probnot wrote:

clueless1 wrote:

Another option: if you do any type of computer repair either on the side or as a living, and you're helping out elderly customers, ask them if they have old computers they'd consider trading in lieu of payment. It seems that elderly folks quite often hold onto old computers longer than younger generations.

I used to do computer repair when I was younger and would do this a lot!

Same! It's how I got a free ECS Tualatin board and Tualeron 😁

Asking around may also help, but these days you'll find very few 90's computers this way. But otoh 10 years from now one may think the same about 00's computers.

Tetrium wrote:

Asking around may also help, but these days you'll find very few 90's computers this way. But otoh 10 years from now one may think the same about 00's computers.

Better stock up on your dark grey Dell WinXP P4 boxes before they're all gone! 🤣

I'm not even a member there but i would say: use facebook! It is a fast way to ask a lot of people. Ask for ''beige computers'', most people do not know specs!!
A lot of them think they have old computers and they turn out to be p4's. But there can be older ones ofcourse so just take what you can get.

I never use Ebay but i do use the local versions. I also place ''wanted'' ads on them and other sites, you never know. I visit thriftstores regularly and also fleamarkets are a good bet.
Do not expect to score quick, be patient and you will find something.

I am very lucky to have recently found a recycler that lets me snoop around. I didn't find an awful lot up to now (a few things) but the place is SO big there will be big gems soon i hope.
Problem is: i have a lot already and only search for specific things.

Maybe post some ''wanted'' signs in your local supermarket.

Keep looking, you never know.... this stuff gets harder and harder to find. There is a reason this stuff gets expensive really quick! You just can't run out of your house and buy it anymore. A lot of it gets rare...

But not rare as in ''unfindable'' ! More like ''you have to work for it''.

probnot wrote:

Tetrium wrote:

Asking around may also help, but these days you'll find very few 90's computers this way. But otoh 10 years from now one may think the same about 00's computers.

Better stock up on your dark grey Dell WinXP P4 boxes before they're all gone! 🤣

I am afraid, really afraid that those will hunt us FOREVER! They can not be stopped, there are simply too many!!!! 🤣

meljor wrote:

probnot wrote:

Tetrium wrote:

Asking around may also help, but these days you'll find very few 90's computers this way. But otoh 10 years from now one may think the same about 00's computers.

Better stock up on your dark grey Dell WinXP P4 boxes before they're all gone! 🤣

I am afraid, really afraid that those will hunt us FOREVER! They can not be stopped, there are simply too many!!!! 🤣

Lol, the attack of the evil GX620s

kikenovic wrote:

Lol, the attack of the evil GX620s

I was thinking more along the lines of these awful things:

meljor wrote:

I'm not even a member there but i would say: use facebook! It is a fast way to ask a lot of people. Ask for ''beige computers'', […]
Show full quote

I'm not even a member there but i would say: use facebook! It is a fast way to ask a lot of people. Ask for ''beige computers'', most people do not know specs!!
A lot of them think they have old computers and they turn out to be p4's. But there can be older ones ofcourse so just take what you can get.

I never use Ebay but i do use the local versions. I also place ''wanted'' ads on them and other sites, you never know. I visit thriftstores regularly and also fleamarkets are a good bet.
Do not expect to score quick, be patient and you will find something.

I am very lucky to have recently found a recycler that lets me snoop around. I didn't find an awful lot up to now (a few things) but the place is SO big there will be big gems soon i hope.
Problem is: i have a lot already and only search for specific things.

Maybe post some ''wanted'' signs in your local supermarket.

Keep looking, you never know.... this stuff gets harder and harder to find. There is a reason this stuff gets expensive really quick! You just can't run out of your house and buy it anymore. A lot of it gets rare...

But not rare as in ''unfindable'' ! More like ''you have to work for it''.

