What would you do with this lot?

[Vimeous]

So I've 6 semi-ancient PC's various specs and makes I can probably do without. What would you propose I do with them - sell, recycle or reuse?

1x P233(?) (AOC)
2x PII 400 (Roldec/Evesham)
1x XP1700 (Novatech)
1x PII ? Laptop (Compaq)
1x AMD SS7 333 (Custom Build)

All run genuine Windows at present.

Considering their performance relative to modern hardware (routers even!) I'm struggling to think of a viable use other than donate them to work, install xubuntu, and run our character-based ERP.

What would you do?

[jim]

Personally, I would donate them to someone/something. That's what I did with the last batch of PCs I had of that ilk at least.

The amount of effort involved in making them do something worthwhile (and let's face it, beyond a firewall or folding there's not much purpose) would probably exceed the amount of money it would cost to get something much more capable. IMO, of course.

[Phage]

1) Donate to Charity
2) Some sort of Art installation like that AMD tabletop
3) Trebuchet ammunition.

[Iron Sights]

1) Donate to Charity
2) Some sort of Art installation like that AMD tabletop
3) Trebuchet ammunition.

option 3!!! Useful for clearing gardens from unwelcomed visitors

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Try some DIY Gold recovery!!

[Vimeous]

Some very worthwhile ideas, although the cost of building a trebuchet other than from the PC's themselves, sadly rules it out....

Hold on - is "Trebuchet" listed under allowable WEEE regulations?!

Try some DIY Gold recovery!!

Oddly you're not the first to suggest that! Although access to something hot enough to melt the PCB's/CPU's into their core components is an issue.
How do you think they'd fair strapped to an overworked turbocharger?

[.walls]

1) Recycle
2) Barbeque
3) Skip

Realistically, these boxes are no use to man nor beast as computers considering the amount of electricity they use for the amount of processing power (you'd be losing money in the long run).

[Sputnik]

Recycling centre I think, Where my P2 300 is going very soon. I thought I had got rid of it years ago but, then the person gave it back to me

[pipTheGeek]

If it takes DDR RAM then I keep it, if it pre-dates DDR then I strip it for useful bits. This is normally all the screws and motherboard standoffs, sometimes a PSU, case or hard drive. One side affect of this is that I have about 7 floppy drives cables and not a single working floppy drive.

I also have a pile of broken PC bits sitting near the bins waiting to go down the recycling centre. For some reason Norwich city council hasn't listed "PC Bits" on the list-of-stuff-that-can-go-in-the-recycling-bin.

[scaryjim]

... 2) Barbeque ...

Amusingly I'd been planning this as my next case project after finishing Cunning Plan! But if someone's beaten me to it I better think up something even more ludicrous

[=assassin=]

Install some old games like Quake 2, and invite a group of mates round for a retro gaming session.

[Repressor]