vintage/crap?

[peekaboo]

i found an old computer that has a pentium 120 MHz cpu, a 1024 MB hard drive, a cd reader, floppy drive, an NDC-SFA110A ethernet card, a fastware graphics card, soundblaster ct4180 sound card, pc tel 9628 modem card, an unidentified power supply and an unidentified socket 7 motherboard (all in a case - not sure what kind).
it used to have 16 MB of ram but that was taken out and is gone (don't know what kind).

is this a vintage jewel or a piece of junk?

[Alaron]

If you can find some RAM, and make sure it works, older hardware can be useful. Theres plenty of Linux distros that run on low specs, and you can use it as a firewall.

A jewel, maybe not, but useful, definitely a possibility.

[juppy]

The type of memory would probably be either FPM or EDO. FPM was mainly on the 60 - 100MHz Pentiums, and EDO started in around 120MHz. Could be either though, I think.

[glc]

Either FPM or EDO should work - just match it up. FPM will *definitely* work - EDO *should* but is not guaranteed. It's probably 72 pin SIMMS, must be installed in pairs. You can find 32mb modules dirt cheap out there, they are all over Ebay.

Example: http://cgi.ebay.ca/32-MEG-60NS-72-PI...QQcmdZViewItem

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by peekaboo is this a vintage jewel or a piece of junk?

It's just an old, slow computer...nothing more and nothing less. Computers aren't collectibles that gain value over time. They may have sentimental value to the original owner but no one is going to offer you much (or anything) for a computer like that.

If it works and you can put it to use...great. But if it doesn't work you could salvage the useful parts (if there are any) or troubleshoot the problem to gain experience.

Cricket

[peekaboo]

is there a way for me to tell if it's fpm or edo?
can anyone tell me how it may be used as a firewall and if that's any different (advantageous) than a router/software?
what other useful things can i do with it? i'd like to be able to get it running as i enjoy the experience and knowledge but i'd like to make it useful because if at the end of the process it just turns on and that's it then i'll feel like an idiot for spending that time on my university research (i have zero experience with linux).

[glc]

If you can tell us a brand and model of the motherboard, we can tell you if it will take EDO or not. If it's a Pentium, it's 90% sure that it will.

[peekaboo]

i've looked at it but i don't see any name.
would a photo help?

[tomster2300]

I have an old Pentium I 233 mhz, 96 mb ram, 7 gig HD Toshiba laptop that I actually got Win XP to run on, although it was very, very slow and lacked proper display drivers. Win 98 works like a charm though. I had a wireless card in it (which worked) and used it for browsing the internet and typing papers before I got my new Compaq. That thing is a beast and has a remarkable battery life. Old computers can certainly be useful, but like everyone has said, you won't get anything for it.

[glc]

A photo may help if you can take a high-res photo so I can read all the markings, take it out of the case and shoot the bare board under proper lighting. If you compress it to the 100kb attachment limit, it probably would not be readable - upload it to a host and give me a link.

[peekaboo]

the ram that has been taken out has been located (I hope).
it's far far away but i'll be there in a few months so i'll probably have to refresh this post in a few months when i return with the long lost ram.