Help! I have a spare computer!

D

Decker87

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 24, 2005
Messages
415
This is my big dilemna. I will have a spare computer soon!

I'm planning to upgrade this old Athlon XP socket A system to 939/Opty. I pretty much am ready to order the parts. The problem is, I still have perfectly good CPU, Mobo, ram, some drives, psu and case that would be laying around. What could I possibly use this computer for?

Since torrents go slow now, I was thinking about using it with linux as a wireless router. The problem with that is seventeenfold: (1) We already have the family computer connected directly to our router, (2) when I go to college I won't be around to take care of it, (3) I know nothing about linux, (4) we already have a printer with a built-in wired print server, so that'd be nagated, (5) new wireless adaptors for all three computers

So that probably isn't the best idea. I could use a computer downstairs to serve as a torrent downloader and genesis emulator. But I'd feel as if it's kind of going to waste that way. What should I do!?
 
You could fold for the [H], turn it into a file server if the HDs are big, you could turn it into a media box if you've got a TV card although the processor is probably a bit too slow for intensive video decoding like HD videos or you could do the router thing.
 
Check out torrentflux. I use it at home on a FreeBSD box and love it with multiple people handling torrents in the house.

Avoid using freebsd though, there are some hacks and edits you need to do on the TF code to get it to work right.
 
You might as well donate the energy savings from not running your computer 24/7 at 100% to the Folding project. eBay the parts, I bet you can still get 40-50% of what you originally paid for them.
 
It probably costs around $15 a month in electricity to run it at 100%. I'd rather not eBay the parts, as I cant give my little babies up to some pimpleface who thinks this will make him cool becaused its "overclocked".

Anyway, what are some other uses besides a router and emulator? Where it's going to be, there is already a DVD and VHS player. The "monitor" will be our TV.
 
Screw folding, just sell the parts on ebay and get some money. No one is paying you to have your PC on 24/7 running a folding program that does no good.
 
Personally I'd use it for a PVR with mythtv. Get a good cheap capture card if you don't have one and record your shows. Well should be good enough for SDTV recording.
 
You could:
Use it as a file server for the whole house.
Use it as a HTTP/Web server to learn website design and whatnot
Use it as an FTP server to share files with all your cool pimpleface friends.
Use it as a backup computer or testing computer.
If you did any of these, you could also thrown on FAH to let it crunch though proteins as its sitting there at idle most of the time.

You could outfit it with high end audio equipment to make a music server. Get a good sound card, a nice little stereo setup, and you could have an awsome music computer.

Another nifty thing you could do is use it as a home surveillance computer. You could setup a few cameras around your house or in your house, and connect it to the computer. From there, you can monitor those cameras on the computer. Heck, you could even connect it to the TV or whatnot. I've always wanted to try this.

Or you could sell the bloody thing and get something you actually will have more use for with the money.

These are just a few things that come to mind. I'm sure you have others.

~Hope this helps
 
Screw that. Load XP on there unpatched and wait for some dude to hack in to it and use it as a porn repository. That way you never have to search for porn. It comes to you!
 
danman said:
Screw that. Load XP on there unpatched and wait for some dude to hack in to it and use it as a porn repository. That way you never have to search for porn. It comes to you!
Click to expand...

Human Race = Human Race - 1
:Sigh:, Way to go danman.
 
I probably won't fold no matter what. Here are my uses so far:

-Torrent machine
-FTP Server
-Emulator

I'm not sure if that's enough to justify having it on 24/7. I will probably end up just selling the parts.
 
back in 2000 my buddy has a pentium 3 system hooked to his TV with a chip in it that allowed him to watch any channel available... even paperview. On a daily bases he would have to reflash it. I have no idea how to do that or where he learned how to do that... I wish I had that. He got free pron :(
 
Decker87 said:
I'm not sure if that's enough to justify having it on 24/7. I will probably end up just selling the parts.
Click to expand...
Sounds to me like you just answered your own question. ^_^

You could try selling it in the HardFolding FS/FT subforum. I'm sure there are many people there who would enjoy having an Athlon XP overclocked for folding.

~Good luck
 
when are you going to college and what are you going to study?

computer science, programming, pron?

take it with you to college and learn linux maybe use it as a file/printer server or more importantly as a Half life.
 
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