Have you tried schools and such?

Depends on where you are... But you can try Amibay.

I'm in DFW Texas, and the local school district's cant legally give any computer equipment to the general public, I work for a public university and its just the state law. All equipment purchased by any state insition has to either be Recycled or auctioned legally after the hard drives are shredded.

I posted to AMIbay, a little worried shipping will be steep, I am in the US and from what I understand most AMIbuyers are in Europse and a big heavy steel case is likely expensive to ship 🤣

Then VCF would be better for you. There are mostly USA users and they also have a Marketplace:

http://www.vcfed.org/forum/forum.php

It's really frustrating that the paranoia about hard drives makes it so hard to buy old computers nowadays. The recyclers, manufacturers, and software publishers all benefit from seeing old computers taken out of circulation and destroyed so more new stuff can be sold, and it's easy for the politicians to fall into line with all this. I really wish the process of properly wiping a hard drive were made more trivially easy for people to understand, but nobody has a vested interest in promoting that, so ignorance prevails.

Do you have any small PC repair shops around you? If so, check with them. They tend to accumulate a lot of old PC junk which they eventually have to get rid of. There's a shop around here that routinely has old parts out for sale, even though clearly their main source of income is service, not sales.
These shops might not see many AT cases anymore but let them know what you're looking for and see if they'll be willing to contact you when something comes in.

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PeterLI wrote:

I recycled two a few weeks ago. The issue is most buyers want things for free (e.g. are too cheap to pay for shipping). 🤣

I'd pay for shipping within the US, but shipping an AT case from say Sweeden would be expensive 🤣

PeterLI wrote:

I recycled two a few weeks ago. The issue is most buyers want things for free (e.g. are too cheap to pay for shipping). 🤣

I really do get you. Even lions find a tough time, scaring vultures away from the carcus of an zebra. 🤣

Oh man.... I would have payd for the shipping, as the combined price would still be really low.
I have two demands for my own wallet/bank-account, one being the selling price low enough for not paying import tax/charges.
The last one is that the combined price and shipping being affordable to me. (and then it still need not to be stupidly high)

Good luck even my local sources dried up two years ago and the only stuff that can be found in my area is mainly from the mid 2000s onwards.

Better start looking into converting the boards over to atx if you can find cheap cases that have enough room length wise, as for power there are two types of adapters but the ones to get have the switch included and provide the -5v rail needed for isa sound. The other often doesn't have the switch included and doesn't provide the -5v so you will need power supplies with the -5v rail from the early to mid 2000s. Beyond that there isn't much more to it and it is pretty straight forward build wise hell I have come up with a mod for mounting the ports in the I/O shield provided if you make one that is stiff enough.

nforce4max wrote:

Good luck even my local sources dried up two years ago and the only stuff that can be found in my area is mainly from the mid 2000s onwards.

Better start looking into converting the boards over to atx if you can find cheap cases that have enough room length wise, as for power there are two types of adapters but the ones to get have the switch included and provide the -5v rail needed for isa sound. The other often doesn't have the switch included and doesn't provide the -5v so you will need power supplies with the -5v rail from the early to mid 2000s. Beyond that there isn't much more to it and it is pretty straight forward build wise hell I have come up with a mod for mounting the ports in the I/O shield provided if you make one that is stiff enough.

If I go with an ATX case it's farily straight forward, the board has an ATX power plug and soft power button already, but its AT form factor. My only ISA card is an AWE64 Value so -5V ins't a requirement. I wanted baby AT just for astetics.

For a back panel I'd likely just go with thick posterboard with tinfoil on the outside and toothpicks glued to the inside for rigity and make my cut outs. But I don't want to have to do that 🤣.

Jack pot!!!!!!!

Found a local with a bunch of old 8086-486 systems and cases i might just go check it out, he does repairs locally but not at a shop, one of those guys that works from home.

Can't wait to see what he has 😁

Maybe buy me something older than myself just for kicks

candle_86 wrote:

nforce4max wrote:

Good luck even my local sources dried up two years ago and the only stuff that can be found in my area is mainly from the mid 2000s onwards.

Better start looking into converting the boards over to atx if you can find cheap cases that have enough room length wise, as for power there are two types of adapters but the ones to get have the switch included and provide the -5v rail needed for isa sound. The other often doesn't have the switch included and doesn't provide the -5v so you will need power supplies with the -5v rail from the early to mid 2000s. Beyond that there isn't much more to it and it is pretty straight forward build wise hell I have come up with a mod for mounting the ports in the I/O shield provided if you make one that is stiff enough.

If I go with an ATX case it's farily straight forward, the board has an ATX power plug and soft power button already, but its AT form factor. My only ISA card is an AWE64 Value so -5V ins't a requirement. I wanted baby AT just for astetics.

For a back panel I'd likely just go with thick posterboard with tinfoil on the outside and toothpicks glued to the inside for rigity and make my cut outs. But I don't want to have to do that 🤣.

Actually it is straight forward but nice score on finding another collector/hoarder to buy stuff from 🤣

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PeterLI wrote:

Finding this stuff is a function of time spent and persistence. I find there is more out there than can be bought. 😀

Well living in a larger area with about 300 people per 10 miles collecting eltronic's scrap makes life a little harder. They started when Copper became worth something, and never stopped

PeterLI wrote:

Finding this stuff is a function of time spent and persistence. I find there is more out there than can be bought. 😀

Or just happen to live in an area where there isn't too much competition, my area is picked clean and everyone refuses to trade despite there being around 150,000-200,000 people. Yard sales are picked clean, all the local shops were picked clean years ago hell I worked at one of them, even the schools despite state law are dry bones now. This place is a dead zone and even the shop I worked at had problems sourcing parts locally to keep old cnc machines running.

Everything is picked clean in Denmark, because of everyone started to recycle in the name of nature.
5.6+ million people, and nothing to source. Oldest I can find online right now, are P4's and Amd64.
No rule without an exception. I found a complete Olivetti dual-P1 a couple of day's ago.
They are however far and long apart.

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PeterLI wrote:

Pay for shipping or drive: problem solved.

I feel like shoving your attitude down some thoughts and see how quickly that becomes very unpopular especially when it comes to other things.

PeterLI wrote:

Pay for shipping or drive: problem solved.

Ever tried to drive across the Atlantic, it's not that easy 😜 I'll need extra fuel, very good water proofing, some serious reinforcing for the sheet metal, some much thicker glass, and 2 very tall snorkles. Some off road tires would likely help as well.