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Old PC & Laptop - Ideas?

  • 18-06-2010 12:29pm
    #1
    JayV
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 124 ✭✭


    I am relocating overseas and can't decide whether or not to bother bringing my laptop and home pc. Both are now a good few years old so I'm not sure what would be the best use for them (see below for specs). The alternative is to give them away to my folks etc. A couple of ideas so far:

    * Install linux on laptop and use for internet, email, skype etc.
    * Convert home pc into a media server for the living room.

    Specs:

    Laptop
    Dell Inspiron 630m
    Pentium M 1.73 GHz
    1 GB RAM
    Win XP

    Home PC
    Dell Dimension 5150c
    Pentium Dual Core 3 GHz
    1 GB Ram
    128 MB Radeon X600SE
    Win XP
    The main drawback with this PC is the fan. Once it's been on for more that a couple of minutes the fan sounds like an airplane taking off. I googled the model name and this seems to be a "feature" of this model.

    I also have an unopened copy of Windows 7 that I can make use of.

    Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.


Comments

  • #2
    JayV
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 124 ✭✭JayV


    Would I be better off posting this in a different forum?


  • #3
    po0k
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,817 ✭✭✭✭po0k


    Replace the fan in the PC.

    Install XBMC on some flavour of Linux/BSD, or look for a dedicated XBMC distro (they exist, I forget names)


  • #4
    PogMoThoin
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,874 ✭✭✭✭PogMoThoin


    po0k wrote: »
    Replace the fan in the PC.

    Install XBMC on some flavour of Linux/BSD, or look for a dedicated XBMC distro (they exist, I forget names)

    :rolleyes: http://www.boxee.tv/

    Put Ubuntu on the laptop and its fine: http://www.ubuntu.com/


  • #5
    Trivarion
    Closed Accounts Posts: 45 ✭Trivarion


    PogMoThoin wrote: »
    :rolleyes: http://www.boxee.tv/

    Put Ubuntu on the laptop and its fine: http://www.ubuntu.com/
    If it's for non techie people I would suggest Linux Mint (http://linuxmint.com/) which is just Ubuntu + codecs + custom menus. I put it on old PC for an old, almost technically illiterate person for email and internet and it worked out great. I think Mint requires far less work out of the box and the menus are more accessible to Windows users.


  • #6
    keithclancy
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,208 ✭✭✭keithclancy


    Stick Windows 7 on the desktop, similar spec to my box .. get a DVB-S card and stick up a small satelite dish.

    Pretty easy to setup and you get all the Freesat channels for free !

    If you need any help pm me :)


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  • #7
    CompExpert
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 21 ✭CompExpert


    The laptop is really bad and sucks but the pc is not so bad just need a little bit of work such as change the cooling system and a little bit of overclocking.


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