Old PC users, chat here!

[The Toxic Mite]

Hey! Have you got an old or crappy PC that you use? Come and chat here!

I have a ~10-year-old Advent L8400 laptop. None of my favourite Linux distros suit the laptop, so I'm running it on Windows XP. I do have a Linux-powered rig though ;)

The (known) specs are:



750MHz Intel Pentium !!!
128MB of RAM

I'm pretty happy with it, TBH. I'd use it any day I need to, e.g. when I'm on the train :P

BTW I know there was a thread about a similar topic already, but it's a bit old, so I decided to start a new one.

[TheOnlyMrK]

Wow. Isn't even Windows XP slow on there? Lol. I used to have XP installed on my first desktop (specs in bottom of signature) and it was horribly slow.

[The Toxic Mite]

Wow. Isn't even Windows XP slow on there? Lol. I used to have XP installed on my first desktop (specs in bottom of signature) and it was horribly slow.

Not too slow :P IE was very laggy though; Firefox 3.6 fix'd it ;)

[TheOnlyMrK]

Not too slow :P IE was very laggy though; Firefox 3.6 fix'd it ;)
Ah, personally I'd just install Windows ME to keep the computers vintage feel. But for some reason everyone hates Windows ME... I dunno, I loved it, never had a problem with it.

[gymophett]

I've always wanted an old crappy PC.
I think I'll buy one now.
Just to have as a spare and run Crunchbang or something on it.

[TheOnlyMrK]

I've always wanted an old crappy PC.
I think I'll buy one now.
Just to have as a spare and run Crunchbang or something on it.
I love old computers. It's weird but after awhile you get to missing loading bars and the computer giving you time to do other things. Where as now days you do something on computers it doesn't give you a break it gets things done, you work for hours then take a break when you decide you really need it. Though at the same time it can get annoying very very fast...

EDIT: They're a bit tougher too, my first computer (one in the bottom of my signature) it's CPU heatsink was knocked off for who knows how long till one day I opened it to clean it out and noticed it just dangling there. The computer never showed signs of slowing down and still works fine to this day. Though that's more because older CPUs made less heat then now days ones, not quality.

[gymophett]

I love old computers. It's weird but after awhile you get to missing loading bars and the computer giving you time to do other things. Where as now days you do something on computers it doesn't give you a break it gets things done, you work for hours then take a break when you decide you really need it. Though at the same time it can get annoying very very fast...

xD
I love em too. I've fixed a lot of old computers up with Linux for other people, but never one for myself. I think it's time I got one.
I mean, how much money out of pocket could it be? Seriously.

[TheOnlyMrK]

xD
I love em too. I've fixed a lot of old computers up with Linux for other people, but never one for myself. I think it's time I got one.
I mean, how much money out of pocket could it be? Seriously.
Go to thrift stores around town, would be no more then $10 to $20. Just I'd suggest it has at least a Pentium CPU, anything less then you're going from comforting slow to throw the computer out the window slow.

[gymophett]

Go to thrift stores around town, would be no more then $10 to $20. Just I'd suggest it has at least a Pentium CPU, anything less then you're going from comforting slow to throw the computer out the window slow.

I'm just trying to think of how heavy those things are.
/offtopic
I live in a itsy bitsy town. So we have no thrift shops.
We do however have two locally run computer stores, and they usually have old hardware laying around in there. It's not like they need it anyway.
I guess I'll pick one up tomorrow.
But where shall I put this baby?

[The Toxic Mite]

xD
I love em too. I've fixed a lot of old computers up with Linux for other people, but never one for myself. I think it's time I got one.
I mean, how much money out of pocket could it be? Seriously.

I once got a Compaq Deskpro EN for £30+p&p from eBay. Came with Xandros, which was really crap, so I threw Win98 on it. If only I had kept it lol

[TheOnlyMrK]

I'm just trying to think of how heavy those things are.
/offtopic
I live in a itsy bitsy town. So we have no thrift shops.
We do however have two locally run computer stores, and they usually have old hardware laying around in there. It's not like they need it anyway.
I guess I'll pick one up tomorrow.
But where shall I put this baby?
Make the ultimate computer case. Screw everything to a piece of plywood and hang it on the wall. I actually did that with a computer a friend was going to throw out. xD It worked and looked cool. More sensible though... Fit it somewhere around your desktop so monitor and keyboard switching is easy. Unless you have an extra monitor, keyboard, and mouse and the room for all that.

[megamania]

There's a very similar thread with plenty of information here:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=478237

Maybe the two threads could be merged?

[gymophett]

Make the ultimate computer case. Screw everything to a piece of plywood and hang it on the wall. I actually did that with a computer a friend was going to throw out. xD It worked and looked cool. More sensible though... Fit it somewhere around your desktop so monitor and keyboard switching is easy. Unless you have an extra monitor, keyboard, and mouse and the room for all that.

I actually have an extra lcd monitor, keyboard, and mouse laying around.
Hmm. I hope this thing isn't so old it has no usb ports.
I actually don't even know when USB ports came out.
I feel stupid now. Anyway.
Gah. I'm excited now.
I still don't know where to put it..
I'm not putting this thing alongside my nice desktop in the living room.
That would look. Odd?
Maybe I'll just buy some cheap computer desk and put it in the laundry room. xD

[jrusso2]

I got stacks of old desktops here everything from Pentium to P3 and an old 400 mhz laptop with an old version of sam linux still on it.

[The Real Dave]

I have a load of old PCs. Up until yesterday my second server was a 451Mhz PIII Katami with 128Mb of PC-100 :) Ran perfectly, but when given the opportunity, I upgraded it to a 2.6Ghz Celeron with 256Mb of RAM. My only reason? The PIII board couldn't recognise a drive over 20Gb, and I had just came across an 80Gb IDE.

I still have it, in a parts box, along with

a 1Ghz Celeron with 192Mb PC-100, decent integrated graphics and onboard LAN!! ;)

a 700Mhz Celeron, 192Mb of PC-100, it has three slots for RAM, thats why I couldn't throw it away.

a 600Mhz Celeron, which used run Win98, until I stole the harddrives for a server. Now that I have drives to spare again, I might put it running again.

