My DELL Dimension 4100 XPS PIII 800 MHz PC is 5 years old and fully loaded... with some problems.....one of them might be the video card (bad monitor picture, replaced monitor on a friends pc and it was fine)...
Is it recommended that I sell it so that I don't get stuck with it and incur more expenses in the long run?
If so, what would be a fair price -- $50, $100, $200, or $400...?
Or should I keep it and use it as a secondary computer with my new Mac mini by using a KVM swtich, thus having two computers (any advantages of having 2 computers for a single user)?
Or set it up as a networked computer to the Mac (any advantages of having a network)?
Two computers, two OSs (KVM switch) or two computers and one Mac OS (network)?
Someone mentioned to turn it into a firewall / router, where I won't even need a KVM switch. But Mac OS has a firewall.....so?
If I keep it how can I put it into good use with my new Mac Mini, for home applications?
Thanks.
The best way to get an idea of reasonable price is to look on the newsgroup ott.forsale.computing. Two recent postings from there:
Dell P3 for sale
128ram
cd burner
533mhz
floppy
ethernet
include HD but dont know if it works
$60 firm
have system+mouse+keyboad+15 inch for $100
Pentium III, 733Mhz systems for sale
Desktop Case
QDI motherboard
128MB SDRAM
20GB HD
52x CDROM
floppy
ATI AGP video card
Creative PCI sound card
3com PCI network card
Asking $130
Windows 98se loaded to show working.
If it is having problems, you might be best off dumping it. Don't bother with turning it into a firewall/router - get a real router instead. Much smaller, less power, cheap, works well. You can buy good routers for less than the cost of a decent video card.
If you have the room and don't need the few bucks you might get for it you could keep it to run those things that require a PC. If you do plan to get rid of it, do it ASAP before its value drops closer to zero!