When you’ve just bought a new computer it can be very easy to neglect your old one. However, even computers more than five year’s old can still be very useful.. Here are some ideas to give you inspiration.
Use it as a home theatre PC:
Instead of having a DVD-player, a Blu-ray player or set-top-box connected to your TV, use your old PC as a home theatre PC (HTPC) hooked up to your TV or projector. You can then enjoy all your content with one single remote control. So much easier!
I recently converted an old laptop into a home cinema PC. Even a 5 year old PC or laptop can easily handle things like Netflix streaming and HD video beautifully – all you need is a remote and a DVI/HDMI adapter + cable!
Put it in your kitchen:
Got an old PC lying around that’s capable of running Windows 8 (which is very likely)? If so, get a touchscreen and put it on your kitchen counter. Download an app like Recipe Keeper or Cocktail flow and use interactive recipes for your next culinarian creation:
Use it as storage:
A “NAS” (Network Allocated Storage) is basically a network drive that you can use to store and access files from everywhere in your home. Simply install a NAS tool like http://www.freenas.org/ on your old PC and hook it up to your router.
Once that’s done, it’ll act as a fileserver that you can, for example, stream movies to any device in your household – or even access it remotely when you’re on the go! Makes life a lot easier and you can save money, given that dedicated NAS aren’t cheap.
Keep on using it and tune it up:
If you didn’t get a new PC or want to give it to someone in your family, you can easily breathe fresh life into your old PC by giving it a proper tune-up.
Use our new version of AVG PC TuneUp and follow our three basic tips right here. Plus, last year, we’ve put together an extensive list of tips to clean up and speed your PC, laptop or ultrabook running Windows:
Ultimate PC Optimization Guide Part One
Ultimate PC Optimization Guide Part Two
Ultimate PC Optimization Guide Part Three
Once you’ve run through all of that you’ll be looking at a PC that feels almost like a new one.
Give it away:
If you can’t sell it online, just give it to charity or a friend who needs it more than you. But don’t forget to wipe it clean using a tool like Active@KillDisk to completely wipe the content of the drive, so nobody will ever recover your data, passwords or worse…