It's worth nothing!!!!

[Dos_Box]

Many years ago (about 11-12) I built a media PC for a freind and a few months ago he asked if I would like it as he now has a smart TV and hadn't used it in quite a while.

The specs of it for the time were very good:

 

• Core 2 Duo E8400
  
• 4GB DDR 2 800Mhz RAM
  
• 1TB Hard drive
  
• 1GB GeForce GT610
  
• LG Blu-Ray/HDDVD Multi-Drive
  
• Gigabyte nForce motherboard
  

 

 

This evening I fired it up (for the first time in over three) years and it ran like an utter dog (now running Windows 10), and after a quick check on eBay the various components (apart from the optical drive) are worth the sum total of zip today, even as a complete PC.

I can't bring myself to bin it as it's in really good condition still, so may just seal it up in a bin bag and put it in the attic until it has retro value.

I hate throwing away old, but working, tech.

Mind you, my old media PC case, a Zalman HD160XT seems to be holding it's value well! I really should get it on eBay!

Edited January 10, 2020 by Dos_Box

[Katy]

Stick an SSD in and it'd be at least useable, loads of us here still running Core 2 Duo (even lower spec C2D's than that) with SSDs and Win 10 on the domain. Much less workload for it off a domain at home too

 

My office room is slowly gathering a collection of broken laptops that I don't want to throw away.

[SpuffMonkey]

And stick a lightweight Linux distro on it!

[mikeprice]

Huh - that sort of luxury is just for the privileged few

 

Just been to mother-in-laws house ( she died in August and we are sorting the house out )

 

 

She has (had) a computer that she used every day that looks like it is from the late 1990s

 

 

I can start offers at £1000??????

 

(gotta fund a replacement for my 2011 laptop!)

[Dos_Box]

Stick an SSD in and it'd be at least useable, loads of us here still running Core 2 Duo (even lower spec C2D's than that) with SSDs and Win 10 on the domain. Much less workload for it off a domain at home too

 

My office room is slowly gathering a collection of broken laptops that I don't want to throw away.

 

I did that last night. It was a vast improvement over the spinning disk in there and had a fresh install of the latest version, but still falling short of 'acceptable'.

Kinda reminded me of Vista pre-service packs.

[PotNoodleTech]

Lol the friend was thinking "i can't be bothered to take this to the tip so I'll just give it back to dos box as he won't say no!"

[bald_pig]

I'd stick Openelec on there and carry on using it as a htpc

[Dos_Box]

I'd stick Openelec on there and carry on using it as a htpc

 

I already have a home server running Plex and a smart TV + Xbox One S.

I think the days of the HTPC may be numbered tbh as many of the features I orginally used them for from about 2005 are now standard fare in consumer home entertainment devices.

[bald_pig]

I already have a home server running Plex and a smart TV + Xbox One S.

I think the days of the HTPC may be numbered tbh as many of the features I orginally used them for from about 2005 are now standard fare in consumer home entertainment devices.

 

kids' room?

[LeMarchand]

I think the days of the HTPC may be numbered tbh as many of the features I orginally used them for from about 2005 are now standard fare in consumer home entertainment devices.

 

Plex are trying to kill off their client app .

 

Surely there will be a need for some sort of "media storage" box for those of us who don't want to be held at the mercy of the streaming services whims as to whether or not they'll have the stuff we want available when we want it? Not got a smart TV, so I don't know how their apps look - the DLNA app on my older Samsung is both fugly and nowhere near as useful as Plex.

[elsiegee40]

I did that last night. It was a vast improvement over the spinning disk in there and had a fresh install of the latest version, but still falling short of 'acceptable'.

Kinda reminded me of Vista pre-service packs.

 

Falling short of acceptable for you is probably fine for muggles who only want open office and a browser

[jthompson]

Plex are trying to kill off their client app .

 

Do you mean the Windows client app?

[simpsonj]

Neverware?

[Dos_Box]

Falling short of acceptable for you is probably fine for muggles who only want open office and a browser

 

It started pulling updates and the SATA interface to the disk was saturated at just over 100MBps. After half an hour of that and no sign of it ending I went for the SSD.

[Zoom7000]

1GB Hard drive

 

Did you mean a 1TB Hard drive?

[Dos_Box]

Did you mean a 1TB Hard drive?

 

It was that old I was just defaulting to old drives

I'd best change that now!

[LeMarchand]

Do you mean the Windows client app?

 

The store app has gone, but I thought they were also trying to push people to away from their Media Player in favour of the new thing that looks like a less cluttered version of the server front end. Bit busy to trawl through pages of info, but they may now be backtracking.

[Dos_Box]

kids' room?

 

My kids both have PC's far better than this (which isn't hard!).

[Katy]

Lol the friend was thinking "i can't be bothered to take this to the tip so I'll just give it back to dos box as he won't say no!"

 

Woah. I bet this is what goes through all those peoples minds when they turn up "I found this PC, do you want it?" and we always say "yes ok". They're then silently going "That saves a trip to the tip, awesome. Enjoy that ancient kit, sucker!!"

[SpuffMonkey]

You could always Freegle it

[LeMarchand]

You could always Freegle it

 

If I found that gfx card in an old device, I'd probably reuse it in one of my desktops. It currently has a Radeon HD 6850 that just about fits but runs fairly hot and is noisy. The 610 is theoretically "worse", but wouldn't be as tight a fit and so might allow better air circulation. Looks like it should support 3 monitors, which is why I have a card rather than mobo gfx.

[PotNoodleTech]

Woah. I bet this is what goes through all those peoples minds when they turn up "I found this PC, do you want it?" and we always say "yes ok". They're then silently going "That saves a trip to the tip, awesome. Enjoy that ancient kit, sucker!!"

 

Exactly! Don't be that Sucker Katy!!!!

[bald_pig]

It's how I ended up with a gateway 2000 colorbook though, so swings and roundabouts.

[Dos_Box]

Woah. I bet this is what goes through all those peoples minds when they turn up "I found this PC, do you want it?" and we always say "yes ok". They're then silently going "That saves a trip to the tip, awesome. Enjoy that ancient kit, sucker!!"

 

I think, especially for us older tech types that anyone presenting you with something that has an 80GB hard drive has us going 'Oooh, huge drive, 1GB DDR RAM, 128MB graphics card! I'll keep that!'.

These are still worth keeping for the retro market I think. There are planty of channels out there with people making up Windows 98/XP gaming rigs.

I remember about 10 years back visiting ICT Direct and they had some VooDoo 2 cards in a waste bin with other old I/O cards. These are now worth a decent amount of money. If you have one in the loft with it's original packaging they go for around £250!

I think I'll get mine setup with a fresh install of XP then seal it up and put it in the attic.

[bald_pig]

I think, especially for us older tech types that anyone presenting you with something that has an 80GB hard drive has us going 'Oooh, huge drive, 1GB DDR RAM, 128MB graphics card! I'll keep that!'.

These are still worth keeping for the retro market I think. There are planty of channels out there with people making up Windows 98/XP gaming rigs.

I remember about 10 years back visiting ICT Direct and they had some VooDoo 2 cards in a waste bin with other old I/O cards. These are now worth a decent amount of money. If you have one in the loft with it's original packaging they go for around £250!

I think I'll get mine setup with a fresh install of XP then seal it up and put it in the attic.

 

You're making me feel old now!