Where's all the old computer stuff?

[scourge]

There are some stores around town (Baton Rouge) that have old components, but mostly junk. No PCI video cards, nothing with more than 1meg of memory. No pentium mobos, just 386/486 junkers (30pin simms slots). No old hard drives with reasonable amounts of space (only 540 and less). No 16meg Simms. You'll certainly never find a used P166MMX chip or a Original 4meg Voodoo. Why? Where is all this stuff? I'd like to buy some older, quality stuff to build second hand systems to sell cheap to college students, but I can't find parts worth using. I know that 5 years ago everybody had a P75 and 4x cdrom and soundblaster AWE32. Since then, everybody's upgraded. What happened to the stuff you upgraded from? I just don't understand where this stuff's at. Certainly, nobody simply threw it in the trash! Please enlighten me.

[Dominus]

It's all in my closet http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[richamies]

It might be worth talking to some companies about disposal of their old computers. We sometimes get asked to dispoes of equipment for customers, either high end 486 or low end(>P133) Pentiums. I think we normally pay £20/system for the Pentiums($30 approx) and charge for disposal of the 486's...

Maybe you could approach them and see what they have got, a lot of places will be upgrading those old systems(3-5 years old) now since the y2k has passed....

[jad1097]

In my closet also.But When this thing breaks I have a backup in 10mins.

[jadinolf]

My closet is full.
The rest is in the attic.
Some day this junk might be worth something.

[tonym]

Why do we all horde useless junk that: 1.) we know we'll never, ever use again and 2.) know that collectors won't ever scramble for at auction at Southeby's?

I'm as guilty and probably more than most as every seat cushion, drawer, file cabinet, closet, etc. cumulatively has at least 10 old ISA cards (I'm looking at an old Genoa EGA video card), 10 old HDDs (I'm using a particularly heavy Seagate 125MB drive as a paperweight!), the sprinkling of other peripherals (dot matrix printers and a 1x CDROM) and enough hardware to construct a fair-sized locomotive!

I "recycle" the semi-useful stuff by upgrading my extended family's computers periodically. Sort of a shift and forget or first-in, first-out logical function!

This alone keeps the mess manageable but takes a lot of potentially useable cast-offs off the used-stuff market.


Tony

[U-96]

We were using P75s and Win3.1 at work until August 1999. I didn't even have a CDROM. Many companies who just use PCs for word processing really can't afford/be bothered to upgrade, or simply don't need to. When they do upgrade, those machines tend to be cannibalized, given to employees, or landfill.

As for home users, I guess anyone with left-over bits usually gives them to friends or builds a lower spec system for parents, little brother/sister, etc.

Either that, or maybe Gene C. has them all in his secret underground warehouses in the Everglades! http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif

Certainly those 2-3 year old parts that you would expect to see just don't seem to turn up...

U-96

[bdunn]

Many folks don't need the latest and greatest PCs. I have recylced many older parts and taken a tax write-off by donating systems to non-profits.

Its sad how many systems end up as landfill though.

The other day I noticed a PC curbside with some trash. Picked it up. It needed a CMOS battery and an IDE cable to get going again.

It was a Pentium 133 system, Monitor and all
It works fine. I gave it to my sister, a graduate student.

It had Win95 and some software installed already. It was left for dead. This is not the first time I've found machines this way

[alien_from_io]

Scourge the prob as I see it, just a few years ago all major corporations sunk a bundle in upgrades for 6-10 cycles. At $3500 per station and all the past red ink, large coin was blowed. The P75's and 166's are all still in operation. I work for a company with over ten thousand employees and almost all of them are 166's or slower.. In short they're all still in use. The only time I get lucky and find a cheap(free)P75> is when some local "computer shop" has been working on it only to return it non-working.. A o/c P100 is real snappy, a geat surf, play machine. sincerely, now "Take me to your leader"

[Jinx67]

Try the LSU University nearby, you may be in luck. I know here in Nebraska The Universities Hold Auctions about every 4 mos I bought my hot swap rack with 300w for $35, also I got a 1yr old Viewsonic 19in monitor from them for $50. They sold it at auction because it had broken power switch. Which cost me two drops of crazy glue to fix. Any how if you looking for older system parts give the local college a call. I've seen 5 P75 systems go for 15 bucks at auction. "DEAD SERIOUS".

[mattheadfat]

what’s the cheapest anyone has seen a PII or celery system sell for? i would like to get my own computer and stop using my dad's, but i also want something that i could actually upgrade without it being a lost cause. I have a old 486 laptop that my dad want to upgrade, but i could not imagine what ram and a larger hd for this piece of $%*# would cost

[desmocat]

In little jagged pieces after I rip it up with the ole' ar-15! hard drives are easy, but those simms are a ***** to hit from 100 yards http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif seriously,I know of a few places/businesses around here (north texas)
that buy used pcbs and the like to recover the precious metals from them. They then grind up the lefovers and recycle the residue into something or the other. I guess it all boils down to that we have became a throw-away society and find it far easier to pitch something into the old dumpster than to take time to try and find a use for it. It's sad, because alot of good use could become of these "hand me down systems".
I commend those on this forum and elsewhere, that take the time to find a use for these systems. take 'er easy. mp

[JeffD78]

You're all gonna be mad at me. But this was before I realized what it was all worth to the right people.

When I moved, I threw all of my old computer stuff in the dumpster. Here's what I can remember off the top of my head.

2 socket 7 motherboards
1 socket 3(486?) motherboard
P75, P133, P150 overdrive, and 486 SX4 overdrive
2 3.5" floppy drives
6 5.25" floppy drives
2 VGA monitors (1 14" 640x480, 1 15" 800x600)
1 4x CD-ROM

And laying around somewhere, haven't found it yet, I have a box with a Soundblaster AWE-64, 24x CD-ROM, and a ton of SIMMS.