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- Iwantawii, on 10/12/2007, -1/+27Killing unwanted or rarely use services on the OS level is key. Like turning off disk indexing and system restore on an XP box, or printing, networking, and other misc. daemons on any other box.
- parsap, on 10/12/2007, -0/+20Except that your firewall takes 300 watts of power... Buying a $30 router and tossing your old computer router would be much cheaper.
Same with your web server. The power bill is going to be more than $10/month, which will easily buy you decent hosting. - Enfenestrate, on 10/12/2007, -1/+19You're right, but don't assume that your average computer user has this "common sense" thing.
- richardtechie, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14Linux is very good in this type of application .
- Nedlog23, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14Upgrade rule #1
No matter how old a computer is, if it does everything you need it to do and does it well enough, then it doesn't need upgraded.
Upgrading to keep up with the Jones is a waste of money. What's new today is old only tomorrow. - jdong, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12At the place I worked managing thousands of computers, there were 2 odd cases where the computers ran unbelievably slowly (P4 2.8GHz with HT... Not the fastest things ever, but shouldn't take 40 seconds to start Word XP either)
Every attempt was made to treat it as a software problem -- reimaging it, cleaning out the software, etc. Eventually we opened up the case to check the hard drive, and this gigantic cloud of dust filled the air. I don't know if the lady had been using the computer as a vacuum cleaner, or thought computers get hungry and should be fed dust or something, but it was horrific.
Anyway, in the end we vacuumed up the excess dust, and blasted the heatsinks/fans/PSU with canned air, put it back to gether and speed was restored. On a similar note, a lot of times when we get complaints that laptops run hot or abnormally loudly, blasting the heatsink/chasis fan(s) makes a noticeable improvement.
However, I think in reality he was addressing the cosmetic side of the old computer there. - Blakechi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10#1 should be giving it to a family member (the older the better).
- drowe, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12He's not saying that cleaning it will make it run faster, he's saying it'll keep it running.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11i had a whole hand me down chain for my old computers
was like the top 3 were mine (1st desktop, 2nd server, 3rd backup for guests/gaming lan parties), 4th oldest went to my mom, 5th to by littler brother, 6th to my little sister hehe
but i stopped upgrading so much so dont have so many handme downs - Rivetgeek, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Ive always wanted to try this block feature.
- DIGGER[NJLP], on 10/12/2007, -4/+12Old hardware is the best way to save cash!
My Firewall is a 486DX, 512 Megs o Ram, a 5 Gig HD, two 3COM 10/100 nic cards running Smoothwall http://www.smoothwall.org/. No cost to me and smoothwall is pretty solid.
MY web server is running on a Dual P2 233, with 512 Megs of Ram..
They are solid! Don't throw your things away!! Re-use em! - LogicBomB, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Why isn't "reformat" on this list? Might apply more to XP/2k people but I know my crappy machine at home runs like lightning (for basic apps) when on a fresh install but currently i'm lucky if it boots up in 3 minutes.
Perhaps formating is a bit excessive but when your registery is clogged with old entries, hundreds of folders not properly deleted from old uninstalls, random crap all over the place, it's just best to be rid of it all, start fresh. - Blandyman, on 10/12/2007, -3/+11Going off the tracks of the conversation would be mentioning your own computer, or what YOU like to do with old computers.
This is like going back in time and undoing the railroad system.
Good ***** job, *****. - tpink, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7I used to have a whole array of old machines, each one doing one specific task (web serving, netboot server, etc.) but I finally got tired of all the noise and unreliability and built a MicroATX box for about $300 with an emphasis on low power usage (no CD-ROM drive, no monitor, no peripherals) and now I run everything on separate virtual machines in VMware Server. Everything runs faster, more reliably, quieter, and uses less power.
- abohling, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Have you ever seen a video card fan full of dust? If the fans won't turn it's going to overheat which equals system freezes, poor video quality etc. Dust is a computer killer if not handled correctly.
- 2smooth4u, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6I thought that most of what he put on there was common sense if you ever took an A+ class or learned on older hardware? Still a good article.
- buckrogers1965, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I'm surprised that everyone forgot about upgrading the memory.
I've found that you can easily add more memory to an older computer to make them run much faster. Often I just have an electrostatic baggy of that old memory laying around and just easily add in a few sticks and take an old machine from 64MB to 256MB with no problems. Even if you have to purchase a couple of sticks, often you can find that kind of memory cheap on ebay or a local computer salvage store.
