When I started to think about what I wanted from my DPF I realised that it could be so much more than just a photo frame slideshow.  Of course I wanted it to look nice and show pictures in a timely manner, as it was going to hang in our living room where everyone who visited would see it (and say wow!, of course).  But what if it actually did more while other folks weren't or even were there........This sent my head spinning in to what I could actually achieve with a slightly more powerful laptop (well more powerful in a Ford Mondeo versus Austin Metro kind of way). 

I decided it would be nice to be able to have the machine boot directly into a slideshow, but, at the touch of a button still be able to take full control of it and use it for wirelessly accessing the internet, ideal for spending yet more money on fleabay. How about the kids using it to play some older style games or even plugging my SD card in the side to see all my latest photos, displayed automatically.

It never ceases to amaze me how cheaply you can pick up old laptops on EBay, look out for the newly listed 'buy it now' laptops and usually you will find at least 2 or 3 listed everyday sometimes more in working order for under £50.  I realise that is a big chunk of budget but to be honest the rest can virtually be pennies. I had only been searching 2 days when I eventually splashed out a wallet busting £37 on a Pentium 3 500MHZ fully working laptop.....delivered.  Ok so for what I wanted to do with it would take some 'upgrading' but a bargain, absolute bargain.....luvvy jubbly!

What a great looking laptop, missing its screen bezel and CDROM drive, this is the pic from eBay, I forgot to take a photo of it before taking a hammer to it!

Thanks yet again to eBay I upgraded at the following cost:

• 6GB Hard drive = £10

• 128MB RAM    = £9

• Power Cable   = £3

• CDROM drive   =£6

• WIFI card       =£9

• 2 USB 4 ways  =£2

       TOTAL COST     =£76 + one other extra that's 'special' I will tell you about later

I originally thought I could do it for less than £50 but my demands demanded more money, me and my bright ideas.

I do hope to recoup some of this money on reselling the remaining working stripped parts of the laptop, not many parts and none too exciting but I live in hope, a lid for one of these things sold for almost £15 the other day, don't you just love eBay!

Edit: Battery, keyboard, Floppy Drive made a total of £12.....Lid didn't sell!!!

The laptop itself was a Compaq Armada E700 p3 500mhz, 64mb ram and a lovely 15" screen, it seems the E700 is possibly a little more obscure than some of the other more popular Compaq models, you don't see many of them come up for sale.  A great thing about it, apart from that 15" screen is that the power supply is 'built-in', the only problem with this though is that it gives a stripped depth of 1¾, not to worry I have a plan......I think.

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