Working in I.T. means I get constant access to old PC's although most aren't really suitable for retro gaming.
For me whenever I come across a PC that's about to be thrown out, I'll keep the HDD and optical drive (if it has one) I have lifetime of spinning rust now so doubt many of my retro rigs will get SSD's
Optical drives, who knows. belts may have perished by the time I need a replacement but have enough to hopefully find a working one.
I don't bother with CPU's typically its later then S478 and low end, even on ebay they are cheaper to get from china then my postage costs alone.
RAM is similar, slow and low capacity, even if I was going to upgrade I'd want higher capacity stick. if it has a PCIE graphics card I may save it if it has 1/2 decent XP support but mostly it's real low end and not worth it.
Anything AGP or even PCI I'll grab but that's not happened for a few years now.
Anyone else starting a stockpile from old free computers and if so what?
I'm severely limited by storage space.
If it's a fully working system and older than P4, I take it.
For P4 if it has a decent mainboard, I take the board.
Expansion cards, if it's not a modem card or a generic NIC, I take it.
I also take good PC cases.
IDE drives, especially hard drives are top priority. I also take floppy drives. Tape drives and other exotics, only to sell them.
Also super restricted in space here. The only thing I'm hoarding is WMO1.1 mice whenever I come across them. I use them for both retro as they have PS/2 compatibility, as well as my modern systems. My hand just kinda deformed to its shape over the past two decades, so not keen on switching to something else.
At this point I take nothing, as everything is too new. Some fast en new SATA drives maybe but that's all, and if security rules permit. And some cables/adapters that might be useful in the future.
I live in a server environment, so piles of old SAS drives and 7-8 year old HPE servers are stored every year waiting for recycling but it makes no sense to keep old servers around.
Searching a Nexgen Nx586 with FPU, PM me if you have one. I have some Athlon MP systems and cookies.
The real question is - what don't I stockpile or hoard? I buy everything in bulk, even dried and canned foods (got enough of that to survive a year or two if I ever need to!). Trying to declutter at the moment, so will be selling a good chunk of my PC hardware gradually over the next couple of years. I have enough parts to easily fill a medium sized van, as I found out when I moved home 12 months ago 😀
See my graphics card database at www.gpuzoo.com
Constantly being worked on. Feel free to message me with any corrections or details of cards you would like me to research and add.
At the moment for me it is:
IDE Hard Drives, IDE CD/DVD ROMs, ISA Network Cards, Motherboards (all kinds), Fans/Heatsinks and PSUs that can do higher amps.
It's funny, I have plently of GPUs, CPUs etc but motherboards and fans/heatsinks are an issue. Space is always a problem.......
Plastic motherboard stand offs for AT cases ....you wouldnt think the little plastic bastards are hard to buy but they are surprisingly difficult to source here in Australia.
Thankfully I bought 100 of them in packs of 10 a few years ago.
H3nrik V!wrote on 2024-01-19, 06:44:I tend to take all internals ... And if I think I have the space, I'll even take the full case :lol: […] Show full quote
1Stockpile.exe *.*
I tend to take all internals ... And if I think I have the space, I'll even take the full case 🤣
I wish this was me but much like dos days storage space I never have enough storage space. 😉
I'm severely limited by storage space.
If it's a fully working system and older than P4, I take it.
For P4 if it has a decent mainboard, I take the board.
S478 (well AGP) is my new point of bringing home no questions asked. Luckily? cap plage means alot are dead and not worth keeping.
Didn't think of the peripherals.
Also save older style optical mice, I like the HP scroll mouse during the PS2/USB changeover and WMO 1.1. I saved 2 just last month.
I'm also starting to collect 5:4 monitors, ok it's not true 4:3 but better then modern screens don't like locking the aspect ratio below 800x600
I live in a server environment, so piles of old SAS drives and 7-8 year old HPE servers are stored every year waiting for recycling but it makes no sense to keep old servers around.