I've a few others, but I'd have to go digging. I also have about a gig of PC-100 RAM, in 64Mb sticks ;) And I've a Slot 1 PII, running at about 300Mhz.

I just wish that someone would donate me a craptop :(

[Zoot7]

The oldest machine I have lying around is a roughly 7 year old AMD Sempron 1.6GHz with 512MB RAM on top of a Via based motherboard. It's currently running Debian Lenny and acting as a Multimedia/Internet box and a Torrentslave.

[Tikkyca]

I don't have a crappy old pc,but i will need to buy an laptop \\:D/

[The Toxic Mite]

There's a very similar thread with plenty of information here:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=478237

Maybe the two threads could be merged?

'Tis fairly old, I didn't want to bring it up again.

[handy]

My old Dell Optiplex GX150, PIII 7??Mhz 256MB RAM & 2GB HDD ($5- at the garbage dump) has been running (headless) without a hitch 24/7 for over a year now. It's running IPCop the great (built on Linux) firewall/router +.

It costs me $54-/year in electricity. I'll replace it with something that saves me $20-/year, after it fails. :)


kmandla might have something to say in this thread, though it has all been said before in other threads... ;)

[mobilediesel]

My old Dell Optiplex GX150, PIII 7??Mhz 256MB RAM ($5- at the garbage dump) has been running (headless) without a hitch 24/7 for over a year now. It's running IPCop the great (built on Linux) firewall/router +.

It costs me $54-/year in electricity. I'll replace it with something that saves me $20-/year, after it fails. :)


kmandla might have something to say in this thread, though it has all been said before in other threads... ;)

I have a Dell OptiPlex 110 that was 733Mhz, 128MB RAM. I bought a 1GhzCPU for it and a second 256MB DIMM to go with the one I already had. After ditching XFCE4 for Fluxbox, it's not bad at all!

[gymophett]

I've looked for an old PC today, and I've had no luck..
Mmm. Where all can I check. I am destined to get one of these 192MB or less ram computers.

[The Toxic Mite]

I've looked for an old PC today, and I've had no luck..
Mmm. Where all can I check. I am destined to get one of these 192MB or less ram computers.

eBay? :p

[The Real Dave]

Guess what I got donated today?! An old Packard Bell with a Cyrix MII (225Mhz, 75Mhz Bus), an IBM chip, 28Mb of SIMM RAM (two 14Mb SIMMs), and a whopping 3.1Gb WD harddrive! :D I didn't think it would work, so I stripped it, and then decided to give it a shot. An it worked! :D It booted to Windows 98, on 28Mb of RAM :) It was amazing, and is the oldest computer I own. I never thought it would work.

Oh course, I have no use for it, and am going to build a PC for the people who donated it, nothing flash, a 600Mhz Celeron with 128Mb of PC-100, just enough to run W2K :)

I'll post pics later, when I switch back to Linux :)

[gymophett]

eBay? :p

Too paranoid for ebay. *grits teeth*

But I just found something fo freeee. :)
Even though I still want a desktop one.
It is actually not too bad a piece of hardware. Which makes me dissapointed because it has 512mb of ram and I wanted less. A 40GB HD. Intel Pentium 4 2.8GHz processor. ATi Mobility Radeon 7500. But it's not old enough for me. I want one that's like 12 or 15 years old. Not 8. It is the base of a laptop. No laptop screen, or keyboard. So everything is external, using it like a desktop.
For some reason, it is EXTREMELY slow. With XP and Ubuntu. I thought it would run better but it takes forever to do anything.
Is there something wrong with it? It used to overheat a lot. So I'm about to clean out the insides.

EDIT: I had an old computer from around 1999. Let me see if it is in storage.

[teet]

I still use my 8+ year old laptop everyday. Over the years I've added 256 mb of ram, replaced the battery, replaced a bad hdd, replaced the lcd power inverter and backlight (was a real pain in the butt to do), added a pcmcia wireless card, and replaced a power inverter cable that shorted out.
- P3 1.066 ghz
- 512 mb of ram
- Integrated intel i810 graphics
- Windows XP (sadly the new intel drivers in the newer linux kernels don't work very well...ubuntu 6.06 ran great on it though!)

It's really all about the RAM on these old machines. If you have at least 256 mb they should run the newer browsers just fine...and that's all I really need out of a laptop.

-teet

[handy]

I have a Dell OptiPlex 110 that was 733Mhz, 128MB RAM. I bought a 1GhzCPU for it and a second 256MB DIMM to go with the one I already had. After ditching XFCE4 for Fluxbox, it's not bad at all!

For my use (24/7) I would have preferred a slower PIII, or better yet a PII, as they use less electricity.

The firewall doesn't need CPU power & in my circumstances 256MB does the job. As does the 2GB HDD.

[vader95]

I have an old dell and an old packard belll windows 95. the dell is a laptop and the packard bell is a tower. It is nice to go back to the basics sometimes.

[The Real Dave]

Too paranoid for ebay. *grits teeth*

But I just found something fo freeee. :)
Even though I still want a desktop one.
It is actually not too bad a piece of hardware. Which makes me dissapointed because it has 512mb of ram and I wanted less. A 40GB HD. Intel Pentium 4 2.8GHz processor. ATi Mobility Radeon 7500. But it's not old enough for me. I want one that's like 12 or 15 years old. Not 8. It is the base of a laptop. No laptop screen, or keyboard. So everything is external, using it like a desktop.
For some reason, it is EXTREMELY slow. With XP and Ubuntu. I thought it would run better but it takes forever to do anything.
Is there something wrong with it? It used to overheat a lot. So I'm about to clean out the insides.

EDIT: I had an old computer from around 1999. Let me see if it is in storage.

*Foreword* I had a great long post, but managed to lose it, so apologies if this is brief

Your performance issues are probably down to a feature on many PIV's called thermal throttling. The hotter the CPU gets, the more it throttles it's own power, to prevent it being damaged. In short, keep it cold, and it'll stay fast. Clean out the laptop well, taking careful attention to the heatsink and fan on the CPU, can get very badly clogged with dust. The cleaner it is, the colder it'll run.

