OK, so the other week, I was driving to my GF’s place, and I see sitting on the sidewalk, not really in front of anyone’s house, just kinda there, a computer case. I pull over to take a look and notice there is a motherboard and processer in it as well, so I grab it and figure I’ll look at it later, figuring it to be either broken, or so obsolete I couldn’t use it for anything, because why else would it be on the sidewalk?
When I finally get the chance to look at it, I notice that it’s a Pentium 1.4 GHz processor. I turned it on with a spare video card I had, but there was no RAM, so I got the “no RAM” noise from the motherboard, indicating that at least something is working. Now I am left with the problem of what to do with this.
My other computer is an Athlon XP 1800+, rated at 1.56 GHz, I believe. My question is basically which one is better, assuming everything else to be equal? The Athlon has a faster rating, but the Pentium 4, being a Pentium 4 and all, might be better. Of course, the problem of getting RAM for the Pentium is also an issue. It takes RAMBUS RAM, the kind that is expensive and has to be installed in pairs. I looked around online, and it seems the cheapest I can get 512 MB is about $90, more money than I can afford to spend, being a broke college student and all.
I also looked around and noticed that I could get a new motherboard that took cheaper RAM and get the RAM (PC133) for less than $70 combined, that it just about cheap enough for me to do, but then I am left with MUCH slower RAM (133 MHz FSB vs. 600 MHz.)
So then, let’s just say I figure this out and have two working computers (I have a spare hard drive and video card for whichever one is not the primary, and can probably scrounge up a CD-ROM drive easily enough.) What do I do with the second one? A little voice says use it as a server, hey, great idea! Then I realize I arely know what a server is and certainly have no use for one myself. I could try to sell the spare parts, but I looked around on eBay, and I really wouldn’t get that much for it.
So, any suggestions?