I have hundred plus fully functional retro machines (if you include laptops) and most sit on the shelf until I want to use them. Some get rebuilt with different parts when I want to experiment.

I view the collection like a library where I can go snag what I want to experiment with as the need arises.

Of the "active" builds I have setup, I try and play them all at least once a fortnight. Of the large amount of stuff in storage? Never, as you might imagine.

Time

We only have so much spare time in our lives, to divvy between different interests. For many of us, old PCs, while surely ranking high on the list, are not our only hobby or time-sink. And even one good system offers endless potential hours of exploration.

So the reality for most of us is that, once you get beyond a few PCs, most of a collection must spend most of it's time powered off, and instead serves it's purpose as a kind of 'lifetime reserve' of all the equipment we think we might ever need or want.

And that's where the great variety comes in, because for some of us a few PCs and spares is enough to serve that purpose, while for others, that stocked-up satisfaction only comes from holding a vast array of the possible options.

Have a lot of parts laying around.. I choose one for what i have in mind and build the computer with it.

The rest is just for reviving systems, when hardware is obtainable to fix..

I use everything over the years. If it die`s and cant be fixed.. Then i used it for electronic parts as donor or throw it out.

RandomStranger wrote on 2023-01-25, 17:29:

The worst part is, at least for me, when you come to the point to say, okay, it's more than enough, yet you can't convince yourself to sell what you don't need because it was so difficult to obtain them.

Or similarly that the prices will continue to rise and you don't want to re-buy stuff at inflated prices.

That's my justification for not divesting myself of my current sound module collection.

Shponglefan wrote on 2023-01-25, 22:57:

RandomStranger wrote on 2023-01-25, 17:29:

The worst part is, at least for me, when you come to the point to say, okay, it's more than enough, yet you can't convince yourself to sell what you don't need because it was so difficult to obtain them.

Or similarly that the prices will continue to rise and you don't want to re-buy stuff at inflated prices.

That's my justification for not divesting myself of my current sound module collection.

Same, I do try to sell/give away hardware I know I'll never use but my Win98 P4/GF6 Ultra is prime example of not letting go. It took me years to collect the parts for what I considered fair prices, built it and ended up preferring the P3 or XP rigs so it is probably gets used then 5 hrs in a year.
But it did take years to collect the parts and that GF6 has more then doubled in price since I got it 10 years ago and I feel happy I own it. It's not going anywhere.

BitWrangler wrote on 2023-01-25, 18:07:

It's weird though, I do like messing around with it, putting things together, making glitchy stuff work again with fixes, but at other times it feels more like a chore... I think there's an ADD component where my enthusiasm blows hot and cold.

Think this is normal. Sometimes I want to "fix something" (it may not even need fixing really) other times like now I'm more in the mood to simply play games.
Annoyingly its not uncommon when I'm in the mood to play a game that PC decides to not work properly which is where having fall back PC's is useful. Lets Play NFS3 on a V2 SLI rig, (game refuses to run)
Fine Screw You! I'll just play in D3D mode on the other P3
and once I'm back in the fixing mood I'll look at the SLI rig

Shreddoc wrote on 2023-01-25, 22:18:

Time […]
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Time

We only have so much spare time in our lives, to divvy between different interests. For many of us, old PCs, while surely ranking high on the list, are not our only hobby or time-sink. And even one good system offers endless potential hours of exploration.

So the reality for most of us is that, once you get beyond a few PCs, most of a collection must spend most of it's time powered off, and instead serves it's purpose as a kind of 'lifetime reserve' of all the equipment we think we might ever need or want.

And that's where the great variety comes in, because for some of us a few PCs and spares is enough to serve that purpose, while for others, that stocked-up satisfaction only comes from holding a vast array of the possible options.

very well put

even the lifetime reserve is, in the end, unlikely to be much utilised by most but at least its there

I've moved on to other interests so I have a cupboard etc of stuff the contents of which I'm starting to forget... one PC full of old parts that's mothballed, and one that is operational but I seldom even turn on. It's got the main games I wanted to play, or play again. I got over most of the hardware and set-up excitement long ago, I ended up very bored with too much faffing about trying to compare sound cards... what became my mothballed machine was initially my test rig and then a "temporary" rig set up for a particular game to be played on/with particular hardware... but none of the incarnations that temporary rig might take had stuck by the time I mothballed it. The SLI cards started artefacting, I moved the PCX to my other machine, various graphics cards conflicted with the motherboard somehow, it was too fast for speed-sensitive games and too slow for more intensive games. DOSBOX and the fact that more or less anything post DX7 runs on my Win10 box iirc, means I don't have a strong urge to do anything with it currently.