I was given an old AMD k6 rig in working condition what should I do with it?

[Oneslowz28]

I was given a working AMD k6 rig that runs at a blazingly fast 133mhz..... So what should I do with it. Leave the thermite, gunshot, and other destructive ideas out. I want to use it for something useful.

[Zephik]

Awwww... no explosives. :( :p

I'd turn it into a server. Maybe mod it up a bit while you're at it. Maybe use it for Folding@home?

[x88x]

Honestly, with any folding projects, it wouldn't be worth the power cost of running it. It would make a nice little music jukebox or thin client or something though.

[BuzzKillington]

Pick up a faster CPU that the Mobo will accept. You can probably see up to 500-700MHz in the same socket and can probably pick them up for sub-$20

EDIT: Fastest I found on ebay was 550MHz at 15 bucks + 8 dollars shipping.

Not worth it to say the least, in my opinion.

[simon275]

Install Linux and turn it into a little server. It has plenty of grunt to be used as a firewall or a jukebox the possibilities are endless.

[Crazy Buddhist]

Simon beat me to it .. I was going to suggest a dedicated hardware firewall .. though I'm not even sure the cut down Linux distro's would run on a 133.

My advice would be seal it in plastic and in ten to twenty years sell it to a museum ..

.. or just do something silly with it .. like have it automate a few functions in your space

"computer lights on" .... BLING

[billygoat333]

haha I have a celeron 433mhz that I cant decide what to do with either... lol. I like the automated lights thing! haha

[Crazy Buddhist]

"Intel engineers put older and new computers to the test, and here’s what we learned:

* Compared to most Intel-powered laptops from 2005, a newer laptop from 2009 powered by an Intel Core processor can help you do more things, faster
* The 2009 laptop can multitask better and perform up to two times better,
* play HD internet TV shows, and can convert photos into videos as much as three-times faster than the 2006 laptop"

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

They had to test to reach those conclusions

HAHAHAHAHHAHAHHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA

That's not "engineering" .. pure merketing crapola.

HAHAHAHHAHHHAHAHAHHAA


Linky (http://scoop.intel.com/2009/07/old-pc-holding-you-back.php)

In the comments section there is someone running an AMD K6 133 with Win 98 on it and 64M ram using it to surf the net :) there's hope yet.

CB

[Oneslowz28]

lol

[Kayin]

I collect vintage CPUs, but normally I rip them out of thrift store finds.

[Luke122]

I vote hardware firewall. IPCOP looks fun. :D

..or firewall on a floppy. Set it up, flip the write protect tab on the diskette, and thats it. No chance of someone making changes to your config. :D

[Oneslowz28]

I pulled the HDD out of it today and stuck it in my ubuntu file server It was loaded with XP and only had 2gb of free space left. The drive is a rubber wrapped seagate like used to come in the original xbox's. It also had 512mb of sd ram in it so this thing must have been cutting edge in its day. I am sure it did not start with xp though as the k6 was a late 90s proc. 1997 to be exact. So maybe it ran 95 back in the day.

I like the idea of a hardware firewall.

[Kayin]

For what it was, it was a monster. nice find.

[Oneslowz28]

Kayin if I do not o anything with it in the near future I will toss it in an envelope and send it your way.

[Crazy Buddhist]

I vote hardware firewall. IPCOP looks fun. :D

..or firewall on a floppy. Set it up, flip the write protect tab on the diskette, and thats it. No chance of someone making changes to your config. :D



I like the idea of a hardware firewall.

That would be an excellent use. Especially on a floppy +rep to Luke for that. Here's a couple of solutions:

http://www.zelow.no/floppyfw/

firewall on on a floppy how to (http://jimweller.com/jim-weller/jim/lfw/)

CB

[slaveofconvention]

That's had quite a RAM upgrade - in September 1997 I bought my first complete brand new system and that was an AMD K6-200 with 32MB of RAM - and 32 WAS cutting edge - "everyone else" was doing 16MB setups at the time. I upgraded that a year later to a K6-2 450 with 128MB ram (which again was HUGE) so 512 on a 133 is WAY off the "norm".... My vote goes with the dedicated firewall, assuming it even has a LAN port or you can get/already have a LAN card or two.