That said, a PIV is generally a hot chip. Those with PIV laptops can expect their laps to be warm ;)

That thing has plenty of power (provided it stays clean) to run as a server, and seeing as it has no head, it's a good use. Laptops draw very little power, so you won't see it on your electricity bill. Install Ubuntu Server, hook it up to LAN and AC, remove the battery, and you have a brilliant low power server.

In fact, you could probably run Ubuntu Server twice on that thing. My main server (NFS, SMTP, Samba, Squid Proxy, Mt-Daapd, rTorrent) has a 1.7Ghz PIV (256Kb L2) and 384Mb of RAM, of which it uses around 140Mb, unless I start virtualising. If that 40Gb ain't enough for you, invest in an external harddrive, hook it up through USB, and store files there.

[handy]

I also have quite a powerful (Athlon64 3500+ 2GB RAM) box that is pushing 7 years old, that has drive drawers, allowing me to easily change the towers purpose, one of the things I use as backup is FreeNAS, running off a 2GB drive, & a 1TB drive (it uses a SATA to IDE cable adapter) for storage.

A much less powerful machine would be more suitable to the FreeNAS (as it doesn't need much in the way of CPU power at all) job due to power consumption, though in my case I boot it up, backup, shut down & remove the drives for safe keeping.

[The Real Dave]

I also have quite a powerful (Athlon64 3500+ 2GB RAM) box that is pushing 7 years old, that has drive drawers, allowing me to easily change the towers purpose, one of the things I use as backup is FreeNAS, running off a 2GB drive, & a 1TB drive (it uses a SATA to IDE cable adapter) for storage.

A much less powerful machine would be more suitable to the FreeNAS (as it doesn't need much in the way of CPU power at all) job due to power consumption, though in my case I boot it up, backup, shut down & remove the drives for safe keeping.

I have a 2.6Ghz Celeron with 256Mb RAM running FreeNAS at the moment.I upgraded from my 451Mhz PIII with 128Mb of RAM so that I could use harddrives of larger than 20GB. Though, I must say, I miss my PIIIs ability to attach harddrives to every IDE cable.

[handy]

I have a 2.6Ghz Celeron with 256Mb RAM running FreeNAS at the moment.I upgraded from my 451Mhz PIII with 128Mb of RAM so that I could use harddrives of larger than 20GB. Though, I must say, I miss my PIIIs ability to attach harddrives to every IDE cable.

So the size limitation was set in the BIOS & an add-in card couldn't get around the limitation?


I've picked up a few old machines from the tip, in the hope that I could make a backup IPCop box & just have it sitting around waiting for its day to takeover the job, & I've also tried them for FreeNAS. Unfortunately none of them have been compatible, which is a shame.

[xavierp94]

Hey! Have you got an old or crappy PC that you use? Come and chat here!

I have a ~10-year-old Advent L8400 laptop. None of my favourite Linux distros suit the laptop, so I'm running it on Windows XP. I do have a Linux-powered rig though ;)

The (known) specs are:



750MHz Intel Pentium !!!
128MB of RAM

I'm pretty happy with it, TBH. I'd use it any day I need to, e.g. when I'm on the train :P

BTW I know there was a thread about a similar topic already, but it's a bit old, so I decided to start a new one.I almost have the same specs that you have. The only distro that really works for me on it is Puppy. :/

[The Real Dave]

So the size limitation was set in the BIOS & an add-in card couldn't get around the limitation?


I've picked up a few old machines from the tip, in the hope that I could make a backup IPCop box & just have it sitting around waiting for its day to takeover the job, & I've also tried them for FreeNAS. Unfortunately none of them have been compatible, which is a shame.

It would have, but I didn't want to shell out the cash. I usually try to work with what I have lying around. Don't worry, I'm not retiring the PIII, I'm going to make one of those cool wall mounted servers, maybe a hardware firewall. I've been dying to try IPCop :)

[Bachstelze]

Oldest (working) machine I have is a Dell Optiplex desktop, PIII 500 MHz, 128 MB of RAM. I used to use it as a router but nowadays it's just sitting there doing nothing (because now I pay my own electricity :p).

[m4tic]

I am using an AMD Sempron 2800+ 512MB and 80GB drive has a 64MB SiS card that's bad in ubuntu. It's a great machine and still going strong except for the hard drive which sometimes hangs

[blueturtl]

The oldest computer I still have is the one I use for gaming:

Metusalem (Hyundai P5233M)


* ASUS TX97-XE motherboard
o Q-Technology QT-02300 300W PSU
o AMD K6-III+ 400 MHz Socket7 CPU
o 256 MB PC100 CL3 SD-RAM
o 3Dfx Voodoo3 3000 16 MB PCI video card
+ Hyundai DeluxScan 15G monitor
o IBM DTTA-351010 ~10 GB HDD
o Seagate ST310212 ~10 GB HDD
o Fujitsu MPE3136AT ~13 GB HDD
o Plextor PX-W2410TA CD-(Re)Writer
o Sony 1.44M floppy drive
o Epson 1.2M floppy drive
o Turtle Beach Montego A3DXstream sound card
+ Yamaha YST-MS25 speakers
+ Gravis BlackHawk Digital Joystick
+ Gravis PC GamePad
o Ricoh RL5C475 PCMCIA-to-PCI-adapter
+ VIA VT82* PCMCIA USB2 controller
o Realtek NE2000 compatible 10 Mbit NIC

It's ugly, it's old and it's slow but dang it's been so much fun. :)

First of all it started out as a Pentium 233 MHz with 64MB RAM (top of the line for this particular mobo) but thru the use of an unofficial hacked BIOS patch I was able to install a mobile K6-3 chip with twice the clock speed. Also the system now recognizes hard drives up to 120 GB. The vintage 5.25" floppy drive was not originally there, but I added one since I stumbled on the a pile of those just for the heck of it. The system has two USB ports but the backplate holes for them are too small - you can't plug anything in! That's probably because nobody really used USB back in 97. :D