Since we both live in The Netherlands, I'm pretty sure that if you happen to run into any parts you somehow end up with, but want to get rid of, we could possibly work something out 😜
I got mostly older stuff (like AT cases and boards).
My problem atm is mainly time and money constraints, but maybe we could trade eachother some of the more common stuff or something (or stuff I have plenty of and rather trade for something I like). You can shoot me a private message if you're interested, but I'm not in a hurry. I'm still looking for stuff that isn't too expensive or rare but mostly for extra spares (no I'm not after your 3DFX stuff 😜)

probnot wrote:

I was thinking more along the lines of these awful things: […]
Show full quote

kikenovic wrote:

Lol, the attack of the evil GX620s

I was thinking more along the lines of these awful things:

O god, yes I remember that one! I alraedy gave mine away 🤣!

Dell grey boxes have one advantage: they are narrower than most other PCs and therefore will fit into smaller spaces! The cases are razor-sharp though...

This is the disgusting quote from my local regional recycler.

"The Shelf"

Often workers at REDACTED Recycling Center will see items to be recycled that appear to still have a life. These items are placed on two shelves at the end of the Drive Thru. One shelf contains glass items and the other metal items which may be useful to our patrons. If you see something useful and can give it a home, by all means take it from the shelf. Conversely, if you have an item which you believe could be used by others, put it on the shelf. The shelf is periodically purged of unwanted items, so if you think you might be able to use it, go ahead and take it.

If there is something in a box you would like to have, please ask the attendant to assist you. Electronics may not be given away or sold by REDACTED. All electronics are the property of REDACTED County.

I'd like to know why electronics are automatically a no-go and somehow the property of the county. Not only that I'm told 90 percent of the stuff at this recycling center is 90's and early 2000s stuff.

Im considering a nightraid on there drop off point tbh. I may try contacting them and seeing who i would need to talk to about the no electronics rule. I'm thinking if the county is the issue they SHOULD be able to be convinced to let some of the older stuff go if I can proof there are society's actively preserving them. If it's the management of the company though that's not going to be a fun conversation.

EDIT: Emailed them. Response will decide course of action.

Tetrium wrote:

Since we both live in The Netherlands, I'm pretty sure that if you happen to run into any parts you somehow end up with, but wan […]
Show full quote

meljor wrote:

I'm not even a member there but i would say: use facebook! It is a fast way to ask a lot of people. Ask for ''beige computers'', […]
Show full quote

I'm not even a member there but i would say: use facebook! It is a fast way to ask a lot of people. Ask for ''beige computers'', most people do not know specs!!
A lot of them think they have old computers and they turn out to be p4's. But there can be older ones ofcourse so just take what you can get.

I never use Ebay but i do use the local versions. I also place ''wanted'' ads on them and other sites, you never know. I visit thriftstores regularly and also fleamarkets are a good bet.
Do not expect to score quick, be patient and you will find something.

I am very lucky to have recently found a recycler that lets me snoop around. I didn't find an awful lot up to now (a few things) but the place is SO big there will be big gems soon i hope.
Problem is: i have a lot already and only search for specific things.

Maybe post some ''wanted'' signs in your local supermarket.

Keep looking, you never know.... this stuff gets harder and harder to find. There is a reason this stuff gets expensive really quick! You just can't run out of your house and buy it anymore. A lot of it gets rare...

But not rare as in ''unfindable'' ! More like ''you have to work for it''.

Since we both live in The Netherlands, I'm pretty sure that if you happen to run into any parts you somehow end up with, but want to get rid of, we could possibly work something out 😜
I got mostly older stuff (like AT cases and boards).
My problem atm is mainly time and money constraints, but maybe we could trade eachother some of the more common stuff or something (or stuff I have plenty of and rather trade for something I like). You can shoot me a private message if you're interested, but I'm not in a hurry. I'm still looking for stuff that isn't too expensive or rare but mostly for extra spares (no I'm not after your 3DFX stuff 😜)

probnot wrote:

I was thinking more along the lines of these awful things: […]
Show full quote

kikenovic wrote:

Lol, the attack of the evil GX620s

I was thinking more along the lines of these awful things:

O god, yes I remember that one! I alraedy gave mine away 🤣!

