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This series is going to show you how to take an old computer that has been gathering dust and turn it into a usable machine for writing your novel. 

This project plans to turn a low-powered computer into a useable machine.
Many machines have been relegated to the cupboard because they did not run the latest software but they can still do a useful job.
Old machines have often become clogged with applications that interfere with each other, making the machine unstable and leading to the classic Windows freeze or crash. Simplifying the software can work wonders.
 

Word-processing does not require much processing power. So with a makeover, the old computer can be rejuvenated and become you private machine for your writing hideaway.
 

The starting-point

You need:
    1. In date terms, your machine will probably have been made after 1994. You will find a date stamp on a number of items ‘in the box’.
    2. A display. These are standard and interchangeable so you just need one that works. Do not automatically go for the largest one you can find – a small one can work fine.
    3. A keyboard is fine even if it looks as if it needs a good clean. Just make sure that the plug on the keyboard matches a socket on the machine on the computer. (Keyboards are interchangeable provided the plugs fit, although you can find adaptors.)
    4. A mouse with a plug to match the socket in the back of the machine. The mouse might also benefit from a good clean. (Modern models of mouse and keyboard with fancy buttons might need a disk to make them work properly but they will still function without the disk.)
    5. Some leads to connect the screen to the computer and to bring power to computer and screen.
    6. The original manual and a box of original disks are a real bonus. There might be one for all of the bits inside the computer is a bonus.
     
 

The Pentium era allowed information to be processed in bigger chunks than before and much modern software will work on any processor of this era. Modern machines are just very much faster and better at handling graphics.

Pentium is a proprietary name of Intel Corporation. There are a number of other firms that now make processors of similar performance but Intel used to have a near monopoly of the PC CPU market.

Processors, like people, can be placed into generations or eras. We are on the Post-Pentium Plateau and it looks as if we are going to stay here for a while yet.

Now processors are just getting faster and they have more than one processor on the chip.

Lifting the lid
Inside the box
Cleaning your computer
Making it quieter
Going faster

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