[The Real Dave]

The oldest computer I still have is the one I use for gaming:

Metusalem (Hyundai P5233M)


* ASUS TX97-XE motherboard
o Q-Technology QT-02300 300W PSU
o AMD K6-III+ 400 MHz Socket7 CPU
o 256 MB PC100 CL3 SD-RAM
o 3Dfx Voodoo3 3000 16 MB PCI video card
+ Hyundai DeluxScan 15G monitor
o IBM DTTA-351010 ~10 GB HDD
o Seagate ST310212 ~10 GB HDD
o Fujitsu MPE3136AT ~13 GB HDD
o Plextor PX-W2410TA CD-(Re)Writer
o Sony 1.44M floppy drive
o Epson 1.2M floppy drive
o Turtle Beach Montego A3DXstream sound card
+ Yamaha YST-MS25 speakers
+ Gravis BlackHawk Digital Joystick
+ Gravis PC GamePad
o Ricoh RL5C475 PCMCIA-to-PCI-adapter
+ VIA VT82* PCMCIA USB2 controller
o Realtek NE2000 compatible 10 Mbit NIC

It's ugly, it's old and it's slow but dang it's been so much fun. :)

First of all it started out as a Pentium 233 MHz with 64MB RAM (top of the line for this particular mobo) but thru the use of an unofficial hacked BIOS patch I was able to install a mobile K6-3 chip with twice the clock speed. Also the system now recognizes hard drives up to 120 GB. The vintage 5.25" floppy drive was not originally there, but I added one since I stumbled on the a pile of those just for the heck of it. The system has two USB ports but the backplate holes for them are too small - you can't plug anything in! That's probably because nobody really used USB back in 97. :D

Gaming? Pong? ;)

http://www.arcadebond.com/games/images/pong_flash_game.png

[Mehall]

Here (http://blog.mehall.co.cc/?p=125)'s the quick recap of what I went through with my oldest working machine. There is more to the story, but that's the main lot all in a single post.

And, in fairness "The Real Dave", he can maybe run Starcraft on that thing ;)

[blueturtl]

Do I detect amusement? :)

Conquest of The New World
Command & Conquer/Red Alert
StarCraft/BroodWar
Homeworld/Cataclysm
Total Annihilation
FreeSpace 2
Quake2/3
Worms/Worms2/Armageddon
Half-Life
Unreal/UnrealTournament
No One Lives Forever
Deus Ex
System Shock 2
Aliens Vs. Predator
Resident Evil/2
Fallout/Fallout2
King's Quest (whole series)
Space Quest 1-5
Sam & Max Hit The Road
Day of The Tentacle

...

These are just the ones I personally own (and remembered off the top of my hat). Haven't tried new titles like Crysis tho. ;)

Pong... :D

[The Real Dave]

Do I detect amusement? :)

Conquest of The New World
Command & Conquer/Red Alert
StarCraft/BroodWar
Homeworld/Cataclysm
Total Annihilation
FreeSpace 2
Quake2/3
Worms/Worms2/Armageddon
Half-Life
Unreal/UnrealTournament
No One Lives Forever
Deus Ex
System Shock 2
Aliens Vs. Predator
Resident Evil/2
Fallout/Fallout2
King's Quest (whole series)
Space Quest 1-5
Sam & Max Hit The Road
Day of The Tentacle

...

These are just the ones I personally own (and remembered off the top of my hat). Haven't tried new titles like Crysis tho.

Pong... :D

Quite a list :) I'm sorry, I was only teasing. I actually play a few of those games, especially Red Alert, though I prefer Tibirium Sun. I used have an old computer for retro gaming, a 700MHz Celeron with 128Mb of PC-100 goodness and Windows 98SE. Was actually quite good, would play Eurofighter Typhoon (http://www.gamespot.com/pc/sim/eurofightertyphoon/index.html) at max graphics. Also helped me get into old text games, like the Chozo Mythos (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chzo_Mythos) series, they're really spooky games :) Other good ones are Theatre, McMurphy's Mansion and Sleuth.

But alas, that PC won't be with me for much longer. Its going to be rebuilt into a different case, and given to another family, probably with W2K Pro on it :( End of an era :(

[ratcheer]

I thought my PC was old, but y'all really have some oldies!

Mine is about 5 and a half years old. It is a Shuttle SB83-G5 sff PC with a 3.4 gHz Pentium 4, 1 GB RAM, an 80 GB SATA disk, Soundblaster Audigy 2, and CD RW / DVD RW dirve. The vidoe card had to be replaced, last summer, so it is a fairly new Sparkle nVicia 9400GT with 1 GB RAM on the card.

It has been a good system for a long time.

Tim

[urukrama]

I have an IBM Thinkpad 2609, a really tiny laptop about the size of most modern netbooks that weighs only 1.5 kg. It has 64 MB RAM (not upgradeable), a Celeron 400 MHz, a 12 GB 4200RPM harddisk, and a 10.4" screen.

It runs Debian Testing and I use it almost daily. I have attached a picture of the same model I found on the internet.

[The Real Dave]

I thought my PC was old, but y'all really have some oldies!

Mine is about 5 and a half years old. It is a Shuttle SB83-G5 sff PC with a 3.4 gHz Pentium 4, 1 GB RAM, an 80 GB SATA disk, Soundblaster Audigy 2, and CD RW / DVD RW dirve. The vidoe card had to be replaced, last summer, so it is a fairly new Sparkle nVicia 9400GT with 1 GB RAM on the card.

It has been a good system for a long time.

Tim

Thats around the same power as my main workhorse, to be seen in my sig ;) The newest, and most powerful of all my computers.

[blueturtl]

Quite a list :) I'm sorry, I was only teasing. I actually play a few of those games, especially Red Alert, though I prefer Tibirium Sun. I used have an old computer for retro gaming, a 700MHz Celeron with 128Mb of PC-100 goodness and Windows 98SE. Was actually quite good, would play Eurofighter Typhoon (http://www.gamespot.com/pc/sim/eurofightertyphoon/index.html) at max graphics. Also helped me get into old text games, like the Chozo Mythos (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chzo_Mythos) series, they're really spooky games :) Other good ones are Theatre, McMurphy's Mansion and Sleuth.

