What should I do with my old pc?

[mangekyoumusa]

Well,
I'm being a new pc soon and i don't know what to do with my old pc because of how old it is,
It's an Athlon dual core 7750
1gb of ddr2 ram.
150gb ide (i think)
Any suggestions on what I should do with it?

[Bonebreaker777]

Home file server?

HTPC?

Both? And add back up function?

Or you can always sell it, or donate it. Many ways to go, depending on your personal preferences.

[mangekyoumusa]

Home file server?

HTPC?

Both? And add back up function?

Or you can always sell it, or donate it. Many ways to go, depending on your personal preferences.

Ok,
Thanks for the advice^^
I can't make it a htpc because the video starts to glitch and flash about,
It's probably the gpu inside

[Bonebreaker777]

Ok,
Thanks for the advice^^
I can't make it a htpc because the video starts to glitch and flash about,
It's probably the gpu inside

Maybe needs a driver update only?

[Frankenfurter]

Build a fancy case and turn it into a jukebox/arcade machine. I think that'd be pretty awesome personally.

If that's not your thing you could always use it as a hub for music and shared files, even if it wont do video. Or use it as a print server.

Or the main controller for a webcam based home security system. Or a test computer for a new OS if you've not tried Linux. Clear out any sensitive data on it and use it when you're browsing sites/opening emails that look a bit virusey to keep your main PC safe. If you have any gym equipment hook it up to that so you can replay old favourites while you work out. Or turn it into a robot if you're good with hardware, or an aquarium if you're not.

Or there are loads of ways to donate it or otherwise make it useful such as with folding@home etc.

Sorry, got a bit carried away. Anyway, there're probably a million things you can do with an old PC, depends what you could do with having and what your techy skills are.

[vinnyT]

You could turn it into a hardware (hardened) firewall, here is a blog explaining in more detail, Just google "hardware firewall" for lots of sites howto's.

[Bonebreaker777]

That last suggestion is a proxy server blue print essentially, right?
Could be a network workhorse, true, but how many people do actually need that?

[Frankenfurter]

Is it enough to run a dedicated server on anything you play fairly often or would you be better off just running the server off your new machine? (assuming you play games)

[mangekyoumusa]

Is it enough to run a dedicated server on anything you play fairly often or would you be better off just running the server off your new machine? (assuming you play games)

Probably not, unless I upgrade the Ram and maybe the processor.
And it's also very slow.

[Frankenfurter]

Fair play. Well in that case, unless you want to do something really creative with it, I guess firewall/file server/media centre are pretty much what you got.

[Stylin]

If you have a DLNA device in the living room or where ever you watch movies and the ilk you could set it up as a media sharing unit. But if your new machine is decent and your not a die hard resource nut you can just use the new machine to stream stored content.

That IDE drive could make some streaming off if a bit sluggish and a GB of ddr2 is not a lot to work with. I assume it is a standard ATX mobo so no mini tower for a HTPC anyways. If the drive is still decent I would scavenge up at least another GB of ram and run a fresh install of XP on it.

You could sell it off as a "good for word processing and web surfing PC" and make back a bit. If your lucky maybe up too a hundred bucks if you think it is reliable. You would be able to get something for it at least.

Worst case if you just fresh install the OS and drop some basic word processing and other useful software on it would make a decent backup if your in a tight spot. Sometimes having a PC that isn't plugged into your power outlets can really save your bacon! Trust me .

Also if you are building your new one and you don't do that a lot I would say tear it apart and put it back together a couple times. CPU out and everything just to get a bit of hands on before playing with your nice new shiny bits. That is assuming you are building of course.

[virtuo]

You could always part-ex it. Seen one or two places recently offering a decent discount if you send in your old (working) system.

[Bonebreaker777]

You could always part-ex it. Seen one or two places recently offering a decent discount if you send in your old (working) system.

They have terms usually and an maximum age of components.

[scaryjim]

... 1gb of ddr2 ram. ...

... it's also very slow. ...

Problem located - 1GB of RAM isn't really enough to run any modern desktop OS if you want to do anything interesting, rather than stare at a desktop / start screen. Sadly, since you're on DDR2 upgrading to a reasonable amount of RAM probably isn't a sensible option, so you're looking instead at what you can do with 1GB, which is almost certainly run some kind of minimal linux install as a network server. On the plus side, disk capacity is relatively cheap, so you could probably turn it into a reasonable NAS. My only concern would be power draw: the Phenom-based Athlon 7750 wasn't exactly known for its energy efficiency, and since you'd normally leave a server or NAS on 24/7 you'll want to make sure that all the power-saving optiojns you can find are turned on.

The alternative, obviously, is to sell the parts: probably the CPU+MOBO as a bundle and the RAM separately (anyone wanting the CPU would probably want 2GB or 4GB of RAM to pair with it...). You might be able to make as much as £20 - £30 on ebay, if you get lucky with bidders...

[DanceswithUnix]

That is a bit low on ram, but with a cheap graphics card it could play Minecraft well enough to make a 10yr old kid very happy