CrystalMethod Posted September 27, 2009 Share Posted September 27, 2009 I'm kinda wondering who else has saved bits and pieces, thrown them in a box till they amass enough parts to make a functional system out of them. But, what do you do with an old system? I've tried to donate them to schools, and the donation has been refuse because the hardware was too old and slow. How long should you reasonably keep old harware before it's useless to anyone? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sablefoxx Posted September 27, 2009 Share Posted September 27, 2009 Depends of course, I still have a Windows 3.1 box in my collection to show off to my friends it doesn't have much practical use. I also have about 15 old IDE hard drives laying around... haven't found a use for those yet. BTW, Crystal Method == Awesome DJs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VaKo Posted September 27, 2009 Share Posted September 27, 2009 2 years. Personally, unless it has a core 2 duo equivalent chip I would throw it away. Anything P4 grade is not worth keeping powered on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
h3%5kr3w Posted September 27, 2009 Share Posted September 27, 2009 lol! I'm currently in possession of a Pentium Slot 1 @333MHZ! I was like whaaaa?! Still has Windows 95 on it. Had a good Sound Blaster card in it. Might use the HDD for a reload drive. Ram for a keychain (hehe). Always keep a good modem as you never know when you may come across a client that has a bad one and is still on dialup. Of course it has a HUGE case so i'll probably keep it to slowly mod out. I'm tossing the cd drives cause I already have a large collection of those already. It has a zip drive that I'm going to keep for nostalgia. Power supply can be either kept to make a small low powered backend for something *or even an http server er something* (I can build a very small compact case out of lexan for a discreet server. great for surveillance) Also if needed, you can gut the power supply and just keep the fan. Never have enough good fans. So in all the only thing I am really tossing is the proc, mobo and cd drives. Be like the indians, they used all the pieces one way or another B) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MRGRIM Posted September 28, 2009 Share Posted September 28, 2009 You know; I never get bored of taking old drives apart, those shiny mirror like platters just intrigue me, then there’s those uber magnets that go right the way through the 3/4” thick worktop I have. Some days at work are just too fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beakmyn Posted September 28, 2009 Share Posted September 28, 2009 My pfsense box is a 500MHz Celeron. I've got some older Pentium 100Mhz laptops that function well as single purpose devices (picture frames, kismet, etc). Even small hard drives are useful to keep around if all you want to do is a quick install and test. A 2.5GB drive is great for that. I repurposed an old power supply to use as benchtop supply to power my ham radio gear. Now, the one thing I can't get rid of is the old CRT monitor I have. That is useless now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wetwork Posted September 28, 2009 Share Posted September 28, 2009 You know; I never get bored of taking old drives apart, those shiny mirror like platters just intrigue me, then there’s those uber magnets that go right the way through the 3/4” thick worktop I have. Some days at work are just too fun. sharpen the edges of those bad boys and take them out to the back for some lethal Frisbee action. or if you are into the non lethal things they make wonderful wind chimes if you string them together Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foo Posted September 28, 2009 Share Posted September 28, 2009 sharpen the edges of those bad boys and take them out to the back for some lethal Frisbee action. or if you are into the non lethal things they make wonderful wind chimes if you string them together they're never too old! :P surprisingly, one of my most stable personal servers has been a P3 450MHz - still running all original hardware Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barry99705 Posted September 28, 2009 Share Posted September 28, 2009 My pfsense box is a 500MHz Celeron. I wonder if that would mean my ibm e series 1u server is a little overkill for a home firewall..... 2 years. Personally, unless it has a core 2 duo equivalent chip I would throw it away. Anything P4 grade is not worth keeping powered on. My desktop gaming rig is a P4..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H@L0_F00 Posted September 28, 2009 Share Posted September 28, 2009 I don't throw away anything. Then again, I'm 16 and without a job... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Netshroud Posted September 29, 2009 Share Posted September 29, 2009 I throw away old parts, such as 3GB IDE HDDs. (Just threw away 2 of them) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dazz Posted September 30, 2009 Share Posted September 30, 2009 I never throw stuff out and if its broken i take it apart and scavenge it for electrical components which are in perfect working order. I'm spewing that i did de-solder all the caps and transformer off of a power supply i threw away the other day...should have kept it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VaKo Posted September 30, 2009 Share Posted September 30, 2009 I ran out of space to keep old useless shit, can afford to replace it and have a gf with very particular ideas about the number of computers I can keep in the living room. All of you kids with tons of old kit will find this to be true eventually. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beakmyn Posted September 30, 2009 Share Posted September 30, 2009 I ran out of space to keep old useless shit, can afford to replace it and have a gf with very particular ideas about the number of computers I can keep in the living room. All of you kids with tons of old kit will find this to be true eventually. Nope, I got something called "my basement". Sorry Barry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VaKo Posted September 30, 2009 Share Posted September 30, 2009 Nope, I got something called "my basement". Sorry Barry. I've yet to locate a basement in my 3rd floor apartment lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barry99705 Posted September 30, 2009 Share Posted September 30, 2009 Nope, I got something called "my basement". Sorry Barry. Hey, I have the garage and my room! Besides, my wife knows I'm a gadget addict. She even buys me some every now and then. :D I ran out of space to keep old useless shit, can afford to replace it and have a gf with very particular ideas about the number of computers I can keep in the living room. All of you kids with tons of old kit will find this to be true eventually. Girlfriends like that need reminded they can be replaced..... ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VaKo Posted September 30, 2009 Share Posted September 30, 2009 Girlfriends like that need reminded they can be replaced..... ;) Indeed. However, girls that would be happy with a HPC cluster in the living room are few and far between.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Obsidian Posted October 1, 2009 Share Posted October 1, 2009 Personally, I tend to keep parts a few years after their tech goes out of date. For instance, just this past week I threw away a couple VLB, ISA cards, a couple 5.25" floppy drives, a Bernoulli drive, and a partridge in a pear tree. I think in a few more years it may be time to throw away my Zip disks too. Fact is, as long as the tech is at least compatible I'd say to keep it. It's easier to have something and not need it than to need something you don't have. I dedicate ~3 medium sized moving boxes to old parts and put them somewhere out of sight but still accessible. If yo want a year... I think ~8-10 years is more than enough to keep things. If you haven't needed it by then chances are it's so far out of date there never will be. PS. Girlfriends are end user replaceable parts. However, high quality Girlfriend +1's are not as those put up with our idiosyncrasies. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Razor512 Posted October 1, 2009 Share Posted October 1, 2009 for me, I have a old 533 MHz pc that I still use as a data server and torrent server so I can download torrents with out having the power hungry main gaming PC on I also have another one running a amd athlon xp 2400+ with some more storage for more storage and also running servers (mainly orb 2.0 and some game servers) I don't really use any complex networking, just simple shared folders and a ftp server so my main gaming PC can access them for saving to or copying files) (i cant use the shared folders because I have all of the windows services and pre startup items disabled that handles it (improves gaming performance as less resources are being used, also get higher 3d mark scores) PS I also have the systems connected to a gigabit switch a system becomes too old when you cant use it to run anything practical anymore. for me, the 533 MHz system only uses around 30-40 watts of power and doesn't heat up much so it works great or basic things Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VaKo Posted October 1, 2009 Share Posted October 1, 2009 I have to admit that I had an amazing Fujitsu SFF desktop with a 733mhz celeron in it that served as my freebsd box for years, was a real trooper. But it died so I replaced it with a Atom 330 system. But I loved it, and it loved me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wh1t3 and n3rdy Posted October 4, 2009 Share Posted October 4, 2009 My shuttle is a PC but is a HTPC so it does the job fine. Stll have a tandy trs-80 with 64k RAM tape drive and two joysticks. Keeping it as it was my first machine. Wish I had kept my 286 for nostagia reasons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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