Amiga 1200, x2 (CF readers instead of HDs) - for retro-gaming/music, but I have no 15KHz monitor and can't justify buying one on eBay
Apple II Plus - Rescued from a sidewalk many years ago; it works, but I have no idea what to do with it
Apple IIgs, x3 (using a ROM3 unit with a ReActiveMicro Drive/Turbo) - for retro-gaming/music
Apple PowerMac G4 Quicksilver - dead PSU, which I cannot afford to replace; hand-me-down from an ex, which I used to use to serve alternate iTunes libraries on my network
Apple iMac 12,2 - obsolete to Apple, but works fine; main computer, and have been waiting for Apple to market a proper desktop machine for ages to replace it... still waiting...
Apple MacBook Pro 5,5 - obsolete to Apple, but works fine; mostly a secondary/backup machine
Atari MEGA ST4 (with an UltraSatan to replace the SCSI SupraDrive) - for retro-gaming/music
Commodore 64, x11(?) - bought one boxed unit for retro-gaming/music (but it wont work with any known good SID chip in it), and also bought a batch of questionable units & parts (some work fine; needs mass storage)
Generic white metal-cased Pentium PC, upgraded with SCSI, from an old workplace; it's a heavy junker with WinXP, BeOS R5, & Haiku beta on it
Tandy 1000 TL/2 - for retro-gaming/music; failing to get an XT-IDE card booting to CF
Tandy 2500 XL/2 - for retro-gaming/music; spent lots time/money on it (3.5" drive, new ROM for Music Quest PC MIDI card, Monotech XT-IDE ROM card, & CF-to-IDE reader to replace dying HD)
Tandy 2500 RSX - for retro-gaming/music(?); has Windows 3.11 on it, but I don't use it for anything right now (should replace hard drive with CF)
Self-Built Lian Li black-cased Asus/Pentium 4 with various I/O - mostly for Amiga Forever/Explorer, as it was replaced by:
Self-Built Antec black full-sized tower EVGA/Intel Core 2 Duo - former main PC, now just for games from 2008 or earlier (this machine's various incarnations has taught me I never EVER want to build a PC again!)
UMAX SuperMac e500 - used to serve diskette-creation needs for the Apple IIgs, also has BeOS R4 on it

28? I used to have several other DOS/Windows computers (and HUGE PILES of parts of PCs), but finally got rid of the least interesting/useful ones, and one Dell PSU died (though I should've kept more parts from everything).

I have too much stuff and no real use for any of it, honestly. The classic stuff was originally bought off eBay when I was made impulsive by an SSRI drug. I told myself it was for the purpose of making a retro music studio setup. I put that on hold almost immediately when I realized not having modern mass storage sucked. A decade later, I spent hundreds of dollars in the last year to rectify the mass storage issue, mostly to "shit or get off the pot" on this stupid project. Most of the software is unpleasant to use. UI design/usability changed for the better over the decades since.

I can play most DOS games on my iMac with DOSBox. I'm not sure I will ever have a decent display (or desk space) for the Amiga(s), so it's not enjoyable to use for music apps or games, though it's been an interesting learning process. Apple IIgs music software is poor (though better than the Tandy software). IIgs versions of Sierra AGI games have better music & sound than the DOS versions, so that's cute... for the ones I can get to actually run from CF without runtime errors. The Atari seems to be working fully now, and I haven't really tried to play many games, yet. Could be used to edit my MT-32, but I don't know why I would bother.

This is a stupid hobby, but the nostalgia of reliving my childhood ... and the semi-nostalgia of trying to relive parts of my childhood that weren't actually IN my OWN childhood (Amiga, Apple IIgs, Atari ST)... has been... interesting. That's all I have to show for the money and time spent? Sigh.

kixs wrote on 2017-08-23, 20:22:

In process of moving... I think I moved around 60% of my stash and I counted 29 complete computers from 386 to Athlon64. Also around 40 boxes of bare cards/motherboards - some taking only 1 or 2 motherboards and some taking 30+ cards. It will be fun making inventory this fall 😁

Reading my comments from 2017... it's been almost 4 years and still no inventory done 🤣

I think I've tried to do the inventory a few times and my head almost exploded when I started... so I had to stop... Too much stuff and no storage space to properly sort everything...

