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| Thread ID: 59567 | 2005-07-06 05:22:00 | My My, What People Will Throw Away... | vinref (6194) | PC World Chat |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 369833 | 2005-07-06 05:22:00 | A work colleague asked me last week if I would like to have his "old" computer because it was "too slow". If I didn't want it, he would dump it in the inorganic rubbish. Thinking it was a old 486 or maybe even a Pentium I, I casually said yes. It would make a nice router I was planning. Imagine my suprise when he brought it in and it was swish looking Compaq complete with a CD-burner and a zip-drive. I took it home and powered it up, and everything seemed to work but XP Home took forever. Looked through the bios and system information, and this throwaway box that was "too slow" was running a 600MHz CPU with 512MB ram and a 20GB hard-drive, and a Savage3 vidcard. It installed NetBSD in less than 10 minutes. It can build the GIMP and firefox from source in around 10 - 20 minutes. I have put the word out that I am interested in "slow" computers, and have 2 more offers. Sadly, neither offer is a laptop. |
vinref (6194) | ||
| 369834 | 2005-07-06 05:58:00 | Vinref.... Where are you? PJ | Poppa John (284) | ||
| 369835 | 2005-07-06 06:04:00 | Brisbane. I failed to mention that the other two offers also both run XP. I'd imagine they were factory installs because the owners don't know enough about them to have done any after-market installations. Therefore I am also optimistic that they are over 500MHz/128MB at least. Is this the throwaway point - 500/128/XP Home? |
vinref (6194) | ||
| 369836 | 2005-07-06 06:25:00 | vinref ..................Brisbane !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. I was hoping I might be able to take them off your hands. Freight to Auckland would cost an arm & a leg. PJ | Poppa John (284) | ||
| 369837 | 2005-07-06 08:18:00 | It's all relative. That is slow compared with my curreent one. But I would have removed any usable parts and flogged the rest off on Trademe for whatever amount someone would give me. Last one was 1.2Ghz, 256mb ram, case, PSU, um 440MMX graphics (no drives) I got $140 for. | pctek (84) | ||
| 369838 | 2005-07-06 08:28:00 | I've run XP on a Pentium 233, 180mb ram... Was a bit slow but did run :) | Agent_24 (57) | ||
| 369839 | 2005-07-06 10:11:00 | I'm desperate for old parts. New parts. Old parts. They're all the same. But for some reason, I can't get my hands on them - I'll take anything about 200MHz, how come you get all the silly folk? I was running Server 2003 Datacenter on a PII 266MHz for a large period of time, it never died. On that same, irrelevant point, I've found that a HP Vectra that I received second hand in 1999 (after Telecom had deemed it unworthy) is still going strong, while I see computers from last year die all around me. |
Growly (6) | ||
| 369840 | 2005-07-06 10:39:00 | I'm desperate for old parts. New parts. Old parts. They're all the same. But for some reason, I can't get my hands on them - I'll take anything about 200MHz, how come you get all the silly folk? I was running Server 2003 Datacenter on a PII 266MHz for a large period of time, it never died. On that same, irrelevant point, I've found that a HP Vectra that I received second hand in 1999 (after Telecom had deemed it unworthy) is still going strong, while I see computers from last year die all around me. Masses of the stuff on Trademe. As for new ones dying - quality vs cheap junk. :) |
pctek (84) | ||
| 369841 | 2005-07-06 10:48:00 | Im just biding my time waiting for TradeF1 to start up, I got some old parts, but am looking for not so old parts :) | Myth (110) | ||
| 369842 | 2005-07-06 10:49:00 | Growly, Do you think the fact that the HP wasn't built by you has anything to do with it???? :thumbs: | Metla (12) | ||
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