I have an old PC with the following specs:
Intel Pentium 4 @ 3.00 GHz
256 MB RAM
40 GB HDD
Currently running Windows XP SP1
Any ideas on how to use it other than salvaging the parts or giving it away? I was thinking of experimenting with Linux or using it as a light duty computer for playing music and maybe watching videos. Are there any Linux distros that would run decently on this configuration?
Daily driver: OpenBSD
I use my older machines for file servers. Currently have a freebsd machine running a jail for downloading torrents using a vpn.
Install Gentoo on it and you've got a nice toaster oven.
In all seriousness, though, you won't get much done with only 256mb of ram. If you can get an upgrade, you could actually watch videos from it. Speaking of distros, Void works nicely with old machines, and Gentoo does run very well on my old machine, even if it really does turn my room into a sauna when in use.
Man I'm getting too old for this place
I feel you man. I would've been grateful for a machine like this 15 years ago, especially since it's in perfect shape. I got it for free as it's been decomissioned but it would feel wasteful to throw it away for aforementioned reasons.
I might be able to find some more RAM, not much though. Would 512 MB make it usable at least?
Not a bad idea, but it probably wouldn't accomplish much due to lack of hard disk space.
That's genuinely not a bad plan. A machine that old isn't going to be good for gaymen anyway, so you may as well take advantage of that pre-ME processor to have a genuinely secure machine.
I buy cheap external drives for that. The only other thing you might want to upgrade is the NIC.
And I say external, because my "old computer" is a laptop. In your case I'm sure you can find a cheap internal drive.
those computers eat power like horse and heat up nicely, it won't be light at all. it's gonna also probably choke on HD material or heavy duty encodes
Run Trinity DE on it for maximum mid-2000s comfiness.
Man this brings back memories
Like this user said gentoo is a pretty good choice.
256MB is feasible but short if you use ""modern"" web browsers
Otherwise you can do pretty much a lot of things besides gayming and video montage.
yes, it was already usable with 256MB butyou can use a modern web browser now
isnt that IBM ThinkCentre configuration? Anyway, you could install pupy linux on that machine, or cross-compile gentoo for max performance... Also you could use very old PCs for switching/routing network with MikroTik. You could watch videos and play music but only downloaded files. Those machines dont have capability to run anything besides dillo/links browser.
Ditch XP, install Linux, use it as a torrent box.
I doubt it could handle playing even a 2ch 720p TV show. You might be able to play 360p or 480p locally, but I doubt it could stream with the network card in it (assuming it's not on-board).
Alternatively:
go back
>>>/4chan/
You won't run shit on it with 512MB. Get 1GB minimum, 2GB if you don't want your PC to choke for memory-related reasons.
emulation machine and word processor
or even 3/4GB depending on how much your mobo supports
I have an AMD Thunderbird @1.4Ghz with 1GB of RAM that I used for years as my main computer. I haven't used it in 5 years or so because I took it apart one day and never put it back together but it could play most x264 videos at a decent frame rate even if they pegged the CPU at 100% usage. You'd be surprised at what those machines can do when properly configured.
pfsense
Install IBM OS/2 Warp like a man.
you can do pretty much anything with this. it's a computer. you can play the last good FPS ever made (UT99) or pretty much any of the other good games. you can host a web server with hundreds or thousands of clients. you can probably watch HD video too. the only limitation might be the RAM. you wont be able to browse web of course because that takes 1GB to load a page with a paragraph of text
Install Gentoo
You say that, but I've got an IBM thinkpad, an old one that can only utilize 256mb, installed gentoo on it, which took god damn DAYS.
Overall it's workable, but I'm content enough to use it without Xorg or any graphical applications. Just tmux, elinks, mocp, and I'm set.
lol
Computer security is a function of People, not software written by an Autist who refuses to take his lithium.
This.
Planning on doing the same but with 3.0 (2.1 if that doesn't work out) on a 75Mhz 486 laptop.
With more RAM it will be a pretty comfy general-use machine.
I ran an 800MHz Pentium III up until recently as a backup machine. After getting an extra gig of RAM off fleabay, it ran a full-blown modern Linux desktop (KDE, LibreOffice, GIMP) very comfortably. It even played H.264-compressed DVD-rips fluidly (HD video would make it shit its pants though). It would only struggle with web browsing on script-heavy websites or with many tabs.
Get as much RAM as you can. It's cheap and every bit extra will make one hell of a difference. The remaining specs are fine.
I used a machine with a pentium II as a file server for a long while.
Tried out arch linux with lxde on it first, but dropped the graphical shit because there just wasn't enough oomph for that. As a pure file server it was fine though, I think at some point I even tried making a web server out of it, can't remember exactly how well it ran but you'd be surprised how much you can still accomplish with such old hardware. Modern applications are just so full of shit that hardware had to get better for the sake of bells and whistles and bugs.
Well no shit. A 350MHz Pentium II has similar oomph to a first-gen fagsberry, and look what all the hipster cunts do with those. It's more than enough for light server tasks.
I was talking more about desktop usage, where a late Pentium III is a usable minimum. Well, unless you want to browse the web that is.
DNS Server, Storage Server, you could mine some crypto night coins and make 5 cents a day provided you don't pay your hydro bill, offline coin wallets, offline storage and computing, etc...
The notion that tech is ever truly "dead" is a concept to make you buy more tech. While upgrades are needed for certain things you will always find a use for older stuff unless is actually "broken".
Want to browse the web? w3m
Want to listen to music? mocp/nvlc
Want to write spreadsheets? sc
Want to watch video? mpv+fb out (hope you encoded everything at 140p)
Want to multitask? tmux
I did this for years on older hardware until I got a decent laptop.
t. NSA
A computer without the Intel Management Engine backdoor and running OpenBSD is significantly more secure, especially if you use ad and script blocking.
Oh no you cant do anything with such obsolete tech
Don't listen to these fantastical ideas about using insecure operating systems such as linux you are missing out on decades of technological innovation that keep you and your family safe when you use obsolete technology like this.
Tell you what you just use something that is newer and proven to keep you protected with Windows 10 and just throw out that pesky old computer.
home firewall on openbsd
Why the fuck didn't the thread end here.
arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/01/numbers-dont-lie-its-time-to-build-your-own-router
As an aside, I don't care if ars is jewish or whatever, this was a well written article.