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washer111

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It turns out that Intel is *still* honoring the Lifetime Warranty on their Pentium (i.e. P1) processors, particularly those affected by the Floating Point Flaw (FDIV), for which a recall was announced a very long time ago.

http://www.intel.com/support/processors/pentium/sb/CS-012748.htm

All you have to do is run their diagnosis utility, give them your Credit Card details, mail the affected product back, and you'll get a shiny replacement item (probably New-Old Stock) right from Intel!
 
I still have one!!

I have an old Dell that was an original P1 90Mhz from back in 1995. It came with one of the flawed procs with the FDIV bug. Dell sent a replacement processor. I still have the one with the error, as well as the replacement which is in the computer now!

That computer ran almost 24/7/365 for 15 years (130,000 hours). I replaced the fan in the power supply twice. The mainboard and power supply were never swapped! If I went down in the basement and plugged it in I know it would run. I need to pull the drives out and recycle it but I haven't got around to it yet...
 
The cool thing about older computers is they can be put to good use, even today.

A system such as yours, provided it has the space and expansion capability, could easily be setup as a network backup volume (after all, you don't need a lot of oomph to write/read to a disk). I know of at least one example of a person doing this with a not-to-dissimilar HP Vectra with a Pentium Pro in it.

While it seems silly, you could probably palm it off to the Goodwill shops, as there are plenty of nerds who probably would take it, as something to play with or put to good use (just one of them is mentioned above).
 
lol, I used to be a bottom feeder when it came to PC's. Today if its not an Intel "i" series proc, it goes to recycle. A Core2 or better might get to a new home, but I have no time for it

I wouldn't bother to run a slow energy hog PC for a simple NAS box anyhow.
 
Older computers aren't energy hogs. Most Pentium 1 and 2 machines only use somewhere up to about 30w/hr of electricity. Compare that to a Pentium 4, which uses a whopping 90w or so at idle, and the point becomes more valid.

If an older machine is free, and can meet your needs, with that small requirement, and a small hardware investment, then it sure beats the pants off spending a couple hundred on something newer. Thats a lot of powerbills, in my view.

While today you get more power for the electricity consumed, plenty of it is still being used, and made into heat with newer systems. The older ones barely even need heatsinks, so have at that, what you will.
 
Rex, perhaps so, but that doesn't justify being wasteful where it isn't warranted... Remember I have a 100% LED lit home so I watch that.

Using ANY full size PC as a NAS solution will use WAY more energy then a small embedded NAS box. In general its likely to be less reliable too.

Anyone is welcome to have that box if they want it, but I don't know anyone crazy enough to want something that antiquated ;)
 
>I don't know anyone crazy enough to want something that antiquated ;)

There are people who do like older computers. Some like the challenge of making them relevant in today's world. Some might need to run some piece of older software.

For a long time, I ran an older Macintosh system as my primary writing production computer. In theory, I could have migrated to a newer system, but I REALLY liked the old software I had, and was reluctant to abandon it. I despised most modern software, as it seemed to go out of its way to annoy me. Plus having a work computer that is not connected to the Internet probably helps productivity (no distractions of "well, I'm stuck a moment...let me see what AW.org is up to!")

That said...in time I did find some good (if not perfect) modern solutions, and so I did move to using a (fairly) modern system for almost 100% of my needs.
 
Again-the energy use of my computers in my place is pretty tiny-A Toshiba laptop and an IPad Air.The only times they are connected to the line-Toshiba is when I am using it or charging the battery in the IPad.I don't make it my business to know what energy use someone else is using.As long as they pay their utility bills-fine with me.If the person wants to use the older computer--Ok with me.They must have a specialized use for it-like using an older program.Or maybe the fellow is a "tinkerer" or collector.I use LEDs for lighting as well-esp my portable lights.And have CFL and HID.The only incandescents in use are in my car headlights.No choice there-what came with it.I have thoughts of replacing them with HID or LED headlights in the distant future.
 
HID/LED Lights on Cars

I can only beg you, on behalf of driver's who have to drive in the opposite direction to you, that the lights are installed *correctly* so as not to blind other drivers. Too many new cars have this feature, and too many make driving in a car lower to the ground (a 1993 BMW sedan) quite difficult in the night.

Also, I checked out the usage of a NAT device, and that was around the 40w mark under load. Older machines run at this sort of level, and while they might not be ideal for streaming activities, they can still push a reasonable pace. About 20mbps, per the source below (although it isn't clear whether the tests were conducted wirelessly or over a congested wired network. For 802.11G wireless, its a great speed. For Fast Ethernet, not so much so, but the devil is in the details).
(Original source here, *caution* its about the equivalent of 14 printed pages): http://greyghost.mooo.com/timecapsule-vs-freenas/

Of course, I didn't have access to such a machine, or I might've used it at home for my file-server/backup, combined with 'hobby' active directory and Webserver. My machine is a Pentium 4, "RoomHeater" variety. Not exactly frugal, but it does the job, and does it very well, if I do say so myself.
 
I would have the lights professionally installed-the new fixture matches the car and its present lights.I have driven BEHIND HID lights and they make a world of diffrence-esp when you have to drive thru deer infested areas as I have to to get to work at night.It is not that difficult to make the lights shine in the proper manner on the car.So many times incandescent and halogen headlights are really not adequite for animal infested areas on night driving.--But whats so funny I hit a deer last year that jumpted out in front of me from out of a brushpile on the access road at work-this was during the daytime.Deer strikes at daytime are not that common.The access roadsides were mowed with a Hardee ditch mower-no places for the deer to hide!My car insurance covered all of the repairs and a rental car to get me to work--a Dodge Hemi 1500 pickup with chrome,scary RAM symbols on its front-that will scare 'em!It was a good rental car.
 

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