I cut grass for the entire summer of 1997. I cut grass, marked white lines, watered cricket squares and painted pavilions all summer long just so I could buy a new PC. By early the following year I was the proud owner of a sparkling PII 400Mhz beast. My friend Chris helped me spec out all the component parts – I wanted the best of everything. The latest Pentium processor, a pair of enormous 6Gb IBM discs (which were good at the time), and 128Mb of RAM that I didn’t imagine I could ever use. I think my folks thought I was mad spending so much money on a computer, but they humored me all the same.
Once it was assembled, Chris and I tried to get Windows NT 4 Server (fairly new at the time) installed, but had to give up because my graphics card was just too damn new and swanky for its pathetic little arse. This meant I got lumbered with Windows 98 instead, so you can’t win them all.
Over the years I upgraded bits and bobs. Added a network card when other computers sprouted up around me (they tend to do that), added more RAM, a CD writer, new fans. Every change was an upgrade – nothing ever failed. No alarms, no surprises. It still sits below my desk, quietly churning away doing its thing. When my parents ask, I always take joy in telling them that it’s still running and performing essential every-day tasks. It’s the most reliable computer I’ve ever known. Up until a couple of months ago it was our domain controller and main IIS web server, still slogging at it, nose to the grindstone. Its modern replacement is at least five times more powerful and cost about 4 times less.
So, freed from its duties as a Windows server, I thought I’d give the old chap a makeover. I’d add an additional, larger disc (12Gb doesn’t go far these days) and reinstall him with Debian for use as a PHP development server. But I can’t.
Fearful for such an old mainboard not being able to support bigger disc sizes, I bought a small (by today’s standards) 40Gb IDE disc on sale. Carefully installed it (including 5.25inch conversion brackets) and powered him up. ‘Detecting secondary master’ ... nothing. No luck. IDE was different in yesterday’s money. Looks like you can’t get new discs for old boys. My computer, in his old age, just disgraced himself in public and lost control of his bladder for the first time. He has to accept the inevitable. He’s getting old. Things were different in his day, and what with these newfangled operating systems and all. I guess I’ll just have to let him grow old gracefully.
Comments
With a bit more RAM, and a few other pieces here and there, it became a Christmas present for my folks a few years back. A 350Mhz AMD K6, I believe, with 128MB and the assorted bits and pieces... enough for e-mail and the web. And that’s all they need.
Hehe... still trying to breath life into some blue and white PoweMac’s. They don’t take Yellow Dog very well ;) Maybe someone will put together a PPC Fedora release.
Seems odd that it doesn’t work...I’ve got a ’lovely’ old PII 400 upstairs with a 6GB HD and 64MB of RAM, a CD drive and built-in Matrox graphics.
It’s been useful, and I’ve had great fun with my current PIII 1Ghz (128MB upgraded to 384MB SDRAM, 20GB HD, CD-RW and DVD), but the time has come for a new rig. My chrimbo present is now all packed up after being set up and tested:
Athlon XP 2500 (running at 3200, 11x5x192)
512MB DDR400 (gonna stick another 512MB stick in ASAP)
Radeon 9800 SE AiW (softmodded and overclocked to 9800 Pro levels...drool!)
80GB Seagate Barracuda
Sony CD-RW/DVD combo
WiFi-B (22Mbps, PCI card)
All stuffed into a great little Shuttle SN45G. OK, so it’s not a mac, but it’ll do me!
Nice machine. I’ve been running a Shuttle for about a year and it’s been excellent. Just added a new 40Gb disc ;)
just a thought... happy computing ;)
But, too bad, I have exactly the same situation with HDD. It already has several MB’s in bad clusters, is making strange noises and can die any moment now. I checked that my motherboard supports up to 32GB. I’ve already spent a month visiting stores and asking for 30GB HDD. People look to me as if I was idiot when I ask for 30GB HD.
The alternatives are -
* to buy 2,3 or 4 20GB HDD’s, costs about 3x more than one 80 - 120GB HDD
* to upgrade motherboard, CPU and memory
* it is rumoured that NT based OS can detect and use the large disc BIOS wasn’t able to detect, still, will have to boot from my current extremely unhealhty drive