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what can i do with a dead pc?

H

hojoon0724

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 26, 2007
201
39
Los Angeles, CA
alright... so after few months away from home, i come back to find my 5 year old windows machine i built then doesn't work anymore.
it apparently has the motherboard not working.

It's a 1ghz pentium celeron (didn't do anything but p2p) so basically there is no use for it much.

Either I can send it to a recycling center, or i could take it apart and use the parts for something else.

And since I have 3 other macs in the house, i don't really care if it ends up in the trash.

Here's what I got in the machine
512RAM
1ghz Celeron processor
40gb HDD (2 of them)
CDRW
DVD-player (I think it doesn't work either)
a 17 inch monitor
microsoft wireless keyboard + mouse

Oh yeah, i don't really want to spend any money on this (max at 100 bucks)

Any creative suggestions will be really welcome
 
You might want to be careful if there is anything still on the hard drives that is confidential, you don't want anyone stealing your identity!

You can probably give it to a charity who can refurb it. I don't think that you can just throw it in the rubbish, you may have to pay to have it disposed of properly but giving to charity is free!
 
Pop the cover off the HDD, and take out the recording media.

Jump up and down in it, chanting "Never again, never again".

Oh, and Last Rites would be a nice touch.

 
Make the hard drive a clock,

Turn the ram into a key chain.

Something else with the CPU.



I am a bit of a geek so I think that stuff is cool.
 
If the hard drives are still good, wipe them, and pick up a couple external cases and turn them into external drives, either USB or firewire. I am contemplating that very thing with my old desktop PC, as its over 5 years old.
 
See if you can get a cheap motherboard to replace the broken one, and then use it as a spare system. You could sell it to someone looking for a cheap system for basic internet/word processing, or you could keep it around and find a use for it.

For example, play around running a cheapie server just for fun. Or, host Halo 2 games on it for your neighborhood. ... ... :eek:

You could use it like a guinea pig, trying out crazy things to see what happens/ if it works. You could use it to play music through the wireless network, and that way no matter what you're doing with your Macs, your tunes are still rocking hard! Leave it hibernating, and whenever you need to run a little windows app or test something on windows, or watch something online that is licensed only to IE 7 on Windows, just wake the thing up and go at it.

Or, my personal favorite, surf the web like mad, visiting dozens of sketchy emulation and warez sites. Do it all with the firewall/anti-virus/anti-spyware programs disabled and off. See how messed up your system can get! :D:rolleyes:
 
Silver-Fox said:
sell good bits, recycle the rubbish bits
Click to expand...

Be aware, some of those components come 'high priced' when they're new but don't garner too much on the second hand market. eBay is flooded with old 'puter parts.

I would suggest taking it to a vacant building over four stories tall, and giving it a hearty throw out one of the top windows.
 
Yeah, but don't throw it out the window unless you have verified that there is a viable target beneath you.

It's not fun without a target!
 
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