But alas, that PC won't be with me for much longer. Its going to be rebuilt into a different case, and given to another family, probably with W2K Pro on it :( End of an era :(

I confess I posted knowing someone would poke fun at me. :) Even I find it a bit ironic that out of the computers I have the oldest is the gaming rig. Must be a sign that I've just reached the age when "all the good games were before". The last game I eagerly awaited was Half-Life2 (which turned out to be a big disappointment). At some point I realized all the games I deemed worth playing ran on Windows 95 or DOS, so it was logical for me to abandon Windows on the newer computers altogether.

Don't worry about your Celeron. There's always some nut like me holding on to one just like it if you ever want to go back in time. :)


I have an IBM Thinkpad 2609, a really tiny laptop about the size of most modern netbooks that weighs only 1.5 kg. It has 64 MB RAM (not upgradeable), a Celeron 400 MHz, a 12 GB 4200RPM harddisk, and a 10.4" screen.

It runs Debian Testing and I use it almost daily. I have attached a picture of the same model I found on the internet.

Respect! [-o<

[ratcheer]

Thats around the same power as my main workhorse, to be seen in my sig ;) The newest, and most powerful of all my computers.

Well, it is also the newest and most powerful of my PC's, too. I actually have two of them, one with Karmic and the other with Win XP.

Tim

[The Real Dave]

Don't worry about your Celeron. There's always some nut like me holding on to one just like it if you ever want to go back in time. :)


I've quite a plentyful supply ;) I tend to get in quite a few old computers, being labled as the computer guy ;) That said, I'm almost starting to miss that mobo, its BIOS has some great features, HDD spindown, CPU thermal throttling. It's actually painful for me to give it away :(

Actually, I mentioned earlier about an old Cyrix system I was given, and it came with a bunch of other stuff, most notably a manual for a wireless radio mouse, and a Kingston USB webcam. Include with that an ancient Canon printer. I didn't expect anything to work, but it all does. Ubuntu even recognises the webcam. Turning on the printer was a trip down memory lane. It literally sang for about 3 minutes, before a little blinking light informed me that it was ready to go. A printer from 98 which still works :o Stuff was made different back in the day ;)

[The Real Dave]

Finally some pics, click for full throttle.


http://linuxexpresso.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/cyrix_17-2-10_1.jpg?w=150h=150 (http://linuxexpresso.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/cyrix_17-2-10_1.jpg)

An old Packard Bell, how it looked the moment I open the cover.

http://linuxexpresso.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/cyrix_17-2-10_4.jpg?w=150h=150 (http://linuxexpresso.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/cyrix_17-2-10_4.jpg)

A close up on the mobo. Under that HSF is a Cyrix MII-300GP, with a 235Mhz clock, 75Mhz FSB. And in the background are two 16Mb SIMMs, giving it a total of 28Mb of RAM

http://linuxexpresso.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/cyrix_17-2-10_2.jpg?w=150h=150 (http://linuxexpresso.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/cyrix_17-2-10_2.jpg)

Close up on the Cyrix CPU.

http://linuxexpresso.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/cyrix_17-2-10_3.jpg?w=150h=150 (http://linuxexpresso.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/cyrix_17-2-10_3.jpg)

Yup, it booted and seems to work fine :o

http://linuxexpresso.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/cyrix_17-2-10_5.jpg?w=150h=150 (http://linuxexpresso.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/cyrix_17-2-10_5.jpg)

The new (relatively) mobo in the old case, a 700Mhz Celeron with 128Mb of PC-100, along with a larger 6Gb drive, the original had a 3.1GB. I'm proud of my cable management ;) Currently installing an image of W2K Pro

[blueturtl]

I've quite a plentyful supply ;) I tend to get in quite a few old computers, being labled as the computer guy ;) That said, I'm almost starting to miss that mobo, its BIOS has some great features, HDD spindown, CPU thermal throttling. It's actually painful for me to give it away :(

Actually, I mentioned earlier about an old Cyrix system I was given, and it came with a bunch of other stuff, most notably a manual for a wireless radio mouse, and a Kingston USB webcam. Include with that an ancient Canon printer. I didn't expect anything to work, but it all does. Ubuntu even recognises the webcam. Turning on the printer was a trip down memory lane. It literally sang for about 3 minutes, before a little blinking light informed me that it was ready to go. A printer from 98 which still works :o Stuff was made different back in the day ;)

They did, didn't they.

Try to find a computer chassis made out of real iron today. I really had to hunt for one when I last built a machine and ended up using one that came with an old computer in it.

The heavier the better. I guess back then they expected a computer to be in service for longer than three years.

[The Real Dave]

They did, didn't they.

Try to find a computer chassis made out of real iron today. I really had to hunt for one when I last built a machine and ended up using one that came with an old computer in it.

The heavier the better. I guess back then they expected a computer to be in service for longer than three years.

Iron? Wow :) I only have aluminium and steel, iron must be ancient. I was in awe when that computer worked though. Its about 12 years old like, I never expected it to boot, I just wanted to see what whacky errors it gave me. And the printer worked, and an ancient Kingston USB webcam that came with it. Crazy stuff :)

[mr-woof]

I love these threads, it makes me realise i'm not actually that bad :)

I've got an old laptop, 1.5 celeron, 512mb ram, 40gb drive running ubuntu 8.10, and an old p3-700 odd, 512mb ram, 40gb drive running smoothwall.

My most recent freebie was a Dell Poweredge 1750 1u server, dual xeons, 2gb ram, 3 * 76gb 15k scsi drivers, i've installed ubuntu server 9.10 and i'm having a play with it :)

[gymophett]

YUSSS! I just got an old PC!
All I know so far is that it's got 10GB HD and 64MB Ram.
I haven't even plugged it in to see if it works.
But I'm SOOOO happy.

[mr-woof]

I'm going to guess the processor, i reckon a p150 - p2 300 processor.

