found an old PIII 800Mhz Compaq

kog SG

free
only the chasis, no monitor, no keyboard, no mouse
previous owner said it still runs, only hdd got problem
what should I do now? to make a small decent workstation.

ndmmxiaomayi SG

The rest still intact?

As in motherboard, processor, CD ROM, 3.5 floppy disk are still connected?

If yes, then you can just get a new HDD, monitor, keyboard and mouse. Then get an OS to install... either you pay for Windows or download a copy of Linux...

alwaysdisturbed SG

ancient system.

i doubt it can be a decent one.

ndmmxiaomayi SG

Can, if use Linux.

Xubuntu, Slackware, Damn Small Linux, Puppy Linux, Xfld are some of the less taxing on system resources OS.

alwaysdisturbed SG

ya, true.

but i'm just looking from a typical user point of view.

kog SG

tested with ubuntu live cd, quite fast! everything ok except hdd
harddisk confirm dead! Very Happy