what to do with these computers???
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Topic: what to do with these computers???
Posted By: the boss
Subject: what to do with these computers???
Date Posted: 15 June 2005 at 6:38am
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i work as system admin for a medium size company and i have some stock of old computers like
3 pentium III 733Mhz systems
one 1st Gen 1.3GHz pentium4
some ram, main boards, yada yada..
my question is.. what is the useful thing i can do with this perfectly working stock of computers which are too old for office work or are just discarded out of the blue.. it just hurts to throw away working stuff in the garbage...  ------------- http://www.web2messenger.com/theboss"> 
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Replies:
Posted By: Gullanian
Date Posted: 15 June 2005 at 8:01am
| Ebay? |
Posted By: the boss
Date Posted: 15 June 2005 at 1:06pm
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no not worthed.. probably the shipping cost will be more than the worth of the computer.. ------------- http://www.web2messenger.com/theboss">
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Posted By: dpyers
Date Posted: 15 June 2005 at 3:01pm
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Around here there's a couple of organizations that take old computers and either donate them or charge a nominal fee to non-profit organizations. Some of those orgs are still using 486's.
The trick is to use something like Norton Util to overwrite the HD with 0's rather than just reformatting it which leaves the data intact. ------------- 
Lead me not into temptation... I know the short cut, follow me. |
Posted By: the boss
Date Posted: 15 June 2005 at 3:20pm
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ppl ppl ppl....i am not asking here how to erase data or where to send the computers.. im asking how can i put these computers to use such that they benefit me and mystuff of the community as a whole..
hmm.. running a community web server for a web portal.. hmm not a bad idea.. execpt there is no LAN in the neighbourhood houses..
 ohh and a quick update.. the dual processor pentium 3 mainboard i found is working.. just check it this evening.. even the case, powersupply and other supporting stuff is present.. its just not put together  ------------- http://www.web2messenger.com/theboss">
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Posted By: philcom2000
Date Posted: 15 June 2005 at 6:31pm
You could make them into a NAS servers. Always a good use for older computers
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Posted By: dpyers
Date Posted: 15 June 2005 at 7:27pm
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Spam traps are always nice. -------------
Lead me not into temptation... I know the short cut, follow me. |
Posted By: pmormr
Date Posted: 16 June 2005 at 1:29am
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bonfire? ------------- Paul A Morgan http://www.pmorganphoto.com/" rel="nofollow - http://www.pmorganphoto.com/ |
Posted By: pmormr
Date Posted: 16 June 2005 at 1:30am
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or you can send them to me... i'm always in need for parts... shipping might be a little high though for that also ------------- Paul A Morgan http://www.pmorganphoto.com/" rel="nofollow - http://www.pmorganphoto.com/ |
Posted By: the boss
Date Posted: 16 June 2005 at 4:22am
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bonfire.. umm not soo easy.. these things dont catch fire easy.. i mean u cant set a mobo on fire easy. only thing which would burn on it is probably the plastic socket..
NAS server.. nice idea..