This past winter I've done some renovation in the attic and now have some custom home made shelves to put extra boxes away. The other half of this half of the attic is still waiting for me to do the same... insulation, flooring, some extra shelves and then... the inventory 😁 Depends on free time, but it could all be done by this summer...

My collection is small and mostly focused on testing mid 90's to mid 2000s software, and I'm looking for better storage management techniques before I fill even more into the small room most of them are in.

Dell Dimension 4100 With Windows 98 (Got off of Ebay)
Custom Build with Tyan Trinity 400 board and Pentium III (currently out of commission)
Gateway E-4000 With Windows XP (Got it from a Retro Store in Eldon, Missouri USA)
Emac With OSX 10.4 (Found on Craigslist)
Imac DV With OSX 10.2 (A friend had it in his closet and didn't want it anymore) (currently out of commission until I get an OS 9 install disk)
Lenovo Thinkpad T430 With Lubuntu (originally my daily driver, now just my work machine)
Custom build with Ryzen 2600 and Radeon RX580 and WIndows 10 (My Daily Driver)

It's really a farcry from all the PC's I collected in the 2000s. Gone are the days you could get an old PC at thrift store or a yard sale for $20. Now they fucking auction off anything that looks remotely valuable.

Counting only desktop and laptop motherboards as "computers;" excluding smartphones or tablets:

Bought new:

1. 1984; Taiwanese Apple ][ clone (probably made by Datatech / DTK) with a very PC-styled look and Model F lookalike 83-key keyboard; recycled circa 1996.
2. 1990; DTK PEM-2035 (?) with 80386DX-20; recycled circa 2000.
3. 1995; Dell Dimension XPS with Pentium 120; active as a late DOS gaming build.
4. 1997; custom Pentium-MMX 166 for my parents; recycled circa 2004.
5. 1999; Quantex with Biostar M6TBA (?) + P2-400; recycled circa 2007.
6. 2003; Alienware with Asus A7B8X Deluxe + Athlon XP 2200+; recycled circa 2012.
7. 2003; HP Pavilion ZE4000 series (Athlon XP-M 1800+); recycled circa 2012.
8. 2004; Asus Terminator 2 (P4P8T + Celeron 2.4 GHz) for my parents (mostly Mom) replacing Pentium-MMX 166; recycled circa 2012.
9. 2009; MSI U100 (Aton N270); active as WinXP spare testing build.
10. 2010; MSI CX500 (Pentium T4500) for Dad; shelved.
11. 2010; MSI Wind Box DE200 (Atom 330) for Mom replacing Asus Terminator 2; active as unattended Win7 remote file server.
12. 2013; Gigabyte T1132 (i5-2467M) replacing MSI U100; recycled 2019 due to power problems (probably bad MOS and/or capacitors) and Gigabyte claimed no spare parts to fix. Should have send it to an independent repair service (sigh).
13. 2016; Asus VivoPC K31CD (i5-6400) for Mom replacing MSI Wind Box DE200; active.
14. 2018; Gigabyte H370 HD3 + i7-8700; active as the modern gaming and photo-editing build.

Bought used, either auctioned, picked up at thrift store / e-waste, hand-me-down for a low price or free, or picked up at dumpster / roadside:

