If you do it the way I do, after a few years or so, you’ll usually find yourself heaps of computer relics in the corner of your garage, and wondering what you are going do with them.

Keep it as backup
Your first option would be to use it as backup. Five years old hardware is still more than adequate for undemanding task like web browsing and word processing, for example. It would also be a good place to try out new Linux or BSD distributions, without challenging your important files. You can run a remote control software to control it from your main PC, use it as a download machine, a file server, or maybe just a backup storage. It’s always nice to have a backup.

Sell it

Some computer manufacturers such as Hewlett-Packard also have trade-in programs. If you plan to buy a new PC from HP, for example, you only need to contact the company and provide details of your old PC you’d like to trade in, and then get an online quote. After buying the new PC, you can ship your old one to HP and get a little cash back.

Some computer stores would also accept old computers as a trade-in. Just bring your old computer to the store, let them have a look and decide a price for your old machine, and then you can get a little cash to add for the budget of your new computer.

Donate it
If you think selling your old PC wouldn’t get you much, maybe there’s another way for you to get rid of it. Someone might need it, especially if it’s only a few years old.

You may first want to look at your neighbors, or maybe even someone in the family who might need it. You may also consider giving it to an organization which is a commendable option. Local schools, churches, and several charity foundations might find a way to use your old machine. Sometimes they are a bit picky about the specifications, but if your old PC is functional and no more than three or four years old, chances are they will take it. There are also several organizations which set up intentionally to accept computer donations and then give them to others in need.

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How to Safely Dispose of your Old PC

FireWire is Apple’s name for their high speed interface standard previously known as IEEE-1394. The intention to develop FireWire was to provide a replacement for the parallel SCSI bus while also providing connectivity for digital audio and video equipment. FireWire allows multiple devices to be connected to a single adapter with blistering speed.

The earlier FireWire 400 standard is capable of transferring data between devices up to 400 Mbit/s, and allows up to 63 devices connecting simultaneously on a single controller. Additionally, the “Peer-to-Peer” architecture of FireWire also makes it possible for devices to communicate without the need of a CPU.

FireWire 800 (or IEEE 1394b) improves the previous FireWire data transfer rate up to 800 Mbit/s.

USB

USB stands for Universal Serial Bus. It was designed primarily to replace serial and parallel ports on personal computers to eliminate the need of developing separate device drivers.

USB also allows multiple (up to 127) devices to be daisy-chained together in a single USB port using additional USB hubs, but unlike FireWire, USB needs the presence of a CPU to control the bus and the data transfer, making it less versatile compared to FireWire.

The first generation of USB has a data transfer rate up to 12Mb/s, while the later USB 2.0 standard allows up to 480 Mb/s data transfer rate.

Please note that both USB 2.0 and FireWire 800 are backward compatible with their earlier standards.

Direct Comparison

Architecture wise, the “Peer-to-Peer” of FireWire allows devices to be intelligent enough and negotiate bus conflicts to decide who should control the data transfer, while USB uses the “Master-Slave” architecture where the computer control the data flow between the attached peripherals, which adds a significant system overhead.

The peer-to-peer architecture of FireWire is not without its flaws though. It requires devices to arbitrate, which result in slower performance when more devices are on the bus. On the other hand, the USB maximum timing model is fixed and is limited only by the host-device branch (not by the entire network) and the host-centric nature of USB allows the host to allocate more bandwidth to high priority devices instead of forcing them to compete for bandwidth as in FireWire.

Nevertheless, the raw speed of FireWire is unbeatable by USB. Even the USB 2.0 standard is unable to beat the real world performance of earlier FireWire 400.
Though technically USB 2.0 is a 480 Mbit/s interface and FireWire 400 is a 400 Mbit/s interface, but many read and write tests to the same hard drive using FireWire and USB 2.0 shows that FireWire 400 is still significantly faster than USB 2.0.

Then isn’t it obvious that the future lies with FireWire and it would be USB that ends up being shown the door? Unfortunately, the world works in a little more complicated way than that. Technical prowess is not everything.

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To get started with your own computer business, check out our Computer Business Kit. If you want to learn how to repair laptops, check out these narrated, high definition videos. These would pay for themselves in 1 repair job.

FireWire vs USB