RogueHart Posted November 13, 2008 Share Posted November 13, 2008 i just want to compile a list of possible uses for old pc's (irc convo being expanded lol) when i say old pc's i mean back when 4gb was above average hd space lol. so far ive got mame arcade classic console emulation win98se/95 box basic servers(irc, old games, ect, ect) media station web browser virus test environment and thats all i can think of. i ask because we were (jokingly) asking for old comps to be sent to us and i said something about there being use for any comp even old 4gig hd boxes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Razor512 Posted November 13, 2008 Share Posted November 13, 2008 renderslave if you do a lot of 3d modeling, you can have a old pc handle really long render task while you game and have fun on your main pc while it will take longer on the old pc, it wont bother you as much as doing the render on the main pc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dr0p Posted November 13, 2008 Share Posted November 13, 2008 I use them as fileservers ^_^ Networked storage is oh-so-nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DingleBerries Posted November 13, 2008 Share Posted November 13, 2008 crackers, folding at home, and test subjects. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VaKo Posted November 13, 2008 Share Posted November 13, 2008 I threw them all away and switched to virtual machines. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twocs Posted November 13, 2008 Share Posted November 13, 2008 Hollow them out and make a cute aquarium. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Machstorm Posted November 13, 2008 Share Posted November 13, 2008 Firewalls And IDS (Snort) sensors. They usually have pretty low system requirements. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nophix Posted November 13, 2008 Share Posted November 13, 2008 Smoothwall and file servers, although I do use a couple for emulation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RogueHart Posted November 13, 2008 Author Share Posted November 13, 2008 I threw them all away and switched to virtual machines. well that was a waste lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deleted Posted November 13, 2008 Share Posted November 13, 2008 Could use it as a Torrent Box, or a Firewall (see Smoothwall, IPCOP etc). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RogueHart Posted November 13, 2008 Author Share Posted November 13, 2008 Could use it as a Torrent Box, or a Firewall (see Smoothwall, IPCOP etc). not for me lol. most of my torrenting(dattebayo anime torrents) are extremely fast and i dont think an old system could get the speed. now if it was something like i come across all the time that does absolutely nothing most of the time. then it would be perfect for it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Razor512 Posted November 13, 2008 Share Posted November 13, 2008 get one of those test board things or mod a random USB device that can be turned on and off from with in windows then soldering a lot of bright LED's on it then you will have your self a 500MHz flash light :) or load it up with a crap load of hard drives then store anime or it or if you want, install it into a closet then hook up some splitters and set up a speaker system for your entire house then just use a wireless keyboard with media keys as a remote for it so you can control windows media player (great for house parties ) or fine random unnecessary/ useless things to do with it or build that keyboard emf scanner thing for it and aim it at your neighbors house then monitor them 24/7 when there on their pc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RogueHart Posted November 13, 2008 Author Share Posted November 13, 2008 get one of those test board things or mod a random USB device that can be turned on and off from with in windows then soldering a lot of bright LED's on it then you will have your self a 500MHz flash light :) or load it up with a crap load of hard drives then store anime or it or if you want, install it into a closet then hook up some splitters and set up a speaker system for your entire house then just use a wireless keyboard with media keys as a remote for it so you can control windows media player (great for house parties ) or fine random unnecessary/ useless things to do with it or build that keyboard emf scanner thing for it and aim it at your neighbors house then monitor them 24/7 when there on their pc packet sniffing lol could be used for wep cracking(my knowledge on the subject is based on a semi-outdated guide). leave it to gather what you need and use aircrack-ng on the results Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
still learning Posted November 13, 2008 Share Posted November 13, 2008 set up a server (irc, http, ect..) i guess anything except for a file server, 4 gigs of files would not be all that great for a file server you can fit that on a thumb drive or if it has usb hook up a 500GB usb drive to it for more storage and make a file server, or you could set up a telnet BBS use it as your ass machine, and run all your malicious codes on it, there are alot of things, just depends on your needs. if you have kids make it the kids PC since they tend to mess up computers all the time while learning. I have not heard of useing a PC just as a firewall.. if anyone could link me to more info i would appriciate it. I ussually use my router for the extra firewall capabilitys along with comodo or such Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RogueHart Posted November 14, 2008 Author Share Posted November 14, 2008 set up a server (irc, http, ect..) i guess anything except for a file server, 4 gigs of files would not be all that great for a file server you can fit that on a thumb drive or if it has usb hook up a 500GB usb drive to it for more storage and make a file server, or you could set up a telnet BBS use it as your ass machine, and run all your malicious codes on it, there are alot of things, just depends on your needs. if you have kids make it the kids PC since they tend to mess up computers all the time while learning. I have not heard of useing a PC just as a firewall.. if anyone could link me to more info i would appriciate it. I ussually use my router for the extra firewall capabilitys along with comodo or such one of the season 1 or 2 eps of hak5 have a segment on smoothwall which is a program to turn a comp into a firewall Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pants123 Posted November 14, 2008 Share Posted November 14, 2008 I have an old laptop I'm attempting to find a use for. Its perfectly functioning except for the fact that its only network interface is blown, which unfortunately makes the majority of the ideas here useless. So, any ideas for a standalone box? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VaKo Posted November 14, 2008 Share Posted November 14, 2008 Old machines eat too much power for simple machine that do very little, you can get far more millage out of a low end core 2 machine with 2-4GB of RAM running VMware server. Hell, until something nasty happened to my P4 server I was running a domain controller and a couple of *nix boxes on a fairly modest 4 year old desktop. Aside from things like file servers/torrent boxes and routers/firewalls there is very little point keeping kit running thats more than 2-3 gens behind current kit, and even with the types of things that run low-CPU stuff like the above the Via mini-itx machines are far more practical. And if your clever you can run a smoothwall install on a virtual machine. There is zero point in keeping a 4GB drive powered up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K33BZ Posted November 14, 2008 Share Posted November 14, 2008 Server, File Storage, Firewall, or you can just use it as spare parts, I saw somewhere (dont remember where) a guy had used his old HDD to store movies on and hook them up to his TV and watch the movies. I need to remember where I saw that. Need to do that soon. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Razor512 Posted November 14, 2008 Share Posted November 14, 2008 host a WOW server on it then laugh at everyone complaining about the lag Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RogueHart Posted November 14, 2008 Author Share Posted November 14, 2008 I have an old laptop I'm attempting to find a use for. Its perfectly functioning except for the fact that its only network interface is blown, which unfortunately makes the majority of the ideas here useless. So, any ideas for a standalone box? do any coding or black hat? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pants123 Posted November 14, 2008 Share Posted November 14, 2008 not really RogueHart. I've been thinking about using it to compile rainbow tables, run aircrack-ng, brute force, and other processor intensive jobs I'd really like to have off my main computer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RogueHart Posted November 14, 2008 Author Share Posted November 14, 2008 not really RogueHart. I've been thinking about using it to compile rainbow tables, run aircrack-ng, brute force, and other processor intensive jobs I'd really like to have off my main computer. aircrack-ng sounds like a good use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.