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Wondering what to do with a comp I just got....
I need some advice:
I recently had a friendly client (Friend of the family) who came to me wtih an old computer and said "No program is allowing me to wipe out the hard drive. If you can wipe the hard drive and give it to me, you can keep the rest of the system for yourself"
I replied saying "You sure? Even old....there are plenty of things you can do with it." and he said "I travel too much so im restricted to laptops...after your modification I don't really need much anymore."
So after a hard time wiping out the drive....
Yes...Partion Magic didn't work...Hard Drive Manufacturer's content did not work...Using Windows to Reformat a HDD or deleting everything through an OS installer or OS itself failed..(even Fdisk failed too).but after I finally wiped the data I was given the rest of the computer.
I checked its specificaitons....Integrated video, 2GB RAM...Old processor (Pentium Dual Core)...Yes, it said PENTIUM, the version before Core 2 Duo. The best thing about this system is the actual case. Very small and nearly noiseless after some adjustments...along with its accessibility. A pure "Desktop-Level" case (not a tower case) and thanks to recovering disks I have several free operating systems legally.
I thought of the idea of using as a server for very old games to run 24/7...By old I mean games from 1999 - 2004 that I still play that are still some of my favorites...to help a community and free up my stronger systems for more powerful servers. What do you all think? Have any other ideas for it. The case is amazing because I can change parts and has a really nice accessibility to everything. 
Comments
There are a lot of processors branded as Pentium Dual-Core:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116093
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116283
I think you mean a Pentium D, as opposed to a Pentium E (Conroe/Penryn), G (Clarkdale), or T (laptops).
Best thing I've found to do with old computers are to either:
Donate/Recycle them for tax write-off (businesses get to deduct full retail value of the computer, which makes very old computers somewhat valuable to them; individuals get the "Fair market value", but that can be somewhat liberally interpreted)
Turn them into networked file servers. I just throw all the old hard drives I have laying around into one of them, throw a light linux client with SMB/NFS file sharing, and let it run in a closet.
I suppose running older game servers (though not clients) could count as another use as good as either of these.
File Server? Router? HTPC?
Quite a few things you could do with it, bearing a little extra investment.
sorry for not being specific before. CPU-Z reads it as E2200 @ 2200mhz.
In short, its set to 200 x 11. Still running under Quad Pump of its bus (200x4)
Router/Firewall is a pretty good idea too
That's a Conroe, and basically a lower end variant of a Core 2 Duo, with less L2 cache. That's much better than a Pentium D.
It would fail miserably as a HTPC. It has integrated graphics and its decoding is horrible.
Even HTPCs need a good decoder for them to work well. Specially with all the HD stuff out there. Thanks for reminding me as I do have spare video cards....Nothing so special but it will get me out of this graphics slump...^_^
The router would be an excellent idea if I didn't already have a pair of fireboxes.
I undertook a project a few months ago to transfer contents on over 30 HDDs ranging from 120 - 300GB each to around four 2TB External HDDs. It was a lot out of fear too...They were all PATA HDDs. I was afraid that the interface itself would disappear, so I transfered them into SATA HDDs put into External Cases (to make them external) and run by USB. I have very few systems today that have the old P-ATA interface.
So drop this in and you've got your HTPC:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102936
Or is the goal to not spend any money on it?
I see a decent number of people on the Champions Online tech support forums for whom that processor would be a definite upgrade. It should be useful to someone.
It's not terribly old, may still be able to get enough money out of ebay/craigslist to make it worth taking down to the UPS store to ship.
Two things:
1) The computer is so old it's basically worthless and it should either be donated or given away. If someone gave that to me I would consider it the equivalent of bringing their trash to my door instead of leaving it in their trash bin. I'd gladly fix/wipe the HD but I'd tell them to take the old PC back too.
2) You went on and on about the ways the hard drive couldn't be wiped and never bothered to tell us all how you did it.
I had some spare memory modules. As usual...filling the four memory slots fails miserably....I did manage to add in another 512MB of memory. Should be good for something if I use it for servers or ramdisking 256 - 512MB for old games.
Unfortunately using a Desktop-Level case means my expansion slots, while full size standard...the width outside the case is half-width. I would have to find something to fit that should I choose to add in a video card.
Edit: (Since I hate double-posting)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?SID=u0t769120f9fp0dd0c0s701&AID=10440897&PID=1225267&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-cables-_-na-_-na&Item=N82E16814102829
I found this..but this is the height it has to be if I plan on using a video card for the sake of higher resolution on the monitor.