@Tetrium, i did send you a pm. It stays in ''outbox'' so hopefully you get it?

meljor wrote:

@Tetrium, i did send you a pm. It stays in ''outbox'' so hopefully you get it?

Yes, I wasn't at home and kinda just got back. Will reply to your pm when I have a bit more time and such 😜

I have one dark grey Dell (Dimensions 8300) and its an OK machine for a P4.

The worst P4 Dells are the 2xxx/3000 series (no AGP) and the GX260-280's (mostly 270's) with bad caps.

Dell clam sHells and those tiny small form factor office toasters are the ones I despise the most. Everyone here probably still has nightmares about the piles of emachines and other oem systems that piled up with bad caps.

probnot wrote:

I was thinking more along the lines of these awful things: […]
Show full quote

kikenovic wrote:

Lol, the attack of the evil GX620s

I was thinking more along the lines of these awful things:

Good god, I'm sending one of those back into the wild in the not too distant future myself.

Actually, the last time I found a 486 in the wild, it was an AT tower at a local surplus shop....the dialog that ensued when I Tried to buy it was kinda funny....

CN: "Hi, I'd like to buy this old thing."

COunter Dude: "What do you want with that!?!? That's 20 year old computer there. You can't do anything with that."

ME: "Retrogaming"

Counter Dude: "Oh, that's that guy over there's PC, he started the company and that's the first one built."

And to this day it lives by the window, hanging out under a potted plant. Never to run Doom or Monkey Island again.

When I do find hardware that old, it's usually behind goodwill in a palette being wrapped up in cellophane, which pisses me off. Or it's one of those 30-ish or so guys on e-bay who've had the same x86 desktop computers since 2005 with the same three-four digit price tag.

I've gotten to the point where I'm just staying happy with the 3 vintage machines I've chosen as my "lifers", but I got them a loooong time ago. The Tandy 1000A I got was right when the well was drying up - $10.00, mint, original almost. The 486 I have was actually a New Old Stock XT case originally I bought on E-bay in 2004 for $35.00 after stalking it for about 2 years prior. The 286 I have was $35 on E-bay and I bought it just because it was a GEM Computer Products machine, wound up replacing the Deskpro 286 I had before it. I'm glad I'm close to 100% satisfied with those with how hard it's gotten looking for old hardware. I either find people who understand but know of the whole gold-scrapper/E-bay/E-Waste Program thing that tends to go on - or I find people who don't understand why I want something that old.

Still though, I wish it were like the good ole days of the early 2000's when 8088-80486 was considered "junk", when I Started out. Back then I was bringing stray x86 desktops home like a madman, like you could almost swear they were like Herbie the Love Bug following Jim Douglas home even at times. I could practically bathe in the number of 486 Processors I had at one point alone. And I spent nothing or next to nothing on all of it. Those were some great times for this hobby.

I really think after awhile there may be, if there is not already, a small niche market for retro-hardware for the PC's just like with the Amiga and Cmomodore 64 stuff. XT-IDE was a response to this sort of thing IIRC b/c all the guys on Vintage Computer Forum(Federation) were sick of paying out the nose on replacement MFM/RLL Hard disks for their IBM XT's, so they made a new controller that takes up to a 136GB HDD and ah...what the heck, you guys already know the rest since there's several of us here using them. I've also seen some retro-hardware graphics cards and memory boards over the years. I think Cases and Power supplies are prime real estate, especially cases since I find even regular power users who love thier multi gigabyte I7 box but think the idea of having a lay-flat quasi-AT Style 80's looking beige case to be a cool thing. IT seems the normal case makers (Antec, InWin, Corsair, CoolerMaster, etc...) want to ride close but don't want to actually revive 80's industrial design even though it'd be cheaper and easier to emulate than some of the other stuff, plus it's kinda niche, though I DO Think InWin should re-release the 500 series (D500, Q500, I500 - I have a D500 on m y desk right now). The idea of making a full ATX case compatible with AT like the InWin Q500 tower was but with the looks of something older really intriques me and is something I may dare to try someday once I have the space and tools to do some metal work.

creepingnet wrote:

Still though, I wish it were like the good ole days of the early 2000's when 8088-80486 was considered "junk", when I Started out. Back then I was bringing stray x86 desktops home like a madman, like you could almost swear they were like Herbie the Love Bug following Jim Douglas home even at times. I could practically bathe in the number of 486 Processors I had at one point alone. And I spent nothing or next to nothing on all of it. Those were some great times for this hobby.

