what should i do with a 1GHz celeron

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All Ham & No Potatos
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i recently was given a tiny gateway system with a 700MHz celeron that i promptly upgraded to 1GHz (from a half-dead machine sitting in my closet). so now i have a system that i feel is pretty competent for some menial tasks... but i have run out of menial tasks. i already have a HTPC, a gaming PC, and a file server. i considered installing it in my car as a jukebox, but i already have an MP3 cd player, and i actualy like having "disposable" media in the car in case of break-ins, and normal wear and tear.

the system is really small. impressivly small even. has onboard video (VGA only; intel 815), sound an modem. no AGP, and only accepts low profile PCI cards (2 slots) and supports a maximum of 512MB ram (according to the gateway product sheet anyway; it has 2 pc100 slots). it's definatly not a beast. but it has to be good for something. any suggestions?
 
Give it to a relative who needs a computer but doesn't yet have one or has one but is ancient. Or put it up on eBay. Or donate it to the Salvation Army or Goodwill. Maybe put it in the kitchen for WiFi internet surfing.
 
FOLD

Just kidding :LOL:
Well you could always set it on fire and watch that celeron burn in hell :devilish:
 
What shall we do with the drunken sailor... ;)

Just overclock and overvolt it till it starts burning! No better way to fry a CPU. And post the videos here!
 
I was going to say file and/or print server but then noticed you already have a file server.
You could donate it to a charity.
 
you can keep it around in case you do a small lan party at home (Counterstrike, Half-Life, age of empires 2, Fun Tracks and others)
 
Sometimes I wish I had an older PC with DOS installed, as it actually happens that I want to play really old DOS games. For those games, it's an obscenely powerful system - and maybe so modern that it will cause trouble. Nevertheless, worth giving a thought if you ever feel inclined to fire up Ultima 8 or suchlike.
 
Cartoon Corpse said:
those things have no onboard cache at all right? i've never owned one, i think that's why i decided (years) ago, i didn't want one.
It's only the old Celeron 266 and 300 that had no cache (the "A" versions had cache, as did later, higher-clocked ones).
 
this celeron has 128k cache, and i'm pretty sure it's full speed. about donating this computer... the funny thing is i just donated a plethora of older machines, and the only releative/friend with a slow computer was my mom, and i just built her a system out of parts in my closet. an 850 athlon, to be exact.

i never thought there would come a day when i couldn't find a use for more computers.
 
home automation/security system?

firewall?

i could see plenty of potential uses -- you'd just need the time to set it up. a computer like this could also conceivably constantly make backups of your most-used files (shared via network)... thin-client of sorts for the kkitchen/bathroom/guest room... or actually, i have to admit, if you have the electricity budget, having another machine around to fold isn't a terrible idea. it would give you something to do with the c for a few months -- my old pcs generally start out this way, and then within a week or two i (or a friend) have come up with some urgent need for it.
 
horvendile said:
Sometimes I wish I had an older PC with DOS installed, as it actually happens that I want to play really old DOS games. For those games, it's an obscenely powerful system - and maybe so modern that it will cause trouble. Nevertheless, worth giving a thought if you ever feel inclined to fire up Ultima 8 or suchlike.

I was given an IBM ThinkPad 380Z, which, now that both my other compys are running again, can revert to its proper use - being a "portable [Win 3.11] SystemShock CD-ROM game system (tm)"! ;)
 
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