What to do with old pc?

[lahdedah]

I've acquired an old 486 DX4-100 (24 megs of ram, 1GB hdd) and don't know what to do with it - I hate throwing things away.

At the moment, I might just use it for SETI (that's if it'll run) - but thought I'd post to see if anyone could think of a better use for it?

 

[Monoman]

give it to me, or tool around and learn linux on it. still lots of potectial, I actually have 3 computer a little faster than that here at my home!

 

[zimu]

seti is REALLY a waste on a machine like that-- it'll take like 40 hours to finish one work unit, which would probably be completed by about 30 other computers around the world in 1/8th that time. (thats a problem with seti- they give out duplicate work units to people because so many people quit half way! can't really avoid that though...)

try messing around with unix or something, use it to learn something! 486's aren't terrible at surfing the web either, you could make a web host or something!

 

[SaigonK]

I have two PC's here that i dont know what to do with (yet).

A Dell GX110 (PIII-800mhz - 256mb ram - 10gb harddrive Windows 2000 server on it)
A Compaq tower - (PII-350mhz - 512mb ram - 10gb harddrive - Windows XP on it.)
Got a 17" monitor to....

I was going to set the Dell up as a file server/backup server for my PC and my wife's, was thinking i could setup an internal calendar for the family on it.
Now that we are getting divorced, i just stuck it under my desk, until i move out I guess I am going to let it collect some dust. 🙂

 

[lahdedah]

Originally posted by: Monoman
give it to me, or tool around and learn linux on it. still lots of potectial, I actually have 3 computer a little faster than that here at my home!

That is a possibility, but I was under the impression it wouldn't be powerful enough for linux (i've only got a tiny bit of knowledge based on mandrake and red hat, and they're pretty graphically intensive). Is there a linux distro that is a lot more simple and cut down? (preferably GUI, think CLI is a trying to run before I can walk).

 

[OverVolt]

Router/Network Firewall

 

[GT1999]

Originally posted by: OverVolt
Router/Network Firewall

That's about the only good use left for it...

 

[Bekker]

Originally posted by: SaigonK
I have two PC's here that i dont know what to do with (yet).

A Dell GX110 (PIII-800mhz - 256mb ram - 10gb harddrive Windows 2000 server on it)
A Compaq tower - (PII-350mhz - 512mb ram - 10gb harddrive - Windows XP on it.)
Got a 17" monitor to....

I was going to set the Dell up as a file server/backup server for my PC and my wife's, was thinking i could setup an internal calendar for the family on it.
Now that we are getting divorced, i just stuck it under my desk, until i move out I guess I am going to let it collect some dust. 🙂

I have 3 grandaughters who would love those .... if you wanna sell for a good price, let me know.

Thanks

 

[Monoman]

well, the GUI is for people who are afraid of the command line.. for instance, did you know you can surf the web from command line? granted, it's not as pretty as IE or Mozilla but still, AND all of your chat programs and a Linux command line program. ftp, mail everything can be done from there. I have a pentium 70 laptop I used slack 8.1 on for a while. All I used was command line and it served me fine. surfin the net and everything. USB ta boot!

it's all depending on how much you are willing to learn and how much you desire to do something will be the driving factor here IMHO. I love linux/FreeSBD and so does my wife.

That box you have can also be used as a firewall/NAT box too but everyone does that! j/k 😉

well, if you need more help on setting it up gimme a PM and I will help ya with no prob. it'll be an adventure 😉

Mitch

 

[Iron Woode]

Originally posted by: lahdedah
I've acquired an old 486 DX4-100 (24 megs of ram, 1GB hdd) and don't know what to do with it - I hate throwing things away.

At the moment, I might just use it for SETI (that's if it'll run) - but thought I'd post to see if anyone could think of a better use for it?

I just acquired a 486 DX2-80, and I am in the same position. Maybe I will find a use for it soon.

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: lahdedah
I've acquired an old 486 DX4-100 (24 megs of ram, 1GB hdd) and don't know what to do with it - I hate throwing things away.

At the moment, I might just use it for SETI (that's if it'll run) - but thought I'd post to see if anyone could think of a better use for it?

Use old PC's like that as an Internet appliance such as a dedicated Firewall machine. Load Smoothwall on etc.
More control than built in Routers.

 

[ThePresence]

Make a PCquarium! Oh wait...

 

[SaigonK]

Originally posted by: Bekker

Originally posted by: SaigonK I have two PC's here that i dont know what to do with (yet). A Dell GX110 (PIII-800mhz - 256mb ram - 10gb harddrive Windows 2000 server on it) A Compaq tower - (PII-350mhz - 512mb ram - 10gb harddrive - Windows XP on it.) Got a 17" monitor to.... I was going to set the Dell up as a file server/backup server for my PC and my wife's, was thinking i could setup an internal calendar for the family on it. Now that we are getting divorced, i just stuck it under my desk, until i move out I guess I am going to let it collect some dust. 🙂

I have 3 grandaughters who would love those .... if you wanna sell for a good price, let me know. Thanks

I just might want to do that, PM me with what you think you would like to pay.

 

[SaigonK]

I also have an old Digital Venturis FX (P166) laying aorund and I think i might also have one of those small form factor Optiplex;s from dell...GX100...celeron model though.
Only like 1 foot wide and 1.5 feet in depth.

That could be a good PC to Home theater system for playing MP3's. Hmmmm! )

 

[Iron Woode]

Originally posted by: dmcowen674

Originally posted by: lahdedah
I've acquired an old 486 DX4-100 (24 megs of ram, 1GB hdd) and don't know what to do with it - I hate throwing things away.

At the moment, I might just use it for SETI (that's if it'll run) - but thought I'd post to see if anyone could think of a better use for it?

Use old PC's like that as an Internet appliance such as a dedicated Firewall machine. Load Smoothwall on etc.
More control than built in Routers.

True, but PCI cards work much better than ISA and no IRQ conflicts to work out either.

Smoothwall is a waste of time if you have a large home network like I do. Freesco 0.32 works much better and supports up to 10 nics.

 

[Monoman]

Originally posted by: Iron Woode

Originally posted by: dmcowen674

Originally posted by: lahdedah
I've acquired an old 486 DX4-100 (24 megs of ram, 1GB hdd) and don't know what to do with it - I hate throwing things away.

At the moment, I might just use it for SETI (that's if it'll run) - but thought I'd post to see if anyone could think of a better use for it?

Use old PC's like that as an Internet appliance such as a dedicated Firewall machine. Load Smoothwall on etc.
More control than built in Routers.

True, but PCI cards work much better than ISA and no IRQ conflicts to work out either.

Smoothwall is a waste of time if you have a large home network like I do. Freesco 0.32 works much better and supports up to 10 nics.

I agree, Fresco is much more advanced but I like the simplicity of smoothwall and even, ClosedBSD. They rock with it's solid BSD background and simple to use bootable CD interface..

blab, Freesco is better tho..

 

[skyking]

I can usually solve the IRQ issues pretty easily, so I still build firewall/routers with 10BaseT ISA nics.
After all, the outbound pipe is most likely smaller than 10 Mbit!