What to do with my old pc....

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CeilingHoles

Member
Jul 19, 2004
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I have an old Compaq 5BW284...Here are the specs:

Pentium 3 850MHz
256MB SDRAM PC100
40GB Hard Drive
Onboard Graphics, Audio (i really don't know how I lived with this for 4 years....)
Ethernet PCI Card..
two broken drives, dvd-rom and cd-rw
17" Compaq CRT MV740
Floppy Drive

I thought I would post this here since you all tend to be really good with this stuff. I already got a new pc (see
this thread), but I want to put my old pc to use.. My budget is $200 for possible upgrades. I was thinking maybe moving to an Athlon XP or a Sempron, but I don't think there's Socket A boards with SDRAM. What do you guys think?
 
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jdiddy

Diamond Member
Feb 6, 2004
3,905
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Replace the optical drives with a single combo drive up the ram to 512 pc133 install xp and use it as a backup system.
 
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islandtechengineers

Senior member
Feb 3, 2004
331
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get a lot of hard drive space and network it with your other pc. use if to store crap like a load of mp3s = never turn it off either.... then backup your dvd movies to it=== i think im getting toward a meadia server recommendation. Or turn it into a firewall/webserver server...
if your a gamer create a server out of your fav game... quake 3? halflife? ut?
 
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PhoenixOrion

Diamond Member
May 4, 2004
4,312
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Originally posted by: islandtechengineers
get a lot of hard drive space and network it with your other pc. use if to store crap like a load of mp3s = never turn it off either.... then backup your dvd movies to it=== i think im getting toward a meadia server recommendation. Or turn it into a firewall/webserver server...
if your a gamer create a server out of your fav game... quake 3? halflife? ut?
Click to expand...
 
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sfmedic

Member
Aug 14, 2004
156
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If you don't need it donate it to a school. They are always in need of computers and such. Plus you can take it as a tax deduction.

Sorry I didn't see your note at the bottom of your page. It sounds like you do want to keep it. Like others said, put in some new optical drives and network it to your new computer. It's easy now with the wireless routers and adapters.
 
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dmw16

Diamond Member
Nov 12, 2000
7,608
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If you have the bandwidth, a game server is fun. But unless you have T1 or something close, dont bother. cable isnt fast enough.
 
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CeilingHoles

Member
Jul 19, 2004
171
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I found an Intel Mobo that supports sdram and a p4 processor....

Link

I was thinking maybe i could get a new motherbaord, a new processor, and optical drive. Would this work out ?
 
SneakyStuff

SneakyStuff

Diamond Member
Jan 13, 2004
4,294
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76
Sell it on ebay, use the cash you get towards a mobile Athlon XP system. Then overclock that bad boy til your heart's content :)
 
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RickH

Senior member
Aug 5, 2000
784
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76
don't throw your $$ away on this thing. Use it as is, it's fine for most apps. Do not buy a MB and P4 CPU then cripple it with SDRAM. R
 
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DaveSimmons

Elite Member
Aug 12, 2001
40,730
670
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I have a P3 box for running ganes that don't like XP, since I have old favorites like Jagged Alliance 2 (playing the Urban Chaos user total conversion now) and games I never got around to playing like The Longest Journey (compatibility mode didn't help a bit on my system).
 
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h3nG

Senior member
Jan 2, 2003
212
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Originally posted by: CeilingHoles
Originally posted by: gf4200isdabest
Guys, let's be serious here. there is only one good thing to do with it...
Click to expand...



the link doesn't work for me. I get a page that says "File Not Found"
Click to expand...

that's fine, have you seen office space? he didn't really mean it.

anyways, it's pretty much junk. i wouldn't try to upgrade off of it. either give it away to a family member. or keep around for casuel use. and move on.
 
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GfW

Member
May 27, 2004
79
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Wipe the Hard Drive with a low level format and then install Linux (any version) and see how computers and software were meant to work.
 
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imported_pak9rabid

Member
Aug 22, 2004
107
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0
put linux on it and turn it into a router! :D....that's the only thing my uncle's old P3 866-based Gateway box is good for...well and a webserver. It'd definately be a good box to toy around with Linux on.
 
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tiap

Senior member
Mar 22, 2001
572
0
0
Hey don't knock it. We have a box at work that has an old celeron 733 (P3 era), same ram as yours, 80 gig wdse, plextor 48cdrw, sblive platinum, and a ati 32mb radeon using xppro. It's hard to imagine, but people come in and use it and they all guess it's at least a p4 1.8
Keep it as a spare, don't spend more on it.
 
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