1. 2007; auctioned; Acer Veriton 5100 with P3-800EB (MB only, probably S58M) replacing dead Quantex P2-400; recycled circa 2012 but kept the CPU.
2. Circa 2011; hand-me-down; MiTAC PWA-IH4077C (?) with Am486DX2-50; recycled MB, PSU, and case in 2019 due to PSU problems but kept everything else.
3. 2018; thrift; Asus P5G41T-M LX + C2Q Q8300 for Dad replacing MSI CX500; active .
4. 2019; auctioned; Gigabyte GA-K8VM800M + Sempron 2800+; recycled 2020 due to corrupted BIOS.
5. 2020; e-waste; Asus TXP4 + Pentium-MMX 233; active as early (with cache disabled) to late DOS and earliest Win98SE gaming build.
6. 2020; e-waste; Gigabyte GA-6VXC7-4X-P + P3-600EB; active but replaced the CPU with P3-800EB from that Acer Veriton 5100 above as early- to mid-Win98SE gaming build.
7. 2020; e-waste; Gigabyte GA-K8VM800M + Sempron 3000+; recycled 2020 due to corrupted BIOS. Was glad finding the exact same model so I didn't have to reinstall drivers, only to suffer the exact same fate.
8. 2021; dumpster; MSI K9A2 Platinum + Athlon 64 X2 5000+; shelved.
9. 2021; hand-me-down; Gigabyte GA-P31-ES3G + C2D E7400; active as WinXP gaming build.
10. 2021; auctioned; Asus K8V-MX + Sempron 3000+; active as late Win98SE gaming build.
11. 2021; hand-me-down; Asus P5GDC-V Deluxe + P4-520 2.8 GHz; shelved.
12. 2021; e-waste; Asus A7V133-C + Athlon 1200C; shelved.
13. 2022; dumpster; Compaq Contura Aero 4/33C; recycled as the damage was too severe.
14. 2022; dumpster; Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6 + Core 2 Duo E6300 + Gigabyte GV-R455HM-512I + 2GB DDR2; shelved.
15. 2022; dumpster; eMachines ET1830 (ECS MCP73VT-PM) + Pentium Duo Core E5700 + 2GB DDR2; shelved.
16. 2022; auctioned; Asus VivoPC K31DA (i5-4460) + GTX 650 Ti + 16GB DDR3 for Dad replacing C2Q Q8300 (which became the "living room computer" connected to the LCD TV); active.
17. 2022; e-waste; Lenovo ThinkPad X200; inactive for the moment.
18. 2023; hand-me-down; IBM ThinkPad X31 and X60; shelved at this moment.
19. 2023; e-waste; Asus H61M-K + Celeron G1620 (later replaced with an auctioned i7-3770); inactive for the moment.
20. 2023; hand-me-down; Asus P5B Deluxe + Core 2 Duo E6300 + 4GB DDR2; to be tested.
21. 2024; thrift; MSI H110M PRO-VH + Core i3-7100 + 8GB DDR4 in case if Mom's i5-6400 died completely; turned out the original DDR4 was the only culprit. Still wondering if I should buy a pair of DDR4 for this MB (I don't have any DDR4 spare at this moment).

Out of 35 computers acquired in four decades, 11 are still active (OS installed, PSU connected) while 10 are inactive (can be activated at moment's notice) or shelved.

Updated in August 2024.

dormcat wrote on 2021-10-08, 05:05:

Counting only desktop and laptop motherboards as "computers;" excluding smartphones or tablets:

Out of 26 computers acquired in over three decades, 11 are still active (OS installed and PSU connected) while 3 are inactive (reserved as spares).

do you regret parting with any of those?

I have 'too many' and yet still sometimes regret parting with some of them when clearing out!

Currently, four retro rigs (specs in signature), one laptop (leftover from my last place of work) and one not so modern desktop PC.

Nowadays, I do most of my gaming on retro rigs and consoles so I don't really need a powerful main PC.

This thread should probably be merged: How many working computers do you have right now?

gerry wrote on 2021-10-08, 09:47:

do you regret parting with any of those?

Ideally I'd like to keep them all. 😆 That wouldn't be practical, of course.

The Apple ][ clone had its 5.25" floppy dead, so in its last couple of years I could only practice BASIC with its ROM. Fixing or replacing its floppy drive might be well over the value of remaining parts.

