What to do with my ancient Compaq Presario 5000?

[LaughingCheese]

This my very first computer! And I still have it sitting under my desk, next to my newest computer.

I got it way back at Christmas 2000, so its nearly 10 years old now!!

Off the top of my head, the specs are:

* AMD Duron [pretty sure its duron and not athlon, I'll check next time I boot it up, if ever lol]
* 700Mhz WOW!
* forgot how much ram
* 60GB main HDD, added secondary 80GB HDD, for a whopping total of 140GB!!!!

Don't those specs just knock your socks off?! I mean, how couldn't they?! Just AMAZING!!!!!!!

Anyways, I want to get into case modding/scratch building, so I thought maybe I could rip out the internals on this thing and use it in my first build.

But, is there anything useful such an old computer can do?

I thought about using it as a CNC controller, but I have yet to get around to building a CNC machine, and probably won't, if ever.

Perhaps something along the lines of a file server, like in this article. But I don't really need a file server though.



And then what to build?

I was thinking the Enterprise A from the TMP, its old, this computer is old, but the refit Connie is still way more advanced than this piece of junk.

What to do?

[Tsukiyumi]

I have a number of older components sitting around at the moment, so I understand. Should I just toss all of that, or try to make something useful from it?

I honestly don't know if it's worth it.

Getting software that would be compatible, making it all work, etc.

You could always use the case, as long as the power supply is reasonable (350 watt or higher), and has connections compatible with modern equipment.

[LaughingCheese]

Getting software that would be compatible, making it all work, etc.

You could always use the case, as long as the power supply is reasonable (350 watt or higher), and has connections compatible with modern equipment.

Well the latest version of ubuntu runs on it, and halo ran fine on it lol.

[Tsukiyumi]

Getting software that would be compatible, making it all work, etc.

You could always use the case, as long as the power supply is reasonable (350 watt or higher), and has connections compatible with modern equipment.

Well the latest version of ubuntu runs on it, and halo ran fine on it lol.

Well, if it's still running okay, you could just use it as a business/low-end application system. I've got my Grandfather's 750mhz system, and my older 1.7 ghz system just sitting around waiting for me to slap some stuff together and make them live again.

[Captain Picard's Hair]

Speaking of old stuff, I've had this box sitting in my closet for ages, and I just looked inside it and found what is clearly a computer board of some kind, but one so old as to be unrecognizable. I can't imagine how powerful it isn't.

[Tsukiyumi]

That's clearly pre-PCI. I have no idea what that is.

[LaughingCheese]

Well ya got me.

Do we have any uber nerds on this board who might have a clue what it is?

lol

[Teaos]

Ian might know.

[Aaron]

Obligitory mention of donation to PC's for kids.

[Mikey]

One word: catapult.

[Sionnach Glic]

As in "build it into a catapult" or "fire it from a catapult"?

[Tsukiyumi]

As in "build it into a catapult" or "fire it from a catapult"?

I'm guessing the latter.

[Mikey]

As in "build it into a catapult" or "fire it from a catapult"?

I had meant option 2, but option 1 certainly has potential for longer-term fun.

[IanKennedy]

It looks very much like a graphics card. All those chips on the far end of it are probably memory chips. It's probably got at least 0.5 or maybe even 1MB of RAM. However looking closer there's no socket to plug a monitor into. It's perhaps a RAM expansion card.

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

As in "build it into a catapult" or "fire it from a catapult"?

I had meant option 2, but option 1 certainly has potential for longer-term fun.

A mini-trebuchet, then send it to the Mythbusters or those crazy guys from England I saw on Mythbusters.