5 Ways to Use Your Old Computer and Recycle

5 Ways to Use Your Old Computer and Recycle

Many people rack their brains with what to do with the old computer. It is great to be able to recycle computers or some parts, but knowing what to do is another story altogether. Here are some fantastic uses for old computers.

#1. Make It a Backup PC

Often your old computer is not that old to call it completely obsolete. Most of the parts like the hard drive, DVD-player, memory chips, sound and graphic cards could be still in very good shape, including the casing and the monitor. If there is a part that is faulty, it can be easily replaced without putting too much load on your wallet. If it was too slow, you might even consider upgrading the motherboard and the processor. This doesn’t cost a whole lot of money either.

Replacing just couple of parts may turn this old device of yours to almost new – performance wise. You can use it to store all your favorite music files or videos or use it as a gaming station for your children. It can also be used for other applications like a dedicated PC for your home surveillance system or automation system.

I use an old Pc for a home theatre system. The parts that were damaged can be used in other projects too.

#2. Recycle Computers or Maybe Their Parts

If you don’t want to spend money to refurbish your old PC, at least you may consider taking out some of the parts that could be useful for you later on. Taking out and keeping them in a better place than your storage room is a more sensible idea. Store rooms are often very hot, and keeping a PC there for long time means it would breadth its last very soon. So if you take out the useful parts like soundcard, DVD player, hard drives and modem, you would be able to use these as replacement parts, in case the one just bought looses one of its sidekicks in the near future. It is also a possibility that if you have data in your old hard drive, you may also consider taking it out from the old one and hooking it up into the new one, in a master-slave configuration. This way you have more storage space and at the same time all your old data remains safe and sound with you.

#3. Make Furniture

If you have been storing old computers and parts for years and you have lots of them now, it is just about time you switch on your creativity machine and see if you can build some furniture out of all those parts. Some innovative minds have already done something like that, and the end results looks quite brilliant and unique. As you can see in the photo below, a combination of glass and timber surrounds can make an amazing piece.

It is not necessary you do exactly as the image shows, you can do lot of variations with your own design. There could be so many different and colorful parts in there that could provide you endless combinations to make your building blocks for a computer table like this.


#4. How About a Christmas Tree or a Xmas Decoration?

For this coming Christmas, you might be getting ready for a big family gathering, as the day is getting nearer. You could surprise your guests with a Christmas tree that looks nothing like the conventional ones. Can you imagine an innovative technology driven Christmas tree by using your old computer parts.

Since most of the circuit boards inside the PC are greenish in color, they could be used perfectly with a Christmas tree to give it an enhanced look.

#5. How About This?

Ever thought of wearing shoes that are made of computer parts? In reality there exist some groovy slippers that you can actually wear. The first time I saw these shoes I was literally shocked but now they are starting to grow on me. Imagine creating something like this and then actually wearing them?

Well guess what? These shoes have been created by PCBcreations and these shoes and other amazing items are available in their Etsy store.



Finding uses for old computers is only limited by your imagination and these photos have proved that. There are more ways to use your old computer and parts, and something you think of yourself would probably be even more unique and useful.

But if your not the artist type you can also donate your old computer to various organizations who would then use them for a great purpose. For example, your computer might be given to a child in third world country who cannot afford a computer. Your computer can live on and work hard for someone that needs it.