What to do with Pentium II 233mhz MMX?

[GundamF91]

Ok don't laugh. It's my very first computer. It's been sitting there in the corner for years now. Now that I have some time, I'm going to try to run it but not sure as what it could do. I might give it to my parents to do just emails. It's amazing to think that it had all the processing I ever needed back in the 90s, from word processing, websurfing and photo editing.

It's the original MMX rig, Pentium II 233mhz. I think it ran on 440LX chipset. I think it has AGP 1.0 port, which I still have the AGP card. It still has Windows98, but it has refused to boot into it when I tried it a couple of years ago. Also Windows XP refused to install on it (I think it needs PentiumIII as min spec).

 

[allies]

Recycle it? Spend ~$200 on building your parents a computer that is much much more capable.

 

[OCGuy]

Smithsonian

 

[Foxery]

Keychain!

Ok, so that doesn't work so well for components with sharp pins... There are actually recycling facilities who will take old computer parts and dispose of them "safely." Motherboards in particular contain some chemicals that aren't supposed to be taken to the dump.

 

[desolate]

Install linux

 

[nismotigerwvu]

http://m0n0.ch/wall/

 

[nanaki333]

router

 

[Drsignguy]

Originally posted by: allies
Recycle it? Spend ~$200 on building your parents a computer that is much much more capable.

I like this Idea!

I have a pentium 233 mmx. Still runs well but can't seem to ever get rid of it. Oh well I feel your pains!

 

[DaveSimmons]

I'd say make it a retro game box, except you can do that on you modern PC using DOSBox and free virtual PC software from MS and VMWare.

Hang onto your DOS and Win98 OS disks for creating a virtual PC.

 

[Bateluer]

Either a linux based firewall/router or a keychain. Thats about all its good for.

 

[nismotigerwvu]

http://www.freenas.org/

Could make a little nas out of it

 

[Denithor]

Dell + Goodwill eCycle program

If you happen to live in certain areas (specific cities within California, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Texas only) Goodwill accepts computers & components for reuse and/or recycling. They will clean up functional systems for resale and will recycle non-functional equipment free of charge.

I'm happy they have this program in Charlotte, it's how I get rid of all my excess and/or broken parts.

 

[EarthwormJim]

Router.

 

[imported_Champ]

overclock it till it blows up!!!

or fill it with fireworks and put it in a field

both good choices

 

[pzkfwg]

I'm interested too to know what to do with old computers. I have a PII 350MHz w/ 384MB RAM.

With those ideas of using it as router or NAS, how would an old PC compare in terms of power consumption with dedicated appliances? Would the potentially increased power consumption defeat the purpose of reusing it?

 

[A Hitman]

Use it for classic games!
What you need is a 3dfx card

 

[Sunrise089]

I like the router idea. That or submerge it in mineral oil and run old games on it as a conversation piece.

 

[Winterpool]

I've quite a few older systems myself, with the most ancient still booting CPU being a Celeron 333. Essentially everything pre-Pentium III seems questionable to repurpose at this point, as I'm not sure that the power usage justifies running an entire machine, even if it's nothing like as wasteful as a Pentium 4. Even when cpu speed is a secondary concern, usually a system ends up being limited by memory, especially if one is trying to run the system as a server. If running as a dedicated appliance (eg router), I suspect too much power is used (compared to embedded devices) to justify the conversion, unless you simply want to learn how it's done.

Has anyone used Kill-a-Watt or a similar device to measure the total system consumption of a typical PII or PIII machine recently?

Even if you'd like to play round with older apps and operating systems, virtualisation / emulation seems a much better idea as you don't need to host extra physical machines (or pay for their electricity bill).

 

[Assimilator1]

I've got a power meter if anyone want's to know the power useage of my old rig listed below.

Originally posted by: A Hitman
Use it for classic games!
What you need is a 3dfx card

That's what my Cel 366 @550 is used for ,Voodoo1 & Riva 128 ,wish I'd kept the GF3 I had for the AGP card!

 

[GundamF91]

Voodoo and Riva. Now those were good 'ol times.

 

[secretanchitman]

diablo 2 with perspective (thanks to glide!), 3d sound, and environmental effects enabled!

 

[taltamir]

Originally posted by: Foxery
Keychain!

Ok, so that doesn't work so well for components with sharp pins... There are actually recycling facilities who will take old computer parts and dispose of them "safely." Motherboards in particular contain some chemicals that aren't supposed to be taken to the dump.

you are required to, by law, to bring old computer hardware, and any other electronic appliance, to your city's "hazardeous waste disposal facility"... same place to which you are supposed to turn in batteries. You can look it up online for your specific city, start by searching your zipcode or city name and check for city hall, they would know where you should bring it to.
Ofcourse, everyone just throws it in the trash, causing untold damage to underground water and the beings who drink from it (US!).

This machine is so old, that it is not worth using for anything. It will be wasting so much electricity (power per operation)... a router for example, will pay for itself in short order simply via power savings compared to that computer.

 

[Jeff7181]

It may have been ideal for surfing the web 6-8 years ago, but give it a modern Flash site and it will choke. I agree with the others that have said recycle it. For the amount of power it will consume it's useless.

 

[Cogman]

I still have a non-standardized ISA wireless card with my P2 233 You should turn it into a linux fire wall. Or see if Xubuntu or something like that will run on it.

 

[taltamir]

Originally posted by: Jeff7181
It may have been ideal for surfing the web 6-8 years ago, but give it a modern Flash site and it will choke. I agree with the others that have said recycle it. For the amount of power it will consume it's useless.

imagine tabbed browsing on that thing!