What would you do with an extra computer?

[Archae]

I got my older computer running again, so now I have two desktop computers.

The older one has 3 gigs RAM and a 1 terabyte hard drive.

The newer one has 6 gigs RAM and a 500 gig hard drive.

I'd love to get a laptop, though.

[NYC_SKP]

1. I'd swap out hard drives and give the older one to a needy student.

Some bright high school student in a low-income household who can't catch a break.

It could make a difference in her or his life.

[MicaelS]

2. Find someone needy, and give it to them. n/t

[mockmonkey]

3. I always find it important

to keep two computers for when you need answers when one of them stops working. I was recently given a new laptop Win8 so that covers that area.

I still have an old Dell WinXP from 2004 that I haven't been able to figure out how to fix yet (graphics issue) and a really old Dell Win98 from 1999 that works but I don't see what use it could be but it has a floppy drive.

I want to see if I can find a way to move that info from my old floppy disks to my new computer I just have been too lazy to deal with it. I don't really want to buy an external floppy drive yet. I did buy one of those cheapo floppy drives from Amazon for $10 but that was hit or miss, mostly miss.

I'm really not a laptop person but I can't argue with free!

[DGeorge]

4. I've got a 3 1/2" floppy drive that connects by USB. Haven't found one for 5 1/4"

[mockmonkey]

6. The cheap one I bought is that way.

I could buy a more expensive drive but I don't have anything that is really that important on those disks. I never had a computer that used those really large floppys.

I'm not a computer guy in relation to knowing that much about them. I tinker a bit and sometimes I get it right.

One of the few things I remember from High School back in the late seventies was how large the disk? was that was needed to boot up the CPU and having to flip toggle switches up and down in a certain order. It's laughable now.

[DGeorge]

7. The 8" floppy was significantly bigger. I have no idea where to get a drive for one of those.

I still have machines with both 5 1/4" and 3 1/2" drives in the same box. All of them are pre-USB (and pre-burnable CD) so it's a multi-step process to convert things.

[Xyzse]

5. Uhhhh... Pron Server

I mean, Data Server and back up.
Yeah, that's what I mean.

[OriginalGeek]

8. Music server

I intend to build one for that when I move (no place for that now).

I will have it hooked up to a home theater system and a turntable and a CD drive (Well, now it will be the DVD/Blu-Ray drive or whatever I can get that will also play CDs) so I can rip CD's to mp3, rip vinyl to mp3 and/or wav for making CDs for the car (although, again, if I rip to mp3 I can get a car stereo that plays mp3s from a flash drive so I probably won't make many CDs in the future).

I was doing all this 15 years ago on a PII with maybe 16megs of ram so I know it can be done with very little computing power. But now I will have a big-ass drive to store the mp3s so I can run them through the stereo for fun party mixes and still use the real records for when I want to listen seriously.

[dixiegrrrrl]

9. "I can get a car stereo that plays mp3s from a flash drive "

Drool..........

Never even thought of that....
can I adopt you???

[hobbit709]

11. I got one like that for my truck after the old cassette stereo died.

Was on sale at Frys for $85 installed.. Has a USB port on the face plate. Plays CD and mp3 CDs and has a SD card slot behind the face plate.

[OriginalGeek]

13. Sure!

I require pecan pies at christmas and thanksgiving.

[dixiegrrrrl]

10. We have 4 working puters

I have one in my den,
Mr. Dixie has 3 now,
2 in his man cave in the house and one in his tool shed outside.

We have friends who give us their "don't want, don't need, I think it is dead so I got a newer one"
and Mr. Dixie re-builds them, using parts from what is laying around.
Friends gave us an Android, too.
And 2 LED monitors when they up graded.
and an I-Pod.
I am waiting for them to decide on a newer truck........

So, keep at least one live machine for backup, parts, etc.

[B Calm]

12. Use it for porn.