SCSI dried up long time ago but I find anything server related is getting harder as more and more companies move services into the cloud.
will be selling a good chunk of my PC hardware gradually over the next couple of years. I have enough parts to easily fill a medium sized van, as I
Good luck, I got rid of loads of stuff in storage mid last year. I mainly used ebay for quick turn around but still takes a lot of time effort. Most was low value stuff but thought if it's useful for someone then great.
In the end I just gave 2 full van loads of random hardware and filled my Volvo V70 with old servers which I sold for Petrol money and made it someone else's problem!
At the moment for me it is:
IDE Hard Drives, IDE CD/DVD ROMs, ISA Network Cards, Motherboards (all kinds), Fans/Heatsinks and PSUs that can do higher amps.
It's funny, I have plenty of GPUs, CPUs etc but motherboards and fans/heatsinks are an issue. Space is always a problem.......
Problem with CPU/Heatsinks is I always end up upgrading and what I'm left with you can buy on ebay cheaper then I can post. Motherboards are so integrated now makes sense they are the weak point and die.
I did collect ISA NIC's even 20 years ago as was useful when fixing peoples computer to give it network temporally and everyone had an ISA slot.
Same as PCI video cards, good for testing but I don't need 50 low end PCIE cards 😜
Plastic motherboard stand offs for AT cases ....you wouldnt think the little plastic bastards are hard to buy but they are surprisingly difficult to source here in Australia.
Thankfully I bought 100 of them in packs of 10 a few years ago.
chinny22wrote on 2024-01-22, 04:03:I wish this was me but much like dos days storage space I never have enough storage space. ;) […] Show full quote
H3nrik V!wrote on 2024-01-19, 06:44:I tend to take all internals ... And if I think I have the space, I'll even take the full case :lol: […] Show full quote
1Stockpile.exe *.*
I tend to take all internals ... And if I think I have the space, I'll even take the full case 🤣
I wish this was me but much like dos days storage space I never have enough storage space. 😉
I'm severely limited by storage space.
If it's a fully working system and older than P4, I take it.
For P4 if it has a decent mainboard, I take the board.
S478 (well AGP) is my new point of bringing home no questions asked. Luckily? cap plage means alot are dead and not worth keeping.
Didn't think of the peripherals.
Also save older style optical mice, I like the HP scroll mouse during the PS2/USB changeover and WMO 1.1. I saved 2 just last month.
I'm also starting to collect 5:4 monitors, ok it's not true 4:3 but better then modern screens don't like locking the aspect ratio below 800x600
I live in a server environment, so piles of old SAS drives and 7-8 year old HPE servers are stored every year waiting for recycling but it makes no sense to keep old servers around.
SCSI dried up long time ago but I find anything server related is getting harder as more and more companies move services into the cloud.
will be selling a good chunk of my PC hardware gradually over the next couple of years. I have enough parts to easily fill a medium sized van, as I
Good luck, I got rid of loads of stuff in storage mid last year. I mainly used ebay for quick turn around but still takes a lot of time effort. Most was low value stuff but thought if it's useful for someone then great.
In the end I just gave 2 full van loads of random hardware and filled my Volvo V70 with old servers which I sold for Petrol money and made it someone else's problem!
At the moment for me it is:
IDE Hard Drives, IDE CD/DVD ROMs, ISA Network Cards, Motherboards (all kinds), Fans/Heatsinks and PSUs that can do higher amps.
It's funny, I have plenty of GPUs, CPUs etc but motherboards and fans/heatsinks are an issue. Space is always a problem.......
Problem with CPU/Heatsinks is I always end up upgrading and what I'm left with you can buy on ebay cheaper then I can post. Motherboards are so integrated now makes sense they are the weak point and die.
I did collect ISA NIC's even 20 years ago as was useful when fixing peoples computer to give it network temporally and everyone had an ISA slot.
