Old hardware

[Monkey muppet]

Is there anything I could do with a very old PC:

P 233
128mb ram
4.3HDD
1mb on-board graphics


I put XP SP2 with office 2003 on it just for a laugh, boot time is less that 1 min, but it takes a further 20mins for zonealarm, AVG and style XP to load up.

I was thinking about tiny linux as starting point to learn about it, but would it even run???

 

[dtboos]

Put it all on display in a museum

Just kidding.......

Not much really. You can allways use a slower comp for "testing" out other OS's like linux ect if you wish. That would be the best thing. Loading all that crap like zone alarm ect is just going to bog down the system to unusable levels since its such a slow proc and only 128 megs of RAM.

I would personally use it for linux just to fiddle with.

 

[Monkey muppet]

thats not the slowest I have

how about a

P200
64mb
3GB
get this: it even has a 5 1/4" 'proper' floppy drive (now that has to be worth something )

 

[wisdomtooth]

to the OP:

You might be able to improve the load times by increasing your RAM to 512MB. Then again, it's a cast-iron biatch to get RAM for such an old system-- Not sure if you are willing to pour any more money into it.

Otherwise, if you can get something to run decent on it, you can use it as a simple FTP or file server.

 

[Amaroque]

Originally posted by: Monkey muppet

get this: it even has a 5 1/4" 'proper' floppy drive (now that has to be worth something )

It's not worth anything. There are literally millions of them floating around.

 

[nbarb99]

Use it as a Smoothwall firewall. :thumbsup:

 

[Monkey muppet]

Originally posted by: Amaroque

Originally posted by: Monkey muppet

get this: it even has a 5 1/4" 'proper' floppy drive (now that has to be worth something )

It's not worth anything. There are literally millions of them floating around.

is your sarcasm meter working?

To be honest though - I'm seriously thinking of just chucking it out

Originally posted by: nbarb99
Use it as a Smoothwall firewall. :thumbsup:

I was thinking about that - If I can get it running with no fans, unfortunalty I'm using a USB dsl modem. but next on the purchase list is going to be a 4port ADSL modem/router though RJ45.

My main rig is a Nforce 4 with NV armour, plus I'm running a full version of Zonealarm - do I realy need a hardware firewall as well??

 

[RalphTheCow]

Linux! I have an old doorstop like that, although even worse, with a Cyrix processor, with RedHat 7.2. I have to use a very stripped down Window manager, Blackbox, but I like it because of its simplicity. Netscape seems to run fine on it, although I don't yet have a web connection. I have an ethernet NIC in it, so now I just have to figure out how to tie it in with a cable modem and two XP machines. I'm thinking of a wired switch.

 

[bendixG15]

I have 3 in my basement....just sitting there, waiting for me
to get enough courage to dump them.

I can't give them away................nobody wants them.

 

[Edward Lee]

That thing will still kick my Apple IIe's ass.

 

[BentValve]

Burn it

 

[SkyBum]

Take it out in your driveway and stomp the &%#@ out it! Great relief from tension.

I once did this with an old HP printer that was driving me crazy. Man it was cathardic! I had no idea how much pent up rage I had for HP. Luckily for my Canon printer.....it's been working out very well for me

 

[SonicIce]

Why on EARTH did you put XP on that thing? It would be great for indows 98. With XP it would come to a crawl.

 

[techwanabe]

The best thing to do with older computers is sell them or give them away while they are still fast enough to be of use to somebody. Then it will be their job to get rid of it when it is even too old for them. My parents are getting tired of their Dell 450 and with dial-up, it really crawls!


If you wait until they are too old, then no one will want them. Take it to a recycling place!

 

[CraigRT]

gateway box?
it has plenty of uses for some people... i myself would not use it though.

 

[superkdogg]

My 166 Crunches a SETI WU every couple of days and runs Win 98se and allows internet access from the attic. It is still better than any Brother ever made

 

[muppet]

waste of electricity
burn it

 

[vwtankgirl]

Donate it! There are a lot of people out there with no computer and anything would be a welcomed change.
A friend of mine is running a P2 250, he didn't have the money to get anything better... yet! I will be building him a new system sometime this year. (I will also do a new one for myself)
I have a bunch of older games that run fine on older systems, so that is the only reason I have any around.

 

[bluestrobe]

I have 3 333 MHz P2 boxes running Folding@Home. I'm never been a hater of old equipment and think that going back to them sometimes helps us realize where we came from. I would load Win2000 on it if you have it and let it do some little task like seti or folding@home, pull the monitor and keyboard and let it run by itself. WinXP is a bit much for it IMO. Ram for these machines is NOT rare or expensive and can be had for pennies or merely asking for it. I asked for some on another forum and ended up getting several sticks of 32/64/128mb of PC133 ram including some 256mb/PC133 sticks. You never know.

 

[Shenkoa]

Throw them both in the dumpster.

 

[Regs]

You might as well take out the RAM completly and let the processor fetch from the slow-as-dirt hard drive 24/7 until it explodes.

 

[imported_300ZX]

no!!! takeit to a recycling plant

 

[Dijital]

Originally posted by: Monkey muppet
Is there anything I could do with a very old PC:

P 233
128mb ram
4.3HDD
1mb on-board graphics


I put XP SP2 with office 2003 on it just for a laugh, boot time is less that 1 min, but it takes a further 20mins for zonealarm, AVG and style XP to load up.

I was thinking about tiny linux as starting point to learn about it, but would it even run???

donate it to a school and get a tax write off?

 

[Gannon]

I'd give them to schools or sell them on ebay, there's always people looking for your junk dont expect to get more then 5$-10$ though.

 

[AntiNowhere Man]

You could always give it to poor people. They could throw that crap into a trash can, light it on fire and warm their hands over it.