A blog post about my old tower computer.
Rest in Peace in Silicon Heaven (Red Dwarf) my tower computer. Recently I mentioned I had managed to fix a faulty computer, but alas it appears the motherboard or CPU have an issue and it died.
So I took the the known functioning parts of the dead computer and gave an old Compaq a make over. The Compaq’s motherboard and CPU are slower technology, but I also addressed that area by ditching Microsoft Windows 7 and I’m using Xubuntu instead, a fast Linux distribution.
So what were the Compaq’s upgrades?
The RAM was upgraded from 512MB to 2GB using the dead computers ram.
The 200GB Windows 7 hard drive was made a secondary to the linux’s 30GB. There are some photos to be backed up and then I will reformat the Windows 7 hard drive to a linux partition.
The graphics card was upgraded from an old ATI to a slightly newer ATI taken from the dead computer. In this instance an ATI 2400 HD AGP.
The Compaq was given a DVD writer as well as keeping an old CD rom. Though I backup regularly to online services, I like having an offline backup of my photos.
Microsoft Office was ditched for LibreOffice. Thunderbird and Firefox still used for email and web browsing. Xmarks restored my browser bookmarks. Dropbox works smoothly on Linux.
I’ve not tested the scanner, but it probably will work. The digital camera works with Xubuntu, though I must find an alternative to GtKam for importing photos.
The price of Xubuntu, LibreOffice, Thunderbird and Firefox? Nothing as they are free software. Plus Xubuntu runs smoother than my Windows 7 did on a faster motherboard and CPU.
Final thoughts
I’ve never tried to stay updated with the latest technology, as that way lies wasted money, instead I’ve always tried to extend the life of the technology I use as long as it doesn’t impact my productivity.