Ah yes, I remember those days. How could I forget 😁

At times there was literally more AT stuff than I could carry 🤣

The only downside was that that way, it was very hard to find the really high-end stuff (like AMD 5x86-133 or even Pentium MMX 233). It was mostly DX-33 and DX2-66 and Pentium 100/133 + Pentium MMX 166 and such. And Trio64s and Virges and Tridents and Ati Rage and 30p 256KB/1MB SIMMs and 72p 4MB/8MB SIMMs (lots with those really large chips). But at least also sound blasters and many different smallish harddrives. And of course standard AT towers (though most were either proprietary or desktop).

Tetrium wrote:

Ah yes, I remember those days. How could I forget :D […]
Show full quote

creepingnet wrote:

Still though, I wish it were like the good ole days of the early 2000's when 8088-80486 was considered "junk", when I Started out. Back then I was bringing stray x86 desktops home like a madman, like you could almost swear they were like Herbie the Love Bug following Jim Douglas home even at times. I could practically bathe in the number of 486 Processors I had at one point alone. And I spent nothing or next to nothing on all of it. Those were some great times for this hobby.

Ah yes, I remember those days. How could I forget 😁

At times there was literally more AT stuff than I could carry 🤣

The only downside was that that way, it was very hard to find the really high-end stuff (like AMD 5x86-133 or even Pentium MMX 233). It was mostly DX-33 and DX2-66 and Pentium 100/133 + Pentium MMX 166 and such. And Trio64s and Virges and Tridents and Ati Rage and 30p 256KB/1MB SIMMs and 72p 4MB/8MB SIMMs (lots with those really large chips). But at least also sound blasters and many different smallish harddrives. And of course standard AT towers (though most were either proprietary or desktop).

I think it really depended on where you were at. I was in the middle east side of Alabama at the time, so there were 2 camps of people "Uhhhh, Compooter? Duz it git duh innernet? Can yoo install yer innernet on it? Whut you need that for? I have encyclop-eeeedia Britannica an' a slide ruuuule! Git er' dun!", or those who were tech savvy "486? What do you want with that old piece of shit! Buy a Pentium 4! With windows XP! Nooo, I don't care, you NEEEEED a Pentium 4 with Windows XP and git Halo while yer at it. Go con yer' parents if you have to." (yes, I had a computer shop in 2001 in Opelika actually TELL me to "con" my parents into buying me a Pentium 4 Compaq Presario...why? Because the IDE cable in my 486 was backwards and I was just starting out in computers at the time, it still hangs in the top shadiest crap to ever happen to me regarding a computer shop, and a big part of why I got into I.T. myself, out of disgruntlement with how clients are treated).

Lots of accumulation memories - I got into computers to build ONE computer with internet access, a beat to shit old 486 DX-33, I found I loved doing it, then everyone started GIVING me their old stuff from their closets and I started fixing them up, helping my poor friends get computers by donating them my custom builds. I remember summers of going to storage units for dorm restoration guys from AU and filling my SUV up to the gills in so many computers and cables it looked like a Flux Capacitor and every feature of the Batmobile was hackishly installed in the truck. Ignoring system requirements and making "impossible" things happen on "old crap".

