What should I do with this ol' P4

M

MrDowntempo

Weaksauce
Joined
Jul 8, 2008
Messages
81
Back in 2001 my parents got me an Alienware machine for me to head off to college with. I've upgraded to new systems a few times since then but the machine is still tickin! Its a socket 423 Pentium 4 with 512mb of rambus and a comparatively new nvidia 6200 in its AGP slot. No onboard sound or NIC but I've got plenty of PCI cards laying around. I think it currently has a lightweight linux distro installed and I used to use the machine as a backup if I needed to get some work done and my main system was out of service. But now I've got multiple systems, all of which are much more moden. I don't wanna just toss this thing though, I mean its still working great. But what to do with it? Turning it into a dedicated folding box would be a joke. I can turn it into a BSD or Linux NAS or firewall, but I recently got a new linksys router that serves both those purposes. I already have an HTPC and my work machine in my bedroom works as an extender for it, so no need for that. No hope of putting windows 7 on there since upgrading to a gig of rambus would certainly not be worth the investment.

The only idea I've come up with so far is to put XP MCE on it and use it as an extender... on my screened patio. I have no idea how hard it would be to weatherproof a PC and display but the idea is intriguing, if not plausible.

Any other ideas as to what to do with an old working machine like this?
 
I ran into the same problem... my solution was to find an old nintendo. and mod the system into it. if its a microatx board. Then go to walmart and buy 2 of the playstation,gamecube,xbox usb controller hubs to mod into the front of it. I installed freedos then installed several emulators includeing zsnes as my main one. I think this would be very entertaining when hooked to a flatscreen. Most emulators get boring played in front of the pc after awhile there is just so many new games that are better (not as addicting though). But if plugged into the living room(instead of the corner). It becomes a whole new form of entertainment.


or a needy family .
 
There are lots of non-profit organizations that can use a computer like that. Animal shelters, half-way houses for mentally challenged, senior centers, etc. Just make sure you let them know you aren't tech support for it! :p
 
Locally, there's an organization called "Free Geek" and they do computer reuse for low income folks, and recycling of stuff that's too far gone to be of value to someone. Your stuff would definitely get someone on line and up and running.

I give them all my old boxen and worthwhile old spare parts. If there's someone similar close to you, I encourage you to donate the hardware so that someone lots less fortunate can have a machine.
 
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