What to do with old computer...

Now that my wife and I have nice new computers, what do we do with the
old ones? Specifically an 8400 P4 with 1G and a 4300 P4 with 512M.

Handing them in for recycling is an easy way out, though it seems a
bit wasteful.

They won't hold many disks, and the controllers won't deal with big
disks, so they won't make great storage servers.

Old computers used to find a second life as NAT routers, but we have
one, and the available boxes seems small, efficient, and cheap.

A remote computer on a different floor of the house is a possibility,
but a notebook via wireless seems like a more sensible option.

Some people use music servers; I don't know much about them.

Bob S

On Saturday, August 30, 2014 11:17:16 AM UTC-5, Bob S wrote:
Now that my wife and I have nice new computers, what do we do with the

old ones? Specifically an 8400 P4 with 1G and a 4300 P4 with 512M.



Handing them in for recycling is an easy way out, though it seems a

bit wasteful.



They won't hold many disks, and the controllers won't deal with big

disks, so they won't make great storage servers.



Old computers used to find a second life as NAT routers, but we have

one, and the available boxes seems small, efficient, and cheap.



A remote computer on a different floor of the house is a possibility,

but a notebook via wireless seems like a more sensible option.



Some people use music servers; I don't know much about them.



Bob S

I put Win7 (32-bit) in the one I have...it runs extremely well (P4,3GHz,3GbRAM,320GbSATA.

Bob S wrote:
Now that my wife and I have nice new computers, what do we do with the
old ones? Specifically an 8400 P4 with 1G and a 4300 P4 with 512M.

Handing them in for recycling is an easy way out, though it seems a
bit wasteful.

They won't hold many disks, and the controllers won't deal with big
disks, so they won't make great storage servers.

Old computers used to find a second life as NAT routers, but we have
one, and the available boxes seems small, efficient, and cheap.

A remote computer on a different floor of the house is a possibility,
but a notebook via wireless seems like a more sensible option.

Some people use music servers; I don't know much about them.

Bob S

I use an older box to handle things like owners manuals, instruction
books, service paperwork, for different house/auto/whatever. Many are
pdf files. It resides in the house shop. Another one is set up as a juke
box in the main shop.


--
Steve W.

On Sat, 30 Aug 2014 12:17:16 -0400, Bob S
wrote:

Now that my wife and I have nice new computers, what do we do with the
old ones? Specifically an 8400 P4 with 1G and a 4300 P4 with 512M.

Handing them in for recycling is an easy way out, though it seems a
bit wasteful.

They won't hold many disks, and the controllers won't deal with big
disks, so they won't make great storage servers.

Old computers used to find a second life as NAT routers, but we have
one, and the available boxes seems small, efficient, and cheap.

A remote computer on a different floor of the house is a possibility,
but a notebook via wireless seems like a more sensible option.

Some people use music servers; I don't know much about them.

Bob S
Did you update the BIOS in the old ones?
I have a 1T drive in my D4600 (the board supports SATA 1 )


Uses:
Backup file server, Media server

Linux (fun) box (rule of thumb: Linux need way less resources the Windows)

Remote Desktop client/VNV (even a 386 can do this) if you can get a screen
bigger than 1024x768 to run

Bob S wrote in
:

Handing them in for recycling is an easy way out, though it seems a
bit wasteful.


Others have given you some ideas of what to do if you want to keep the
computers, but if you want to get rid of them you might consider
freecycle.com.

Think of freecycle as a Craigslist for free stuff. It operates pretty much
like Craigslist except everything is free. Make sure you clear the hard
drive so none of your personal info is on it, and if somebody wants the
computer you can put it on your porch and tell them to come by and take it
away.

It kind of depends on how active your local freecycle community is, but you
can get a feel for that by visiting freecycle.com and checking your local
areas. (We've got several fairly active freecycle boards here in the SF-
East Bay area.) I've had churches and non-profits pick up old computers,
and individuals who have the same computer but are happy to have another
for spare parts.

On 30/08/2014 17:17, Bob S wrote:
Now that my wife and I have nice new computers, what do we do with the
old ones? Specifically an 8400 P4 with 1G and a 4300 P4 with 512M.

Handing them in for recycling is an easy way out, though it seems a
bit wasteful.

They won't hold many disks, and the controllers won't deal with big
disks, so they won't make great storage servers.

Old computers used to find a second life as NAT routers, but we have
one, and the available boxes seems small, efficient, and cheap.

A remote computer on a different floor of the house is a possibility,
but a notebook via wireless seems like a more sensible option.

Some people use music servers; I don't know much about them.

Bob S


Install Amahi on the one that runs quieter and takes the least power.
Amahi is free home server software that allows you to access your files
securely from anywhere, and lots more besides.
http://www.amahi.org

Steve

On Sunday, August 31, 2014 4:09:07 PM UTC-5, dg1261 wrote:
but if you want to get rid of them you might consider

freecycle.com.


Facebook has similar local freecycle-types of sites...I've had better luck there than my local Yahoo Freecycle.

On Saturday, August 30, 2014 12:17:16 PM UTC-4, Bob S wrote:
Now that my wife and I have nice new computers, what do we do with the

old ones? Specifically an 8400 P4 with 1G and a 4300 P4 with 512M.



Handing them in for recycling is an easy way out, though it seems a

bit wasteful.



They won't hold many disks, and the controllers won't deal with big

disks, so they won't make great storage servers.



Old computers used to find a second life as NAT routers, but we have

one, and the available boxes seems small, efficient, and cheap.



A remote computer on a different floor of the house is a possibility,

but a notebook via wireless seems like a more sensible option.



Some people use music servers; I don't know much about them.



Bob S

I would scrap the Dimension 4300 because it is older. In other words, not a very good gift to someone.

The Dimension 8400 was one of the first computers with DDR2 and PCI-Express. Quite decent. Lots of possibilities to use it, as others have said... Ben Myers

On Thursday, September 4, 2014 8:51:50 PM UTC-5, Ben Myers wrote:

The Dimension 8400 was one of the first computers with DDR2 and PCI-Express. Quite decent.

....and SATA! For ten yrs old...it is an amazing thing! And mine was free...gotta love that!

On Friday, September 5, 2014 8:17:42 AM UTC-4, Bob_Villa wrote:
On Thursday, September 4, 2014 8:51:50 PM UTC-5, Ben Myers wrote:



The Dimension 8400 was one of the first computers with DDR2 and PCI-Express. Quite decent.



...and SATA! For ten yrs old...it is an amazing thing! And mine was free...gotta love that!

But SATA came to Dell before the 8400. The Dimension 4600 and Dimension 8300 have SATA with AGP and DDR memory.

SATA became commonplace over the years, so I rarely give it a thought. Can anybody use about 100 lbs of IDE drives piled up here? Capacities up to 500GB, though mostly 40 and 80GB.