Okay, So Who Else Hordes Old PC Parts?

I used to, then one day I got tired of all of it and pitched it in the trash.  It was all antiquated anyway.

My brother inlaw accumulated a fair bit of stuff when he had a '42 WLA single and an outfit as well....eventually he sold the single and gave the outfit to his son....then looking at the bits left over they simply bought another frame from the States and now have a nice new third WLA.....

Not computer bits...but bits all the same...;)

I did have an enormous stash. I received 11 dead, dying or unknown condition PC's in one batch, 9 in another and a big box of parts to boot in the last 18-24 months. A big pile of monitors, kb's and mice came along with everything.

I've since pulled most of the working parts. and used them to either build working rigs out of the pile (5 total)  to give away to those in need of one or to fix units for friends and family. I think I'm down to a few fans, some CD and floppy drives, a PSU and a lot of SD and DDR RAM.

Everything else, including 5 CRT monitors, 6 kb's and the cases and mobos went to  recycling.

I can't wait to get some more. It was loads of fun.

I have quite a bit of old parts... forced myself to pitch a few things here and there, but I likely could build 4-6 computers if I wanted... granted, 1 of those would be good...

I build new arrays with the parts, keep the ones that aren't too long in the tooth and give away the ones that are.  I also always have two spare, ready to go older units for things likee catastrophic lightening strikes.

Several years back we got hit by lightening and it took out all six of our computers.  I had enough parts ion hand to build three more the next day.

I did get rid of the "junk" though.  One thing I always keep is screws and the like.

Business people with older custom built rigs will often pay for old if its an exact match.  Some custom software is out of date but horrendous to upgrade.  I recently helped rebbot an old system for a man who does motorcycle diagnostics.  To get a new system and the upgraded software needed to run it would have cost him $25,000.  He got his old one fixed for $300.

I admit I almost shed a tear though when I threw out my IBM PS-1 with the 50k cpu.  My first baby.

I can get kind of crazy but my dad has a full room full of old computer parts.

Moderate/small parts collection, except for 2 whole intact retired PCs  (win-95 and win-98se).  Would be 3 but my first XP box found a second home a couple years after retirement.

I have a whole closet full. Actuall still have a P100 processor and the old memory chips that came with it. Even have a ISA SoundBlaster16 audio card. Still even have MSDos on floppys. You name it I probably have it somewhere. My wife calls me a horder and she's probably right.

I use the tried and true hand-me-down system where each new bit displaces older bits down the 'computer line'... eg my 240gig Sandisk SSD went into my machine...and the existing OCZ 60 went into my laptop [doing that now]....and the old 160g platter will go into a semi-retired laptop to replace its 40.

Things didn't quite go so well with the GTX590.....as that displaced the XFX 285 ...but I haven't got another machine that can take it...so it's back in its box....;)

Just checked....the WEI for the drive went from 5.0 to 6.8 ....not bad 'for nothing' ....;)

Starkers - do you have a voodoo1 card?

And you now have an unused laptop platter drive, another good spare part to have . 

I have an old monster add on graphics card.  Cutting edge = pacov.  I think I chose to skip voodoo1 for some reason.

Side note - You fellas should really be thinking about us creating a giant robot using spare parts to destroy some segment of the world.  I shall provide the torso.

Don't you need it...to keep your bum away from your head? ....;)

I think I have one somewhere...;)

There is a real interest in the old stuff.

I play Railroad tycoon 3, this game and others will not run properly on windows 7 and new machines with large amounts of RAM.

So as an example, the old stuff is not obsolete if you like to play the old games.

Yeah, I strip down those less than desirable rigs for their working parts. I kept some cases but tossed quite a few because they were those damned mini towers or just plain ugly with awkward interior setups that are just hard to work with.

I've pretty much kept everything internal, hence the growing pile o' bits... which could turn into newer bits if the current trend continues.

So, does wifey refuse to enter the parts room... handing you all the cleaning equipment to do it yourself?  I got that until I put it all neatly into containers and drawers, etc.  I still get the vaccy and mop foisted upon me some days, but not as often now.

That's mostly how it works around here, replaced parts going to other machines, whether they be ours or the extended family's.  Thing is, sooner or later you run out of rigs to put it all in, and then the pile grows, and grows, and grows.  I've been pretty lucky with my higher-end GFX cards, though. Fortunately, I've always found those a home... but I do have a swag of Nvidia 5xxx, 6xxx, 7xxx and 8xxx series cards, and a few ATI's.

I don't recall seeing one while sifting through things, not that I was ever really looking for one.  I'll have another look, but don't hold your breath cos I somehow don't think so.

Before you know it, the pile looks like this:

Now you mention it!   I might look into something that'll go fetch coffee/tea and lunch/dinner, etc.... and something to scare off sales people and religious canvassers, cos the dog's too small to menace/intimidate anything and thus is useless.  Yeah, I really hate it when I'm truly engrossed in something and the doorbell rings and it's some religious canvasser or salesperson trying to sell me shit I don't want or need... like the other day when I had my hands full fitting a CPU cooler and couldn't answer the door straight away.

Ding dong, ding dong repeatedly: "Look, we know you're in there, we can hear you moving around through the screen door."

