What to do with a bunch of pentium 233 Dell OptiPlex machines?

primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' BoopinDetroit, MI Icrontian
edited November 2007 in Hardware
We just got 5-10 Dell OptiPlex GX110 machines from a company who upgraded. These things are pentium 233s with 64mb of ram running Windows NT 4 and they include the licenses & COAs for NT4 Workstation.

What am I supposed to do with these machines? They work perfectly well, they aren't old, dusty, and junky - in fact, they look quite new (they've been sitting in cubicles since the day they were unboxed, in a dustless office)

They're essentially useless for most modern tasks although I suppose they could run linux.

Any ideas?
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Comments

  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited July 2005
    Dimes!
  • KwitkoKwitko Sheriff of Banning (Retired) By the thing near the stuff Icrontian
    edited July 2005
    Charitable donation. Some school in a crappy district somewhere could use them, I bet.
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited July 2005
    DIMES will only run on 2000/xp.

    I'm not gonna go out and buy Windows 2000 licenses for these machines just for dimes. I'm not sure Win2K will run very good with only 64mb of ram.

    DIMES alone uses 40+ mb

    Even schools are picky about computers. I've tried the charitable donation route before and computer donations have minimum requirements (like, must be able to run windows 2000, etc. Must have at least 128mb of ram, etc.)
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited July 2005
    I read somewhere that dimes will run on 98. Hmm reminds me, I have plans to increase production for Dimes.
  • TheLostSwedeTheLostSwede Trondheim, Norway Icrontian
    edited July 2005
    Prime,

    Even XP will run good on 64MB of ram if you strip it down to a minimum. lsevald tried it with success. PM him. Other than Dimes and charity, it's totally un-useful. Bin it.
  • CBCB Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Der Millionendorf- Icrontian
    edited July 2005
    Use the pieces to construct several cyborg grafts. Shoot for a cool look rather than for any kind of functionality. (For example: A data port for the back of your head doesn't have to actually be connected to anything to look cool.)

    You'll have to get the grafts done by an underground doctor, who has already lost his license anyway. (You know, one of those doctors that takes out bullets for mobsters and stuff...)

    Then you can return to your client's office (I'm assuming it was one of your clients) to show them how you put their old systems to good use.

    They'll be very impressed.
  • GrayFoxGrayFox /dev/urandom Member
    edited July 2005
    Throw debian on them and install fah :). (don't install Xserver or it will just waste ram)
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited July 2005
    If I can figure out a way to strip them down, perhaps a farm of 233mhz pentiums might actually produce a point or two :D
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited July 2005
    Strip them down and salvage whatever parts are reusable. The CPU's look nice if you drill a hole in one corner and hang them from your rear view mirror. :vimp:

    The RAM is probably worth some money. There are companies who will buy it from you, probably for more dough than you'd expect.

    Or take them up to the lake shore and sell them as boat anchors. :mullet:
  • sfleurietsfleuriet Texas New
    edited July 2005
    yeah strip them down and ebay the parts. I've always had good luck with that. Reformat all the hds and sell them too.
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited July 2005
    What is the form factor of the cases, the size of the PSUs, and size and type of the HDs? I know someone who might be able to use some of those things. ;)
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited July 2005
    They are mid-desktop form factor - ATX. They use standard PC66 SDRAM. Not sure about the PSUs. KNowing the era, I would guess probably 110w PSUs. Size of the HDs, i'll have for you on monday.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited July 2005
    Make a parallel processing machine. Think of all the fun you could have experimenting with the software to virtually bind those machines together. I'm not joking, you could have a grand time. But, who's paying for the electricity? :scratch:
  • SpywareShooterSpywareShooter 127.0.0.1
    edited July 2005
    If they are individual 64MB sticks of RAM and they have multiple banks why not take the RAM from another machine and put combine them to have half of them running on 128MB. With 128MB you can install another OS, run DIMES, and fold. The others without any RAM you could part out or something.

    EDIT: And if the HD's don't have enough space for a modern OS and programs too you can do the same as above but with the HD's and master/slave them for added space.
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited July 2005
    Hey, at the ShortMedia Global HQ, our landlord pays for electricity, not us :D
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited July 2005
    Well expect a few machines in the mail then, you can have them running there for me.;)
  • PirateNinjaPirateNinja Icrontian
    edited July 2005
    I say you clean out one room ar Sarcnet. Name it the Doom 2 & Beef Jerky boom boom room.

    Setup all the computers to run one of those new Doom2 variants, ZDoom or one of those.

    Then stock a cabinet full of beef jerky. During non work hours take staff friends and family in there and eat meat and have a frag fest.

    Im so smart sometimes, seriously.
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited July 2005
    smbyte. ;D
  • PirateNinjaPirateNinja Icrontian
    edited July 2005
    It may be irony, I'm not sure...but I was as serious as I have ever been. That is what I would do.


    By the way, I can't believe I got an sm-byte. I thought things like that were reserved for people like Thrax ... and ... others ... such as .... Thrax?
  • rykoryko new york
    edited July 2005
    Gravite2090 wrote:
    By the way, I can't believe I got an sm-byte. I thought things like that were reserved for people like Thrax ... and ... others ... such as .... Thrax?

    i vote another smbyte right here! :mullet:
  • JonseyJonsey Microsoft Corporation
    edited July 2005
    http://openmosix.sourceforge.net/

    That's what you'll wanna do. You'll enjoy it too. : )
  • CBCB Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Der Millionendorf- Icrontian
    edited July 2005
    Nobody ever likes my ideas... :(






    ;D
  • GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
    edited July 2005
    Perhaps you'd do better to advocate nonoperation cyborg implants on a Goth forum? :scratch:
  • drasnordrasnor Starship Operator Hawthorne, CA Icrontian
    edited July 2005
    Leonardo wrote:
    Make a parallel processing machine. Think of all the fun you could have experimenting with the software to virtually bind those machines together. I'm not joking, you could have a grand time. But, who's paying for the electricity? :scratch:
    Jonsey wrote:
    http://openmosix.sourceforge.net/

    That's what you'll wanna do. You'll enjoy it too. : )
    Seriously. You could sell supercomputer time on it.

    -drasnor :fold:
  • deicistdeicist Manchester, UK
    edited July 2005
    Funnily enough I've just bought 10 Pentium 233s from a guy in Ireland, if you were in the UK I'd snatch those off you Prime. Why? They make ideal thin clients, install either win98 and the citrix client or if you're feeling nerdy you can get thinstation (a stripped down linux distro that has packages to connect via RDP, ICA (citrix) or VNC. seriously, set up a decent 2K3 machine as a server, set up those old machines as thin clients and you can easily run 20 or so workstations off it. I'm currently trying to migrate my win98 clients to thinstation, you don't even need hard drives with that :)
  • CBCB Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Der Millionendorf- Icrontian
    edited July 2005
    GHoosdum wrote:
    Perhaps you'd do better to advocate nonoperation cyborg implants on a Goth forum? :scratch:

    Is that something that those goth kids are already doing?

    I didn't say they had to be nonoperational, just that it was operational-optional.

    ...Say that five times fast...
  • deicistdeicist Manchester, UK
    edited July 2005
    CBDroege wrote:
    just that it was operational-optional.

    Like win98 for example?
  • CBCB Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Der Millionendorf- Icrontian
    edited July 2005
    Just like that, yes.
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited July 2005
    See? Generally we smbyte people to mock them or make fun of them - therefore, be happy that thrax has more smbytes than you :D
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited July 2005
    primesuspect wrote:
    ...Generally we smbyte people to mock them or make fun of them...
    And here I thought it was because you liked me... :bawling: ;D
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