Who runs an old PC at home as their main PC.


Leave out the PCs that you have sitting in a corner doing specialized 
tasks. - don't include the Apple that you use as a night light.


What are the specs and what changes have you made to keep it usable?




Tom

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Tom Austin wrote:
> Who runs an old PC at home as their main PC.
> 
> 


I run a dual processor P3 750MHz with 1GB ram.


I built the PC from scratch in 2000 using a Supermicro dual processor 
capable motherboard.  It started with (1) P3 750 processor and 256MB ram 
and a 13GB HD.

It started life running Windows NT 4.0.

Over the years I added a second CPU, upped the RAM to 1GB and added 
several hard drives to it.
A IDE PCI card was added to provide for more HD capacity.
A USB/Firewire card was added to provide for those capabilities.

At some point I upgraded the OS to Windows XP.


My plan was to upgrade - upgrade - upgrade to keep it usable.
And that has worked - but I don't think it can be upgraded much more.

The thing runs good with no real noticeable slowdowns except that CNN 
video stutters.

I have given up on processing home videos with it because it is just too 
slow - tho having dual processor made it usable while processing video.

We still use this machine as our main computer - checking email, surfing 
the web, playing some simple games now and then.

There have only been a couple of problems with the thing:
During POST, it will sometimes hang and need reset.
More and more often it will reset itself at random.



I have a more modern laptop, but it is used mainly when traveling and as 
a second computer when the main one is being used.


Overall age is about 8 years - not bad considering the speed at which 
technology flies.




Tom

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Define "old"?  And "Main".

The main machine I use is for work - a Thinkpad t42p.  It's not "old" per 
se, but it has completely depreciated and is about 5 years old.

I've got a machine that I physically work with every day that's a home-
built Athlon XP1800+ with 3/4 of a GB of RAM.  It's my main machine for 
certain tasks.  I've got 2 machines apart from the work laptop that I use 
regularly.

Jim

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Jim Henderson wrote:
> Define "Main".

LOL! The idea of multiple functional PCs in a single home is about as 
crazy as owning more than one car...




...oh, wait...

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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On Wed, 16 Jul 2008 17:11:19 +0100, Orchid XP v8 wrote:

> Jim Henderson wrote:
>> Define "Main".
> 
> LOL! The idea of multiple functional PCs in a single home is about as
> crazy as owning more than one car...

Less so for a family, or someone who works in "the biz". :-)

I've got probably 10 functional PCs in the house (at least) - 6 of them 
are at my desk at the moment.  One for my wife, one for my kid - make it 
more like 12-14 functional PCs in the house.  The rest are in the 
basement not being used ATM.

But only one car. :-)

Jim

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Tom Austin wrote:
> Who runs an old PC at home as their main PC.
> 

I suppose this desktop is old, or at least aging, in the sense that I 
used to replace my computer every 18 months or so and this one has been 
around since early '02.  It is an Athlon 64 3500+ @ 2.2Gh and 2Gb ram
It came with XP 2002 and SP2 I believe. It has an ASUS mobo. My initial 
configuration had problems until I replaced the ATI card with nVidia. 
I've added an external hd, cd burner, and dvd player.  I also replaced 
the Powersource. It does what I need.*  (I still have my Mitsubishi 
Diamond Plus 70 monitor that I bought when I replaced my 200Mh with a 
400 back near the beginning of time.  The AMD 650 that this 3500+ 
replaced is still sitting under the desk.  It was such a reliable 
machine that I am superstitious about parting with it.  There are also a 
couple of laptops of that vintage around soemwhere too.)

One reason I have not replaced the desktop is that with a growing family 
the better leverage has been with adding newer laptops and peripherals 
to our home.  I just got a refurbished hp, AMD Turion (Dual, I think?) w 
2gb ram, running Vista, as a second computer to support my wife's 
growing internet use. That one has a dvd burner. That with a colour 
printer and my wife is happy. My daughter, currently in hs, has a little 
Compaq Presario, Turion, XP, w a useless 384Mb of ram, which she LOVES. 
Fine with me. My son, away at college, has an hp Pavillion, Turion, 1.8 
Gh, 1Gb ram, XP.  All three laptop purchases were the low-priced, 
pre-built, buyer-bait at the time.

