LJB
Hmm.. now that sounds like interestingness, Doc. To ask a really silly questions - what do I then do with the machine? What can it do? Sorry - I am purely interested in practical uses, so please advise :O)

Before NAS became cost-effective I used old machines as file servers.  The last machine was so old I just junked it at the recycle center ... without drives in it.

I have a couple of old PC's stored away in the closet.  I don't have the heart to throw them out.  I think one day I will boot them up again, but that most likely will never happen.  I keep the one around that has 32-bit XP on it because I have some old electronics/programming software on it.  Maybe I will do that again some day...but most likely, that will never happen.
 
At least in my closet, the components are left to decay on their own rather than be held over a fire in China by some toddler with no shoes.

I have one old pc sitting under my TV in the living room.  I put a HD video card in it with HDMI and use it to stream to my TV since I have Amazon Prime.

Doktor Avalanche
And why no love for Ubuntu?

 

azslow3
This thread is about old computers... Modern Ubuntu versions comes with fancy desktop. It has memory leaks and can consume more then 3GB of RAM after a while. On my 2GB notebook I had to switch on swap after upgrade to 14.x

You brought it up.. I've NEVER experienced this. The desktop it comes with by default nowadays is far from fancy and just does the job. I don't see zillions of complaints in the forums either. I'm sorry you've had a bad experience but this is far from the norm.

https://www.reddit.com/r/htpc/
You're welcome. :)

Ludwig
I keep my old machines and add to my network - I use Vienna Pro so whatever system they use, be it Xp, 7, 8, 32 bit or 64bit (I think even Mac?), I can use them on my new machine, whatever that may be - so I leave software on them that I don't want to / can't move for whatever reason (only 32bit, gone bust, been sold, disappeared, whatever) So i still have access to the software should I need it. Used to be more important as the Vienna Pro system allows you to  share the processing load - to be honest with the power of new machines that's hardly an issue now.
Also of course, it can be very handy if your computer goes wrong - you immediately have a back up
Nigel
 
 

I've donated old PC's to charitable organizations. There's still many folks that would be happy to have cast-off's.

ampfixer
I've donated old PC's to charitable organizations. There's still many folks that would be happy to have cast-off's.

I gave an older PC to a PC-less relative once.  Never again.  That ended up being a PC-noob support job from Heck for several years.  Not because he PC was broke.  It was a constant stream of How_Do_I? stuff.
 
Around here, charities would **** of the PC doesn't have an i7, 32G and WinX installed.

I've been doing RYO PCs since the previous century.  I part them out to their boxes.  I still use the cases. I keep the power supplies and video cards.  Older parts come in handy while waiting for replacements.

I end up recycling mine as well after pulling anything that can be used on a new system from it. The only time this didn't happen was on the IDE->SATA jump where I had two machines fully functional, but even then the older machine went because it was unused and slow anyway.