What can one do with a old 486 system?

[Executioner]

I have a bunch of old 486 parts laying around in my closet, so I brought them out to look at them. Jeez, they must have been there for 7+ years LOL. The mobo supports 30 pin and 72 pin simms, with a total ram capacity of 128 megs. I'm only missing a floppy cable, but I'm wonding what could I do with this old rig if I get it running?

[Corsec]

Satellite Emulator

[Radboy]

Linux firewall.

[EvilHorace]

Donate to Museum? j/k (or am I? Could probably donate it to someplace and claim it as a tax write-off)

[DocSilly]

Just to add to Radboys idea:
Using Linux for cable/DSL-router, firewall, DHCP for internal network, it has more than enough RAM for a GUI desktop though running KDE or Gnome could be frustrating on a 486, better use a leaner window manager ... maybe to store Ghost images ... MP3 server ... just some ideas ...

[chosenfool]

a door stop?

[nitro237]

an anchor

[knightofnee1112]

you should maybe make it a server live everyone else is saying, it would also be great for playing lan games with games like Doom and warcraft1-2 what sorta buses does it have? PCI ISA VESA-localbus???
trident made a mean VESA-LOCALBUS card at one point, ive got one in my closet ive got a old 386 compaq, got it for free yesterday im not sure what imgoing to do with it, it only has 16Bit ISA's 4 of em, i may try to get it to network with my other computers, have 500MB of extra space!!!!

A good 486 is still usful, give it a good ISA hardware modem, use it on the net. type up stuff, do graphics.

good luck with it, and enjoy it!

[ClockerDude]

Don't trash it...the old 486 is still useful for tons of stuff! Until the RAM prices come down, my old DX2/66 Overdrive is my main machine. It has 8 megs of RAM, a 1.2 gig hard drive, 2 slow CD ROMs and runs Windows 95. I use this for web design, basic graphics manipulation through an old copy of Paint Shop Pro, and also use it for old games. You should see how Doom 2 runs on it!

Also, if you know someone that needs a word processor, chuck a copy of Win 95 and Word 97 on it, and that'll keep them quite happy. I run Word 97 on my 486, and its really nice on the old machine. So although its old, the machine is very useful. And, if all else fails, stick 2 CD ROM drives in it and hook it to the stereo for a CD player! Be warned though, it won't play firendly with MP3s. I once tried running WinAmp on mine and it skipped like crazy.

[horndog]

donate it to a school or something and claim its worth $1000

[Executioner]

Well, after sitting in my closet for 6-7 years, the mobo still works! It booted right up with no problems, and even the date still works. I thought for sure that the Y2K bug would show on this old bios dated 1994, but I entered in the correct date and time, and it's still working.

I also found a pc surplus store locally, and got some 4 meg 30 pin simms, and a couple of 16 meg 72 pin simms. So now it's got a total of 64 megs running Win95b (OSR2.1). I installed Office 97 and it works with no problems. I also have an old 32x IDE CD-ROM reader there as well with an old Promise VLB controller card. My brother gave me his old Packerd Bell 15" monitor and I found an old ISA 28.8 modem that I threw in. So it's got:

Intel 486-66DX2 cpu
4.2 gig Maxtor IDE hard drive
Promise VLB controller
Cirrus Logic 1meg VLB video card
28.8 modem
MS Serial Mouse
Packard Bell 15" Monitor
3½" and 5¼" combo floppy drive
Creative 32x IDE CD-ROM reader
64 megs of total ram
Keyboard
AWE32 ISA Sound Card with 8 megs of ram
Speakers
Win95b

If I was to sell this at a garage sale, what could I expect to get for it? I was thinking about $125 for the whole thing.

[EvilHorace]

What Y2K bug? Wasn't that pretty much proven to be a hoax, at least for PCs (those made not too long ago)? I'm surprized that no one went after those people who made a buttload of $$$ selling the need to do anything about it.

[Busby]

The Y2K bug wouldn't cause a crash but would see the year was 1900 and not 2000, right?

[EvilHorace]

The idea was for 2 digit date computers from (basically) the 70's from my recollection. Those computers didn't know what century it was (no 19) so it wasn't exactly logical to me. The #s went from 99 to 00 and obviously wasn't a real problem.
If I'm wrong here, did anyone ever hear of one older computer (not upgraded for Y2K) that failed during that moment?

[zsouthboy]

Originally posted by Executioner
Well, after sitting in my closet for 6-7 years, the mobo still works! It booted right up with no problems, and even the date still works. I thought for sure that the Y2K bug would show on this old bios dated 1994, but I entered in the correct date and time, and it's still working.

I also found a pc surplus store locally, and got some 4 meg 30 pin simms, and a couple of 16 meg 72 pin simms. So now it's got a total of 64 megs running Win95b (OSR2.1). I installed Office 97 and it works with no problems. I also have an old 32x IDE CD-ROM reader there as well with an old Promise VLB controller card. My brother gave me his old Packerd Bell 15" monitor and I found an old ISA 28.8 modem that I threw in. So it's got:

Intel 486-66DX2 cpu
4.2 gig Maxtor IDE hard drive
Promise VLB controller
Cirrus Logic 1meg VLB video card
28.8 modem
MS Serial Mouse
Packard Bell 15" Monitor
3½" and 5¼" combo floppy drive
Creative 32x IDE CD-ROM reader
64 megs of total ram
Keyboard
AWE32 ISA Sound Card with 8 megs of ram
Speakers
Win95b

If I was to sell this at a garage sale, what could I expect to get for it? I was thinking about $125 for the whole thing.

Very similar setup to my first real computer..... I got $125 for it... it stil runs great to this day I'm told.... just make sure that you sell it to a n00b..... they will think you are god when they get a "computer" for 125 bucks.....wow, all the ads on tv are for lik 799, we got a deal on this one!...

j/k

zs