uses for old computer

[sluhkid720]

Hi i have an old Compaq 4840 thats just been sitting around. It is no longer useful to me as I ahve a newer computer i use for everything now. I was wandering if there is any good use for this computer . the specs are below
266 Mhz pentium 2
256 Mb ram
6.5 GB hard drive
ati 3d rage (or something like that) 4mb
10/100 ethernet
usb 2.0

Please dont just tell me to trash it I will do that anyway if theres no good use

 

[RichPLS]

A firewall and/or doorstop...

 

[BaronMatrix]

You could try using for that cold winter's night..... CAMPING. It may be smelly but it will burn for an hour or two.



No seriously, it depends on your current needs. You could use it as a file share for a small home network or you could use it to play Doom2 with Windows ME.


Maybe you could use it to hold ~6.5 GB of MP3 backup.

Got iPod?

 

[sirheck]

use it for info on the net if your new comp takes a sh#t

 

[battousai831]

target pratice?

go for the cpu shot

 

[scorch]

I have an old celeron 400 around along with old hard drives in case I need to make a dos, win 95 98 boot disk.

 

[chocobocorey]

if you play CS (1.5) that comp should be fast enough to host a dedicated server that you can run up all day till the machine breaks

 

[Vinny]

Keep it nice and clean and as a 'others' and backup computer.

If something goes wrong with your new one, go to the old one to search for help topics and what not. And leave it in an open area (like a family room, or some other room) so that people can use it to check their emails and not mess up your computer.

 

[ryanuw]

i 2nd the firewall idea

 

[mr_hayt]

longshot, but you could make it into a NAS...those are fun, ofcourse the harddrive would need some help

 

[AndyAldrich]

1)Use it to store some of your music collection, network it and access those tunes anywhere in the house.

2)Use it as a firewall if your router doesn't already have one.

3)Run old games on it. The Wing Commander Kilrathi Saga is now available on the torrent network and is pretty good fun. The Doom games will play on it, as will Quake 1, 2 and probably 3. You might be able to run some emulators on it, or use it for ROM storage and use your main computer to play the emulators on.

4)Keep your install CDs for Windows and Office imaged onto its hard drive and then use a virtual CD driver to use them, that way you can make sure you don't accidentally let your optical drive scratch up the original CDs.

5)Connect it to your TV and hifi if it's got TV-out and stream video through it. There are plenty of TV shows you can illegally download

6)Use it to do that distributed processing thing...I can't remember what it's called but they're trying to get people to use their PC's idle clocks to find cures for things.

7)Take the HDD out and put just Windows and Program Files onto it, thereby your current PC's hard drive can be just for the things you want: games and media files.

8)Maybe take up graphic design as a hobby and use your main computer to do your normal stuff and leave the old PC to do the rendering whilst you conceptualise your next masterpiece.

9)Backup your data! Make your current PC backup all of your documents and photos to the old PC's hard drive once a day. I used to do this by making a batch file in Edit using the xcopy command and then making a Windows scheduled event to run this batch file once a day.

 

[jaguarskx]

I'm giving my old Athlon XP-M 2600+ & 9800Pro to my cousin (big upgrade for him) after I build my next PC.

 

[kiwik]

I'm giving my old Athlon XP-M 2600+ & 9800Pro to my cousin (big upgrade for him) after I build my next PC.

Pretty much what I'm doing with my old computer.