   What should I do with...
  ...a computer that I got from my grandparents?They were just going to throw it away...so I grabbed it.  Specs:Pentium 1 @ 166 MHz16 MB RAM upgradable to 128 (and I think I have a 64 stick around here somewhere)2 GB HD8x CDROMCurrently running Win95...Wondering if there's anything cool I can do with it.  I'm sure somebody here has some ideas.-Jeff   
Quote:Original post by GodlyGamrWhat should I do with a computer that I got from my grandparents?Throw it away?Or you could donate it to a museum.Seriously speaking, does P1 go hot enough to burst into flames if not cooled (probably not, thought). Otherwise you could clock it up (if possible) and fry it for the heck of it :).edit: "burst into flames" is such a wrong way to describe this...   ;  Make it an aquarium?  ... Maybe more wet than cool.   ;  Old_computer + spare_time = [cool];  Put it somewhere it wasn't designed to be, fully functional, like in a car or on a motorcycle/boat.   ;  Add linux and a bigger hard drive, mod it into a small case, and use it as a passively cooled FTP server at lanparties?That, or use it to play old DOS games.That's what I'd do.   ;  Or install DOS and play the great classics such as 'Tyrian' on the 'Wild' setting (something DOSBox can't run at a decent speed even on my new Athlon X2 3800+)   ;  You can use it to lol at the ridiculous framerate you have when testing games.Like, when you release a game, be like: Definitely does not work on these specs:Pentium 1 @ 166 MHz16 MB RAM2 GB HD8x CDROMWin95And someone will try it just to spite you.Wow that was a lame joke by me. Sorry about it...;  You can use it as a firewall.If you're into electronics, you can use the printer port to control something, without fear of destroying a perfectly good computer.You can install Linux on it, without fear of messing up your own computer.If you program, you can install SVN on it. The advantage of using  a seperate computer for that is if something bad happens to one computer, you can still get your work back from the other.If you have more than one computer, you can use it as a file server. You can store cd images on it, and mount them with Daemon Tools, and not need to worry about finding CDs.2GB probably isn't enough for that. Beware that your bios probably won't properly detect a hard disk over 30GB. You can probably find an old one for cheap or even free. If you get it out of another old computer, salvage the RAM, too. You can never have too much RAM.   ;  You could write your own OS, and use the old computer as a test bed. That's what I'd do, but I'm already writing my own OS anyway, so that may not really work for you. [grin]When in doubt, you can always play around with QBASIC...   