About a year ago, my father-in-law was rummaging through his house and decided that he no longer needed some spare computers. To him they were just taking up space. (This is another example of my in-laws’ M.O.: a habit of holding on to various items they collect over the years despite the fact that they will never use them again.) Instead of chucking them, he gave them to me.

 

When I got home and investigated the bounty I received, I found an IBM running Windows 95, a Dell Dimension 4500S with 256 mb of RAM, and a Dell Dimension 4600i.

Somewhat curious about the IBM, I investigated the internals and put it on the shelf for further analysis at a later date. I found a cheap RAM dealer on Craigslist and upgraded the 4500S to 512 mb, reinstalled Windows XP, added some other basic software, and sold it for a couple hundred. But the Dell 4600i turned into a project on a completely different level. [Read more…]