"What do you want?"

"We Just want to pass on the good news about the Lord and his second coming"

"Look, sorry, but I'm really busy right now and can't come to the door."

Ding dong, ding dong, ding, dong..... "But sir, your life depends on it."

"Look, I'm really not interested and I really do have my hands full."

Ding dong, ding dong, ding, dong more frantically this time: "But sir, we need to pass on this important news."

Ah, the CPU cooler is secure and at last I can go to the door....

"Listen, you pair of gobshites, I asked you nicely three times, now [somewhat loudly] what part of fuck off don't you understand?"

I really hate having to resort to such tactics and possibly upsetting my neighbours, but what do you do when they refuse to leave?  Worse still, I have a "Salespersons and Religious People, Please do NOT Knock" sign posted on the door.  Just because I have a doorbell the bastards think they can ignore it.... shall have to upgrade my sign to include it as well, then.

Anyhow, back on topic....

Exactly, and there's some old applications people like to use that don't run on new machines.  A former neighbour of mine refused to let go of his Win 95 rig because it ran things he said wouldn't run on 98.... well that was his story, back when Vista had been on the shelves for 12 months or more.  I tend to think it was more that he was as tight as a fishes bum and didn't want to spend on 98 or beyond.... but that's another story.  What I'm hearing more as a reason to go with the older stuff these days is the inability [lack of funds] to upgrade to newer equipment, so I guess that's reason enough for me to hang on to this stockpile of old stuff.

*EDIT*

Oh yeah, with regard to the religious canvassers.  People have the right to believe in what they want.  I'm fine with that!  What I'm not fine with is having them calling at my door with it, especially when I have a sign specifically asking them not to. 

Dosbox...;)

I border on hording when it comes to old PC parts. The worst part is that I don't see where I could possibly use any of them, especially the memory sticks. I have one old PC I'm toying with making a streaming media center out of if I can figure out how to make it part of my network with ubuntu on it. I did revive a Dell 2650 with 256mb ram with Macpup 528 (linux) and it runs amazingly well. (If you're looking for a really good version of linux to run on something that has the absolute bare minimum in hardware, etc., Macpup is fantastic)

I also have a crapload of old software (games, MS Publisher, Corell SUite, and unopened version of MS 3.1 that I found cleaning out my old office. I've installed some of the games on my PC for my daughter to play but they are so old, Windows 7 doesn't like to play with them very well.

I think I even have a couple video cards.

I don't know why I can't just throw this stuff away. lol

Orright, we'll start with this bit....

You CAN'T throw it away because ONE DAY it WILL be useful.... maybe.

Now, let's tackle the rest of this sordid saga...

You keep the old memory sticks because [eons ago] you were a young man once, and those sticks are the only memory/reminder/link to all the capers you got up to. 

We won't say sowing your wild oats because you weren't that lucky... or good looking.

Nah, seriously, I have oodles of sticks of SD RAM... DDR I and DDR II as well.  None of it is compatible with any of the rigs here, but still I keep it.  I just installed 4 sticks of 1gb DDR II in the machine I'm building for my mother, not that she'll benefit from all of it cos it's only a Vista 32 bit OS going on it. Oh well, 3.74gb is better than 2gb.

As for the SD RAM and corresponding motherboards and CPU's, my niece is having a garage sale here in a couple of weeks and I might put all the old stuff out and see how much sells... cos I'm never likely to build rigs for family members from stuff that old.  However, an old mate of mine reckons he put all his old PC parts out in a garage sale and most of them sold within a few hours, so here's hoping.

Yeah, I have a shipload of old software as well... MS Office; MS Publisher; MS Works; Encarta; Jasc Paintshop Pro 8; Nero 6 and many other titles, as well as a few games, like the old 'Tycoon' ones and so on.  As for the games for your daughter, have you thought about building her a rig with 98 or XP on it so she can play all those older games?  If it were a 98 machine it's not like you'd connect it to the net, being unsupported these days, but it would be perfect for a standalone old gaming rig.

Being that most modern motherboards are coming out with no IDE connectors these days, I was wondering what I'd do with the 20 or so IDE drives that have accumulated, other than put them in older machines to sell.  I didn't like that idea too much because there are smart alecs out there who can retrieve data no matter how many times you scrub it, so I came up with the idea of converting them to SATA drives instead.  Whilst perusing the site I now purchase all my PC related stuff, I came across the very converter I need to do that.... and at 9 bucks a piece it's an affordable way to add a heap of [now] SATA drives to the collection.  Now those are old tech I can use.

You got it. THAT IS JUST HOW IT WORKS.

Other side note-  I have a spare computer that is pretty close to top of the line (eg I upgraded from that to what I'm running now because I wanted the latest and greatest).  I'd be happy to cut someone here a deal if they are interested.  Pc would include a licensed OS (Might be win7 but could be win xp- have to check licenses) that can do pretty much anything today.  Let me know if interested (via pm) and I'll shoot you some spec's + asking price.  I do not think anyone would want to negotiate based on my ask price (hint - don't try to negotiate as my ask will be quite low for what I'm offering and I will scoff at you - yes -scoff).