Free computer...worth it?

tipoo

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May 4, 2006
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Ok, i know it sounds weird asking if something thats free is worth it, but heres the story.

i was at my buddies house today and i noticed his partialy gutted computer lying around. i asked if he would be willing to part with it and he said i could have it for free if i wanted, since he had no use for it.

thing is, its missing some key components. Its missing a processor, but thats no problem, i have an athlon XP 3000+ lying around. its missing a graphics card, but thats not a problem either, i have various AGP graphics cards around my house. missing a hard drive, but i have a PATA hard drive lying around as well...

What i DONT have lying around is RAM. it takes PC3200, two slots. a trip to the Futureshop website showed a 1GB stick for 30 bucks (kingston) so i would probably get 2 of those for 60.

another thing i dont have is a monitor. a good LCD will set me back what, 150, 160 dollars?

so i feel like im spending too much money and effort on a PC thats realy quite old and slow, but i always wanted to have a desktop in my room so :lol: .

so do you guys think im wasting money, or is this a reasonable amount to spend to fix up a PC this slow? thanks for reading this far.
 

ryanb213

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get 1 gb of ram, dump xp on it, if you feel the need for 2gb then add it, but truly i would save my money for even a cheap pc. its better than what he has.
 

tipoo

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Yea, you may have something there. so do you guys think it would be a waste of money to rebuild it when there are plenty of cheap new computers out there?
 

Newf

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The monitor you buy will be useful with both this rig as well as a newer one you get. The ram will not though. If you spend $30 for 1GB of ram and load Linux (free) or have a copy of Windows then it looks like a good deal. It depends on what you want to use it for. Even a cheap new computer will cost a few hundred plus the new monitor.
 

tipoo

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thats true, a good monitor would last me much longer than any rig i build. i have windows XP disks, so no worries there...i was thinking i might even load OSX onto it, lol.

but i also forgot the expenses of a keyboard, mouse, and wireless card since it will be in my room and there is no physical connection near there.
 

matic3060

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A lot of good feedback on here. If I were in your same position, there are two possible routes I would take.

1) If you do not currently have a computer (which I'm assuming you don't since you don't have monitor, keyboard, etc.), I would take the thing off his hands, buy the RAM, monitor, keyboard, mouse, wireless card. This way you will have a PC to hold you over til you get a more up to date one, and the only thing you will lose out on is the RAM. Everything else can be used on a new system and you will have to buy it at some point anyway. I would also maybe check on ebay and see if you can find some PC3200 RAM for cheaper.

2) Buy the RAM, put the whole thing together and sell it. Maybe on ebay or in your local paper. Just sell it as tower only and the only thing you have to buy is the RAM and surely you will be able to profit at least some amount out of it that you can maybe put towards a new system.

I was in a similar situation not long ago. I bought a nonfunctional eMachine from someone for $10. Turns out it needed a new PSU and mobo to be fully functional again. Had the mobo laying around and bought a cheap PSU for about $30. Ended up selling it to someone for $200. This too was an old system (socket 478, agp, DDR).
 

tipoo

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thanks for the reply. i DO have other computers in the house, but no spare monitors, keyboards, ect. i think option 2 is what i will go for. im sure i could sell the tower for more than the price i pay for the RAM.