The 80386DX-20 had a very rare feature: SIPP memory modules, making it difficult to upgrade with standard SIMM (might need adapters). Back in the early days of Internet, online resources of knowledge, opinions, and transaction platforms for retro computing were scarce, and everyone were pursuing newer computer models and standards. Just compare the two decades of computing: 1991-2001 and 2011-2021; the former was revolutionary every 3 months, while the latter have little difference even three years apart. They have little practical value today and can only be kept as collector's items.

OTOH the two systems that were functioning and could be used today were the Alienware Athlone XP 2200+ (on Asus A7N8X Deluxe) and Asus Terminator T2-P (with Celeron 2.4 GHz; I didn't and wouldn't choose it but I was away in US so my Mom asked a friend of mine to get that one for her). They were struggling under WinXP using mechanical PATA HDD, and that T2 had an awful case + noisy fan + weak PSU combination. Replacing it with a standard m-ATX case and PSU, add an AGP graphics card, a SATA HDD or even SSD, would make it a nice Win98SE retro platform.

dormcat wrote on 2021-10-09, 02:05:

The Apple ][ clone had its 5.25" floppy dead, so in its last couple of years I could only practice BASIC with its ROM. Fixing or replacing its floppy drive might be well over the value of remaining parts.

that's the thing - there is a point where something breaks and where it just becomes unrealistic to try and fix it, and then whether we want to or not, it's gone

Just compare the two decades of computing: 1991-2001 and 2011-2021; the former was revolutionary every 3 months, while the latter have little difference even three years apart. They have little practical value today and can only be kept as collector's items.

very true, pace of change has ironically slowed down in the world of PCs (not at all in computing generally, but for PCs, yes)

Current count 61 machines, discounting parts machines, PDAs, phones etc.

IBM/Lenovo:
1984 5150
1998 PC300PL
1999 Aptiva 2158
2012 Thinkpad W520
2013 Thinkpad X230i

Compaq:
1994 Contura 430CX
1994 LTE Elite 4/50CX
1994 LTE 5000
1996 LTE 5300 (2x)
1997 LTE 5400
1997 Armada 7730MT
1997 Armada 1590DT
1998 Armada 1700
1999 Presario 5722
2000 Armada E500
2000 Armada 100S
2001 Armada E700
2001 Presario 700
2002 Evo N610c
2010 Presario CQ61 (technically HP, but come on)

Toshiba:
~1995 Libretto 50CT
1996 Libretto 100CT (plus two in parts)
2007 Satellite L40

Dell:
1996 Dimension XPS P166s
~1999 Optiplex GX115
2001 Inspiron 8100
2003 Latitude D400
2006 Inspiron 6400

Fujitsu:
1996 ICL ErgoPro e661 (3x)
~2000 Siemens Xpert (T-bird 1GHz)
2005 Siemens Amilo V1300
2007 Siemens Amilo Pro V3515

HP:
~2007 Pavilion a6026.sc
2011 Elitebook 8460p

Non-OEM:
1994 AcerNote 730
~1998 Lap Power MP-995
2001 Asus Terminator K7

Custom builds:
- 1992 Custom 486 in CM desktop case (period correct)
1998 Pentium II custom miditower
1998 Custom Aladdin V K6-II/400
1998 Custom MVP3 K6-II/450
2000 Custom Tyan Trinity PIII 933
2003 Custom Athlon XP rig
2003 Intel D865PERL custom P4
~2004 Custom Celeron build
2004 Custom Sempron build
2010 i7-930
2012 i7-3930K

Macs:
1987 SE
1989 IIcx
1991 Quadra 700
1995 PowerMac 7500/100
1997 PowerMac 8600/200

Amiga:
1992 A1200

Obscure/Servers:
1992 Sun SparcStation 10
2012 Dell PowerEdge R520
2013 Dell PowerEdge T320 (2x)

Incomplete:
2009 Asus K70AB (probably works, misdiagnosed dead but was bad universal PSU, sadly stripped of ram, cpu etc)

Disqualified:
1998 HP Jornada 820 (PDA with big screen and keyboard)

[Updated regularly as I refer back to it]