Use for a 2.66gHz Pentium 4?

1920.1080p.1280.720p · June 9, 2016, 1:29am

What could you possibly put an old Pentium 4 to work doing these days? Ran into a computer and I am just curious about it. It doesn't seem like it will be able to run Windows too well. It has XP on it right now and is really struggling. Might just be an old and used up hdd, but I am guessing that the cpu and ram have a good bit to do with it as well. I assume that it does have SATA ports, so replacing the hdd would be a bit futile. I was thinking that it might be able to handle a really lightweight Linux distro, or possibly run something like pfSense if I were to drop in an add in card or something like that.

1920.1080p.1280.720p · June 9, 2016, 1:37am

Found another thread about a Pentium 4 build literally 5 minutes after posting this. Feel free to delete, mods.

FaunCB · June 9, 2016, 1:39am

Message me we'll chat.

1920.1080p.1280.720p · June 9, 2016, 1:41am

Oh, I should have pointed this out from the start. This is all hypothetical. The Pentium 4 is still in use and will be for the foreseeable future (senior citizens mind slow computers a lot less than we do).

FaunCB · June 9, 2016, 1:55am

I posted on another P4 post that came up. You can see my response there.

The Pentium 4: It was fixed!.... In 2008!..... - Why in the World Ep 2 Blog

To Start The pentium 4 is good if you need to do 5 different things at once then good. Thats all you're going to get. Also on the newest possible P4 machines you can play skyrim! (I played skyrim on one as well as.... well basically everything on my steam until early last year). In my last noting of the Pentium M, I sad that most of its compatibility items (PAE, NX, etc) are turned off. On a pentium 4, as long as you update the microcode to the CPU at some point after your install (linux will do it for you, windows 10 will also do it I believe?), you will actually have a good and solid box. Depending on if you get an LPGA or the on chip one you can have 2 or 4 GB of ram. You don't need more than that, honestly. I did streaming and I didn't need more than 4. Anyways you won't be streaming on a pentium 4. At least to twitch anyways. They can handle a good amount of games (up to like 2011 as far as I have tested) and nearly all video can be played on youtube aside from 4K. 1080p just takes a while to load but does ok. I would recommend getting a later CPU than one of the starting ones for the higher cache and clock rates. Even with the code bump, a 1.4 GHz chip is shit no matter what you do with it. Games I would recommend: Anything pre 2005 (can play with an ATi 9800 and that is normally enough) League Of Legends CS:S Deus Ex (all of them run great. I would look for a Winfast PX7900GT [the only Nvidia GPU I will bat for as a good fucking card[) CS:GO I assume is playable, but I would get a good GPU. ATi HD 5850 AGP will do. Minecraft is good most anything will work, as I said, up until 2011. Next post will be on what apps, best OS, and possibly hardware pairings after that.

Streetguru · June 9, 2016, 3:22am

You could turn it into a keychain after getting the gold from it

psycho_666 · June 9, 2016, 3:25am

Home file storage solution? Not really a server, but just storage farm, where all your backup files and what not sit and await...

mb67 · June 9, 2016, 3:58am

They make great space heaters in the winter months.

Seriously though, older hardware and Linux go together.

EDIT
I've got a really old Pentium III m laptop running an older version of puppy Linux.

shu_kaze · June 9, 2016, 5:19am

Have you tried building a router out of it?

denstieg · June 10, 2016, 9:10pm

You could alway's donate it to a dutch orchids grower :) ,
my work is operator of a multi milion dollar delivery system at a orchid grower and my pc is a Pentium 4.
Crashes like 20 times a day. New pc boss pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeas, no this work perfectly. So be proud of your marvel of (last century) tech, love it. Btw win 10 does run good on it.