FOUR CLEVER USES FOR OLD HARDWARE

A true cheapskate never upgrades until his or her hardware is not only inoperable but irreparable. Take Gordon's trusty ThinkPad. It's so old it was made by IBM but has soldiered on with a new hard drive, RAM, and even CPU, and he still uses it every day.
Even the most reluctant upgrader, though, will occasionally find him- or herself with old hardware that still works to some degree—an ancient laptop, an old desktop, an aged MP3 player. If it ain't dead, put some new life into it. Here are five ways to stretch the value and the life span of your hardware.

MAKE IT A MEDIA CENTER

If your old desktop or laptop has at least a dual-core CPU and a couple gigs of RAM (so it can stream HD video], turn it into a media center! If you already have Windows installed, so much the better!
You can use web-based video (like Netf- lix, Hulu, and HBO Go], plus if you install XBMCyou can play all sorts of local video and audio files from the PC or the network. Use a remote-desktop program on your phone or tablet to control it, and you won't even need a keyboard and mouse!

TURN IT INTO A NAS

If you just want plenty of network-attached storage for backup and media streaming, turn your old PC into a NAS by using FreeNAS lwww.freenas.org]. It's easy to install and configure, and the latest beta of Version 8 contains support for plugins that will let you stream audio and video to the rest of your network via DLNA, UPnP, and iTunes.

TURN AN OLD SMARTPHONE INTO A MEDIA PLAYER

Have an old smartphone you're not us
ing? Put it in airplane or Wi-Fi mode and use it as an app-enhanced media player! Plug it into your TV or stereo to access streaming music from the cloud, use it to read e-books and watch movies, and morelFillitwithgamesandgiveittoyour kids! Many smartphone OSes include parental controls so you can disable Wi-Fi.

RECYCLE IT

If you have old electronics that still work but you don't need and don't want to repurpose, consider donating them to a charity or nonprofit. There's probably one in your area that could use the extra gear. If your stuff is nonfunctional or really obsolete (think Pentium 4 or earlier], take it to an e-cycler who can dispose of it safely. It's what Captain Planet would have wanted.