Raring Ringtail on a 10 yr old tower

[GreyGeek]

The DELL PCV-1154 tower is a Pentium 4 HT (Hyperthread Technology) with 2 GB RAM and a 3 GhZ CPU. It has a NVIDIA FX5200 video chip, and two HD's of 300 GB each.

I put Kubuntu 13.04 32bit on it for grins and giggles. It boots in 30 seconds, shuts down in 5 seconds. It behaves like a dual core. Remarkably fast for a 10 year old machine. It performance is quite acceptable. Downside -- draws too much power, of course, AND, while examining it I noticed two capacitors about the size of a pencil eraser that were showing signs of swelling. Their tops were pushed out slightly. So, don't know how long the box will last but I wanted to relate how Kubuntu 13 is fast enough to be an excellent option for old hardware.

[Robtygart]

My computer is getting pretty old, I just upgarded to 2GB, its a 3 Ghz dual core. Since I switched to Linux "Kubuntu 11.04", my computers have been so smooth I haven't had a need for a new computer, I just keep fixing old ones.

[notabug]

Sounds like a good idea. I have an old eMachines with a 3100+ AMD Sempron, 3 GB RAM and a 500 GB HDD. I seem to remember that there is an NVidia 9600 installed so graphics will be fine, but I'll leave it with Nouveau for now at least. The install ran fine as usual and I think this old machine is going to like Kubuntu Raring. Thanks for the idea GG.

[GreyGeek]

You're welcome, notabug!

Last Saturday I went to the Nebraska state surplus auction to see if there were any good laptop deals that my son might be able to use with RR on it.

There were about 100 old laptops, with an average age I'd estimate to be 8 years old. Several were from 2004. There were a couple dozen towers that ranged from 8 to 12 years old. I expected to pick up a DELL E6400, D6XX or D8XX laptop for around $50 and hopefully less. Anyway, $50 was going to be my max bid. A D8XX went for $200 !!! One can purchase a new Chromebook for $200!

After I picked my jaw up off the floor I watched in utter amazement as people bid an average of $75-$100 for these old boxes. The salvage table was just as bad. Folks were paying $25 to $100, and more, for laptops and towers that didn't work and/or were missing necessary parts. There was about a dozen tables with LCD displays on them, stacked as tightly as possible. About 100 - 130 displays in all. The bidding started at $25 and quickly rose to $75-$100 for each display in a lot of about 6 to 10 displays. The winner would pick the ones he wanted. Then the auctioneer would resume bidding on the rest in that lot, which usually went for less money. Rinse and repeat. In one of those cycles a 17" display was left and I bid $10, which got it. The next lot had the same pattern except that the final one went for $5. Those two buys were the best deals of the day.

Why are such ancient relics going for such high prices? I have a theory. I suspect that folks are avoiding the new Win8's and are buying what's left of new machines that have Win7 on them. Since those boxes are rapidly being bought out the only recourse left if one want to avoid Win8 is to buy an older laptop or desktop and put Linux on it. In talking with folks who gathered around the laptop display I found out that most were planning exactly that -- put Linux on an old laptop. I was suprised that of the 20 or so I talked to only a couple planned to put a copy of WinXP or Win7 on them. My son is thinking about buying a Chromebook and replacing the Chrome OS with RR.

[notabug]

Times are a changin' and maybe the tables are being turned now. Old junk has become treasures for those who know what to do with it. This might give me encouragement to go rummaging with my wife the next time she suggests it.

[OldSmoky2]

Until a month or so ago, my desktop was an 8-year-old Dell XPS 410 I inherited from a friend a few years ago. He'd wrecked the hard drive with Windows malware, so I just got a new 500gb HD for $40 and it ran great with Kubuntu and most anything I else I occasionally threw at it. Sadly, it finally crashed - the screen just went nuts one day and though I'm not a professional techie, I was finally able to figure out it was the motherboard that went bad. I have a laptop so it's not the end of the world, but now I'm trying to decide whether to buy a new desktop or go for a used one again. The savings makes used a compelling option. I also had good luck with an ancient netbook I used for a few years, a Toshiba NB205. That was another one someone ruined with Windows malware, nothing but a blinking black screen. He was gushing over his new netbook one night in a bar, saying how he hated having to replace his old one that day but now was glad he had a new one. I asked him what happened to the old one, and when he said, "I don't know, it's just ruined," I asked what he'd done with it. When he said he was going to throw it away, I told him I bet I could fix it. He said I could have it if I could fix it. He brought it to the bar a few days later, I took it home and installed Kubuntu on it and never looked back. By 12.10, I had to switch it to Lubuntu - the Atom processor just couldn't handle Kubuntu very well anymore. But it still ran fine with Lubuntu. I finally gave it to a friend not long ago. Sometimes I'm really glad there are Windows users in the world!