My dad's old PC.
 

My dad's been trying to use his old PC together with the Media Center PC he got from me, but was unable to. Now he's asking if I want it in here. I do have room for a PC tower on my desk, where my Media Center PC used to be, but I don't have any room for a monitor. My iMac and speakers totally dominate where my monitor used to be.

It's still perfectly functional and working, though it's not as impressive as the Media Center or my iMac. (256Mb Ram originally, upgraded to 1gb, 40gb hard drive) What do you suggest I do with it?

Sounds like it's missing 62mb of RAM...

Oh I forgot, he told me he added some extra ram to add it up to 1gig.

He added 574mb...?

Is that like another 512 card and then a 64mb card?

But then he'd have to shear off 2mb somewhere.

Your dad has created a monster I think.

Probably looks like your avatar. And sounds like it too.

Send it to me, I'll find something to do with it. :)

Send it to me, I'd connect it to the fridge so I can order cheese dips and crackers direct.

As I explained via PM, my vote goes for the Linux option.

I'd say you should turn it into a Linux box. Linux is a great and very capable operating system, and I always find it enjoyable to have around. Additionally, Linux and OS X share common roots in Unix, so learning more about Linux will also teach you about how many of the underlying components of Mac OS X work. Linux will also perform much better than Windows on worse hardware, so that's another plus. I'd say head over to the Ubuntu web site, grab the latest ISO (Gutsy Gibbon) and get installing! Then hook it to a TV if you must.

Now that I get another look at the case it was actually 256mb RAM he had before upgrading to 1gb... no idea where I got 450. :P

And it looks like he's changed his mind. He got an ethernet switch so he can use the internet on both of them... He'll use the Media PC as his main one and the other one as a backup for when the Media PC's busy.

I'm dearly sorry for the double post but the situation has changed.

I was going to take it apart, but my dad's not too cool with that idea and definitely won't let me do it myself. It's going to be set up in my bedroom(My room has two sections, one for the bed and stuff and the other for my computer and TV.). Won't need to hook it up to a TV, my old CRT monitor is coming with it.

Since taking it apart isn't an option now and it'd honestly be a shame to let a working computer get thrown away, I need any suggestion I can get on its potential uses.
Guess it's kind of nice having a backup computer but for now all I can think of is downloading torrents. It can't even burn DVDs... it can play them but can't burn em. (It can burn CDs though.) I also forgot to mention the processor, it's a 2.2ghz Intel Celeron.
Out of sheer curiosity i'll install linux on it probably, but I'll be testing that in VMware first.

It's not his anymore. If he didn't want it taken apart he shouldn't have given it away. :P

Experiment with it as a Linux box. Using it to download torrents is an alright idea. Set it up as a file server and download your torrents on that.

Come now, tut tut. Just dive in! Forget about VMware, it sucks all the fun out of playing with Linux on your own terms!

Did I ever tell you the story about when I did that and almost destroyed my computer?

I think I did. That sure gave me an adrenaline rush. Not sure about the whole 'fun' part, though.

Linux can't destroy a computer. It's just software. All you'd have to do is reformat again and you're back in business.

As soon as my dad gets everything he needs to get off of it(apparently he didn't transfer his favorites and everything first), I'll start messing with it. I even installed UltraVNC on it so I could connect to it from my iMac, though the movement from the iMac is rather jerky. Definitely not an alternative to VMware for now, but it's nice having something to run vital Windows programs on and have my mom and dad knowing about it and not thinking I'm a pirate. :P (I'll definately not stop using VMware though. Too fun. I even installed an OS X theme on my windows install there so Unity lets it blend in even more. There's a slight difference in the window's look since it's a tiger theme but otherwise it's perfect.)
...that and there's not much of a point to it, seeing as the thing is just in the other part of my room. But I'm too used to my iMac's display by now and it seems so much clearer compared to my CRT... and I just plain don't want to neglect my precious. ;_;

If I start using it for gaming too it seems I may need to beef it up sometime, but for now all I'm using it for is torrents and the Best of Entertainment games. (Jezz Ball's sound causes it to lag on VMware) If I install Linux on it I'm gonna keep Windows with it, though I'll use a fresh install, got the XP Pro disk that was used on it and everything.

I'm afraid I'm an overly cautious person. I want to make sure I know the installation process and anything else I need to know before screwing around with it outside of a virtual machine. :P

I am officially intrigued.

I was dual booting it with Windows and it decided to stop letting me get into Windows and it's drivers didn't work. It was hardly a matter of formatting because then I'd lose everything.

How'd it quit working?

I tried to install some drivers for my old ATI X600 using Automatix(?), and they refused to work. I restarted the computer and, lo and behold, that thing (GNOME is it?) that let me choose the OS I booted into was gone and it went straight into Ubuntu.

Luckily a friend of mine was helping me out and he managed to fix the problem.

That's good. :P That must've been pretty damn scary. Whenever my computers have problems it drives me insane.
... and I plan on using the KDE version.

Yeah, but that didn't kill the computer. And you should always have a bootable Linux rescue disc on hand in case something like that happens -- at best, you can fix the problem in a couple of minutes. At worst, you can at least recover all your data.

GRUB.

sudo grub-install hd0

Fixed. (And off the top of my head too.)

I dislike KDE. GNOME ftw. KDE has too much eye candy for my tastes. Almost like Vista for Linux.

I can 'fix' lots of problems with Windows off the top of my head, too. It doesn't stop it being a problem.

Anyway, what I was saying is that it's hardly 'fun' messing around with Linux when you have no ****ing idea what you're doing because odds are you'll cause a problem you have no idea how to fix.

Excactly. I'm not what you'd call very computer literate, but at the same time I love messing with stuff. I'd probably screw it up so badly it would commit suicide.
At least when a Virtual Machine does that you don't loose anything. :P