What to do with old crappy computer?

I think I am actually going to get a new computer soon. Best Buy has 12 month no interest financing so I think I am going to get an HP package soon.

I have a Gateway that is about 6 years old.

Pentium III 480mghz
256 RAM
20GB Hard Drive

OK, yeah so it's slow and old. Can't I still make use of this somehow? I am going to dump the old monitor and printer, but can't I network the drive so it reads as sort of a server for my new machine? A friend of mine did something similar and had a monitor switch so he could flip back and forth - he basically used the 2nd drive strictly for downloads and his main PC to run all aplications.

This is pretty much how I am set up. I have an old headless 400mhzish machine in my closet that is my print server/webserver/FTP server/file server. It is running Windows 2000, and I have all the drives mapped to my main machine. This way I can download movies, songs, etc from my laptop, dump them on the file server, and play them back in the living room on my NES.

I set up the network sharing on my PC and tested it with my roommates computer and it works fine. SO at least I know I can find my old PC on my home network once I set up the new PC.

I will probably get a KVM switch so that I can alternate between the new and old PC. The old PC will probably be used mainly for downloading files so I don't need to clog up my new PC's resources.


So I went to Best Buy and settled on this model - I don't have the exact model # but here are the specs:

HP Pavillion

Pentium 4 3.0ghz w/ Hyper Threading Technology
1GB RAM
200GB Hard Drive
128MB Video Memory
Intel Graphics Media Excelleraotr 9000
Double Layer DVD-RW 16x4x16 & CD-RW 40x24x40 Drive w/ Light Scribe (it prints directly to blank CDs or DVD discs instead of writing on them)
2nd CD Drive
3 PCi Expansion Slots
7 USB 2.0 Ports (3 front/ 4 back)
Inetgrated 10/100 Ethernet
Windows XP Home Edition
No MS Office installed - But I am downloading Office XP as we speak.

17 Inch HP Flat Panel Monitor

Some semi crappy HP printer that will do the job.

$1069 after rebates and they offer 12 month no interest payments.

Thoughts?

What are the upgrade & expansion possabilities like ?

man, ur computer is very usefull u can buy a nic card and setup in LAN use the PC as a Firewall their are some free firewalls sofware that are free.

or

u can install Linux and see the power of really controlling OS.

Someone else suggested installing Linix as well. What will this do?

Linux is another type of Operating System. It won't really do anything, performs a similar function to Windows.

I would suggest you use it as a server of sort, perhaps as extra storage for your music etc.

Before you buy the HP system, look into what its expansion possabilities are like.

Available Expansion Bays: External 1 (3.5")
Total Expansion Slots: 3 PCI
Available Expansion Slots: 2 PCI

Make sure you get a PC with a grapfics card slot either AGP or PCIE.

*plum*

*plum* is correct [ as usual, what it must be like to be perfect ].

The reason I was asking about expansion possibilities is because ALOT of pre built systems have very little oppotunity for expansion for two reasons:

1. To get you to buy a new PC when yours is out dated
2. Plenty of people have no idea how to upgrade a PC [ which links back to point 1 ]

You deffinatly want either an AGP Slot or PCI-E if you want some decent graphics.

What is the RAM expansion like ? [ That said, will you ever use more than 1 GB or RAM ? ]

Other than those two points it appears a nifty little system.

The memory is expandable up to 4.0GB.

I don't see anything on the spec sheet as far as AGP or PCI-E Slot.

I would see if you can get a mobo upgrade with an AGP or PCI-E slot added to that bundle.

You don't have to, its only a suggestion, but would be of great benefit to you.

As for the RAM issue, 4Gb should be more than enough.

Is there any other advantage to keeping the old PC other than the extra space? Can I make better use of it somehow?

hmm welll lets see...... u could send it to me! id be happy lol u wouldnt do it but id appreciate it lol but i would keep it for storage or use it to run a server for a game or a mail server

You can turn it into a dedicated firewall and have a collection of massive storage HDDs in your new PC that only contain games/music/other stuff.

Or you could use it for medical research ...
http://www.stanford.edu/group/pandegroup/folding/