|
Order a Custom Comp Motherboard Prices Case Prices Deal Of The Week Drive Prices Hard Disk Prices Processor Prices Computer Specs Configured Computers Printers Monitors Digital Cameras Software Miscellanous Computer Things About The Webmasters Webmasters Editorial Our Banners Our Polls How-To Section Our Index on How To's Popular how-to's How To Build a Computer Our Computer buying guide
Make Homepage
|
 |
|
This article was written by me,Tim,to give you some idea on how to make an old computer successfully fit to be a modern, working computer, saving money on a new computer, or if it will cost you more then it's worth. A common myth I hear among people when I mention that I've refurbished computers is that it costs more then it would to buy a new computer. The guys at CompUSA try to make you think that, too. CompUSA has extremely high prices on parts, but semi-low on computers, so it may be true there. However, if you buy over the internet, you can potentially save a lot of money. However, remember that this computer is not going to be the fastest, best computer on the world. It's a good addition to any network, and/or a good internet, easy work computer, not made for speed demons. A lot depends on how old the computer is, and the processor speeds. I, personally, enjoy working with all computers, and I can make the oldest computer useable with out spending too much money, but I also have a lot of old parts hanging around. I will assume you have very few. However, there is a Scrap Value in many old computers. I usually buy my old computers at garage sales. They usually include a 14 inch monitor, a dot matrix printer, and an old Pentium computer. The printer doesn't have a huge use, the monitor is very small, and the computers motherboard cannot support a newer, larger monitor. May seem to hold no value. However, it does. I do not recommend buying a 486DX2. These processors are the predicessors of the Pentium. First came the 486DX2, then 486DX4, then 586 series, namely pentium's, and early AMD's. If you don't know what the series is, take off the case and look at the processor. It'll have a cooling aperatis on it and some sealant probably, I'd just rip it off, with the permission of the owner. It should tell you on the processor the series. However, sometimes this isn't possible. As the owner for the Speed. My speed chart is here and should help you out a lot. The DX speeds most common in all 486's are 66Mhz, 80 MHz, 75 Mhz, 100 Mhz, and 120 MHz. If you're being selective and may not want to upgrade the speed, dont go under 100 Mhz. However, if you're going to trash it anyways, it doesnt matter. Pentium's offer up to 200 MHz, Pentium Pro's up to 200 and Pentium 2's up to 333Mhz, I believe. To just use the computer with the processor, I'd recommend a Pentium. The harddrive space will most likely be under 1 GB. This unfortunatly, is going to cost you a lot of money to upgrade. I usually daisy chain a few harddrives together. Set them all as MASTER on the jumpers (by moving the black piece of plastic on the back of the harddrive. Look at it, you'll figure it out. This should add up to atleast 1 or 2 GB which is enough to run a system. You'll find it with either EDO Ram or SyncDRAM. Most likely only 16 MB, but if you get lucky, 32 MB. 32 will be enough, but 16 is not. It'll either have a huge floppy and a normal floppy or a CD-Rom and a normal floppy. Throw away the large floppy either way, or just disconnect it. It's pointless, and uses power. I randomnly selected an old Dell Optiplex XL 590 to use as my example. When I bought this, the person was selling 3 computers. I bought all three. One of the others was an old DX. The other was a a copy of this one I am using. It surprisingly had 32 MB of EDO RAM. Runs at 166 MHz, has a Western Digital 365 MB Harddrive, all the standard ports, save USB, came with no OS on it (unfortunatly), floppy drive, and a cheap networking card. I paid, I think $5 for all the computers, and 1 monitor. I modernized the dells by puting an 3 8 MB chips and 1 16 MB onto the motherboard of one, daisy chaining the 2 harddrives, and installing windows 95 second edition, using custom mode, and taking out all the pointless things that usually instal. I used my test CD-Rom, an old one that has the drivers on disk for it. This computer runs fairly well. If you only bought one, you can add a new harddrive for as little as $60 for a new one, and considerably less for a smaller, older one. A new motherboard/processer will run you at about $80 tops for a new, 700MHz athlon at TigerDirect. Then add a CD for max of $30, a monitor for $100 (if needed), and you have a modern computer. $210 for a pretty nice computer. However, they usually run me under $100, because I usually combine many old ones first, and get monitors, keyboard, and mice, which havent changed too much over the last few years at GREAT prices. You can build 3 or 4 of these monsters for usually just the price of a CD-Rom, sometimes not even that. If you buy right and look hard enough, you can get some great deals. Personally, I recommend every Saturday morning you go to all the good sounding garage sales in the newspapers. Early, before others try. Consignment shops occasionally have good stuff, (or atleast mine does), and church garage sales usually have the best. My general rule is to make sure you do not spend over $20 for a computer built before 1998, usually no matter what they say. The highest I've ever gone was $50, but only because it had 64MB of RAM, 333MHz (or so they told me. I still can't find any where saying Pentium 2's go that high), 15 inch monitor, printer, USB card, NIC card, 56k, DVD, and they only sold it because their son was into major games, and their speed was limited. As a closing thought, I'd also encourage people to buy broken computers. They are great to experiment with, and can usually be fixed easily. Don't overspend, once again. My friend was going to give me a 2000 HP on the grounds that it was ruined, but I told him I wouldnt rip him off. His high speed Pentium 3 could be fixed with the replacement of the motherboard. Many people drop the computer and jar stuff up and deem it broken. Keep a watchful eye, and remember, all computers are worth something, even if just for parts. |
