What to do with that "old" system?

[MadCraiZ]

It's been a while, but ever since I started playing around with DVRing and video editing/transcoding, I've been getting that itchey finger to make some upgrades, or even build a new system. It may not be the fastest pony on the block, but my current P4-2.6 isn't just some paper weight either. Chances are I could probably just get a major memory upgrade (only 512 right now I think...and it's not even all that fast) and that should be enough to hold me off for a little bit. But when it comes time for a new system, I don't really want to have 2 towers and wouldn't want to bounce between machines even if I did.

For what PCs run these days, it's not even worth selling it. What do you guys do with your "old" systems that still have some use in them.

 

[eviltechie]

I'm tryin' to figure out the same thing. I've now got a PIII 1GHz system that's been displaced by a new Athlon 64 X2 3800+. I'm considering keeping it around for anytime the new system is down for repairs or upgrades. Or, possibly doing some outrageous mod on it, considering the system still runs perfectly.

 

[samir_nayanajaad]

set up a network. I dont have an old system to do this with yet but I am considering useing my xbox as a file server. Put the old system in a closet or something put linux on it and use it to store your music or pics. if its worth it and you have a lot of data to backup buy a big hdd to slap in it too. One thing ive heard aobut is to use linux to sort of RAID a cupple of comps, it takes some pc's and makes them into 1 large pc sort of like a JOBD RAID set up does with hdd's but thats about all I know about that. I am takeing a course this summer and thats what we are gonna do with like 20 pentium 3 computers and use the "one" pc as a server.

 

[icbluscrn]

If you have some money keep it around to modify, stuff like voltage mods, even case mods and to learn stuff like overclocking, and you can upgrade cheap buy buying used stuff. and it is ready if my main pc goes down or if a friend needs to borrow. Also going to figure out how to set up a network.
If you dont have money to play around with, sell it or trade it. Whatever you get is better then "dead money" sitting in the corner.

As a side not my old system was a p4 3ghz that i oc'd to 3.25ghz on a ecs mobo, I picked up a used bfg 6800 oc cheap Unlocked and overclocked it, yesterday picked up a 10k 74gb hd. also got 1gb used performance ram.
Whats sucks was it's faster then my new 3800x2.

 

[zyzplasmaz]

give them away? ebay them? use them as paper weights? lol
unless you play games or anything fancy like video editing, there's really no reason for you to upgrade since 2.6ghz can do quite a lot especially if it's just web browsing. reports and emailing etc. going from 512 to 1 gig of ram does make a difference so that can give it additional life, probably at least 6months-yr till vista comes out and you have more options.
if you game... well that's another story 8)

 

[Anoobis]

amir_nayanajaad's talking about a NODE. I don't remember all of the details off hand. Just Scroogle it and you should find something on it. It is pretty cool.

I think using the old system as a file server is a good idea. If you have a wireless setup, you wouldn't need to run any cables. You could also part it out on eBay. Lot's of people are looking for older equipment. If you're feeling really nice, you could donate it to a local charity.

 

[cowboytech]

I still have a 450 p3, 512ram, 250hd, XP and a whole lot of software tools that I use, it still has some uses and I get to wait on it for somethings. but I am used to a multistation. I even had a customer bring in a 486 to be repaired. I saved his data and sent him away with some old machine that was much more than he had, and he was very happy! When your sure you won't miss it, look around at people you like and make them a deal. If you ebay it you may actually pay for some of your new machine

 

[timegoblin]

What to do with the old systems? oh dear, dont get me started...

My main pc is a reasonably respectable AMD64 3000 pc with linux and win xp dual boot, and a half decent ATi x700 256mb graphix card, so I should be happy with that, right? well, I have kept pretty much all my old pc's and most are still being used. Wanna know what they are doing?

music storage pc- AMD 850 oc'ed to 950 athlon with 512mb SDRAM, Ti200 128mb graphix and 6 hard drives adding up to something like 200 odd gig of hd space, most of which full of music. Linked to my same monitor (22" iiyama pro) as the main pc using a KVM switch.

win 95 and dos toy- P1 233 with 128mb ram, 13 gb hd, and 16mb TNT pci graphix running win 95- and it goes online sometimes too! use this to run old software and old games that wont run on anything else- oldversion.com is damn good for this!

girls pc #1 933 P3 on a slocket converter, 512mb sdram, 60 gb hard drive space, dvd and cdrw, windows 98, ATi Rage Fury Maxx 64mb graphix, wireless network card. Eldest girl (18) uses this for internet and doinf coursework. she does some photo editing as well.

girls pc#2 AMD 900 athlon, 512mb DDR ram, MX440 graphix, 20 and 30gb hard drives, CDRW and DVD drives, wioreless LAN,running win xp. used as an internet portal for the second girl (12) for msn messenger stuff- you know what its like! and for watching movies, playing games and listening to GLC.

Boys spare pc AMD 1900 athlon, 512mb DDR ram, ATi 9500 graphix (that is or was one of my best purchases ever, that card), 60 gb hard drive CD and CDRW/DVD combi drive, running windows 2k. this is the 15 year old boys second pc for his mates to use when they come round for LAN games. its connected to the net via cable when required.

the boy also has a shuttle pc I built from scratch thats a bit of a low end games machine, handles world of warcraft, thats all he is interested in, lol, and theres another pc for my missus- another shuttle- this one also scratch built rather than from my leftovers and is or was a mid spec sempron thing.

Thats what you do with your old pc's, hand them down to family to stop said family using yours all the time! heh heh heh.

 

[jkflipflop98]

slap linux on it and use it as a router / file server/ firewall / game server/ packet-sniffer.

never get lost in WoW again!

=X