What you going to do with it? Was I close? :)

[The Real Dave]

C'mon man, Pics! :D

[gymophett]

C'mon man, Pics! :D

Who? Me?

It works though btw.
and somehow supports my widescreen monitor! :D
Anyway, I need to install something really really light on here. Cuz an Ubuntu minimal install with iceWM is hella slow.

[mr-woof]

specs man, specs! :)

[The Toxic Mite]

Man, this thread's entertaining... :P

@gymophett Nice to hear you got an old PC. If it has Ethernet you could try doing a minimal install of Ubuntu hehe

[themusicalduck]

I'm still annoyed that my dad gave away our first computer. It had a pentium 1 133mHz and some tiny amount of ram in it.

It came with windows 95 on about 15 floppy disks and in a very heavy desktop case. Would love to play around with it now.

[The Real Dave]

Who? Me?

It works though btw.
and somehow supports my widescreen monitor! :D
Anyway, I need to install something really really light on here. Cuz an Ubuntu minimal install with iceWM is hella slow.

Yes you :) How long have we waited for you to find one? I'm excited myself :)

Oh, and seeing as you have Ubuntu working, post the file created by


sudo lshw > hardware.txt

That'll let us know what's in it :)

EDIT: You could try an Ubuntu Minimal install, Damn Small Linux, Crux or even Arch :)

[gymophett]

EDIT: About to post specs.

Where did it save the hardware.txt file to?

Cuz it didn't give me an output via terminal.

and I did do an Ubuntu Minimal Install with IceWM

[The Real Dave]

EDIT: About to post specs.

Where did it save the hardware.txt file to?

Cuz it didn't give me an output via terminal.

and I did do an Ubuntu Minimal Install with IceWM

Whatever dir you were in at the time, most likely your home dir.

[gymophett]

Whatever dir you were in at the time, most likely your home dir.

Well. The system is so slow I can't even do anything. I believe it has an Intel 810 Chipset
633 MHz
64MB Ram
10.3 GB HD

It's 4:30 AM here, and I still haven't gotten any sleep, so I'm probably about to hit the hay. :P

I'll be back on in about, say 6 hours?

[The Real Dave]

Well. The system is so slow I can't even do anything. I believe it has an Intel 810 Chipset
633 MHz
64MB Ram
10.3 GB HD

It's 4:30 AM here, and I still haven't gotten any sleep, so I'm probably about to hit the hay. :P

I'll be back on in about, say 6 hours?

Ok mate. Get some shut'eye :)

[mr-woof]

that's not too bad, I was expecting the processor to be a lot slower

[blueturtl]

Well. The system is so slow I can't even do anything. I believe it has an Intel 810 Chipset
633 MHz
64MB Ram
10.3 GB HD

It's 4:30 AM here, and I still haven't gotten any sleep, so I'm probably about to hit the hay. :P

I'll be back on in about, say 6 hours?

That system is mostly hindered by RAM. 64 megs will allow you to run command line mode or X with really lightweight apps (think Fluxbox). Running Ubuntu on it is not really gonna work unless you upgrade the memory to at least 256 megs.

It will fly on Windows 95/98 though, especially if you install Cacheman 4.1.

[The Real Dave]

That system is mostly hindered by RAM. 64 megs will allow you to run command line mode or X with really lightweight apps (think Fluxbox). Running Ubuntu on it is not really gonna work unless you upgrade the memory to at least 256 megs.

It will fly on Windows 95/98 though, especially if you install Cacheman 4.1.

A minimal Ubuntu install, command line that is, will work ok on 64Megs. My Ubuntu server install uses 20Mb before adding on things like OpenSSH, Samba and NFS. All of that brings it up to ~30Mb

[Abhinavhardikar]

I have a very oooooooooold PC

specs

1)A Jetway motherboard
2) Intel Pentium II @350MHz
3) 128 MB RAM
4) 3COM Ethernet 100mbps
5)4 GB HDD
6) SiS 6326 Direct3D Graphics card with 4MB dedicated memory


An I got xubuntu on it

[The Real Dave]

I have a very oooooooooold PC

specs

1)A Jetway motherboard
2) Intel Pentium II @350MHz
3) 128 MB RAM
4) 3COM Ethernet 100mbps
5)4 GB HDD
6) SiS 6326 Direct3D Graphics card with 4MB dedicated memory


An I got xubuntu on it

With a PCI SATA card, and a nice big SATA harddrive, that'd make a great server :)

[blueturtl]

A minimal Ubuntu install, command line that is, will work ok on 64Megs. My Ubuntu server install uses 20Mb before adding on things like OpenSSH, Samba and NFS. All of that brings it up to ~30Mb

Absolutely true. I was just pointing out that the default Ubuntu install is geared toward much more robust hardware.

[blueturtl]

I have a very oooooooooold PC

specs

1)A Jetway motherboard
2) Intel Pentium II @350MHz
3) 128 MB RAM
4) 3COM Ethernet 100mbps
5)4 GB HDD
6) SiS 6326 Direct3D Graphics card with 4MB dedicated memory


An I got xubuntu on it

That will wipe the floor with mine (posted earlier (http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=8834989&postcount=36)). You've got a 100 MHz front side bus speed and the Pentium FPU wipes floors with the K6. You pair that with a Voodoo3 or a RivaTNT2 and you'll have yourself a beast. :D

[The Real Dave]

Absolutely true. I was just pointing out that the default Ubuntu install is geared toward much more robust hardware.

Oh my bad :( I misunderstood you :)

[Swagman]

lol

Just took THIS lot ( http://www.upload3r.com/serve/210210/1266758840.jpg) down the tip.

Found another pc under the workbench in the garage and a few old routers I'm gonna send to that great PC-inarium in the sky next weekend.

I know I have my old P3@ 1ghz NLE machine lying dormant in the loft next to my daughter old P2 in a huge full AT tower.

That P3 dual boots Me & win2kpro (Me was kept cuz my Epson GT5000 flatbed scanner didn't work on Win2K)

[The Toxic Mite]

lol

Just took THIS lot (http://www.upload3r.com/serve/210210/1266758840.jpg) down the tip.

