Uses for old boxes?

Venesectrix · Feb 2, 2004

I've got a bunch of old boxes lying around, but I don't have any uses for them. I've got a 486DS with 16MB RAM, 486SL with 8MB RAM, Pentium I with 48MB of RAM, and an AMD K-6 300MHz with 32MB RAM. I've already got a firewall/router, and I don't yet know enough about linux to turn them into servers. Any ideas?

lanman31337 · Feb 2, 2004

now would be a good time to learn it. play with dos, win 3.1, win 95, BeOS, os/2, there's tons of os's you can throw at them.

dorimon81 · Feb 2, 2004

I say you make them folding machines. I know they would take forever to complete work units, but if you don't need them, I think you should use them to fold.

howlingyeti · Feb 2, 2004

Use them to learn/run linux! I run an ftp server, a webserver and samba on a P1 166mhz w/ 16mb easy. The best thing about learning linux on a box other than your main one is that you can mess with things without fear of breaking them. I defiently recommend you run use them for linux or *BSDs.

donny_paycheck · Feb 2, 2004

dorimon81 said:
I say you make them folding machines. I know they would take forever to complete work units, but if you don't need them, I think you should use them to fold.

Only the K6 would be able to process a WU before its expiration time. The others would send it back eventually and have it rejected for age.

Steve978 · Feb 2, 2004

If you really have no use whatsoever for them, then there are always places or people you can donate them to. Libraries who run them as card catalogs and such.

Veland · Feb 3, 2004

Maybe use the AMD box as a mp3 jukebox? Get a quiet PSU, build a nice box with LCD and IR, hook it up to the network and some speakers..

Blueacid · Feb 3, 2004

I use my K6-2 500mhz as an MP3 jukebox and server... Since it's almost whisper quiet on air cooling, and since it doesn't produce that much heat, it happily plays MP3s, and holds them to (80gig hard drive)

As for your collection of 486's, you might like to try using them as old DOS games boxes, or as experiment boxes.

I doubt that they would be any help to the Folding@Home project (the 486's that is) since they would burn loads of power up to get very little work done. If the K6-2 was being run 24/7, it should just be able to complete Tinker work units (And there's loads of 70 pointers around. For the baseline, my 500Mhz K6-2 gets around 1 hour per frame on p693, a 400frame 70pointer that you get around 1 1/2 months to do

)

moorcito · Feb 3, 2004

Steve978 said:
If you really have no use whatsoever for them, then there are always places or people you can donate them to. Libraries who run them as card catalogs and such.

I second that notion. Plus it's a nice tax right-off.

chkptcharlie · Feb 4, 2004

any way you could cluster those boxes??? if you did that you might have a nice folding machine.

if you cant i'm sure you could take them to a local computer builder place thingy and they would give you a little bit of money for them.

lancingfury · Feb 4, 2004

open a sulvineer shop and sell keychains, if you get my meaning.

itim100 · Feb 4, 2004

i have a p166mmx that takes sdram (cheap), and im gonna use it as a really-close-to-silent box. Prolly win98 or mandrake mp3 box. The only moving part is the hard drive. It was one of those mini pcs, so it has this awesome 65w no-fan PSU, and i put a big hs on teh cpu so there are no fans anywhere. If only the harddrive was silent!

ThePerfectCore · Feb 4, 2004

You could be that crazy guy down the street that runs 4 firewalls.

Uses for old boxes?

Venesectrix

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lanman31337

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dorimon81

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howlingyeti

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donny_paycheck

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Steve978

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Veland

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Blueacid

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moorcito

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chkptcharlie

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lancingfury

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itim100

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ThePerfectCore

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