Modding What Should I Do With a OLD Computer?

I have a REALLY OLD Computer that has only a Pentium 1 and I'm not sure of the other stuff. What I want to know is what can I do with this? I'm thinking about making a smaller acrylic case to put it in. Also I'm thinking about putting Linux on it. If this computer is really slow with Windows what are the chances of it being any faster with Linux? How big of a download is Linux? I only have a 56K modem and I'm going to have to download it with my main PC because this one won't run my MSN it's that old. It has Windows 98 on it but I know it came with 95. I really don't want to spend really anything on this.

 

I had one of those back in '96... I'll tell you what I did with mine: threw it away

Not saying you should, that's just my experience

 

ya not much you can do with it.. I just through out a P200 baught in 1995 lol....well I was going to make it a web server(to slow) mp3 server(to old) rip for parts(to old)


SO! I set it on fire with gas

 

There are many things you can do with those old computers. If it is faster than 200mhz, you can turn it into a low end server. Or, if you just want to make sweet eyecandy, than just have fun with it. Take my Idle Hands project for instance, thats an old 486 yet it looks totaly trick (check sig). There are no limits to what you can do with computer hardware, be it old or new. And I personaly like working with the older stuff, believe me when I say the old stuff was a lot more durable than the new junk that's coming out

 

You can do a lot of things with it.... I have an old Compaq K6 PC I'm converting to an HTPC for MP3 playing and internet gateway for my domestic lan. It has 64 MB of RAM, integrated video card, 4 GB HD and 8x CD-ROM... I'm going to replace the HD with a 2.5" laptop drive (6.4 GB), and the CD-ROM with a laptop DVD-ROM (I have my songs on DVDs). Two NIC's, a light Linux release and the game is done!
I'm going to put all the guts into an old Philips CD player, using the built in keys to control it and the remote control too.
If you want a light Linux distribution, I suggest you Core Linux: it's really light (the iso image is only 28 MB) and it installs just a basic kernerl, the kernel source, the developement tools (compilers and libraries) and nothing else. You have to manually build your custom kernel with the drivers for your peripherals.... Oh, I know it's not so easy for a first time user, but you can find a lot of tutorials if you !!!
Up to now, I've installed the kernel with the drivers for the two NICs, the ALSA driver for the sound card, a telnet daemon to control the PC over network (no mouse/keyb/monitor), an ftp daemon and samba for folder sharing... It works as a shame and boots in only 12 seconds!!!! Maybe I could order from linITX a CF/EIDE adapter and use a 256MB Compact Flash as the boot partition... It should speed up the boot phase and lower the delay below 10 sec.

 

Is there a way to hook two old computers together and have double the processing power? Because my dad has one about as old but he refuses to upgrade so I was wondering could I combine the two to make it faster? Can someone explain to me what a server does in detail? Also is there a way to make it a MP3 player and not have to have a monitor hooked to it?

 

http://www.damnsmalllinux.com

Another excelent choice for a small download. its only 50megs for a full distro with a GUI, and its actually quite powerful. built in apache-type server, and some other good junk. and its CD-runnable, if you want to try it before you mess with your partitions. plus, it reads NTFS and can host samba (to allow other windows pcs to read files from it)

Good luck

 

use the old thingy for router or smth... or mod it to death..

 

You could mail it to me....or better yet, drive it, I live in VA as well

 

I have the same problem. I actually have 2 200Mhz machines lying around. Old Modems, sound cards etc. I have no idea what to do with any of it.

 

Really? About where at? One thing I'm think is like making a MP3 Player or just a take apart the speakers and the computer and put it in a small custom acrylic case and make it just a custom CD player. But I don't want to have a monitor hooked to it because I have small room and one monitor is enough. But I don't know how I would do this. Anyone got any ideas?

 

Send it to me. lol

 

Paint it flat black with BBQ [ high heat enamel on the label ] paint, throw in a bog standard CD drive, and download Winamp 2...

Makes a great CD/MP3 rig for parties. Just make sure that CDs/MP3s is all it'd doing.

That flat black paint could really take a beating too.

 

Ahemm: me thinks the right URL is http://www.damnsmalllinux.org

I'm d/ling it right now just to see how it works with my HTPC...

 

get a group of friends and kill it.

 

Could be really adventurous and use it as a download server with (dare i say it) Kazaa

Rm

 

There's always the option of giving it to a charity, rather then killing it as some have suggested.

The air training corps http://www.aircadets.org/ , could make use of them. (let me know, and I'll find all old Pc's a good home). My local unit currently have 2 486's and are struggling to type letters on the things!

 

You could do what I did a couple years ago with a 133. Get it running with all period-correct hardware (soundblaster 16bit, 2meg video etc.), and use it for playing all the pre-accelerated games. Mechwarrior2, Duke Nukem, Need For Speed, etc. It's a blast

 

my friends mom, get all these old computers from the UN, or the British Embessy, well we realy don't know what she does.

But back on topic, with these old computers usually we shoot them with a paintbal gun first. Then we dig a hole and throw propane on the computer, take a match to it and run. When we come back we water it down then look at it. It is really fun.

 

Ever seen Office Space?