What to do with an old computer?
 

I have a really old PC tower and Monitor from a few years back in my attic, that I have finally decided I will never use. I know that your not supposed to through away computers(?) and since I like being creative I was thinking of re-appropriating it as something. Have you guys ever done anything like that? if so what did you do?

I've changed the motherboard & PSU etc on my old 486, on several occations, I'm still using the case for my main home PC...

It depends upon several things, If it is upgradeable then you might add enough memory and possibly upgrade the bios and the motherboard drivers along with the sound and video card etc. You should be able to do most of it fairly easily and memory especially the old stuff is available all over,Look at flea markets used electronics shops etc and you should have a computer that will run Linux on a song.

There are distro's out that are used just for this and they run blazingly fast. I was given 7 old computers by the lycee here on our island as they didn't want them and the poisons added to our dump and into our ground and lagoon waters. I do them for the kids here who cannot afford a computer and thereby are being deprived of the future. The great thing about many of the distributions in Linux is the fact they can be changed completely to another language very easily. I do all my installations and set ups in English and when I am finished I change the language to French for our kids. I understand that is beginning to happen in Windows, but not using it I am not sure if it is a sure thing like it is in Linux.

Oh, for anyone who has an old notebook there are oodles of lite versions of linux distros written for them. I have 4 old notebooks that run very well using lite versions of linux. Here is a URL that might just help save you money in adding new life to your old obsolete computers as they stand today.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/203100989

Also google around and see what you can find, I am positive that your old horse hasn't taken it's last breath or pulled it's last plough (plow).

I have my old computer working as a media server. It's far too slow to use for anything else really but plugging it into the tv means I have all my music and films easily accessible in the front room. Look into getting a stripped down version of xp if you don't fancy learning to use Linux.

Take photos of it in interesting places, i can just imagine a monitor on Snowdon......;-)

If you end up deciding that you don't want to bother with your old computer, you might want to donate it to charity. Many charities can't afford new systems but they are adept at taking old systems and revamping them for use in their offices.

Just a suggestion!