I was stubbornly using the little 'dual' modem that Verizon initially 
provided to connect the desktop and my daughter's laptop to the 
internet.  Dual means that it provides both an ethernet and usb port. 
So I was using it as a two-port 'router' with a ethernet cable running 
over to my daughter's room.  Of course verizon techs would always 
lecture me on how I shouldn't do that but I liked it because there was 
no 'network'.  Each computer thought it was solely connected to the 
verizon server.  With the third computer I finally had to buy a wireless 
router and setup a 'network'  Outcome has been mixed.  While my fears 
that it would be a support pain in the neck were well founded, it 
generally has been easier to do than was the worst of my fears.

* The only limitation is heavy POV renders, media, isosurfaces, etc, but 
I don't think even the newer crop of processors is going to change that 
much.  If I can wait 20 minutes I can wait an hour, it's the difference 
between 2 mins and 20 minutes that changes creative behavior.

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Tom Austin wrote:
> Who runs an old PC at home as their main PC.

Define 'main' PC.

I have a several year old desktop that I do most of my work on. AMD 64 
3200+ single core with 1 gig of ram and several HDs from all of the old 
computers that have died. Not that old, really.

I have a second computer at my feet under my desk, that I use for email, 
IMs, and web browsing when I don't really feel like hearing the fans on 
the desktop and don't need to do any real work. It's a Pentium 2 333, 
with 256 megs of ram and an 8 gig HD. Admittedly, I can use it for just 
about everything because I've got no problems using a CLI, and text only 
IMs and web browsers. I recently installed Xorg on a lark, and one day 
may actually need to use a graphical interface. It won't do any of the 
Flash code I've been writing, and I wouldn't try running Eclipse on it, 
but it does everything else.

I have family using my discarded desktop workhorses, my parents had been 
using an old Athlon 800MHz until the memory (or the controller, or the 
main board) started suffering random errors. Since fixing the problem 
meant trying several different options, and replacing it meant them 
hauling one of my old PCs out of my closet and putting a disk drive in 
it, they went with the easy option of just moving a case and a HD.

Strangely, when I have a head ache and MUST check email for the latest 
'OMG something broke, fix it now!' message, my Wii has turned out to be 
quite useful. If it would do IMs, I could think about getting rid of the 
Pentium 2.

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> Who runs an old PC at home as their main PC.

My girlfriend.

> What are the specs and what changes have you made to keep it usable?

Athlon XP2400+, with several hand-me-down parts from my PC when I upgrade. 
At the moment I think she has a 19" LCD, nVidia FX5900, a gig of RAM and an 
80GB HD in there.  It started life as my main PC while at university, IIRC 
then it only had 256MB RAM, a tiny 15" CRT and a 12GB hard drive or 
something.

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Well, the *case* is 8 years old... over those years, I've replaced 
everything in it at least once (and sometimes 2 or 3 times).  Does that 
count?

...Chambers

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Chambers wrote:
> Well, the *case* is 8 years old... over those years, I've replaced 
> everything in it at least once (and sometimes 2 or 3 times).  Does that 
> count?

LOL! Case is the newest part of my PC. ;-)

(The old one, I didn't realise this when I bought it, but it has one of 
those stupid CD drawers that don't work...)

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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"scott" <sco### [at] scottcom> wrote:
> > Who runs an old PC at home as their main PC.
>
> My girlfriend.
>
> > What are the specs and what changes have you made to keep it usable?
>
> Athlon XP2400+, with several hand-me-down parts from my PC when I upgrade.
> At the moment I think she has a 19" LCD, nVidia FX5900, a gig of RAM and an
> 80GB HD in there.  It started life as my main PC while at university, IIRC
> then it only had 256MB RAM, a tiny 15" CRT and a 12GB hard drive or
> something.