The reason why this speeds up old computers is that they won't have to swap to disk as often. Many times the main reason why a newer computer is so much faster than an older computer is because they always come with more memory by default than the older machines did. The latest core 2 duo swapping to disk is almost the same speed as an older 486 computer that is swapping to disk.
Another thing I have done is turn older computers into X terminals. Even an old 486 with 64MB of RAM makes a great X Terminal and you can install a complete Linux system that boots to an X server configured to connect to you main application server and give you a login screen. The only thing that doesn't work as well as you would want is streaming video. There are even ways to stream the sound out to the terminal, but I have never taken the time to do that.
A 300 watt power supply does not draw 300 watts most of the time. You might be impressed at how little power those old 486's that are stripped down to just a couple of ethernet cards, minimal memory, and no graphics cards can draw. Often the computer will be drawing less than 100 watts of power.
You could also install nice easy to configure software like "IPCop" http://www.ipcop.org on the 486 which blows away any hardware router in features and ease of use. You don't get VPN or transparent web page proxy caching until you spend a lot of money on hardware routers. Features of IPCop are here: http://www.ipcop.org/1.4.0/en/install/html/features.html Of course, the more features you add the more memory and hard drive space you will need to use.
There are a lot of projects like this that can turn an old slow desktop computer into a full feature speedy firewall or even a file and print server.
Interesting discussion on power usage versus landfill here:
Your "Old" 486 & LINUX
http://linux.omnipotent.net/article.php?article_id=10872
The 486 Follow-Up
http://linux.omnipotent.net/article.php?article_id=10942 - antdude, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Or donate to someone who can use it.
- forgetmenots, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I gave my old PC to my grandma and taught her how to turn it on, play solitaire, and turn it off.
- heptahedron, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6Last-1 OS version rule: Don't install the last OS version that's compatible with the machine - go a version back. The last version is usually too bloated even if it is compatible.
- themastersb, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4How to keep an old computer useful: Stick Ubuntu on it.
- Urusai, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I was wondering when somebody would trot out the "aulde boxen --> firewall" chestnut.
- Cherubim, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I've seen neighbors thow out perfectly good iMacs and PCs which they couldn't get working. When I collected them I found that in most cases the problem with these machines was loose memory or a dead hard drive. Easily fixed if one knows what they're doing.
Older machines are perfectly fine if one uses them for a specific task. - lilrabbit129, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3While I agree that a reformat could be one of the most cost-effective "upgrades" to any computer. Thinking that computers are slow ONLY because of windows rot is folly. A lot of computers feel slow because they are running newer version of software. This software has more features and as such, require much higher end equipment.
If you run your computer with programs that came out around the same time the computer came out, then yes it'll feel fast. Start upgrading those programs to never versions and it'll feel slower. - Hootyea, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5KDE is a desktop environment, not an OS...
- jlbraun, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Mine is an old Dell that I got new in 1997. It's shoved into the bottom of a closet.
It's a screaming 266 MHzand has 128MB of RAM, It runs Mandrake 10 Linux / Windowmaker and has 1.6TB of storage.
It runs cups, tor, samba, and bt, and has 102 days uptime according to top (had a power failure).
They don't make 'em like they used to. When this one dies, I'll get a Shuttle or miniITX box, and attach the HDD's with external USB. - UNL1M1T3D, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Or CCleaner that is free and does a wonderful job at cleaning your registry.
- subgeniusd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"when your registery is clogged with old entries"
Registry Mechanic will fix that. (btw don't we have a Microsoft area now?) - mrswirl, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@jdong
It's not all that surprising that excessive dust would cause a system slowdown - I suspect that all that dust was causing reduced cooling and most modern processors (P4's for example) have internal protections that automatically throttles their performance to avoid overheating.
In fact, after many years of working on and diagnosing PC trouble, one of the first things I have learned to do is a quick physical exam of the insides - unseated cards/cables, bent pins, bad PSU's, etc. before I start monkeying around with software restores and reinstalls.