Because of this lack of technical knowledge from the majority around me, sourcing the high end stuff was no problem. To the unknowledgeable, their virus infested Windows 95 PC getting throttled by Peter Norton and a badly configured AfterDark installation was an "old piece of junk, I don' care whut it iz", the so-called "experts" were elitist about newer hardware, and the thrift shops were like "Dadgummit! We have 40 of these here 386 PC (looks at a stack of 3 XTs, 2 286, and 5 386/486 generic boxes) - I'll pay YOU $5 to get them out of my store so we can make more room for Elvis lampshades and random baskets of car parts!". There was always the guy with "My son built this in 1988, I don't need it! I got a Slide Rule and Encyclopeeeeedia Brittanica!". Socially it kind of sucked in some ways because the experts saw me as an "idiot", then got mad when I repeatedly proved them wrong (got the 486 on the internet, then a 386, then a 286, then an XT...and a bunch of old Macs - running Diablo on a DX4-100...stuff that seems normal now but was so nuts back then). Basically put, TLDR - the lack of actual knowledge or experience with the old hardware (because there was probably ONE guy in town who could work on it when it was current). Maybe if I lived in Georgia, like in Norcross near GEM, it would have been a different story, but I lived in Opelika/Auburn Alabama at the time where tech was about 2 years behind at most current, kind of surprising with the university nearby.

I'll say this much though, it was technological culture shock when I moved to Seattle - In Alabama, Pentium II running Windows 98 SE was still considered "current" - I was fixing those things for Auburn University students freelance all day long. I move up here, everyone's already running to 64-bit. It felt weird when I went to do an IT project in Seattle for the first time, and was talking with one of the guys on the team, and rather than laughing at the fact I had a Tandy 1000 at home I like to mess around with, he thought it was the coolest thing ever....all of a sudden my "old junk" was "awesome Retro PC"....that's when I started holding onto things more often.

creepingnet wrote:

I think it really depended on where you were at. I was in the middle east side of Alabama at the time, so there were 2 camps of […]
Show full quote

Tetrium wrote:

Ah yes, I remember those days. How could I forget :D […]
Show full quote

creepingnet wrote:

Still though, I wish it were like the good ole days of the early 2000's when 8088-80486 was considered "junk", when I Started out. Back then I was bringing stray x86 desktops home like a madman, like you could almost swear they were like Herbie the Love Bug following Jim Douglas home even at times. I could practically bathe in the number of 486 Processors I had at one point alone. And I spent nothing or next to nothing on all of it. Those were some great times for this hobby.

Ah yes, I remember those days. How could I forget 😁

At times there was literally more AT stuff than I could carry 🤣

The only downside was that that way, it was very hard to find the really high-end stuff (like AMD 5x86-133 or even Pentium MMX 233). It was mostly DX-33 and DX2-66 and Pentium 100/133 + Pentium MMX 166 and such. And Trio64s and Virges and Tridents and Ati Rage and 30p 256KB/1MB SIMMs and 72p 4MB/8MB SIMMs (lots with those really large chips). But at least also sound blasters and many different smallish harddrives. And of course standard AT towers (though most were either proprietary or desktop).

I think it really depended on where you were at. I was in the middle east side of Alabama at the time, so there were 2 camps of people "Uhhhh, Compooter? Duz it git duh innernet? Can yoo install yer innernet on it? Whut you need that for? I have encyclop-eeeedia Britannica an' a slide ruuuule! Git er' dun!", or those who were tech savvy "486? What do you want with that old piece of shit! Buy a Pentium 4! With windows XP! Nooo, I don't care, you NEEEEED a Pentium 4 with Windows XP and git Halo while yer at it. Go con yer' parents if you have to." (yes, I had a computer shop in 2001 in Opelika actually TELL me to "con" my parents into buying me a Pentium 4 Compaq Presario...why? Because the IDE cable in my 486 was backwards and I was just starting out in computers at the time, it still hangs in the top shadiest crap to ever happen to me regarding a computer shop, and a big part of why I got into I.T. myself, out of disgruntlement with how clients are treated).

Lots of accumulation memories - I got into computers to build ONE computer with internet access, a beat to shit old 486 DX-33, I found I loved doing it, then everyone started GIVING me their old stuff from their closets and I started fixing them up, helping my poor friends get computers by donating them my custom builds. I remember summers of going to storage units for dorm restoration guys from AU and filling my SUV up to the gills in so many computers and cables it looked like a Flux Capacitor and every feature of the Batmobile was hackishly installed in the truck. Ignoring system requirements and making "impossible" things happen on "old crap".

