8 ways to bring new life to your old computer

Here are eight quick ideas of what you can do with an old computer. Not every suggestion is free, but the costs are kept to a minimum.

Turning it into an audio media center

Load up your favorite flavor of Linux, hook up some nice surround sound speakers into a Creative Labs Audigy sound card
and “rock out” to your favorite tunes using XMMS.

Donating it to a local charity

Money doesn’t grow on trees, especially for charitable organizations. A free computer, even if it isn’t working perfectly will be a real blessing to them. Often they have volunteer “geeks” on staff who will be able to get it up and running for them in the manner the charity can utilize.

Turn it into a development machine

Always wanted to learn some C++, C#, Javascript, Python, or other coding language? An older computer gives you the perfect platform.

Make a poor man’s Tivo

Get yourself a video capture card and spend another $100.00 on a larger hard drive. Then record your favoriter tv shows to the hard drive. There is even software out there that will allow you to set recording times, lengths, etc. At this point I’ve not tested any of tghe new software so I’m not ready to make a recommendation as to which one you should try.

Install Linux

No clue what Linux is or how to use it? This is the perfect chance because Linux will run on nearly any computer. And once you’ve learned how to install Linux you’ll feel like you accomplished something worthwhile. Not like you jumped off a 5 story roof as you might after installing Windows.

Rebuild it

Spend an afternoon learning how it fits together and maybe even learning how to perform simple repairs and upgrades to hardware. Tear it down, rebuild it; rinse, wash, repeat until you can do things like remove and replace ram, install a hard drive or whatever else. Your day or so of time invested learning on your old computer could save you hundreds of dollars in the future.

Turn it into a firewall

Network security has never been more important than it is today. Home computers are more vulnerable to attack than most corporate computer systems. Turn your old PC into a Smoothwall firewall, and get one step ahead of the bad guys.

Give it to a friend

Clean it up, load free and alternative software solutions for programs your friend can use and give it to a friend (or family member) for them to enjoy.

What do you do with your old computers?

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Tags: computer repair, computers