As any auto mechanic will tell you - there's no sense in pulling the engine out first if all that's needed is changing the spark plugs. - BlackCow, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I took old computer parts and built it into a shelf in our tropical room. Put ubuntu ultimate on and I have it play music. I even took an old LCD that was 16 inches, just big enough to fit in the shelf (I had to tear it apart to take off the base though). Im also planning on getting one of those laser keyboards,
http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/input/8193/
Should look really good on the black shelf. There are tons of fun stuff you can do with old computers. - immrlizard, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I do a lot of work in people's homes and let me tell you that there are a lot of problems that happen because of heat. If I know they have a cat or dog I usually bring my little compressor and blow out the machine if they are having some flaky issues. If it is an overheating issue, that solves it.
- sgtawol, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Even though it's (yet another) 10 list, it has some decent stuff. Good suggestions in the comments as well.
- Xenogis, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Ubuntu probably wouldn't be good for an old computer. I would install Gentoo or Slackware with E17/E16.
- theblackgecko, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2KDE 4 is actually faster than KDE 3.
The proper saying is do not install Windows bloatware. On the other hand, newer versions of Linux are generally more efficient than older versions. - SVPirate, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Good advices. It's a shame it only really seems to cover x86 PCs, but a lot of it is sound if applied to other platforms. I have a large collection of old machines of many platforms (Mac, Amiga, x86, SGI and Sun mostly) and stuff like keeping them clean, keeping hardware working (or removing and replacing what doesn't) is part of maintaining any old machine.
Oh and also I'd advise you run the machine up from time to time if it's in storage. Any I care about get fired up and tinkered with every 6 months or so just to stop old age getting the better of the parts. - jello, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I was lucky to receive a sytsem that somebody had given up for junk. I was mostly interested in the monitor for my grandparents. It was a unique experience opening up the case to see that every component was caked in a thick layer of dust. I took it into my garage and a quick blast of compressed air later the system was up and running like new. The hard drive failed a couple of months later but I still use the system as my primary desktop.
- msprout, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Off topic a bit, but does anybody know what wallpaper the guy's using? It seems pretty damn cool.
http://xs.to/xs.php?h=xs413&d=07123&f=2007-03-20-190207_1600x1200_scrot.jpg - Nedlog23, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Did I mention my computer does everything I need it do to and does it well?
No Vista for me . . . .yet. Get service pack 1 and 2 out for Vista and I'll think about it.
I do really like Vista for one thing . . . it's taking center stage as a hacking target.
Hopefully XP hacking will slowly taper off? - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Talk about being penny-wise and pound-fullish. Old computers consume more electricity than they are worth. Junk'em! It is cheaper to buy a new computer, and use it to run VMWARE or VPC.
- Xenogis, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I installed vista on my laptop a while back to see if microsoft has caught up with apple and linux and it is just harder to use, more bloated and somehow has less drivers than windows xp did
- Xenogis, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Damn. I wish I had neighbors like yours. Around here I don't get old/broken computers to play with often. When I do it is fun though, because once you get two or three you can build a decent working computer.
- Xenogis, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1KDE definitely isn't an OS but it contains most of the programs you use. (That is, if you prefer KDE)
- valkyries, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2but when u have little girls in the house that like to click on everything and click yes to every popup smoothwall will block all that *****, and can viruscan every incoming thing with clamav and u can block words or even block file types so they dont download ***** to the computer.
- Xenogis, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1You shoulda just used all the computers for servers and made a little hosting site. You won't get much money but if you offer a good deal and your connection is semi-fast you will get some :)
- moraccomoo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0moral of d story: Respect and Adore primitive-age machines as they sometime served our purpose.
tho i use IBM laptop I still use my "Dexie" who is now 6yrs old. I respect her cos she taught me what a computer is - inactive, on 01/13/2008, -1/+1That's great find
http://www.nasavo.com
http://www.nasavo.com/acne
http://www.nasavo.com/forex
http://car.nasavo.com
http://www.jurugan.com
http://health.jurugan.com
http://www.vrid.net
http://laptop.vrid.net
http://projector.vrid.net
http://hyip.ej.am
http://car.ej.am - nanboya, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3Ho hum, another top ten list. Still, dugg for a good summary and putting things together in a nice, concise and easy to read format.
- xs650, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1"My Firewall is a 486DX, 512 Megs o Ram, a 5 Gig HD, two 3COM 10/100 nic cards running Smoothwall http://www.smoothwall.org/. No cost to me and smoothwall is pretty solid."
When you move out of your mother's house and start paying an electric bill it will start costing you. About $10 to $15/month if it's on $24/7.. -
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