What is a practical use for an extra PC built from spare parts?

August 24, 2005 6:23 AM

I, like a lot of geeks, seem to just have a few spare motherboards and hard drives kicking around. I'd like to put these to good use, but the question is how? I'm interested in building a machine into a piece of furniture of even a wall or ceiling (renovating the basement now so timing is good for this), but I can't think of any reason to actually do this other than a digital picture frame with an LCD screen on the wall. This PC is already running without a case, so its in pieces and can stay that way. What practical (or slightly impractical) use can I get from an extra PC like this? I don't just need a simple server, already have one of those, and a client machine would be great, but I want this machine hidden if possible which makes the logistics of getting a monitor and keyboard somewhere useful a little more difficult.
posted by gfroese to computers & internet (11 comments total)

roll your own tivo?
posted by clarahamster at 6:32 AM on August 24, 2005

Could you wire it to a monitor in the kitchen? My wife would totally love an electronic recipe display.
posted by oddman at 6:38 AM on August 24, 2005

Robot.
posted by Pollomacho at 6:40 AM on August 24, 2005

throw all of your music and video files on it, along with a good media manager (my fave), hidden speaker system, touch pad and a nice, flat monitor and put it into a wall.

Voila! A home entertainment center that'll turn yer friends green with envy!
posted by thewhynotgirl at 6:47 AM on August 24, 2005

Maybe you have something like this in your hometown?
posted by xpermanentx at 6:59 AM on August 24, 2005

Thanks for the ideas.
The entertainment unit is a good idea, but I should mention I have an xbox with xbox media center on it which is very tough to beat.

I like the touch pad idea (assuming you are talking about a mouse touchpad like on a laptop) and a flat screen. Probably a better idea than just a touch screen.

Where can one buy bare LCD screens that are suitable to mount on a wall or in a table? In Canada is better.
posted by gfroese at 7:29 AM on August 24, 2005

If you're feeling altruistic, you could assemble what you've got, and donate it to your neighborhood elementary school. If you can assign a value to it, you can get a small perk out of the donation by deducting it from your taxes.

The only caveat is that you'll probably need to donate time to it in the future, when something inevitably goes wrong.
posted by thanotopsis at 8:04 AM on August 24, 2005

Hook it into the phone, so that instead of the phone ringing, the computer bellows "Phone for Mary!" based on which resident is associated with which caller ID numbers.
Ok, in this day and age, everyone has cellphones, so maybe scratch that.

Have you done a search on "Home automation"? Some people get right into it, and they'll have scads of possible projects that will allow you to spend two weeks setting up something that will save you 2 seconds each day (but be very satisfying :)

Webcam server?

I personally like the idea of having a dot matrix printer on it, and having it log something, maybe it prints your txt messages for you, maybe it logs and graphs data from an amateur weather station, maybe it logs missed calls, or prints RSS feeds. Wasteful, yes, but potentially retro-cool :)
posted by -harlequin- at 9:28 AM on August 24, 2005

What about throwing on some emulation software, hooking up a joystick, and creating your own arcade cabinet?
posted by incessant at 11:42 AM on August 24, 2005

Distributed computing. I've done something similar with old motherboards where I turned it into a headless machine that just sits around and contributes to distributed computing projects all day.
posted by johannes at 12:00 PM on August 24, 2005

Voice activated media center. Or have it control lights, temperature, &c via voice command. Can't do that on the xbox, right?

Maybe hook it up to a IR sensor or use bluetooth bracelets or something so it can identify members of the household when they come home.

Beats having a dog bring you your slippers.
posted by PurplePorpoise at 2:17 PM on August 24, 2005