Old Boxen and Charitiable Organizations

SupaDupaFly writes "I noticed one of your readers asking for information about setting up a nonprofit organization for recycling old, yet perfectly usable computers. Well, I work for one called Share The Technology in NJ and it is a very worthy cause. We accept donated computers and fix, clean, and upgrade them for donation to underpriveleged schools, nonprofits, and disabled individuals. If any readers would like information on how to set up one of these organizations in their hometown, or would like to help out this one, shoot an email to [e-mail] for information. " Also, RobLimo has written a piece about a Baltimore, MD based organization called Geeks Into the Streets which aims to do something similar. I can't emphasize how much of a good thing this is. It's nice to see that there are folks attempting to find a good use for old resources.

hmm

I wanted to do something similar by going door to door and picking up old 486's for use in a beowolf cluster. The problem is that if you pick up a computer comparable DX4/100 for more than $50, you're paying more than it's worth by my estimates. We used a dual-celeron 300 system as a base comparison, and then used bogomips generated for each type to form a baseline. Unfortunately, the disposal of these machines often cost more than $50..

The other problem we ran into was energy consumption - running 50 DX4/100's puts out (a) alot of heat and (b) sucks up alot of energy, making it uneconomical to use old machines for our beowolf cluster. :/

I'd like to chat with anybody though that has tried this to see whether there is anything I may have overlooked, however.

--