What should I do with 9 old Dell GX240s?

[richardturnbull]

Hi there

 

We have just replaced our old computer suite and I now have 9 dusty old Dell GX240s (XP Pro SP3/Intel P4 1.6 GHz/512MB/40GB) sitting in my office. Should I try to put them to another use, send them to Africa, chuck them in the local recycling, or arrange them in an odd way, win a modern art competition and retire to Barbados?

 

Any advice gratefully appreciated...

 

Thanks!

Rich

[tech_guy]

Set up a little ubuntu suite and let the geeks amongst your kids play?

[K.C.Leblanc]

Get rid before someone in management notices you have 'spare computers'.

[rad]

On a serious note, if your school is running the "GCSE computing course" then you will need them for that. If your school is not, then another local school may grab them from you. I recycled some that it now turns out we could of done with keeping.

[MatthewL]

Me personally I would bin them but you could make them into a thin client and connect into any VDI stuff you may have if you use it, i.e. Citrix or TS.

[FN-GM]

They are really old. The last thing I would do is put them into production.

[richardturnbull]

Thanks all. I was just looking to see if I could get them running a browser only like Chromium, but they don't boot from a USB and it all looks like a bit too much hard work for the time I have... looks like I'll be showing them the door...

[synaesthesia]

I'd hand them to the electronics department so they could show them off as a case of big companies seriously messing up. They could also be used as a lesson about industrial espionage for Business studies.

 

Really wouldn't send them to anyone to be used - maybe the HDDs and ram may be of some small use but the main kit is worthless and you'd be making someones life more difficult by giving them away. Tip them.

[mac_shinobi]

Set up a little ubuntu suite and let the geeks amongst your kids play?

 

Ubuntu remix on one of them and a sata PCI Card ( if it doesnt have sata connectors ) not sure ref IDE.

 

Then you could use it for data recovery to a degree , the rest as above or junked unless you got the seperate parts and could use it to demonstrate what each part looks like etc ie motherboard, cpu, ram, hdd, etc

[jamesfed]

Scrap them fast - we always get rid of kit like that asap on the grounds of it only cloggs up the place and also as other have said it looks like you have 'spare' PCs.

[glennda]

What are the specs - I'm near brighton and as a school we are involved in many africa Projects mainly Classrooms for Kenya

 

would be interested in the machines to get sent out there but would need to double check with person i/c of project.

[bossman]

@richardturnbull:

 

Could you not refurbish with a Mobo-kit which would not only be eco-friendly but reduce your schools carbon footprint into the bargain, I'm sure you could convert them into core 2 duo 2.7Ghz workstations with 4GB RAM for around £150.

 

I haven't bought any new computers for the past 2 years just refurbished the components inside as most good kit will last you at least 3 years, 5 with good practise.

 

Just a thought or you could scrap them and replace them with brand new ones which would take more resources to create thus impact on the planets eco - system.

 

[synaesthesia]

Trouble is, the innards of those are far from standard. I think even the PSUs aren't standard either but can't remember that far back.

Reason I say dump instead of recycle to Africa is that by sending them there, you're sending them something that's already faulty. That's not charity, that's Chinese style electrical waste dumping.

[newpersn]

I got a few Dells 170L that we still use. P4 2.8ghz with 1gb of ram. Still going strong...(ish)

 

Once new room get updated i think i will replace the 170's

[tech_guy]

Until last year we still had some Dell GX150s chugging along. They were purchased back in 2002.

[mac_shinobi]

Trouble is, the innards of those are far from standard. I think even the PSUs aren't standard either but can't remember that far back.

Reason I say dump instead of recycle to Africa is that by sending them there, you're sending them something that's already faulty. That's not charity, that's Chinese style electrical waste dumping.

 

Got some GX 270 and 280's ( some of which are still being used ) and they are awfully slow on windows xp sp 3, trying to get it from sp 2 to sp 3 took a good hour to download sp 3 and then another hour or two to install and get it updated to sp 3.

[chazzy2501]

as the GX240 we had were licensed and we had the original recovery disks. I sold them to parents for £20 a pop.

All original parts monitor kbd and mouse. Not bad considering they're 7 years old.