I'm glad, that I'm not the only one with such a computer. :-)
I have only one computer. It had the newest technology a few years ago.
It is Pentium 4 with 2,4 GHz; one GB Ram and Gforce 6600.
I do not dare to call that beauty old (anymore). :-)
I started with 512 MB Ram and a Gforce 4800.
I got also "hand-me-down parts", when my bothers upgrades their computers. :-)
So good to have brothers. :-D

Regards,
bluetree

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"Jim Henderson" <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote in message 
news:487e25ae$1@news.povray.org...
> On Wed, 16 Jul 2008 17:11:19 +0100, Orchid XP v8 wrote:
>
>> Jim Henderson wrote:
>>> Define "Main".
>>
>> LOL! The idea of multiple functional PCs in a single home is 
>> about as
>> crazy as owning more than one car...
>
> Less so for a family, or someone who works in "the biz". :-)
>
> I've got probably 10 functional PCs in the house (at least) - 6 
> of them
> are at my desk at the moment.  One for my wife, one for my kid - 
> make it
> more like 12-14 functional PCs in the house.  The rest are in the
> basement not being used ATM.
>
> But only one car. :-)
>
> Jim

Sheesh!
I keep about 18 computers running in my home lab.
I guess it depends on what you do with machines.
I do a lot of network design/testing/breaking and
I like swapping hardware around looking for optimums
in the strangest places.

Yeah - only one car too.
Traded in a Jeep (15 mpg) for a Mazda (31 pg).
Need anything more be said about that?

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On Thu, 17 Jul 2008 10:20:20 -0700, pan wrote:

> Sheesh!
> I keep about 18 computers running in my home lab. I guess it depends on
> what you do with machines. I do a lot of network design/testing/breaking
> and I like swapping hardware around looking for optimums in the
> strangest places.

:-)  I use VMware for that when I need to have more physical machines 
than real machines.  Or if I need more real machines, I can probably use 
some in one of the labs at work (we've got one lab with >1500 computers 
in it, but that lab has recently had to be moved so I don't know (a) 
where it is, or (b) if it's completely set up again yet).

The control systems in that lab are pretty cool.  They've got a control 
console they can use to change network topology, power settings ranging 
from a single machine to the entire room (including rows and racks at a 
time), and the last time I actually used machines in the lab (which is 
some 12 years ago now or so), a custom imaging solution for configuring 
the systems.

> Yeah - only one car too.
> Traded in a Jeep (15 mpg) for a Mazda (31 pg). Need anything more be
> said about that?

:-)

Jim

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scott wrote:
> Athlon XP2400+, with several hand-me-down parts from my PC when I upgrade.
> At the moment I think she has a 19" LCD, nVidia FX5900, a gig of RAM and
> an
> 80GB HD in there.  It started life as my main PC while at university, IIRC
> then it only had 256MB RAM, a tiny 15" CRT and a 12GB hard drive or
> something.

That you call an old PC?

My aunt currently has 256MB of RAM on her computer. Don't remember other
specs.

The (small) hard disk is uselessly split in two partitions, C: is running
low on space, many programs refuse to install on D:. So one day I took a
Ubuntu CD with me (since I already had it) and tried booting it, to run
gparted and try making C bigger and D smaller. After half an hour, I gave
up on trying to boot the disc. Turned out it doesn't boot with so little
RAM. It kept reading stuff from the CD over and over again because it had
0% of cache.

(Some other day I managed to do the partition resize with a dedicated
gparted liveCD, which is *very* lightweight)

My aunt says she'd upgrade the machine, but she promised my cousin (her
daughter) a computer for her own on her next birthday, and she doesn't have
the money to *both* upgrade and buy a new one...

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Orchid XP v8 wrote:
> Jim Henderson wrote:
>> Define "Main".
> 
> LOL! The idea of multiple functional PCs in a single home is about as 
> crazy as owning more than one car...

Actually, I think 2-3 is the absolute minimum for home environment. One 
firewall, one server (which includes all the RAIDed disk space and makes 
awful noise) being at cellar or closet oslt and one workstation (which 
is ment to be nice and *quiet*).

One also need a spare car to use, when the main car brokes down oslt. Or 
a service contract.

