What is the oldest PC you consider still useful?

[Zodiark1593]

1 hour ago, aisle9 said:

Your company is so evil that Comcast recoils in fear at its name.

Perhaps the IT is using slow HDDs, as a way to provide more incognito breaks to the workforce. Full boot, that's about 5 minutes to relax a bit, and goof off in a kosher way. Windows update, it's a full-blown break, potentially longer. And if the company is running hyper-aggressive AV on the systems that keeps the drives pegged all the time, even getting Excel going provides a chance to snag some coffee.

 

Really, it's the company's loss for going HDD. Whether I'm entering data in a spreadsheet, or waiting on Windows Update, I get paid either way. If the company really doesn't like me goofing off while waiting on the PC, they're always welcome to drop in a SSD any time.

[DJboutit]

2 hours ago, Zodiark1593 said:

For games that came out in 2014, you recommend a CPU that came out in 2017? You're definitely smoking something, but it isn't particularly good stuff.

You want a decent enough cpu and video card to play most of these games smoothly at 1440p mid setting

[r00tb33r]

4 hours ago, da na said:

I learned how to program at 6 years old on a Commodore 64, when the system was already over 2 decades old. It was a wonderful system to start on.

I've got two C64, an early revision breadbin and a later wedge.  I've started growing this collection about 7 years ago.  While C64 isn't nearly as nice for learning as the much newer PCs with QBasic, having a lot to do with both the editor and the hacky graphics modes, I like studying it's architecture because it can be understood just by looking at the schematic, which can't be said about computers these days.  That design is just "down to earth".  While I mostly don't fancy C64 games, they're a tad simplistic, I do like demos, and studying how each demo trick is performed.

 

We started typing in Basic programs in 1st grade in computer class, but back then I had no idea what we were doing.  By 3rd grade we had learned the concept of algorithms.  My 4th year in school, at age 10, is when we were finally given books with Basic statement explanations and workbook with assignments.  That's when the programming bug bit me.  Then I moved to the other side of the world with nothing but clothes on my back, and ended up with a donated 486, a far cry from the more up-to-date 233MHz Pentium MMX machine that my family left behind...

 

Now if I told you that I have seven Amigas in my collection, you'd tell me I have a problem.

[da na]

11 hours ago, Zodiark1593 said:

For games that came out in 2014, you recommend a CPU that came out in 2017? You're definitely smoking something, but it isn't particularly good stuff.

Clearly not. Everyone knows the minimum spec to play Quake III Arena is a Ryzen 7 5600 and GTX 1080 TI. 

[Sarra]

There are multiple ways of looking at this question.

 

If internet and security aren't a concern, then... The sky (floor? Deep, dark past?) is the limit. As old as you want, or have, is fine, regardless. Good reason for this? Preservation. Alternative reason could be offline only equipment. Maybe you've got an ancient HAM setup, why fix it if it isn't broken?

 

For stuff connected to the internet, it comes down to security. If you're dead set on Windows, then as long as it runs win 10,have at it. Core2Duo is likely the oldest machines you'll be comfortable using, older stuff is going to show it's age too much.

 

If you're using Linux or Unix, then... Maybe you can actually run something 32 bit and still have security. Security through obscurity?

 

For gaming, that comes down to the games. A Core i5 first gen shouldn't be horrible, and combined with a reasonable graphics card, it should at least make frames.