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S
Sweeney
Guest
Learn OS development and use it as your monkey.
U
UOKaiser
Guest
Use it as another gaming computer when you have company, Play with different operating systems, Make a web server for fun, well basicaly anything you can do on your computer. Maybe make it as a server and practice like if you were in a lan. Though most importantly a backup computer just incase your new one malfunctions for a bit.
Basara
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There's always what I call "giving a friend a sideways upgrade".
If you have a friend with a less-capable computer, that uses the same type of drives, pull their Hard Drive(s), put them into your old computer, and once you get it operational, give it to them as a gift. That way, they retain all their old information, on a better machine (though if their machine was one of those annoying out-of-the-box ones that does a software/hardware comparison check, you'll have to disable the check).
Then, spend $20-30 online, and buy an external HDD converter enclosure, and turn the old internal drive into an external drive to use for transferring files and storing backups between the desktop and laptop.
Or, if you know multiple people needing better machines, part it out to help them all (or, do a serial upgrade, where your machine replaces most of one person's machine, then you use the removed parts to upgrade someone else's machine, and so on). I've had one of my machines end up upgrading 3 different computers for friends, plus the HDD becoming an external (at least, until one of those 3 people gave me an even larger drive for the enclosure, that was from a DOA motherboard machine someone gave them).
If you have a friend with a less-capable computer, that uses the same type of drives, pull their Hard Drive(s), put them into your old computer, and once you get it operational, give it to them as a gift. That way, they retain all their old information, on a better machine (though if their machine was one of those annoying out-of-the-box ones that does a software/hardware comparison check, you'll have to disable the check).
Then, spend $20-30 online, and buy an external HDD converter enclosure, and turn the old internal drive into an external drive to use for transferring files and storing backups between the desktop and laptop.
Or, if you know multiple people needing better machines, part it out to help them all (or, do a serial upgrade, where your machine replaces most of one person's machine, then you use the removed parts to upgrade someone else's machine, and so on). I've had one of my machines end up upgrading 3 different computers for friends, plus the HDD becoming an external (at least, until one of those 3 people gave me an even larger drive for the enclosure, that was from a DOA motherboard machine someone gave them).
S
Sweeney
Guest
OS tinkering!!! Don't listen to these nerds, check out osdev.net.. assuming you know C or C++ it won't be very difficult (But yes it will be difficult [OS dev is the hardest if not among the hardest skills to learn])
But do what you want to do with it.. donate it, recycle it. Just don't do horrible things like blowing it up etc.
But do what you want to do with it.. donate it, recycle it. Just don't do horrible things like blowing it up etc.
Ooh, yes...it is always nice to have a system at your disposal for torture! Muahahahahaha.
If you really want to do tinkering, Kelmo, I'd suggest investing in an inexpensive external backup disk & drive imaging system, such as Maxtor OneTouch 4 Mini, with bundled SafetyDrill imaging software. Once you get your system in a cookie cutter configuration, you can image it to the drive (takes an hour or two, depending on drive size), and then do whatever you want to the computer software & setting wise. An image is an exact duplicate of the hard drive, not just backing up files and such. In the event of a disaster, you can just boot the comp from the SafetyDrill CD, pick the saved image stored on the external USB drive, and it reformats the computer hard drive and copies the saved image onto it. Takes about 15 min, depending on the drive size, but you are back in business with a fresh start and no fuss of reinstalling and patching the OS or loading applications.
-Skylark
If you really want to do tinkering, Kelmo, I'd suggest investing in an inexpensive external backup disk & drive imaging system, such as Maxtor OneTouch 4 Mini, with bundled SafetyDrill imaging software. Once you get your system in a cookie cutter configuration, you can image it to the drive (takes an hour or two, depending on drive size), and then do whatever you want to the computer software & setting wise. An image is an exact duplicate of the hard drive, not just backing up files and such. In the event of a disaster, you can just boot the comp from the SafetyDrill CD, pick the saved image stored on the external USB drive, and it reformats the computer hard drive and copies the saved image onto it. Takes about 15 min, depending on the drive size, but you are back in business with a fresh start and no fuss of reinstalling and patching the OS or loading applications.
-Skylark
O
Old Man of UO
Guest
Donate it to the local historical museum AFTER you disable/replace/wipe the hard drive and restore the operating system. I know quite a few small non-profits that would benefit from such a system.
OR
Hold a contest on Stratics to donate to the winner of the worst/slowest computer used to play UO.
OR
Hold a contest on Stratics to donate to the winner of the worst/slowest computer used to play UO.
Someone did that recently
Other ideas:
1) Donate to your fav charity.
2) Use it as a backup PC
3) UO life saver - ie you died in the middle of nowhere, just login a second account using the old PC go gate/rez your ghost
4) Dedicated Bit Torrent machine if you are into that
5) Testbed for new os, programs etc. One you can always format and rebuild anytime
6) Testbed for faulty components. ie - hdd/video card/thumbdrives/network card/printer on your main failed, you have another PC to test the component on to isolate if it's the device or something else.
M
mutau
Guest
another idea is to donate it to a local school for their computer classes. Many schools' budgets have been severely cut. Schools are accepting computers that are used/new. These will help students learn computer skills or help teachers.
Always an option, education.
Always an option, education.
J
Jermosh
Guest
Note on donating a PC, if you have used it for anything that is sensitive, CC transactions, banking, love notes to your mistriss, etc, etc. The only safe way to protect it is to destroy the drives with a drill hammer. Just buy a new drive for them if you like. Its not that hard to pull old info if they have the skills and equipment.
Destroying the drive is the best way to be sure, but there are many utilities available for data shredding. There is a free utility called DBAN Boot & Nuke (http://www.dban.org). It is an OpenSource project, and listed as free for personal or corporate use, and I have now started using that instead of the sledgehammer on hard drives, before giving old computers away. It can't be used in situations that require proof of regulatory compliance/certification on data destruction for privacy acts such as HIPAA, and SOX, because that would open the developer of this freeware utility up to major liability, but it does in fact make multiple passes of filling up the hard drive with nonsense data, then wiping it. They have a paid version of the utility (EBAN) that DOES provide that compliance for organizations that have to document it.
-Skylark