Thinking From the Box

This Old Compaq Sings

Jeff Garrison - 2002.09.09

When I last wrote, I lauded the virtues of a Hewlett-Packard Vectra 25/i that I'd paid all of $5 for. It came from a government surplus sale and came with a 100 MHz OverDrive processor.

The other day I was given a Compaq Deskpro 4/66i - because it had no cover. From a local thrift shop, I found another Compaq that was DOA.

For the princely sum of $1, I took that DOA box home and placed it's cover over my free Compaq computer's frame.

Inside the box is an Intel OverDrive processor. I don't know how I manage to keep finding these CPUs, but it was in the socket of my free box. I added all of 32 MB of RAM to this freebox, a 750 MB hard drive from Maxtor, and a 56k Astec modem.

The sound is built-in, the Compaq business sound setup with a single 3" side-mounted speaker. I loaded Windows 95 and started to play. Total capital outlay, $7.50.

My little town's ISP can only push 28,800 baud to my end of town, so I connected at about 26,800.

The other day, the guy who fills our propane tank asked me about a computer for a friend. I then showed him the Compaq. The first question out of his mouth was, "Are you on DSL?" I had to laugh. Then I showed him the connection speed at which this was happening, and he was amazed.

Bear in mind, he has a Pentium III at home. I couldn't say much, as I felt anything I'd say might be construed as an insult to his much newer $1,200 computer.

He left impressed, and I added another notch in my belt in the war against obsolescence for these older PCs.

Join us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, or read Low End Mac's RSS news feed

Recent Low End PC Articles

Windows 7 vs. Ubuntu 12.04 on a 2005 ThinkPad, 2012.07.09. Windows eats up more memory and has more consistent frame rates, while free Ubuntu is less memory hungry and easy to use.
My Experiences with the Lenovo ThinkPad X120e, 2012.06.22. When his 13" MacBook Pro died, Alex Barnes replaced it with a $400 ThinkPad, which he says is no slouch.
Keep Your PC Cool by Replacing Its Thermal Compound, 2012.06.15. Over time, thermal paste dries out and becomes less effective. Replacing it keeps you computer cool, thus increasing its life.
Swapless: Disabling Virtual Memory in Ubuntu, 2012.05.14. A slow hard drive slows virtual memory, and virtual memory can reduce the life of flash memory, so you may want to turn it off.
ThinkPad X41 Revived, 2012.05.09. The ThinkPad X41 converts from a laptop to a tablet. More memory and Compact Flash gave this one a new lease on life.
More in the Low End PC index.

About Low End PC Support Usage Privacy Contact

Entire Low End PC (LEPC) website copyright ©2001-2012 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc., unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Advice presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all. Please report errors to .
LINKS: We allow and encourage links to any public page as long as the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents bookmarking it.
Email may be published at our discretion; email addresses will not be published without permission, and we will encrypt them in hopes of avoiding spammers. If you prefer your message not be published, mark it "not for publication." Letters may be edited for length, context, and to match house style.
PRIVACY: We don't collect personal information unless you explicitly provide it. For more details, see our Terms of Use.
Low End PC is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Microsoft, Dell, Lenovo, or any other software or hardware company. Company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.