So, 10 computers listed atm and 3 cars. That should be enough for a 
single man ;).

-- 
Eero "Aero" Ahonen
    http://www.zbxt.net
       aer### [at] removethiszbxtnetinvalid

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> Actually, I think 2-3 is the absolute minimum for home environment. One 
> firewall, one server (which includes all the RAIDed disk space and makes 
> awful noise) being at cellar or closet oslt and one workstation (which is 
> ment to be nice and *quiet*).

I guess you can count the free modem I got from my ISP as a "computer" :-) 
That's my firewall.

Apart from that I only have 2 "real" PCs.  But then I have 2 work laptops 
and a PS3 (which streams video and audio from the other PCs to the TV).

> One also need a spare car to use, when the main car brokes down oslt. Or a 
> service contract.

Or have a reliable car, or live somewhere with good public transport.

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On Mon, 21 Jul 2008 12:27:01 +0200, scott wrote:

>> One also need a spare car to use, when the main car brokes down oslt.
>> Or a service contract.
> 
> Or have a reliable car, or live somewhere with good public transport.

Or both. :-)

Jim

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scott wrote:
> 
>> One also need a spare car to use, when the main car brokes down oslt. 
>> Or a service contract.
> 
> Or have a reliable car, or live somewhere with good public transport.

A service contract (or better yet a non-stop contract) IS what makes a 
car reliable.

Like someone said about a PC - would you risk your life on a normal, 
daily-use car? :)

-- 
Eero "Aero" Ahonen
    http://www.zbxt.net
       aer### [at] removethiszbxtnetinvalid

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And lo on Mon, 21 Jul 2008 11:27:01 +0100, scott <sco### [at] scottcom> did  
spake, saying:

> and a PS3

Gasp so that makes three people Andrew knows who own this "rich man's toy"  
- mind blowing! ;-)

-- 
Phil Cook

--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com

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Tom Austin <taustin> wrote:
> Who runs an old PC at home as their main PC.
Me at home and my mom at work


> What are the specs and what changes have you made to keep it usable?
My "main" PC has had quite an interesting life:
It started out as a AMD Athlon XP 2100+ with 512MB RAM, a 160GB Samsung disk and
an Epox EP-8RDA+ mainboard in early 2003
The Processor got overclocked to 2080 MHz with a 180MHz FSB and ran fine for
about 1 1/2 years 24/7 with boinc running. Then it started to have sporadic
errors, so I downclocked it a bit and got myself an Athlon XP 3000+
In the meantime i added a few Harddisks (2x200GB Samsung I wish I had never
bought) and a DVB-S card and used it as PVR (the reaon i hated th Samsung
disks, they coudn't sustain the data rate of multiple streams being read and
written). Some time in 2006 the board capacitors blew up and I had to replace
the board, which wasn't easy. Where in hell did you get a socket A board with a
minimum of 4 PCI slots (3 analog tuner cards and a IDE controller) and AGP in
2006? Luckily I stumbled over a Epox 8RDA6 Pro board in an online shop.
Sometime last year my trusty old nVidia GeForce 4200Ti died on me and i
replaced it with a GF6600GT. This Machine is still running Windows 2000
(probably not much longer, will upgrade to XP) and serves as my PVR and office
computer.

My mom's work computer is a dual processor P-III-650 with a whooping 128MB RAM
(doesn't recognize more in one slot and the second slot is under the CD burner
and not accessible and this mainboard is *huge*) and a 30GB IBM Disk on a
Gigabyte GA-6BXDS mainboard with onboard SCSI.
It started out with only one P-II-550 (couldn't afford more at the time)
I mainly bought it for the onboard SCSI I wanted to have for the Scanner and the
CD-Burner. At the time (1999 or something) the board was cheaper than the SCSI
contoller with the
same adaptec chipset alone.

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Aydan wrote:

> My "main" PC has had quite an interesting life:

Apparently the Chinese (?) have a most terrible curse: "May you have an 
INTERESTING life."

Obligatory XKCD quote:
http://xkcd.com/308/

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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