I’m using a 14 year old puter I paid $3k for as a door stop right now. It runs fine...
I’ll take it
Unless you’re sentimental about it, you could wipe the HDD and sell it....probably worth a few dollars....
It depends - do you still find a need for a 2001 Yellow pages?
I use an old Osborne1 portable as a boat anchor.. The handle was a nice place to tie a rope.
While it was one of the first “portable” machines it weights about 40 lbs.
As to yours, there are some groups that take them and refreb um and send them to third world countries.
Do a military level format of the drive, or remove it and smash it to bits.
I use an old Osborne1 portable as a boat anchor.. The handle was a nice place to tie a rope.
While it was one of the first “portable” machines it weights about 40 lbs.
As to yours, there are some groups that take them and refreb um and send them to third world countries.
Do a military level format of the drive, or remove it and smash it to bits.
If it works fine, store it as a backup. Redundancy is good. Having a plan b or plan c is good. If you’ve got the room save it. Besides compared to some of the startup times these things run lean O/S’s compared to the bloatware of today.
Some guys install Linux and a few network cards and use them for homemade routers.
If you load a lightweight Linux version on it, you can probably use it as a file server.
Backup files from your other computers to it or keep commonly used files in a central place.
The bottle-neck on file servers is usually the NIC, not the cpu, so there’s a good chance this computer would be fast enough for use as a home file server.
My XP died (motherboard) just before Thanksgiving 2011. Luckily, I had just ordered a new Win7.
The XP is still sitting on the floor. It has some good componenets — 2 DVD recorders, new fan, old 56k modem, etc.
Even the ole lcd 20” monitor was going bad.
I hate to trash them because of the still-working components, but the components wouldn’t bring $2.00 at a garage sale.
Wipe the drive and put it on craigslist. You might get $20.
Day blo up reel nize!
Get Parallels or some such for running Windows on your Mac. Move the files, re-install any programs you want, and recycle the old PC.
While I appreciate the pack-rat nature of trying to save & use everything which has served you well, realize that the technology has moved on so far & fast that any time you spend trying to maintain that old beast is better spent earning the paltry sum needed to buy a dirt-cheap modern machine which is orders of magnitude superior. Parallels etc. is, what, $75? and you already have the screaming-fast hardware to run it on.
Depending on the state you live in, there may be environmental laws requiring proper disposal of the computer. So, before you throw it in the trash, check into your local laws. And be prepared to pay a fee for the disposal.
Isn’t that what that hole that goes under your house is for? Throwing things down so that your grandchildren can find the old antiques when you’re gone!
if you have a boat, you now have an auxiliary anchor.
12 years?!?
Not even a boat anchor.
No one will buy it - in fact, you’re probably going to have to pay someone to take it off your hands - with all of the lead and other metals inside, you can’t just toss it into a landfill.
Just remember to remove the hard drive, and drill a couple of holes through it before tossing it.
Linux.
Say goodbye.
I have had to say goodbye to many things, some would be low level collectibles today.
The original Magnavox Odyssey. The Spectravideo SV-318 (Z-80 CP/M), various homebrew DOS boxes, a Pentium 75. I had a Mac IIx that originally cost $9,000 (80 GB SCSI and 9 MB RAM!).
I don’t regret any of it.
My wife’s computer died after a storm last week. It was a Pentium IV with a low end Intel brand mb.
If I had not freecycled a bunch of old gear three months ago, I might have cobbled together a working machine after hours of hunting and two days of work.
Instead, I went on Craigslist and picked up a working Dell GX270. In one day. For $50.
The $50 was worth the loss of aggravation and room.