Uses for 800MHz PCs?

Wedge · Post by **Wedge** » Sun Nov 02, 2008 7:16 pm

I have recently upgraded a friends PC (two of them, in fact). He let me keep the old hardware: AMD 750MHz and an AMD 850MHz. K8s'? I think? Not really up to speed on AMD products.

Anyway, what can these be useful for. I have the Mobo's, RAM, and processors. I even have the leftover network cards, TV tuner car, and sound cards. I have two complete PCs. Too bad they are too old to run most of today's software. So what can these things be used for?

Post by **MikeC** » Sun Nov 02, 2008 8:29 pm

If they're not power hungry, probably fine as file servers on your network... or even dedicated NAS.

bgiddins · Post by **bgiddins** » Sun Nov 02, 2008 8:59 pm

If you don't want to use them yourself, there's generally organisations that accept PC donations for charity groups or the underprivileged - they may want them to build some PCs and stick Linux on them for someone.

Sounds like you just need case, PSU and HDD - old IDE drives are cheap and plentiful. Either give the components away as-is, or find the dirt-cheapest case/PSU available, get some IDE drives from eBay or a swap meet, and make a couple of Linux boxes for charity.

Wedge · Post by **Wedge** » Mon Nov 03, 2008 5:14 am

Both excellent ideas.

Question: is a NAS capable of being accessed from the internet?

Post by **MikeC** » Mon Nov 03, 2008 9:55 am

Wedge wrote:Both excellent ideas.

Question: is a NAS capable of being accessed from the internet?

Some have this feature - like Buffalo LinkStation. In WHS, it's an option. I'm sure Linux boxes can do the same.

NyteOwl · Post by **NyteOwl** » Mon Nov 03, 2008 3:12 pm

Too bad they are too old to run most of today's software

Maybe if you're running climatology simulations but they'll run well over 90% of most desktop stuff just fine.

The vast majority of today's desktops aren't used to even half their capabilities. Even XP will run fine on machines as slow as 500 MHz (to say nothing of various *nix type OSes.

If the NAS can be assigned an internet routeable IP then it can be accessed from the net. Otherwise you will need to do some NAT between the two.

sjoukew · Post by **sjoukew** » Thu Nov 06, 2008 10:42 am

p2p programs do also run perfect on those boxes

autoboy · Post by **autoboy** » Thu Nov 06, 2008 2:12 pm

Considering they are nearly as fast as an Atom processor they aren't really that slow as regular PCs. The biggest issue is genearlly ram. I would make sure you have at least 512MB of ram for each. 700+ is preferable.

CyberDog · Post by **CyberDog** » Fri Nov 07, 2008 3:16 am

And you can always tweak your XP a much lighter os. Or use a ready made os.