[geeks] Q about older PC hardware retention

[der Mouse]

> Just an out-of-the-blue question, but when it comes to older PC
> hardware, I've got a couple questions:

> 1) For personal use, how old a machine would you hold on to, as
> defined by processor age/class/generation?

For peecee hardware, probably nothing before about a Pentium 100.  And,
as you specified, this is absent anything unusual about it that makes
it worth keeping.

Quite possibly more like a P2 or P3, maybe even newer given the peecees
I've been getting recently.  (I tend to end up with others'
fall-off-the-low-end peecees.)

> 2) For donation to an end-user charity (church, homeless group,
> battered women's shelter, etc - NOT a tech recycling charity) how old
> a machine would you consider donating?

I'd probably ask them.  If I couldn't do that for some reason, I'd ask
someone who knows mostly-modern Windows what the minimum that would be
useful is.  I'd expect this to be somewhere around a P4, but I'm out of
touch with that world - that's why I'd ask someone.

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