Found another pc under the workbench in the garage and a few old routers I'm gonna send to that great PC-inarium in the sky next weekend.

I know I have my old P3@ 1ghz NLE machine lying dormant in the loft next to my daughter old P2 in a huge full AT tower.

That P3 dual boots Me & win2kpro (Me was kept cuz my Epson GT5000 flatbed scanner didn't work on Win2K)

Holy <BEEEEEEP>!

I WANT!!!i!

[The Last Dregs]

The system specification: AMD Athlon 1400 processor, MSI K7T Turbo2 motherboard, 2x256MB PC-133 ram, Nvidia 32MB Geforce2 MX graphics card, Lite-On CD-RW, NEC DVD-RW, Intel 56k modem, Realtek network card, Via USB2 card and a Soundblaster PCI 128 sound card. All in a typical late 90's beige box.


This had been sitting in my closet for quite some time. I have cannibalized it for parts over the years and it was just one step away from the recycle bin. But for some unknown reason I kept it.


I was in the process of upgrading my main machine (the components replaced would then upgrade the next machine down the line) when I realised I would have enough spare parts to rebuild this ancient beast. I managed to scavenge a floppy drive, keyboard, mouse, 300 watt power supply and an old Hansol 19” CRT monitor I had kicking about the place. To this I added Deskstar 120GB and 160GB hard drives and a Netgear WG111v2 wireless dongle (tested working with XP) that I got with a router a few years ago. I cobbled this all together and fired it up and...IT'S ALIVE!!!


And that's where my enthusiasm for this little project nearly died. In an earlier incarnation I had this box of scrap connected to a LAN running Ubuntu Hardy (8.04) and everything worked perfectly. But on this occasion I set everything up in a room adjacent to the router, and you guessed it, that damn wireless dongle refused to work correctly. Just about every Linux distribution in the top 20 from Distrowatch was downloaded and installed. The device was always recognised for what it was, but it would either connect correctly only to drop the connection in the same session or on reboot or refuse to authenticate at all. I scoured this and other forums for advice and information. Every solution and configuration was tried, tested and then discarded. As you may gather I was getting more than a little perturbed by this point. While I am sure I could simply have installed a pirate copy of Windows XP (my original is tied to my games machine) and be done with it, this was the last thing I wanted. Short of an angle grinder to assuage my frustration I had hit a brick wall.


Then I remembered something. In a drawer I had an OEM copy of Windows 2003 Server that a friend had lent me but had never come back for. Although sceptical I went through the installation procedure. I downloaded the service packs on another box, burned them to DVD then installed them also. Now we get to the wireless drivers...OH FOR {censored} SAKE!!!


I was at my wit's end, so as a last resort I tried XP Compatibility Mode and...success. With a new found sense of purpose I input all the correct authentication information and voila, I was online. With a visit to Windows Update and a few tweaks here and there I now have a reasonably capable desktop machine. And all it took was a few years off my life, I swear my hair is a tinge more grey than when I started.


I would have preferred to have Linux on this system, and at the first opportunity I shall set up a dual boot and try and get to the bottom as to why the wireless is so temperamental. But at the very least I now have another box to break. I think I need to lie down for a while.

[The Real Dave]

Nice story mate. I've had that feeling before, when you're not sure whether it's worth the effort anymore.

That said, I did find myself a copy of W2k3, and am giving it a shot on a spare computer. Seems ok, but I'm not sure what I want it to do yet :)

Best of luck in sorting that wireless issue.

[gn2]

I have a ~10-year-old Advent L8400 laptop. None of my favourite Linux distros suit the laptop, so I'm running it on Windows XP. ~

The (known) specs are:


750MHz Intel Pentium !!!
128MB of RAM



Have you tried antiX (http://antix.mepis.org/index.php/Main_Page) on it yet?

[samalex]

lol

Just took THIS lot ( http://www.upload3r.com/serve/210210/1266758840.jpg) down the tip.

Found another pc under the workbench in the garage and a few old routers I'm gonna send to that great PC-inarium in the sky next weekend.

I know I have my old P3@ 1ghz NLE machine lying dormant in the loft next to my daughter old P2 in a huge full AT tower.

That P3 dual boots Me & win2kpro (Me was kept cuz my Epson GT5000 flatbed scanner didn't work on Win2K)

Yeah, we recently moved and I had to part with TONS of older computers, some of which I had since the 80's. That plus TONS of technical books, like 200+ books.

We have a Goodwill Computer Works here in town, so I figured I could take them there to be redistributed, recycled, or whatever. As I dropped off the books, after they were unloaded from my car I saw that they were being pitched into a garbage bin inside their warehouse which really pissed me off. Also the computers I dropped off were equally trashed, even though some of them were classics like an original IBM 5150 with monitor. I'm still kicking myself for not putting it on EBay, but I just ran out of time and needed to get rid of it.

I still have a stash of systems I'm going to take to our next LUG meeting for anyone interested, but I'm down to my most nostalgic systems (mainly TRS-80 and Amiga systems) plus about 25-30 books.

Take care,

Sam

[The Real Dave]

For anyone who's interested, you can find here (http://linuxexpresso.wordpress.com/2010/02/28/cyrix/) a full blog on that old Cyrix computer, and the newer machine stuffed into an old case. And yes, there are pictures :)

[RabbitWho]

xD
I love em too. I've fixed a lot of old computers up with Linux for other people, but never one for myself. I think it's time I got one.
I mean, how much money out of pocket could it be? Seriously.

Our college used to just leave old computers in the hall for months hoping someone would steal them and they wouldn't have to pay to have them taken away. There was a whole unlocked room filled with Imacs, you know those 3GB hard drive ones with the transparent backs from like 2000, mostly towers but a few monitors too. Or was it the other way round, i dunno, this was just a small room crammed with stuff, all on the floor and coated with dust..

[Thelasko]

I know I have my old P3@ 1ghz NLE machine lying dormant in the loft next to my daughter old P2 in a huge full AT tower.

P3s are totally usable. I have an old P3 800MHz running Mythbuntu. It runs great, just as long as you don't ask it to play anything HD.