Because of this lack of technical knowledge from the majority around me, sourcing the high end stuff was no problem. To the unknowledgeable, their virus infested Windows 95 PC getting throttled by Peter Norton and a badly configured AfterDark installation was an "old piece of junk, I don' care whut it iz", the so-called "experts" were elitist about newer hardware, and the thrift shops were like "Dadgummit! We have 40 of these here 386 PC (looks at a stack of 3 XTs, 2 286, and 5 386/486 generic boxes) - I'll pay YOU $5 to get them out of my store so we can make more room for Elvis lampshades and random baskets of car parts!". There was always the guy with "My son built this in 1988, I don't need it! I got a Slide Rule and Encyclopeeeeedia Brittanica!". Socially it kind of sucked in some ways because the experts saw me as an "idiot", then got mad when I repeatedly proved them wrong (got the 486 on the internet, then a 386, then a 286, then an XT...and a bunch of old Macs - running Diablo on a DX4-100...stuff that seems normal now but was so nuts back then). Basically put, TLDR - the lack of actual knowledge or experience with the old hardware (because there was probably ONE guy in town who could work on it when it was current). Maybe if I lived in Georgia, like in Norcross near GEM, it would have been a different story, but I lived in Opelika/Auburn Alabama at the time where tech was about 2 years behind at most current, kind of surprising with the university nearby.

I'll say this much though, it was technological culture shock when I moved to Seattle - In Alabama, Pentium II running Windows 98 SE was still considered "current" - I was fixing those things for Auburn University students freelance all day long. I move up here, everyone's already running to 64-bit. It felt weird when I went to do an IT project in Seattle for the first time, and was talking with one of the guys on the team, and rather than laughing at the fact I had a Tandy 1000 at home I like to mess around with, he thought it was the coolest thing ever....all of a sudden my "old junk" was "awesome Retro PC"....that's when I started holding onto things more often.

That's pretty crazy 🤣!

But back when I started collecting (early 2k's, everyone was running Northwoods and Thoroughbreds or slower), everyone wanted ATX and everything AT was considered old junk. Heck, even my friends basically told me to "get rid of all that junk". One of them even GAVE me their family Pentium 1 166MMX with Voodoo 1 and Rendition 2100 and they were happy to have this crazy hoarder as a friend. And now he keeps "suggesting" to me to put it back together again because he's feeling nostalgic about it 😁
I even kept their old harddrive and once this friend was here to visit me, I'd hold that harddrive in my hand way up high and joked to him "Ha! I got your digital history by the ball now ey!" 🤣!

But whenever I was dismantling an old 386 or 486 on the streets, I regularly got random folks ask me if I also wanted to take their 386 (for free of course). Sometimes there was literally more than I could carry! I'd have to stuff as much as I could into as many bags as I could and stuff the rest into the most prettiest AT case (I basically just plugged all interesting expansion cards into all available slots just so I could save some room).

Wherever I worked I could basically take everything that was binned (5.25in floppy drives, all "crappy-old" graphics cards, ISA sound cards, even boxes full of motherboards). Oh well, those were the golden age of retro computer collecting.

When I was busy moving the second last time, there was this "computer repair expert" (who also happened to be a fraudulent jerk) who told me I should get rid of all that junk as it would drag my life down...or something (collecting old computers was not considered "cool" enough back then). I did end up throwing some parts away which I ended up regretting a bit but I'm glad I kept virtually everything else I ever gotten.

And around the same time I found someone else who was into building computers as a hobby and we taught each other lots of computer building tricks and exchanging experiences and motivating each other to try out new builds. But for me it really started taking off when I kept ending my searches on Vogons and at some point I decided to join. Best retro move I ever made! 😁

I never really expected all this 'junk' to turn into gold..it's insane.

They all told me I was crazy. I'm not crazy! The world turned crazy! And in the end that make me normal 😁