I have an Old PC. Thinking of turning it into a Linux box Then I wonder . . .what would I use it for besides maybe Internet (Is it any more secure than a normal box?) I think it is suppose to be much faster but I am concerned that The learning curve and issues may not make it worth the effort I ain't doing too much with it now anyway . . .. so why not make it faster on linux to do the same ole same internet **** What do you do with your old boxes that are not so much broken as outdated Rocket River
Go for it. Fun weekend project. You could make a NAS, police scanner, router, an arcade/video game emulator..possibilities are vast. Mine just sit in a stack until I finally just toss them. I do have an 17-year-old IBM laptop with Mint Linux on it. It never gets used but I couldn’t bear to get rid of it. https://www.pcmag.com/news/avoid-the-trash-heap-15-great-uses-for-an-old-pc
You can just dual boot it until you decide or just run Ubuntu live etc. Anyways, who says you have to commit to one OS.
I go once a week to take care of things at my parents' house. Between lunch and water breaks, I have slightly more than a hour each time on an old PC running Lubuntu 16.04. The PC has was built in the transition period from XP to Vista, so it is definitely a veteran. Installed LibreOffice and that is about the only software beyond the Lubuntu download. It will have updates that it will want to download, so have patience while it gets caught up. I don't know what age children are introduced to computers, but a bargain PC with Linux and LibreOffice is a cheap way to learn how to use spreadsheets, word processing etc while also having some Internet access. The PC and monitors are "rescues". Scrounged around and spent a few dollars for: * A second hand mouse * A second hand keyboard * Second hand speakers The wireless USB adapter was something that I already had and had spent maybe $7 on. So roughly $12 spent on the entire setup. If I move on from the PC; then I will keep the mouse, keyboard, speaker and the wireless USB adapter for use on another rescue PC. One thing to keep in mind is that older equipment can get cranky and using a USB stick or some way to have external storage for the PC is a good idea. If you have important files stored on the hard drive and the power supply acts up, then you will need to scrounge for a replacement power supply. Then pull the dead power supply and install the replacement PS.
Are there non-profits in your area that take older computer equipment? Here in Souther California, for example, Human-I-T takes donated equipment, refurbish them either for re-sale (with proceeds funding internet access for low income families) or giving them to families who need them. I remember hearing about a similar organization in Minneapolis.
I turned my youngest lose on the PC graveyard in the garage with the only rule being not to burn down or blow up the house. He's had fun resurrecting machines from the dawn of PC time and at one time had machines up and running Win95, 98, XP, 8, and 10. He's in college now majoring in Computer Science.
Donate it to charity and buy a raspberry or something similar if you want to learn Linux. Your phone is probably faster than a laptop that ran windows 7. Main reason is that things get old and if your goal isn't a simple stream box, your hardware slots (hdmi /hdd,usb) might need upgrades. Raspberries are also power efficient, so you can run it all night and while knowing it consumes less than half to a quarter of the power. If you want to stream 4k or play stadia on it, a raspberry won't do... And now you've fallen into a trap of buying something you never thought you really wanted.... Still worth it to learn Linux through that scene rather than terrible troubleshooting legacy **** pc problems and outdated Linux questions. PS. When you do give it away, i would double wipe the hdd (most thorough encrypted option), keep it, and drill into it or something. You do all three in case you forget to do anything, keep it and not have the means to delete it...
yo brother i can get you some discounts just direct message me can't stand to see my brothers with slow machines
5 years, as you say, isn’t that old. So, unless it is one of those really low spec PCs from that era with Celeron or Atom CPU, it should run Windows and productivity apps more than just fine as long as you have an SSD and at least 8gb of ram. These upgrades are relatively inexpensive to do, assuming that your machine can be upgraded.
I will . . .when I am ready. I have just inventorying **** now I might add some RAM It is not a BAD computer Rocket River
When your computer is sluggish, do you open Task Manager to see if it is the CPU or Physical Memory that is struggling?
So I looked at the computers I have and are looking to do something with : Description: AS5749-6607-US W7HP64AS/I5-2450M/4G/320GB/6L2.2/15.6 ACER - Aspire Processor Type Core™ i5 Processor Model i5-2450M Processor Speed 2.50 GHz Standard Memory ` 4 GB Total Hard Drive Capacity 320 GB YEAR: 2013 Latitude E6540 WIN7 4gb PRC,HSW,I7-4800MQ,2.7,47W,P,C0 YEAR: 2013 Latitude E4200 WinXP Intel Centrino 2 vPro Core Duo Processor 3 GB YEAR: 2010 Hp- HP Pavilion g6-2239dx Notebook PC Microprocessor: 2.7GHz up to 3.2GHz AMD A6-4400M Accelerated Processor Memory: 4GB DDR3 SDRAM (1 DIMM) Hard Drive: 640GB 5400RPM hard drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection YEAR: 2012 I had not turned some of these on in over a year But they at least get to windows desktop Rocket River
One More: Inspiron 1720 Microsoft Windows Vista SP1 Home Premium Edition 320G 5400RPM SAMSUNG Hard Drive 3GB, DDR2, 667MHz 2 Dimm Intel Core 2 Duo Processor Inspiron 1720, Intel Core 2 Duo T8300(2.4GHz, 800Mhz, 3M L2 Cache) Year : 2011 Rocket River
I would upgrade the hard drives on all of those to SSD- cheap high return upgrade. I Picked up a 128gb WD for $23 the other day on Wd.com for a project I’m working on.
Linux is a great learning tool. I'd start with a fairly well known flavor like Ubuntu for the ease of getting started. I turn my old boxes into Linux boxes often. I don't generally put anything real important on them so I can break them down and start over as needed. I have used them to run Minecraft servers for my kids and my classes and I have run retropie game emulators on them, as well. I also use them for various work related things. Currently I am running a cool little server software called PI-Hole. It is an ad blocking software that blocks all kinds of ads but rarely gives you the "you're running ad block software" pop ups. It is built for a Pi machine but runs really good on an old dell box.
