What to do with five 486s?

[Remedy]

Sheet, Overclock em from like 50mhz to 50.1mhz using cBo stepping. I wonder how WinCE would run on it.

 

[Ulfwald]

http://www.freesco.com

Check this out, best use of an old pc that I can find.

 

[Mule]

Bonfire!

 

[GreenGhost]

You'd get a better performance if you put any flavor of Linux on it instead of Windows. Good for net browsing, word-processing, some networking services (POP, firewalls, etc).

 

[dukdukgoos]

yup, go with linux.

 

[thorin]

RC5.....it won't be a warp core but it'll do ok.

They get about .98KKey/sec x Mhz.

So a 486 DX4 100 gets about 98KKeys/sec.

Thorin

 

[MadRat]

My 486SX33 laptop does 24 blocks every other day.

 

[Soccerman]

"486/50 give out max of 15blocks of RC5 PER DAY"

well considering my AMD K6-2 400@420 does about 250 blocks a day, I think that's pretty good. anything, and EVERYTHING helps.

like I said, Linux looks like a good idea, except that you might not want to run it for educating people about how to use computers (becuase they would get confused when it comes to windows). otherwise, yeah it would be good!

 

[Midnight Rambler]

<< They may be slow, but for an adult education class in basic computer learning they're plenty fast. Network them so they do have access and see if anyone would be interested in doing an hour a week class some evening. >>

My first thought was along these lines as well. Perhaps add Internet basics to the course as well. Otherwise, your church could donate them to local charities, ie. shelters, food banks, etc., many of which are run by churches as well.

 

[Paladinexe]

Possibly you could install Bible software on each of the computers and the Sunday School class instructors could use them to help with lesson preparation. The programs could be used to compile scriptures according to topics or relevance. Then the Bible version of choice could be used in the direct preparation. Allow the computers to be available to students also.