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Uses for old pcs?

I have about 30 old pcs in my workshop at the moment, have refurbed a few and given them to the kids in the school, as skipping them seemed such a waste

What other uses have you got for old PCs?
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Comments

  • superscaper
    superscaper Posts: 13,369 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Been thinking about this just yesterday as I've got one possibly coming back to me (thought I'd got rid of it for good :rolleyes:). One thought I had today was a a security camera recorder, hence my other thread http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=696871.
    "She is quite the oddball. Did you notice how she didn't even get excited when she saw this original ZX-81?"
    Moss
  • lynzpower
    lynzpower Posts: 25,311 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    :beer: Well aint funny how its the little things in life that mean the most? Not where you live, the car you drive or the price tag on your clothes.
    Theres no dollar sign on piece of mind
    This Ive come to know...
    So if you agree have a drink with me, raise your glasses for a toast :beer:
  • ginjim
    ginjim Posts: 10,078 Forumite
    I have about 30 old pcs in my workshop at the moment, have refurbed a few and given them to the kids in the school, as skipping them seemed such a waste

    What other uses have you got for old PCs?

    i'm looking for a really old pc
    want to set up NAS
    if your local i'l have one:D:beer::A

    its to network a few xboxes and have streaming tv and backup dvds
  • Freecycle them - our local scout group ended up with my old parts.

    If you've got the time and are willing it's possible to set up nice a low powered server or two:
    Linux based firewall
    Web caching proxy (squid)
    Itunes /Upnp media server
    Centralized network storage (requires larger HDDs)
    Personal Email server
    Personal Webserver

    Tho mostly if the machines are too old, then they are expensive to run for the function, pull the ram (especially if it's plan old DDR or old) as it's more expensive that DDR2 and ebay it.
  • Stubert
    Stubert Posts: 733 Forumite
    I really want to convert my old pc into a media pc/server, but not sure what the best way to do it is! Its got acres of hard drive space just waiting to be loaded up with stuff...!
  • ginjim
    ginjim Posts: 10,078 Forumite
    click on the link of nas and it shows instruction
  • Hazzanet
    Hazzanet Posts: 1,724 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Well...

    PICT0006.JPG
    4358
  • ginjim
    ginjim Posts: 10,078 Forumite
    lol lol
  • I've thought long and hard about this one and here are my thoughts:

    1. Freecycle them.

    2. Charities/Webspace providers. I think some of the free webspace providers out there use old PCs. I know in Sheffield there was a company doing this and offering free webspace.

    3. Third world (although 2. may send them there anyway)

    4. NAS/FTP/Email/Web/Print/Media Server in your house.

    5. Gimp machine (aptly placed under the stairs :rotfl:) to do your torrent downloading.

    6. Give away to friends who want a machine for simple web surfing, 4 or 5.

    7. Send them to a recycling depot. I believe that there is considerably more gold/platinum in a PC weight-for-weight compared to that of ore when mining for gold. Don't know where accepts these though - don't think you'd get very far taking them down to your local smelter :D

    8. Create a linux Beowolf cluster. This basically joins all the machines together via network connection and creates a virtual supercomputer. Ideal for Universities who farm out jobs requiring lots of computation. I don't know why Universities don't do this more given the current environmentally friendly climate (no pun intended) - or even have their current PCs running linux virtual machines behind windows so they can have a supercomputer from all the networked PCs. I'm sure most PCs are left idle most of the time anyways as most people have PCs at home.

    9. Create a cluster offering a service online for people/companies to rent processing power. A bit like how SETI or Entropia who are searching for a cure for AIDS use people's processing power when their PCs are idle. In this model, rather than donating that power, you could offer this as a service. Obviously there would a be a lot of issues to resolve such as privacy, security, getting software on the machines that people need, etc, etc.

    10. Put a low-resource-hungry linux distribution on the machines that basically has a web-browser and other basic software on it for people to use. Then offer these machines to independent cafes as a service. You could charge them £2 per week for rental (basically one cup of coffee for them) of the machines for which you take responsibility of the upkeep of the PC. They can then put them in the cafe offering free internet access to all customers as most people only need a web browser nowadays anyway, so the machines don't need to be that great. This is a very good solution I think as it re-uses the machines and is environmentally friendly. I'm sure this could become a good business venture. In fact, you probably wouldn't even need the hard drives in the machines as you could run the OS from RAM or CD.

    I think 8-10 are more for the savvy and business-driven people out there so 1-7 will probably be better solutions. I'll be keen to hear your thoughts.
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