Old Laptop(s)

[jpsheeha]

So, I've recently bought a new tower, with some nice stats that supports my games and whatnot. In my upgrade, I've abandoned my old laptop, though.

It is:
- An old i5 processor, don't remember the ghz.
- 4GB RAM
- 500GB HD

What should I do with it? I certainly don't want to throw it out, as it's still a rather nice laptop. I'm not a fan of selling things, either.

In addition to that, I have two other laptops, but which are from early 2000s. Anything I could do with these, as well? I'm running Ubuntu on them, currently, but I have absolutely no use for them.

Feedback would be appreciated. Thank you!

[Evengeduld]

If the laptop is still working why not clean it up and sell it to someone or give to family? I take it can still be used for normal use (Internet and E-mail with some Word and stuff)

[jpsheeha]

I don't enjoy selling things, I'll probably trade it with one of my friends for some books, or give it to them.

Thank you!

[dukederek]

take the screen off and turn it into an HTPC, I really like the laptop as a form factor for sitting underneath/in front of the TV. I think it reminds me of my old Amiga.

Extra points for figuring out something exciting to make with the screen afterwards...

[Euler]

I agree, if you know what you're doing, you can remove all the hardware and put it into a small case to use as a personal media computer connected to your television.
You can use it for general downloading, as well as watching movies/tv/netflix or listening to music.

[Dr.Buck]

I did that with my old 17" Vaio laptop. Screen hinges snapped, and new hinges (when I finally found some!) were more expensive than just buying a netbook, so I stripped off the screen assembly (keeping the wireless antenna out of it) and sold it on eBay, along with the battery, to offset the cost of the netbook. Hooked the remains of the Vaio up to my TV with a HDMI lead and it still functions perfectly as an iPlayer er, player, a gaming PC or just for playing music or showing photo's. Oh, and by the time i'd sold off the extra bits, the new netbook cost me about £40!

[exporito]

I don't enjoy selling things, I'll probably trade it with one of my friends for some books, or give it to them.

Well, if none of your friends needs it then yu may consider asking someone to take it for a small price =))

[orangustang]

In that situation, I usually end up selling parts, but I use laptops until they die. If your hard drives are still good, use them as extra storage for your desktop and either sell or recycle what you can't use. I do like the media center idea others have suggested, though.

[asye288]

It is a sin of taking your laptop apart and sell the components. The Intel core i5 + 4gb ram + 500 gb hdd is still consider as a current model. You many need to spend $500 or more for a brand new laptop with the same configuration. Just clean it up and sell it at ebay for $200.

[joek]

http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2007/09/14 ... -computer/
http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2007/03/16 ... er-useful/

He works with computers significantly older than yours...
The second is more things you should do to your computer to ensure that it is still usable, but the first link contains some suggestions.
If I ever get a new laptop, (I'm currently typing this on a Dell Latitude D400 which I inherited from my father when he got a new computer) I'll probably use it to mess about with Linux distros I don't use on my main laptop, or something...

[alexriehl]

You could turn it into a server. Home Automation or otherwise.

[JuEeHa]

First you should try installing a lighter distro to your early 2000 laptops. I am typing this on my Thinkpad T20 from 2000 (700MHz Pentium III, 64MB of RAM and 30GB of HD space) running SliTaz linux with slight modifications. I can do everything I need to do using this machine. As distro I would suggest SliTaz, Lubuntu or Tiny Core Linux. Also you should try some light browsers such as xxxterm, surf, netsurf, dillo or links2. For your newer laptop: use it as media center or just use it as a laptop. I can't honestly think about anything normal computer use that would require more powerful machine.