Folding on an IBM

[Fallen Phoenix]

My school is getting rid of a ton of older IBM machines, and I just hate to see them go to waste. I don't know a thing about IBM systems so I guess the first question to ask is if there is a F@H client for an IBM machine? I'm not sure the speed of the machines but if it's enough to run F@H it'll be worth it, they're practically silent, and stackable too :D

[Fast420A]

Are they able to be setup with Windows or Linux? If not, I am pretty sure they won't fold. If they are below 500 Mhz you will need to decide if the $ to run them is worth it to you as they will be taking around a week per WU.

[flixotide]

Sounds like a major throw-away of old PS/2's.. and if thats the case, they wont do you much.

Take us a snapshot, and I'll tell you from the looks alone... I know most oft hose old IBM boxen...

Flix

[Fallen Phoenix]

I'll try to get a pic monday, they're pretty plain though they came with color monitors so they're not too old. Is it possible to run DOS on an IBM machine? I don't know enough about the IBMs to even know if they're x86.

[nahmus]

are they RISC boxes?
i've been looking for one so that I can run AIX at home.

[Fallen Phoenix]

No idea nahmus, they're in the desktop form factor, the horizontal one with the monitor on top. Beige and they have a blue IBM logo on them. I think they ran Windows 95.

[Fast420A]

If it ran Win95 then they have to be x86 right?

[repo man11]

Almost certainly P1 machines, probably in the 133 to 200 MHz range.

[Fast420A]

Originally posted by repo man11
Almost certainly P1 machines, probably in the 133 to 200 MHz range.

That's what I was thinking. P1 200's might do 1 Tinker WU every week or 2 if run 24/7.

[Fallen Phoenix]

If they're just going to throw them out and I can get them for next to nothing it would be worth it, may even take a couple to college with me and take a little off the home electric bill:p

[Fallen Phoenix]

Originally posted by Fast420A
If it ran Win95 then they have to be x86 right?

:bang head didn't even think about that, thanks Fast420A

[Arkaine23]

Might be P2's....

I guess if they had enough ram, you could run win2k on them and service install F@H to run G@H units.... As long as the OS was upgraded, the original license would be legal and the new owners might never be aware of folding.

You could also probably run a lightweight linux on them, or freeBSD.... Depending on the graphical interface used (if any), the amount of installed ram would not matter so much. And licensing would be a non-issue.

[Arkaine23]

Can you actually get these for free or at a low cost? Some of us would probably be interested if you could....

[Fallen Phoenix]

I've seen them go at auction for ~$10 a piece my friend Josh knows the tech pretty well and may be able to get me a couple before anyone else gets a shot at them. I'll let you know if I find out anything monday. Just my luck they'll just toss them out this weekend

[Fast420A]

Find out what they are, If they are P2 or better, I may be interested in 1 for cheap and I am sure others would. If you can get them, you'll have to set up a thread in the classifieds so you don't break the forum rules of selling elsewhere in the forums.

[Arkaine23]

Yup, even if they were P1's they'd make good router/gateways....

Plus cheap floppies, cdroms, small hdds, and ram are always usefull to farmers.

[Audioaficionado]

You can do a service install in NT4 too. Maybe a faster OS for older machines if you don't need UBS support.

[Fallen Phoenix]

Sorry I haven't gotten back sooner about this, but school's been hectic this week to say the least. What I've learned...

I'm guessing that most (if not all) of these machines are slotted Pentiums, don't know speed or anything else but I saw one opened up and it had a slotted Pentium nestled inside. Right now they're just sitting in the library and the tech says they haven't gotten word what they are going to do with them. They may wipe the HDDs and auction them in which case I'll probably get first shot at them. Or they could give them to other schools for extras in the classroom.

The new machines are very nice, Dells with a decent pair of speakers and a P4 (I think 2.4b), we got about 50 of them. Now it'd really make my day if the principal would allow me to borg them all for F@H :cool: