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Any interest in P3/early P4 mahcines?

N

NaokiS

Member
Joined
Jul 14, 2011
Messages
33
Location
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire
Hi all,

I'm wondering if there's any interest in some Pentium 3 and early Pentium 4 machines since people on ebay and amazon aren't interested anymore and whilst I'd like to keep them, I have no viable use for them and no space. They could be scrapped otherwise. If anyone is interested I can get some specs up with pics.

Thanks,
 
Wrong side of the pond here, but multi-CPU systems seem to retain quite a bit of interest yet. Plain old single-CPU desktops, not so much.
 
You might investigate some non-profits. We have one here that rehabilitates old systems and gets them to the needy who have need of email and simple web services. A lean version of Linux running on even a sub-GHz P3 can give usable service.
 
A tweener? None have 5 1/4" drives but you could add one I suppose. I don't know about the bios support though, I'll have to check it out.

EDIT: Just checked and the one I had in mind didn't support 5" drives, but another I found does. It's a Pentium 3 1GHz with 512MB RAM installed. I can add Win XP pro or any OS you want. The only issue it's a Dell SFF machine that only has one 5" bay, so you'd lose CD support but it does have a 3" floppy already installed.

Sound good?
 
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Hate to double post but unless you can convince my boss otherwise he says he's not willing to ship PCs to the US due to cost and because he thinks it's impracticle, thus probably hampering any sales here I guess.
 
I managed to get rid of a P4 system, a Dell Dimension 8100, but that was mostly because someone wanted spares since the machine uses a non-standard power supply and drive rails. It was also a socket 423 machine, which is fairly rare today since it was on the market for a short time and not many were sold. P3 machines usually land up on the curb, someone will eventually take them.
 
Well, in the Legacy Parts field, I'm starting to get calls for P3s and low end P4s.

The places that I used to bulid machines for that got them to needy receipients won't take anything less than a Socket 775 machine and, considering each one I used to build for them actually cost me money to donate to them (most needed hard drives), I thought they were getting a little too picky for my liking since, at that time, I was still using Socket 478 machines.
 
drop em on my curb! I'm using a PII 450 on dialup! Got some better machines now but don't think I can reload my windows for 6 months since I had to revalidate recently due to a memory upgrade
 
Le_Bear said:
drop em on my curb! I'm using a PII 450 on dialup! Got some better machines now but don't think I can reload my windows for 6 months since I had to revalidate recently due to a memory upgrade
Click to expand...
How about I drop a few on my curb and you pick 'em up?
 
Fully stocked with P3 P4/Athlon systems here mostly because I collect AGP gaming cards and need something to install them in or need a machine for an old capture card. It is just easier for me to grab an old machine as it becomes available, set it up as needed, and stick it on the shelf until I feel like messing with it. Those type of machines can be had free all the time, usually missing the HD.

If anything those machines are the ones that will be recycled to extinction before anyone misses them.

With the prices so cheap on new equipment and people upgrading so quickly I can see "needy" organizations being picky on how old the stuff they get is. Kind of funny when people who just do web and email need faster machines then many of us computer geeks use daily for more complex tasks. My daily machine is just an old Athlon 64 3000+ Socket 754, 3GB RAM with AGP (ATI HD 2600 XT). I do have faster machines (AM2 x2 4600+ but thats just for netflix streaming) and even that is like 2007 vintage.
 
Unknown_K said:
.... "needy" organizations being picky on how old the stuff they get is. Kind of funny when people who just do web and email need faster machines then many of us computer geeks use daily for more complex tasks.
Click to expand...

Problem is that customers of charities have kids who "need" video streaming, BitTorrent, and multi-layer games. I've found good P4s, refurbished by charity outfits, dumped for recycling by the donees.
 
Give it a few more years and most people will just own a game console with a media center and computers will only be sold to people who need to create content.
 
I should probably have taken the Antec computer home and kept it because it had a 5.25 floppy cable in it... wonder if the BIOS would support that even though the machine was running a fan made Windows XP "Ultimate by Johnny" OS... hehe.

I was taking apart a Pentium 3 HP computer with Windows 98 on it... but the Antec wouldn't boot. When I touched the RAM it was burning hot.. uh oh. So I put the RAM, hard drive, and graphics card into the HP. That was extremely hard to fit the RAM in because it was beneath the mounting brackets for the internal doodads so I coulnd't see more than one just the one side of the RAM socket. It beeped serveral times and refused to boot. Guess the RAM wasn't seated right?

I also had at my disposal a Dell computer where I took out two sticks of 256 MB but they weren't keyed right for the older machines. Just one slot rather than two on the cards...

Since I had no access to internet onsite I couldn't tell you all the particulars.

What I need now is a P4 tower. I don't care the brand but anything that isn't super proprietary would be nice. It has to run MMOs. Like WOW or LOTRO.
 
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