I'm about to resurrect Project: Sentinel (http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1421) as I'm going on a bit of a "finish what ya started" binge at the moment - although I do now have slightly better hardware to put into it, I'm still 50/50 on leaving it as is because of the work I already put into it, or upgrading it because, well, because I can :p

[Oneslowz28]

I have 15-20 10/100 network cards. I am going to read up on the floppy firewall. Sounds interesting.

[Crazy Buddhist]

I have 15-20 10/100 network cards. I am going to read up on the floppy firewall. Sounds interesting.

I have four 3COM 3C-905TX 10/100 sitting waiting to go into acton for exactly the same porpoise.

Just have to build the thing :D

[Luke122]

512mb ram? PC133 I assume..

That's way overkill for a firewall. You'd almost be better off to install some flavor of linux on it, and use it for something else. Or just part it out, and sell that ram to someone else. :D

[Oneslowz28]

Well I think I have 4 or 5 sticks of 16 and 32mb sticks in the closet. It has 3 slots on the mobo for them. I have a p2 rig I can put the 512 into and make it an ubuntu box for file recovery or another LAMP server

[Crazy Buddhist]

Well I think I have 4 or 5 sticks of 16 and 32mb sticks in the closet. It has 3 slots on the mobo for them. I have a p2 rig I can put the 512 into and make it an ubuntu box for file recovery or another LAMP server

If you need a little more I have some 64's or 128's you can have. Courtesy of XcoM. See what the floppyfw needs.

CB

[Oneslowz28]

FloppyFW requires 12mb of ram lol.


Brief Description

floppyfw is a router with the advanced firewall-capabilities in Linux that fits on one single floppy disc.
Features:

* Access lists, IP-masquerading (Network Address Translation), connection tracked packet filtering and (quite) advanced routing. Package for traffic shaping is also available.
* Requires only a 386sx or better with two network interface cards, a 1.44MB floppy drive and 12MByte of RAM ( for less than 12M and no FPU, use the 1.0 series. )
* Very simple packaging system. Is used for editors, PPP, VPN, traffic shaping and whatever comes up. (now this is looking even more like LRP (may it rest in peace) but floppyfw is not a fork.)
* Logging through klogd/syslogd, both local and remote.
* Serial support for console over serial port.
* DHCP server and DNS cache for internal networks.

[Xpirate]

I just gave an AMD k6 133 to goodwill about a month ago. After using machines measured in GHz, I just could not tolerate 133 Mhz to do anything with it. The wife was after me to get rid of old unused computer junk, so I let it go along with a 17 inch CRT.

[slaveofconvention]

I have a stack of SDRAM if you want some - I can't see shipping to the US being much for the weight of them... I'm at work at the moment but fairly sure I could sort 3 64's at least.....

On me, I don't want anything for them.... I don't see me ever finding a use for the sort of quantity I have lying around... I just never throw anything away *grin*

[Oneslowz28]

Since it only uses 12mb of ram I am just going to throw 3 32mb sticks I have in it and let it ride. Thanks for the offer though.

[Crazy Buddhist]

When I passed my school Computer Science exam my project was a program that took a quadrilateral equation, worked out the wave form, rotated it 360 degrees in space to make a circular form of it, then cycled through the wave sequence. The view was from 45 degrees looking down on to the moving wave. The computer had 64 Kilobytes of RAM into which the OS and basic compiler/run time were loaded ... leaving about 28K for program and data.

Sounds like these 12M firewalls must have a lot of loose code around ;)

[Airbozo]

...

Sounds like these 12M firewalls must have a lot of loose code around ;)

If I remember right, the extra memory is for loading rule sets for the firewall (been a long time since I mucked with a PC based firewall our router).

[slaveofconvention]

Gotta wonder - if it works off of a floppy, which only has 1.44mb of data, max, 12mb is still a fair bit to use

[x88x]

Gotta wonder - if it works off of a floppy, which only has 1.44mb of data, max, 12mb is still a fair bit to use

It probably has massive compression on the floppy, and then expands it into a RAMdisk on boot.

[Crazy Buddhist]

If I remember right, the extra memory is for loading rule sets for the firewall (been a long time since I mucked with a PC based firewall our router).

I was joking. Dry, dry English humor.

CB