Digital Home Thoughts: Your Old Computer Is Not Useless!

"Your old computer may feel clunky and outdated when you're ready to replace it, but there are still plenty of uses for it. Instead of trashing it, turn your old machine into something useful like a file server or firewall. But if you really think your equipment is completely shot, you can always recycle or turn it into a cool mod or art project."

Just because you got some new hotness this holiday season does not suddenly render your old computer useless. There are many things it can still do. Business Insider offers several options, however some of them, I think may be less useful than first imagined. Recycling is always a good idea, however, some other options may not be as great in practical terms. Grid computing is great and helping to crunch Work Units for humanity is a noble goal but depending on the computer you have, you may be paying a mint to do so. The same also applies to using old bertha as a file server or firewall. Many older computers, especially those of the Pentium 4 generation, are power hungry heating elements. A dedicated appliance like a router or custom built NAS can perform the same task at a fraction of the power and with electricity prices the way they are today, every kilowatt counts!