Old Computer worth salvaging?

[evanrick]

I have a 2002 dell with a pentium 4 in it. I know the processor is crap nowadays, but I upgraded the graphics card and the power supply and the ram.

is there any way i can salvage the parts i have upgraded into a new, faster CPU capable machine? i would need a new CPU and hard drive. would the old ram and video card bottleneck any new cpu i used with them?

I would need a AGP compatible motherboard, is it worth building it or should i just let it continue to die slowly?

 

[GhostPhoenix]

I'd say think about replacing it. Its old enough that its not worth trying to salvage any of it.

 

[MindBlast]

I have a 2002 dell with a pentium 4 in it. I know the processor is crap nowadays, but I upgraded the graphics card and the power supply and the ram.

is there any way i can salvage the parts i have upgraded into a new, faster CPU capable machine? i would need a new CPU and hard drive. would the old ram and video card bottleneck any new cpu i used with them?

I would need a AGP compatible motherboard, is it worth building it or should i just let it continue to die slowly?

If it's an AGP slot, you don't really have what I'd consider a half decent graphics card. Just buy all new parts. Also as for the RAM, putting slow RAM next to fast RAM will slow it all down to the speed of the slowest stuff.

 

[Corny]

when did you upgrade the graphics card?

if it is older than 3 years it will just slow down new machines massively and become a bottleneck.

if it is newer then only do it if you don't plan to play a lot of games etc.

other than that.. if it's only for surfing and e-mails, any small linux distribution will still run fine on it

 

[T-Rexx]

As Corny says, any small Linux distro will turn your old PC into a good machine for surfing the internet. And no worries about viruses, either. Lubuntu ("Light Ubuntu") is a new, lightweight distro (based on Ubuntu, of course) for older hardware.

You could also use your old computer as a hardware and software firewall between your home network and the Internet. Install a cheap, second network card in it and connect one network card to your modem and one to your network router or switch. Any Linux distro can be configured to act as an intelligent firewall in this manner, filtering content, providing DHCP services for the network, adding file storage, and even providing intranet email (over your local network only). SmoothWall Express is a Linux distro specifically designed to be used in this manner.

There are other uses for older hardware, depending on your circumstances. Older computers make fine file servers to add storage to a network.

Just as another example, I have one old computer set up as a Linux fax server for a company network. (Yes, companies still fax). Faxes come in over the telephone line and are received by the computer exactly like a fax machine. The faxes are then served up to the network and may be retrieved by any workstation, anywhere in the company.

 

[GamerBear]

Happened to me when I had my 4 year old computer, great graphics card yet motherboard died. I think I agree with what Corny says.

 

[Purplebic]

My own tower is roughly 3 years old. Since then ive had to change the PSU (died) and add an extra TB drive.

But i really wouldn't considering changing the graphics, mobo, ram, and all that. I would rather just buy another cheap tower and keep the old one as a server.

 

[mike_n_herrin]

you are in the same boat as me. my machine is cira 2002 and a 3.0 ghz pentium 4, 512 MB AGP graphics card with 2 gb of ram. nothing is going to move into a new modern machine (except my hard drives). ram is not the right type for new motherboards, AGP isn't really supported anymore (they are mostly PCIe), and you already know the CPU wouldn't move. the power supply might but mine is only 350 watts so that's not really all that powerful these days to run a decent graphics card.

i'm not sure what your needs are, but erasing your machine and doing a clean install of just windows xp (and updating it to service pack 3 immediately) and then adding back in the software you use the most can revive and extend the life of your existing machine (assuming you are not needing it to run some of the new games). if you have not reinstalled windows since you got the machine in 2002 it's likely to have slowed down considerably with the accumulated "stuff" that windows tends to accumulate over time. if you erase your computer and reinstall windows make sure you have all of your documents (music, photos, videos, etc.) back up so you can put them back after you reinstall windows. also make sure you have the installation cd/dvds for whatever software you use (including your windows install cd!).

 

[Paws]

If your motherboard still has AGP and IDE connections, don't bother upgrading anything. Those ports are deprecated and you're just throwing out money for nothing.

Throw a Linux on it to play around with it. For proper work, use an up to date machine.