What do people do with their old computers?

skyhighflyer · 11-06-2007 11:09PM

I find it hard to believe the poster whose 1997 PC runs XP properly :eek:

I just find that they tend to get too slow / fooked at around 5 years old. I have a 486 and a P166 in the attic that work grand but sure what good could they be to anyone, even the local school?

weeder · 11-06-2007 11:32PM

i have an old powermac still on the go after 11 years!

TerrorFirmer · 12-06-2007 12:28AM

philstar wrote:

oh yeah??....well my ibm thinkpad is 8 years old and workin like new, can even play relevantly new games as well.

As long as you look after them, defrag regularly and keep them virus free, theres no reason why yr pc can't be used for 10 years +

so there:p

Yes sure, tell yourself that. Any eight year old laptop would struggle to play games released six years ago, let alone 'new' ones.

Anyway, there's no reason why a machine should be useless after 6 years. First of all, I have a computer in my sisters room that is perfect for web browsing, processing, runs older but still immensely popular games like Quake III and Unreal Tournament fine on high settings, and it's almost 8 years old. Even older then that, machines are perfect for light processing, printing, that sort of thing.

I usually keep mine, build various computers out of parts, or just give them away. It is shocking however, the amount of people that think they 'need' a new pc when all they need is more memory, or a new hard disk, etc, and then just dump their relatively perfect machines in the bin.

ciano1 · 12-06-2007 01:27AM

i plant them in the back garden and hope a computer tree will grow

fluppet · 12-06-2007 08:41AM

skyhighflyer wrote:

I find it hard to believe the poster whose 1997 PC runs XP properly

Indeed it does! I'm using it to write this message right now. You just turn-off all the silly swooshy effects and don't install too many programs that run continuously in the background. I must admit it has had a little bit of upgrading, but the only upgrade done that would have any impact on performance is a bit more RAM.

D.T Jesus wrote:

I went to the recycling centre... I saw a laptop... and took it with me

Are you allowed to do that? I'd gladly pick-up some stuff from there, but I would have thought it was against the rules.

fluppet · 12-06-2007 09:59AM

Just because your computer runs Windows a bit too slowly for your liking doesn't mean you have to get a new one either. If you are confident with computers and you have some spare time, I strongly recommend DSL - you'll be amazed how fast your computer runs.

12-06-2007 10:09AM

fluppet wrote:

Just because your computer runs Windows a bit too slowly for your liking doesn't mean you have to get a new one either. If you are confident with computers and you have some spare time, I strongly recommend DSL - you'll be amazed how fast your computer runs.

Yes, an old computer running small OS & Apps can be as fast if not faster than a newer model running the latest bloatware and struggling with lack of memory etc.

Don't expect an old PC to run newer bloatware...

jester77 · 12-06-2007 10:24AM

HavoK wrote:

Yes sure, tell yourself that. Any eight year old laptop would struggle to play games released six years ago, let alone 'new' ones.

Anyway, there's no reason why a machine should be useless after 6 years. First of all, I have a computer in my sisters room that is perfect for web browsing, processing, runs older but still immensely popular games like Quake III and Unreal Tournament fine on high settings, and it's almost 8 years old. Even older then that, machines are perfect for light processing, printing, that sort of thing.

I usually keep mine, build various computers out of parts, or just give them away. It is shocking however, the amount of people that think they 'need' a new pc when all they need is more memory, or a new hard disk, etc, and then just dump their relatively perfect machines in the bin.

I also have an 8 year old laptop, it's a Sony Vaio. Works fine, even have XP on it. Granted it's too slow to do anything intensive but I have it sitting in a corner of the house on the network with utorrent running 24/7. Never had a problem with it and it's took some big knocks back in the day!

GhostInTheRuins · 12-06-2007 06:08PM

fluppet wrote:

Are you allowed to do that? I'd gladly pick-up some stuff from there, but I would have thought it was against the rules.

I have no idea to tell the truth, there was nobody around and nobody stopped me. The way I see it is I was just doing my bit to save the planet

TerrorFirmer · 12-06-2007 10:15PM

jester77 wrote:

I also have an 8 year old laptop, it's a Sony Vaio. Works fine, even have XP on it. Granted it's too slow to do anything intensive but I have it sitting in a corner of the house on the network with utorrent running 24/7. Never had a problem with it and it's took some big knocks back in the day!

I don't doubt you. What I did doubt, or rather knew to be an outright lie for the sake of it, was a claim that an 8 year old laptop can run 'relatively new' games.