Same as PCI video cards, good for testing but I don't need 50 low end PCIE cards 😜
Plastic motherboard stand offs for AT cases ....you wouldnt think the little plastic bastards are hard to buy but they are surprisingly difficult to source here in Australia.
Thankfully I bought 100 of them in packs of 10 a few years ago.
I'd grab AT anything these days!
heh, the seller still has some soooo .. I may buy them too and slowly throw them up on evilbay with some other AT odds and ends ..like new AT power switches, jumper caps and heavy duty ATX to AT PSU adapters. You know the things people actually need for AT setups but for some reason sellers rarely stock or sell at stupid markups.
I also have the PCB designs for a Goldfinger clone, not sure if there is an actual market for such a thing but its seems pretty easy to make.
SCSI dried up long time ago but I find anything server related is getting harder as more and more companies move services into the cloud.
It's not really that I think, there are still tons of servers around. But it's more related to security concerns. Today there is a much better understanding that data can be stolen and exploited, so company policies have moved to actively destroy storage mediums once they are taken out of service. That's what we do, the only drives I can salvage are actually new unused disks that were acquired as spare parts. All production disks/SSD have a physical drill put trough them.
And yes, I have seen 10TB PCIe cards, 3 years old and perfectly working, being torn to pieces by a major company specialised in video delivery, starting with an N, in our datacenter. They actually send someone by car, driving 500km to drill the damn thing and be sure it's destroyed.
Searching a Nexgen Nx586 with FPU, PM me if you have one. I have some Athlon MP systems and cookies.
I usually take memory, CPUs and installed cards if they are interesting.
Sometimes HDD trays, power supplies and fans if I have matching machines at home like for the HP z-Series.
Not only SCSI cables are expensive, so are SAS cables
Holy fudge! Does it shred the HDD in total, or must the plates be removed and fed separately?
Crazy, that it can shred in 2 levels of safety - I'd always thought that just a nail through the platters would make data like 99% unrecoverable, so really surpricing that different levels exist ...
Please use the "quote" option if asking questions to what I write - it will really up the chances of me noticing 😀
Holy fudge! Does it shred the HDD in total, or must the plates be removed and fed separately?
Crazy, that it can shred in 2 levels of safety - I'd always thought that just a nail through the platters would make data like 99% unrecoverable, so really surpricing that different levels exist ...
Wow, there's actually 7 levels of security in shredding! 😮
Please use the "quote" option if asking questions to what I write - it will really up the chances of me noticing 😀
You also have companies specialized in that, they come to you with a small truck containing this kind of machine and destroy it in front of you. Honestly as a collector it’s sad to see and not ecological at all.
Searching a Nexgen Nx586 with FPU, PM me if you have one. I have some Athlon MP systems and cookies.
You also have companies specialized in that, they come to you with a small truck containing this kind of machine and destroy it in front of you. Honestly as a collector it’s sad to see and not ecological at all.
Considering just how advanced data recovery is I'm not at all surprised they will go to this level of destruction.
Holy fudge! Does it shred the HDD in total, or must the plates be removed and fed separately?
Crazy, that it can shred in 2 levels of safety - I'd always thought that just a nail through the platters would make data like 99% unrecoverable, so really surprising that different levels exist ...
More like only 5 -10% unrecoverable with just one nail, might even be lower as there are some seriously good methods of recovery available for the right money and someone determined enough.
Holy fudge! Does it shred the HDD in total, or must the plates be removed and fed separately?
Crazy, that it can shred in 2 levels of safety - I'd always thought that just a nail through the platters would make data like 99% unrecoverable, so really surprising that different levels exist ...
More like only 5 -10% unrecoverable with just one nail, might even be lower as there are some seriously good methods of recovery available for the right money and someone determined enough.
Yeah, true, I was just convinced that with the high data density, a nail would destroy crazily much 🤣
Please use the "quote" option if asking questions to what I write - it will really up the chances of me noticing 😀