SMTP spam trap.. not a bad idea either..i can like keep it ready with me and deplopy it as an out of box solution at some crappy site not willing to shell proper $$$..i do support some sh*tty network sites on my own.. these ppl are never willing to spend big $$$.. so they hang around me and nag me all the time for something elcheapo to fix their problems..  ------------- http://www.web2messenger.com/theboss">
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Posted By: dpyers
Date Posted: 16 June 2005 at 11:15am
Don't stand downwind when you're burning them though. PC's and monitors
contain some really toxic elements. Monitors do explode rather nicely
though  .I've used old boxes for network firewalling/routing/DMZs under BSD. Seem to have more old boxees than I can use though. After about 5-6 years their bios battery starts to get unreliable just around the time the batteries start getting to be hard to find. -------------
Lead me not into temptation... I know the short cut, follow me. |
Posted By: Gullanian
Date Posted: 16 June 2005 at 11:42am
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Also on a related note, don't stand downwind when your weeing outside. The worst thing you can do, is pee downwing on a burning pile of comupters, you might get an electric shock and a shower. |
Posted By: pmormr
Date Posted: 17 June 2005 at 2:26am
your in Saudi Arabia... they got pretty cheap gas ------------- Paul A Morgan http://www.pmorganphoto.com/" rel="nofollow - http://www.pmorganphoto.com/ |
the boss wrote:Posted By: the boss
Date Posted: 17 June 2005 at 11:50am
seems like u have similar experience.. may be by playing fireman at kinder garten after setting up a school pc on fire.. ------------- http://www.web2messenger.com/theboss">
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Posted By: Bluefrog
Date Posted: 17 June 2005 at 6:52pm
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Why not wipe them all, drop a cheap linux distro on them, load up
Beowulf or something like that, and turn them into a storage network
for everyone in the company. You can set your "primo" box as a controller for them or as a front end to expose them to the web/network. There is software out there that will let you setup things quickly and easily. The company I work for actually sells software that allows you to setup web based storage that looks identical to a local hard drive. The back end is Linux and MySQL. It scales VERY well. There are installations of it running with over 100TB of storage and massive numbers of users. (Not GB - TB - that's a LOT.) The solution isn't appropriate for small companies or personal use, but it makes sense for medium to large companies/organizations. The service model is well suited for ISPs and telcos. No matter what you do though, you can find a use for them. With something like Beowulf though, you can turn them into a supercomputer for CPU intensive tasks like data analysis or whatever tickles your fancy. With RealVNC, you can give users access to the controller to run applications that need CPU power or storage. Cheers, Ryan ------------- http://renegademinds.com/" rel="nofollow - Renegade Minds - Guitar Software http://renegademinds.com/Default.aspx?tabid=65" rel="nofollow - Slow Down Music |
Posted By: Bluefrog
Date Posted: 17 June 2005 at 6:53pm
"The wise man knoweth, Which way the wind bloweth, And pisseth he not into it." ------------- http://renegademinds.com/" rel="nofollow - Renegade Minds - Guitar Software http://renegademinds.com/Default.aspx?tabid=65" rel="nofollow - Slow Down Music |
Posted By: pmormr
Date Posted: 17 June 2005 at 11:14pm
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so i guess the free beers are on Bluefrog today? ------------- Paul A Morgan http://www.pmorganphoto.com/" rel="nofollow - http://www.pmorganphoto.com/ |
Posted By: the boss
Date Posted: 18 June 2005 at 9:29am
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ok i will make it a storage server.. load windows 2003 standard server or storage server on it.. brning PCI SATA raid card..lots of SATA hard disk.. and there we go.. wooot!! ------------- http://www.web2messenger.com/theboss">
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Posted By: Gullanian
Date Posted: 18 June 2005 at 1:07pm
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I think it's pronounced 'w00t' |
Posted By: Bluefrog
Date Posted: 18 June 2005 at 8:11pm
Sure~! You pay for the plane ticket for everyone to get to Seoul here, and I'll buy the beer ------------- http://renegademinds.com/" rel="nofollow - Renegade Minds - Guitar Software http://renegademinds.com/Default.aspx?tabid=65" rel="nofollow - Slow Down Music |
Posted By: philcom2000
Date Posted: 20 June 2005 at 5:46am
Ive used this software a few times in the past to setup NAS servers, Some of the machines ive used it on has been Pentium 1 & 2s .
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Posted By: the boss
Date Posted: 21 June 2005 at 8:40am
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what no GUI.. ------------- http://www.web2messenger.com/theboss">
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Posted By: the boss
Date Posted: 31 July 2005 at 7:43am
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ok how do i build a NAS again..
i would sure go with windows server 2003 storage edition or standard edition.. cant live without active directory.. but what do i need..
lots of hard disk, then RAID them..what raid topology shall i use..???
provide good storage to user, must be speedy, and secured with backups
i was thinking to build something with four or six 100GB Maxtor hard drives.. lets say 2x100 GB hdd's in raid-0 or raid-1 config for storing user storage
another set of 2x100GB hdd's for mirroing / backing up user data. user does not have access to this set of hdd's
------------- http://www.web2messenger.com/theboss">
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