4 Things You Can Do with a Spare Computer

Wire

4 Things You Can Do with a Spare Computer

Most of us have older computers lying around the house from the heyday of the desktop. Why leave it dormant? Here are some ways you could make use of your old PCs.

1. Upgrade it to a simple gaming PC

A lot of people have computers that were nice and fast when first purchased, but have since lost their shine. But before you dismiss your old PC as useless, you might want to take a look at what’s under the hood. The first thing you should identify is what processor and motherboard you’re running. For less than RM1000, you could get yourself a fairly decent HD gaming PC.

Use Wikipedia, google or Intel’s ARK to determine what year and socket it is. This can be used to determine if there is an upgrade path for your PC.

AMD CPUs also have upgrade paths, but be mindful of the socket and RAM type when upgrading, many of their motherboards are cross-compatible with AM2, AM2+ and AM3 sockets which use different (DDR2 and DDR3) RAM types.

Let’s say in 2011 you bought a computer with an Intel Core i3 2100 which uses a LGA1155 socket. As long as your computer still works, you could look for a Core i7 or Xeon processor from that era, like a Core i7 2600 for about RM350. This would instantly give you a performance boost.

Next, look for a 60GB or 120GB solid state drive. These will set you back between RM100-200 but they’re worth it. Install your copy of Windows in here and we guarantee zippy performance. You can use your older hard disk as a backup drive, but try and keep your main applications and games on the SSD.

The third thing to look at is RAM. 4GB is enough to play most games, but at minimal settings. We recommend 8GB. RAM usually costs about RM200 per 4GB.

Finally, get yourself an Nvidia GTX750 or 750Ti. These are about RM400-500 and can handle modern titles without needing a Power supply upgrade. The one pictured above is the GTX1050Ti, which is similar in principle, but much more powerful and expensive.

If you’re already running a decent system, but have noticed a slowdown, besides the solid state drive upgrade, we recommend getting some compressed air and cleaning up dust from the PC fans. As dust builds up here, the CPUs get hot and are forced to throttle down performance or shut down 0as a safety measure.

2. Connect it to your television

There’s a lot of talk about Smart TVs, but what if you’re happy with your television and just want to be able to watch movies online through Netflix? The simple solution is to take that unsued desktop, clean it up, maybe consider an SSD upgrade to keep it quick and connect it to your TV. As long as you have a DVI or HDMI connector, you can expect great HD quality.

Do note that DVI will not give you audio through your TV, so you’ll need to figure that out using an aux cable or something similar. There are more detailed guides on Google. VGA connectors work too, but it’s only worth it if your TV only supports analogue signals.

3. Use it as network-attached storage

You might already have a great laptop for work/gaming. In this case, having an older desktop around can seem like a waste. But since laptops tend to have less storage, what you could try is setting up your desktop as a ‘Home Cloud’. Some routers, like the ones supplied by TIME, can be attached to your PC via a LAN cable and be set up to do just that. So, you can store your movies, games, and other data on your desktop’s large hard drive, and get it whenever you need it through WiFi.

4. Salvage or donate it

Sometimes, computers just aren’t worth keeping around. But don’t throw yours in the bin – that’s bad for the environment and a waste of resources. If you don’t have time to find out what’s inside, just give it to charity or sell it for a few Ringgit at an IT mall. You might know someone who could use it, so why not give them a chance to sell it for themselves or build it back up? Recycling them is also an option.

If you have time though, we suggest opening it up and finding out what you have on hand. It might be an older PC, but if you find 4GB of RAM in there, there’s definitely demand for that in the used market. a dual or quad core CPU is also easy to sell, as are 80PLUS certified power supplies, aftermarket CPU coolers, as well as well kept cases as well.