StephenC_IRL · 12-06-2007 10:30PM

I'll recycle any apple or sun computers for free

im just a good person like that,

but normally people give them away on places like www.jumbletown.ie

StephenC_IRL · 12-06-2007 10:34PM

D.T. Jesus wrote:

I have no idea to tell the truth, there was nobody around and nobody stopped me. The way I see it is I was just doing my bit to save the planet

I do it all the time even at the WEEE centre (not going to say which one, but the guy there is a legend) your not supposed to take it because the rules are once its in there its declared end of life and electrically unsafe, so your not supposed to take it, but fair play

JackKelly · 12-06-2007 11:02PM

Look at my sig!

StephenC_IRL · 12-06-2007 11:10PM

Timay, are you associted with CAMARA and if i was to make a donation of a monotary or large scale pc donation could some apple computers go missing from the premesis ??

Mrs. MacGyver · 12-06-2007 11:24PM

I've a second hand compaq laptop since 1999 and tis going grand also have an old Amstrad from 1980 something that i still play retro games on. I hoard things and never give them away! Todays junk are tomorrows antiques!.

Holsten · 12-06-2007 11:37PM

Mine is gathering dust beside the new one, I'll eventually get round to hooking it back up and using it for storage, but procrastination is fun.

JC 2K3 · 12-06-2007 11:41PM

Mossy Monk wrote:

Upgrade.

QFT.

And it doesn't have to be expensive upgrades either.

I've had my PC for 7 years now, and it was built from spare second hand parts that were being thrown out in the first place. So essentially it was free.

It now runs XP at a decent speed and with no problems whatsoever. What have I upgraded?

RAM: It was 32MB originally, now it's like 320MB, great performance boost and RAM is dirt cheap.

Graphics card: Nothing major, just some old one to a GeForce one. Runs older games grand. I don't use my PC for games much though.

Hard Drives: I've probably gone through 3/4. I currently have a 10GB one and a 40GB one onboard and a 220GB external one.

Motherboard: Original one had a strange restarting fault whenever new RAM was installed. I replaced it with an identical spare motherboard. I got it free, but it'd be very cheap to buy.

That's all I think. It's a P3 by the way.

skyhighflyer wrote:

I just find that they tend to get too slow / fooked at around 5 years old. I have a 486 and a P166 in the attic that work grand but sure what good could they be to anyone, even the local school?

They don't "get too slow". They might seem slow in comparison to newer PCs, but they're still the same speed as when you got them. And anyway, noticing the difference between slow and fast PCs is getting harder and harder as they get faster and faster, for example:

A PC from 1995 opens an app in 10 seconds, one from 2000 opens it in 2 seconds - you'll notice the difference in speed.

A PC from 2000 opens an app in 2 seconds, one from 2005 opens it in 2/5 of a second - you'll notice the difference, but not as much.

A PC from 2005 opens an app in 2/5 of a second, one from 2010 opens it in 2/25 of a second - will you notice the difference? Probably not.

For most PC functions besides games, there are no further advancements that can really make any worthwhile difference to their performance. Buying top-spec models is a bit of a waste of money for the non-gamer IMO. A well maintained PC from the early 00s with a few minor uprgrades is more than adequate for the average user.

GhostInTheRuins · 13-06-2007 09:00AM

StephenC_IRL wrote:

I do it all the time even at the WEEE centre (not going to say which one, but the guy there is a legend) your not supposed to take it because the rules are once its in there its declared end of life and electrically unsafe, so your not supposed to take it, but fair play

Oops :cool:

StephenC_IRL · 13-06-2007 10:23AM

D.T. Jesus wrote:

Oops :cool:

ahh fair play to you though, once you understand the risks and that if it explodes you cant sue them your ok, just one piece of advise, if this is a regular occurence, dont sell aything you pick up , the serial numbers of stuff is logged now and if the same thing comes back twice somebodys gonna be in trouble

GhostInTheRuins · 13-06-2007 11:11AM

StephenC_IRL wrote:

ahh fair play to you though, once you understand the risks and that if it explodes you cant sue them your ok, just one piece of advise, if this is a regular occurence, dont sell aything you pick up , the serial numbers of stuff is logged now and if the same thing comes back twice somebodys gonna be in trouble

Haha, don't worry about that. Thats the only time I've done it and I don't plan on making a living out of selling stuff thats been dumped

. I was just totally shocked at the stuff that people dump out. Whoever had the laptop just dumped it because they couldn't get it working, if you looked at it you'd swear it was new.

Stephen · 13-06-2007 12:05PM

I upgrade every 2 years or so, and sell the old bits on adverts.ie at knock-down bargain basement prices

What do people do with their old computers?

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