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articles

Before You Throw Out Your Computer...

by Carl Foner, Verdant Computing Founder   |   07/06/2007

 

You're finally ready to get rid of your old computer.

It's not a decision you came to lightly, mind you. It served you well for years, through the good times and the bad. You've cared for it as well, treating it to a RAM upgrade here, a new hard drive there. But now, you can't upgrade it anymore.

It's time to say goodbye. You don't want to throw it out, but what can you do with it instead?

Here are some ideas:

Giving is better than receiving. Give it to someone else. Maybe it's not powerful enough for you anymore, but that doesn't mean it wouldn't work well for someone else. Give it to a family member, friend, or neighbor.

One person's trash is another person's treasure. If no one you know needs it, donate it to a school, charity, or other non-profit group. There are lots of organizations that can use it themselves, or that give computers to the people they help. Here are some places you can donate it to.

Freecycle. Before you recycle it, try to Freecycle it. Freecycle is a community based organization that exists in many places. People post an item they want to give away to a list. Then, anyone who wants the item can arrange to come take it away. It doesn't cost anything, and you can't charge anything. It's a great way to find someone who can use what you no longer need.

Sell it. eBay is a great place to sell unwanted equipment. Think it's too old? Think again. You can sell anything on eBay. Seriously. Take a look through the completed listings and you'll see that even old equipment sells. It may not sell for much, but at least it will go to a good home.

You can also try selling your old computer on craigslist. Craigslist is a community bulletin board type of site. It costs nothing to list an item. And if you sell it locally (there are local craigslists all over the world), someone can pick it up, which will save the trouble (and environmental cost) of shipping it.

Turn it into a DVR. Why pay the cable company when you can build it yourself and have it for free? A digital video recorder works just like a VCR, allowing you to record tv shows, but it can do so much more. You can record a whole season. Program it over the internet. Even use it as a jukebox for your digital music. There are many sources for free software that will turn your old computer into a DVR. (Here are a few to try: MythTV, KnoppMyth, Freevo.)While it's true that the better your computer, the better it will work, the computers most people get rid of these days have more than enough power to do the job.

Turn your old monitor into a TV. If you've upgraded to a new monitor and have nothing to do with the old one, don't throw it out. Buy a VGA box (also called a TV box or TV tuner box) and save yourself the expense of a new TV. You can hook up your DVD player, cable box, game console, or anything else you would use a TV for.

Repurpose it. Even if your computer is no longer powerful enough to handle your day-to-day computing needs, there are other ways you can put it to good use. An older computer has more than enough computing power to serve a variety of functions for a home network. Set it up as a print server to share printers among all your computers. As a file server to backup and share files. Or as a firewall to protect your entire network. (Read about some more options here and here.)

Install Linux-for free! Many of today's modern operating systems (like Microsoft Windows or Mac OS X) require a lot of computing power. Linux doesn't. It can do a lot of the things the big boys do, but without requiring the same computational overhead. Linux can run happily and efficiently on an older computer, effectively extending its useful life for many more years. And yes, it's free.

If none of the above are viable alternatives, it's probably time to recycle. Please see our recycling resources page.