2 XP computers, what to do?

[da na]

Most parts of them are still functional - I've decided on fixing them and using them as XP, 2000, or Vista machines (I have COAs for each). The Pentium system is Vista capable (it says on the sticker lol but it probably wouldn't be too fast) and both could run 2000 just fine.

[whm1974]

47 minutes ago, Mel0nMan said:

Most parts of them are still functional - I've decided on fixing them and using them as XP, 2000, or Vista machines (I have COAs for each). The Pentium system is Vista capable (it says on the sticker lol but it probably wouldn't be too fast) and both could run 2000 just fine.

A 32-bit lightweight Linux Distro might work better and still get Support from the Developers. There a number of them developed for 32-bit Systems.

[Hairless Monkey Boy]

22 hours ago, Mel0nMan said:

ould it work well with Kodi/LibreElec as a HTPC sort of thing? It’s got a DVD drive so it could replace the DVD player and I wouldn’t have to bring my laptop to the tv every time my family wants to stream a movie…

I love the idea, but unfortunately no. The main issue is that those systems lack hardware decode support for most modern codecs, and they don't have nearly the processing power required to do software decoding. So that's going to be a bad experience.

[mariushm]

Depending on what MSI board, you may be able to upgrade the cpu to some AMD x2 or x4 - the cpus are cheap, 10-20$ on ebay.

That would make the system usable with a Windows 7.

[Guest]

3 hours ago, HelpfulTechWizard said:

unless im mistaken, some 775 boards have ddr2 support and pentium support

775 was a weird one. Its not like a one-size fits all. You had the early ones which are pentium/celeron with DDR1/DDR2, then later 775 which support DDR2/DDR3 with Core arch. 

[Hairless Monkey Boy]

18 minutes ago, RorzNZ said:

775 was a weird one. Its not like a one-size fits all. You had the early ones which are pentium/celeron with DDR1/DDR2, then later 775 which support DDR2/DDR3 with Core arch. 

Weird indeed. I had a Pentium 4 family PC on LGA 775 with RDRAM.

[da na]

26 minutes ago, mariushm said:

Depending on what MSI board, you may be able to upgrade the cpu to some AMD x2 or x4 - the cpus are cheap, 10-20$ on ebay.

That would make the system usable with a Windows 7.

Nah, probably not. It specifically says 'MSI k7 mainboard' on the case badge so that architecture step may not work...

[da na]

46 minutes ago, HairlessMonkeyBoy said:

I love the idea, but unfortunately no. The main issue is that those systems lack hardware decode support for most modern codecs, and they don't have nearly the processing power required to do software decoding. So that's going to be a bad experience.

OK, cool. I have some thin clients that I'll use for that instead - their newer Atom CPU should handle it.

[JZStudios]

5 hours ago, Mel0nMan said:

Again, not going back to the recycling... 

On a serious response, the only valid things to do with XP machines is run very old specialty programs that you still need, actively mess around with virus coding, or use it for retro games with a fancy sound card and Creative Alchemy. Outside those 3 things it's pretty much useless. You don't even want to think about connecting it to the internet, and most newer programs don't support 32 bit anymore. That's also assuming it was a higher end XP machine. If it was a lower end one, it's useless.

If you don't want to throw it away, then congratulations, you now have something to mount on your wall as an art piece, or perhaps a nice side table.

[WhitetailAni]

I mean...

Old computer cases make great chairs. Just put two next to each other and correct the height difference if you have too. Boom! Chair.

[David_ballard]

On 8/31/2021 at 7:47 PM, Mel0nMan said:

I do that with newer computers. However no one would use these as daily use machines. 

You’d be surprised if there are some people who just want a cheap working pc or retro gamers might be interested 

[pipnina]

On 8/30/2021 at 10:39 PM, Mel0nMan said:

Argument here: that Pentium 4 outperforms many Windows 10S laptops and 99% of Chromebooks.

No way.

I used to have a later-era P4 (a 3.00GHz with hyperthreading, LGA 775), which took so long to complete the cinebench R14 test I literally gave up on it. It was paired with a Radeon HD 6450 and the GPU FPS score went up from 9 to 12 FPS.... when I overclocked the CPU!!! Somehow that thing was (barely) happy to go up to 4.2 GHz just by FSB tweaking, though it only booted on like 1/5 attempts by that point.

Those P4s are hot garbage even compared  to a 1st gen i-core.

[Mitko_DSV]

On 8/31/2021 at 12:35 AM, adarw said:

ive seen people make their user agent default websites for the phone version since they have less boltware. on very old pcs.

Ah, yes. That's how I could run Facebook smoothly on my eMachines PC (Intel Celeron 466MHz, 512MB SDRAM, ATi Rage Pro AGP 2x 4MB, Windows 98SE&XP). I did this in Chome even, was impressed it worked (I diidn't change settings though, just manually typed "m." in the url). Did this just to see if it works at all, haven't actually used it for more. I do have to try it again, since I did this like 2-3 years ago.