a spare laptop works well because it has a built in ‘UPS’, but then in the comments there’s caution about the battery being plugged in all the time.

I’m curious what folks do in terms of battery management, assuming I want to keep this as hands-off/low maintenance (but fireproof) as possible.

Thank you all so much, ~M

Update: thank you all so much for the great advice. This is a Dell Workstation and it does have a ‘Primarily AC use’ power setting in the BIOS, as well as custom charge levels available. Appreciate it and I hope this discussion helps other folks looking to do the same!

  • hendrik@palaver.p3x.de
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    3 hours ago

    Google and/or the Arch Wiki should have you covered. For my Dell laptop I just clicked on Settings->Battery and set it to “Preserver Battery Health”. Done.