I Thought that one of my posts today could be about the older pc’s that we still have lying around at home, we can use these pc’s for many things: Upgrading, Use it as a server, Security (Turn
them into firewalls or email security) or as a Home Theatre system (Put
the pc with your TV and connect it over Wi-Fi).

The first thing that you should consider is upgrading, you may want to upgrade the RAM if you are going to give the PC to someone else or Upgrade the HDD (Hard
Disk Drive) if you were going to use it for a home theatre system. If
you search on Google or YouTube you will probably find a step by step
tutorial on how to upgrade these components.

The second thing that you could do with your pc is to use it as a File Server, there is a Web Browser called Opera that has a tool called Opera Unite, This will
host files on this PC for access on any PC with a web connection.

The Third thing that you could do is to use this PC as a firewall, There is a video about this at http://bit.ly/firewalltechsafer
(This video was not done by me). Also you could use it for Email
security by Using VMware’s VMware Server from http://bit.ly/servertechsafer
and downloading a virtual appliance from http://bit.ly/appliancetechsafer.

The fourth thing that you could do is use it as a home theatre system. This may require an updated sound card, but this is easy so shouldn’t be a problem. You could also include a wireless card in this
PC so that it could connect to your wireless router.

I Hope this post has helped you recycle your old PC’s and if you enjoyed this post then please follow this blog.

Louis Jenvey

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Comment by cliffystones on April 16, 2010 at 8:05am: Since no one else has mentioned it, any older PC can be set up as a jukebox. I have an old Compaq PII laptop in my shop with my tunes on it.

Comment by Louis Jenvey on April 15, 2010 at 7:08am: Thats what my dads pc is like @Treknet

Comment by Treknet on April 14, 2010 at 4:35pm: I have a new computer, but my dad still uses his original one. I believe it runs Windows ME. It's a Dell Dimension 4300, but virtually every part except a piece of the tower and the keyboard has been replaced at least once. To top it all off, the interface is very screwed up and it only has about 256 MB of RAM, but he doesn't seem to care. I don't understand how he can take it-I currently have 512 MB (going to upgrade to 1 GB-2 GB at Christmas) and it drives me crazy.

Comment by Pizzor2000 on April 14, 2010 at 7:09am: As a programmer, I like to have several old boxes available for testing. I do have a few old PCs with various operating systems that were given to me by friends, or I bought them at garage sales.

Comment by Phoobar on April 14, 2010 at 6:50am: Am personally using a 3.0 P4 with 2 GB of memory as a host box with a PVR-150 as my analog PVR. Will be hooking an XBox 360 to it later on today to run off a KVM switch to play games on my monitor.

Another system my roommate & I built about 2 weeks ago to take the place of an OLD Dell P3 laptop he needed for a business trip. This one was a Celeron 1.2 Ghz with 256 MB of memory. Ended up trying Linux Mint...then LXDE...then XFCE to run AVI's from the numerous PC's in the house to the Sony flat screen in the living room. Played them nicely...but could do nothing else at the same time. It's going to be given to a friend of his without a PC at all.

Last night...we built a new HTPC with a 3.2 P3 he got off Ebay with 2 GB memory/80 GB HDD/512 MB video card with HDMI & an old sound blaster card he had sitting around for about $300. With HDMI & the audio going through a home receiver...the walls shook with a brilliant picture.

Comment by Louis Jenvey on April 14, 2010 at 6:19am: I Have a old Dell Dimension 8200 with 120GB HDD a 2.20GHZ Pentium 4 and 256MB of Ram. It runs XP Pro very slowly

Comment by AD on April 14, 2010 at 6:10am: I still use a old Core2Duo for video editing work, it may be slow but I don't care since I have my i7 system for gaming and everything else. I an let it run all night, it doesn't matter. It also makes a fine extra storage spot and Bittorrent runner.

My next oldest comp I rebuilt a bit and gave to a young couple who couldn't afford a new system yet. It can surf the web just fine, and that's all they want, keeps it out of a landfill site anyway.

Comment by twister7boy on April 14, 2010 at 2:27am: i am still using a old pc from 7 or 8 years ago.
when 'm done i'll give it to gabe to upgrade or use as parts for other pcs.
electronics never go to waste here.
peace. gregg

Comment by YOGESH PAWAR on April 14, 2010 at 1:24am: i still my old pc which is now 10 years old, just upgraded it only twice

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