Crap computer project

[magmon]

I just found a few extremely old laptops on craigslist, 25 bucks for all of them. I think I'll get my friends in on it and I'll see how many computers we can make that will run out of the three, but I think it will be a great opportunity to learn how computers work and mess with memory and hard drives. I plan to use DSL because of the fact that they have to have around 60 megabytes of memory. Luckily my dad has some old 10-40 gig hard drives lying around along with some old 32 meg memory thingys (Very technical word xD). I only wish the lady who posted the listing had given more info, because all I know is they boot, come with cords and don't have hard drives. Id post a direct link, but I'm the paranoid type xD.

More to the point, do you guys have any suggestions, tips or stories about projects like this? Or, projects where you built a more modern computer xD.

[spcwingo]

Most of the old laptops I've seen (especially Compaqs) have built-in ISA sound cards...just something to be aware of because they can be a real bear to get going. ;-)

[magmon]

Ah, noted. It shouldn't be a real problem though, if I get it running I'll prolly is it for school. I don't want to carry my main computer to school, it could get damaged, lol.

[lisati]

If nothing else, at that price it's a good opportunity to learn something about the innards of a laptop.

[init1]

I just found a few extremely old laptops on craigslist, 25 bucks for all of them. I think I'll get my friends in on it and I'll see how many computers we can make that will run out of the three, but I think it will be a great opportunity to learn how computers work and mess with memory and hard drives. I plan to use DSL because of the fact that they have to have around 60 megabytes of memory. Luckily my dad has some old 10-40 gig hard drives lying around along with some old 32 meg memory thingys (Very technical word xD). I only wish the lady who posted the listing had given more info, because all I know is they boot, come with cords and don't have hard drives. Id post a direct link, but I'm the paranoid type xD.

More to the point, do you guys have any suggestions, tips or stories about projects like this? Or, projects where you built a more modern computer xD.
I have an old laptop I installed Linux on. It was a great way for me to mess around with Linux.

[spcwingo]

Init1, seeing your avatar made me realize that FreeDOS with Opengem would probably be a pretty decent setup on those machines too.

[Johnsie]

Puppy Linux is sometimes good too for those machines.

[blueturtl]

Not to mention Debian. Both Ubuntu and DSL are Debian-based so you should be right at home. I've set up Debian on a rig with 64 megs of RAM. I found myself using lot's of command line utilities, but also there are some great lightweight X apps. All in all, great repositories and support. Some things might need tweaking but after you get them to work they usually stay that way.

[mdmarmer]

It's a good educational project, but netbooks are so inexpensive now, you may want to buy a netbook to carry around.
Really old laptops will probably not meet your performance expectations, unless you are very lucky.

Mike

[tgalati4]

Some of the old stuff runs well. I have a year 2000 vintage 1 GHz celeron whitebox computer that has been running Dapper Desktop (6.06.2) for 3 years continuously. It runs several server functions as well. I also have a compaq 166 MHz Pentium that runs DSL and I use it as a music server running mt-daap (firefly).

Keep your eye out for older, business-grade computers, such as the Dell Optiplex series. Max out the ram, put in newer/larger harddisks and they will last a long time.