3 ms·

Things to do with an old computer. Anyone can add more ideas?

3 points by hippich 16y ago

mooism2 16y ago
Replace it with a newer, more powerful computer that uses less energy?
bitsai 16y ago
In the same vein as "Cluster it", you could also use old computers as testbeds for experimenting with map-reduce frameworks like Hadoop.
jdietrich 16y ago
Discard it. Old computers are less than worthless. Let's say you've got an old Pentium 4 machine that you want to make use of - nothing ancient, still perfectly capable of doing useful work. If you use it as BitTorrent machine, it'll easily suck up 150w. As a distributed computing node, more like 300w. Running 24/7 that's 1314 kW/h or 2628 kW/h a year. In the UK, cheap electricity costs around 13 pence per kilowatt hour, meaning that this 'free' old machine will cost you £170 a year with a modest workload or £340 a year if working hard. An Atom-based nettop will consume around 30 watts under load, will have comparable performance to a fast Pentium 4[1] and can be bought for less than £200. The only reasonable thing to do with an old computer is discard it, or recycle it if you don't mind the idea of a Chinese child stripping it for parts[2]. [1] http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_lookup.php?cpu=Intel+Atom+N270+%40+1.60GHz http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_lookup.php?cpu=Intel+Atom+N2... [2] http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/world/2002/disposable_planet/waste/chinese_workshop/3.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/world/2002/...
- hippich 16y ago
  up-voted because of nice comparison of performance of atom and p4 cpus, but 35W is what cpu eats alone (vs ~110 for P4 cpu may be?). How much atom-based nettop will consume watts in total? And what about I/O throughout, is nettops compared to desktops? I think about either reusing existing old desktops or buying one of these nettops for: 1) home network server, which will act as media storage and as VPN gateway for home network. 2) media server for my tv

3 ms·

Things to do with an old computer. Anyone can add more ideas?

3 points by hippich 16y ago

mooism2 16y ago
Replace it with a newer, more powerful computer that uses less energy?
bitsai 16y ago
In the same vein as "Cluster it", you could also use old computers as testbeds for experimenting with map-reduce frameworks like Hadoop.
jdietrich 16y ago
Discard it. Old computers are less than worthless. Let's say you've got an old Pentium 4 machine that you want to make use of - nothing ancient, still perfectly capable of doing useful work. If you use it as BitTorrent machine, it'll easily suck up 150w. As a distributed computing node, more like 300w. Running 24/7 that's 1314 kW/h or 2628 kW/h a year. In the UK, cheap electricity costs around 13 pence per kilowatt hour, meaning that this 'free' old machine will cost you £170 a year with a modest workload or £340 a year if working hard. An Atom-based nettop will consume around 30 watts under load, will have comparable performance to a fast Pentium 4[1] and can be bought for less than £200. The only reasonable thing to do with an old computer is discard it, or recycle it if you don't mind the idea of a Chinese child stripping it for parts[2]. [1] http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_lookup.php?cpu=Intel+Atom+N270+%40+1.60GHz http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_lookup.php?cpu=Intel+Atom+N2... [2] http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/world/2002/disposable_planet/waste/chinese_workshop/3.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/world/2002/...
- hippich 16y ago
  up-voted because of nice comparison of performance of atom and p4 cpus, but 35W is what cpu eats alone (vs ~110 for P4 cpu may be?). How much atom-based nettop will consume watts in total? And what about I/O throughout, is nettops compared to desktops? I think about either reusing existing old desktops or buying one of these nettops for: 1) home network server, which will act as media storage and as VPN gateway for home network. 2) media server for my tv