[RabbitWho]

For anyone who's interested, you can find here (http://linuxexpresso.wordpress.com/2010/02/28/cyrix/) a full blog on that old Cyrix computer, and the newer machine stuffed into an old case. And yes, there are pictures :)



AHhhahha! I have the same eircom net icon! The IOL free one I deleted.. they went out of business right? Claimed we'd gone over our unlimited balance.. or was that smart telecom...

First they sold the cds, then they were giving them away, then you got them through the door. I stuck them to the walls of my room.
A penny a minute.. after 6.. I'd sit by the computer and count down the seconds to 6... once raked up a bill of 130 pounds. :(

All that stuff is real familiar, our IBM apitva is still going strong but it's since been upgraded to XP/Spri linux. 2 USB ports and no ethernet, but works fine with wireless. BIOS gets very confused and angry at me for having a USB mouse.
192 MB of RAM (max)- Came with 125 I think.
Pentium 3 Processor.
12 GB hard drive, 10 used. (Nightmare keeping that down)

Only our family understand why it's worth keeping. It's still fine. I don't see any reason why we can't keep it another 10 years, as long as the internet is still html java and flash. Maybe i'm unrealistic, but that's my baby!

[The Real Dave]

AHhhahha! I have the same eircom net icon! The IOL free one I deleted.. they went out of business right? Claimed we'd gone over our unlimited balance.. or was that smart telecom...

First they sold the cds, then they were giving them away, then you got them through the door. I stuck them to the walls of my room.
A penny a minute.. after 6.. I'd sit by the computer and count down the seconds to 6... once raked up a bill of 130 pounds. :(

Smart Telecom went out of business a few years ago. As for the icon, the computer wasn't mine, and by the time I got dialup, those CDs weren't been given anymore :( That said, I've quite a few of them ;)


All that stuff is real familiar, our IBM apitva is still going strong but it's since been upgraded to XP/Spri linux. 2 USB ports and no ethernet, but works fine with wireless. BIOS gets very confused and angry at me for having a USB mouse.
192 MB of RAM (max)- Came with 125 I think.
Pentium 3 Processor.
12 GB hard drive, 10 used. (Nightmare keeping that down)

Only our family understand why it's worth keeping. It's still fine. I don't see any reason why we can't keep it another 10 years, as long as the internet is still html java and flash. Maybe i'm unrealistic, but that's my baby!

I totally agree with you :) If it works for you, keep it. Just take care of it, and it'll last for a long time yet. PIIIs are generally great chips, I've one that will work at 100% with no heatsink all day long, happily sitting at 110C. My second (used to be main) server was a PIII, and will be again shortly, once I buy a RAID card to allow me to hook up drives in excess of 20Gb. It'll draw a lot less power than the 2.6Ghz Celeron that replaced it, for testing of W2K3 Server mainly :)


Oh, and as for that room in your college, I think I'd faint. Christmas, birthday, communion and wedding present all at once like!! :D I love getting donated computers, most of the one's I get are either old PIIIs and Celerons, or 3-4 yo machines with PIVs or newer Celerons. I just really want to get my hands on a laptop though :)

[PeteUplink]

Both of my PC's are a bit long in the tooth.

My main PC is custom built AMD Athlon 2400XP (2ghz) with 2GB RAM, 200GB HD, and 256mb Nvidia 7600GS. I put it together back in 2003

And my laptop (which was new in 2002, but I bought it 2nd hand for £30 three years ago) is a rather battered looking Toshiba Satellite Pro 2100, with 256mb of RAM, 30GB HD and a 32MB Nvidia Geforce Go! graphics card.
I'm running Ubuntu 9.04 on it and it's still surprising quick even with the small amount of RAM. I only really use it for surfing the net and it runs a lot better with Ubuntu than it ever did with Windows XP,
though I suspect I'm probably going to have to go for one of the lighter distros before too long.

[xpod]

Old PC users, chat here!

How old do we have to be?...i`m only 39. :^o
Ok, 40.

Joking asides i actually started my computer/Internet usage with other peoples old computers back in 2006. Not because we couldn`t afford new ones but purely because i was a bit of a dinasaur when it came to computers, a dinasaur who always found some excuse not to buy one when the subject was brought up.
When i finally caved in and agreed to getting one the wife made the now celebrated decision to take a friends old Desktop(ME), just to try and get the hang of things before we went & bought a new one. We also had some disagreements about just who was going to sit down at the computer in question and try learn a little for the benefit of the kids and so we ended up tossing a coin. I lost, as i seen it back then anyway. I knew pretty soon after that i`d actually won that toss.

That old ME box though was just the start of the many many old computers that would....and indeed still do pass through our hands. The old Compaq nx6110 laptop i`m currently using is probably the longest i`ve kept & used a salvaged machine now. I`ve had this for nigh on a year and i actually use this more often than i use my newer Desktop, which was the first complete computer i`d ever bought/built from completely new parts. I still use the Desktop of course.....just via the laptop more often than not.
I`ve probably had a good 20 Desktops, along with at least a dozen laptops and even a Netbook given to me over the last 3 years, 11 months & 3 weeks. Most get fixed up/upgraded & passed on to others but even though we all have our own new computers here at home now-a-days i still get a wee bit excited when i know some old banger is heading my way.:p

[weresheep]

I love these threads!

I currently have a Desktop and a Server both of which would be considered obsolete my most people.

My Desktop is a Dell Optiplex GX110 with a Pentium III @ 733MHz. It has 512MiB of RAM and runs Ubuntu Karmic Koala fine. The 120GB hard disk only contains the OS as all my data is mounted via NFS from my server.

My Server is a Pentium @ 133MHz with 256MiB of RAM and a 1TB hard drive. No that is not a typo, I really have a 1TB hard drive in a Pentium (bought new in 1995) computer. What's more I have another 1TB hard drive connected via USB 2.0 that the main drive rsync's to every night. It is headless and runs Debian Stable.

I do almost everything on my server via SSH (screen, mutt, irssi, vim, gcc etc) so my Desktop is little more than a dumb terminal and Firefox machine.

-weresheep