Use of old computers?

R

RocketPenguin

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So I am currently job shadowing my school's IT guy, and we have begun swapping out old towers for new ones. He asked if I had any good ideas on "What to do with 10-20 old, 512mb-2gb ram, single core 1.6gHz to dual core 2.4ghz towers"
And so now I have come here for suggestions.
Anyone have any good, logical, practical uses for re-purposing old PCs?
Already thought of making a super computer via clustering, which we may attempt.
 
I'd check with some local charities. They'd probably run Chrome OK, for checking email or social media.
 
Eh, if the school doesn't use them for anything, then they get auctioned off.
That's why I am looking to see if there is anything worth doing with them before that.
 
Put lubuntu on them and continue to use them without issue! Heck, maybe even open a Linux computer lab!
 
caniba said:
Goodwill will take them.
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Goodwill will either recycle them if they can't be used or sell them. I would also recommend local schools, no not your public schools, but those vocational schools that are 501c3 non-profits, they can use computers all the time.
 
Around here where I am, most places like the Waterfront Mission or the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store won't take stuff of a certain age, even they can't really do much with them. Seems Windows XP machines are scrap for the most part.
 
Practical? No but it could be fun to cluster them. Outside of that they are garbage just drop them off at a charity place and call it a day.
 
Wow!. No good responses yet.

You can always set them up as DOS/Win98 gaming machines.

Look at what stuff like that goes for on Ebay.

It also depends on what exactly the hardware is.
 
I would just consolidate them into a handful of decent machines and donate the others. Use the older ones as donor machines to the ones that can actually be upgraded. IE if you have 2 machines with 2x1GB sticks, put all the sticks into a single machine for 4GB, use the strongest socket compatible processor available from them, and then donate the others.

Core 2 Duo's are still fine for every day casual usage.

And also, if they are all of the exact same model - that means you have a BUNCH of potential "backup" parts. So you could probably put a "chosen one" into some work role and not worry too much because you have an endless supply of boards, cpus, memory, controllers, etc.
 
Many religious schools run on donations. pull ram out of some for the others and send the 'good' ones to them and then recycle the rest.
 
We have given some to various Senior Centers, Some of them have even older units than than the units you have
 
Depends on how old. Unless it supports SSE2 instructions for Chrome browser requirement and can play 1080p YouTube then it's not worth the electricity. I've tried salvaging Duron class machines for people in the past but not even light weight Linux can help.
 
LMAO at people suggesting dual core multi ghz machines be used to run dos. If they're Core/Core 2 they have several times the performance of your avg P4. How soon we forget.
 
mi7chy said:
Depends on how old. Unless it supports SSE2 instructions for Chrome browser requirement and can play 1080p YouTube then it's not worth the electricity. I've tried salvaging Duron class machines for people in the past but not even light weight Linux can help.
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Youtube doesn't even default to 1080p most of the time based on people's shitty internet/wifi.

I installed debian on a 1ghz PIII and chromium/ice weasel surfed just fine.
 
Throw them in the bin. Worth zilch.

Otherwise jiminator made a really good suggestion.
 
Use them for a computer lab. Or as a demonstration project for distributed computing, by folding for the [H]orde (with permission of course). A creative science teacher could use them in a lot of ways.
 
PornoSatan said:
I would just consolidate them into a handful of decent machines and donate the others. Use the older ones as donor machines to the ones that can actually be upgraded. IE if you have 2 machines with 2x1GB sticks, put all the sticks into a single machine for 4GB, use the strongest socket compatible processor available from them, and then donate the others.

Core 2 Duo's are still fine for every day casual usage.

And also, if they are all of the exact same model - that means you have a BUNCH of potential "backup" parts. So you could probably put a "chosen one" into some work role and not worry too much because you have an endless supply of boards, cpus, memory, controllers, etc.
Click to expand...

This is the only sane suggestion so far. Consolidate the best parts into 2-3 decent machines and dump the rest. Spare machines are always handy and an old C2D (Hmm not so sure about a PentiumD nowadays) with 4GB of ram and a cheap SSD (to give it a little extra pep) is still a damn useful machine.

If they are SKT775 machines then you can upgrade them quite a bit (especially if PentiumD) for very little via Ebay.
 
If they are socket 775 they could invest in some cheap quad cores. I've got dozens of office machines that are Q6600, 4GB memory, and a 120GB SSD running Windows 7 Pro that are still very quick. You can pickup socket 775 quad cores for $25 or less now.
 
Could use them to test out some of the less resource hungry nix distros, or donating would be good.
 
In my area I put one of the linux OSs on them,after I clean them up and salvage the worst for parts for the better ones.There are still many children too poor to buy a computer,so there is a waiting list and I will never catch up.Sometimes adding wifi will get them on the net,when someone will let them have access.I can't spend much money,since I live on SS,after the market ate my retirement.I'm sure there are thousands of people like me whio do this.
 
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