canthearu wrote on 2021-10-10, 23:55:

But I'm not quite as paranoid about it all as you are. I'm happy to go buy a random retro system based on a couple of photos of it booting and a few rough photos of the outside. If I'm paying $50 or less for the entire system, then it doesn't matter too much if it is even a complete loss.

IMHO US$50 is a bit more than the price I'd be willing to gamble on.

In 2018 I bought an used Asus P5G41T-M LX + Q8300 + 4GB RAM + 500GB HDD + GF210 + DVD-RAM + case and PSU for NT$1600 (US$57) at the largest used photo / electronic trader in Taipei. They have a large physical storefront and even allowed me to stick an USB flash drive to run CPU-Z in order to confirm the spec. The price was NT$1800 (US$64) but the spec of the auction list claimed having Win7 Recovery Partition, which turned out nonexistent. The manager then gave me NT$200 cut and I brought it home happily (cause I'm gonna reinstall Win7 with an SSD anyway).

I spent NT$890 (US$32) on my most recent acquisition completely untested and non-refundable, hoping that at least either the MB / CPU or the graphics card works the price is justifiable, and even if only either HDD / DVD / PSU works the loss is manageable, and I was lucky to have EVERY component working. 😸

canthearu wrote on 2021-10-10, 23:55:

People who know what they have typically charge a whole lot more, with pricing at $150 to $200 or more. Then you get the nice photo's, full spec rundowns and such. But you are also paying through the nose for that knowledge and detail.

Hmmm...... Maybe I should raise my price next time when selling something online. 😉 I've got photography equipment for nice photos, and I test them whenever possible, as well as providing drivers and manuals if available.

dormcat wrote on 2021-10-11, 00:57:

IMHO US$50 is a bit more than the price I'd be willing to gamble on.

Yeah, I was talking about $50 AU, which is currently worth less than $50 US.

But really, even if it is a full on bust, I won't miss a random $50. It is cheaper and more fun than a night in the casino!

You have to realize, it is pretty expensive to live here in AU, I spend much more on food for a week. Going to the pub for a pub meal is at least $30. Even driving and picking up these systems can cost me $10 in petrol.

I scored a Dell Inspiron 580 for free on Craigslist today. I3, 24 megs of DDR3 installed, DRDRW, a SATA hotswap caddy, a GTX 745 video card, and it booted right up. No hard drives of course, but that's fine. The drive to pick it up was about an hour round trip, definitely worth it.

Good for free. Just check the PSU for any bloated caps. Some of the capacitors in these units don't get a lot of airflow and can fail over a longer period of time.

Hmmm my area they are not allowed to sell anything from the recycle/e-cycle if it has electronics in it. They have to destroy/recycle everything as of a few years ago. Some thrift stores were getting away with still selling stuff until January 2021 and they got very strict in the last few months. I blame the Gestapo Governor and her minions because we the people of this state did not get to vote on it, was a "behind closed doors" action. sorry am really "po'd" about our elected officials in this state.
On a bright side did find a OK mini-ITX case new and unused but without the box, a Silverstone ML08. Not vintage but was only $15. Now if I only had a mini ITX board for it. 🤣

Horun wrote on 2021-10-11, 03:25:

Hmmm my area they are not allowed to sell anything from the recycle/e-cycle if it has electronics in it. They have to destroy/recycle everything as of a few years ago. Some thrift stores were getting away with still selling stuff until January 2021 and they got very strict in the last few months.

Seeing lots of VOGONS folks mentioning this, I couldn't help wondering what's the rationale of not allowing reselling electronic e-waste? Elected politicians got to give some reasons, no matter how ridiculous they might be.

In my country it is illegal to take anything from other people's trash, or at the recycling center as it is the property of the municipality.

I only know of one recycling center that resell things. Sometimes they sell electronics, like old CRT TVs but never computers. I spoke to a gentleman there and he just laughed and said "No we just recycle old computers, no one wants them".

dormcat wrote on 2021-10-11, 04:16:

Seeing lots of VOGONS folks mentioning this, I couldn't help wondering what's the rationale of not allowing reselling electronic e-waste? Elected politicians got to give some reasons, no matter how ridiculous they might be.

Here in Germany, officially it is always "protecting the environment".
However, there are again and again recycling centers trying to offer good used stuff, and this makes the profiteers of the throw-away-society mad.
Then these bribe the local politicians to stop recycling centers providing stuff for socially weak people, so that these have no choice but to buy cheapo crappy new stuff instead of used good stuff.

Basically, many of the specialized vintage electronics dealers here bakshish management and workers on recycling sites to ensure a continuous supply.
Some recycling center workers also are regular sellers on German ebay.
Naturally, these people are not very interested in free trade of used/vintage hardware at thrift stores or recycling centers...

Joakim wrote on 2021-10-11, 04:48:

In my country it is illegal to take anything from other people's trash, or at the recycling center as it is the property of the municipality.

I see. Reminds me the different reactions from City's recyclable garbage truck workers and an old recycler lady in the neighborhood. The former always have poker faces as they are government employees so the amount of recyclables has nothing to do with their salaries; the latter always thanks me when I gave her my weekly collection of cardboard boxes, coke bottles, etc. as she makes profits by collecting recyclables from the neighborhood so the more the better.

Joakim wrote on 2021-10-11, 04:48:

I only know of one recycling center that resell things. Sometimes they sell electronics, like old CRT TVs but never computers. I spoke to a gentleman there and he just laughed and said "No we just recycle old computers, no one wants them".

Well the gentleman has ignored a big chunk of potential market......

retardware wrote on 2021-10-11, 05:51:

Here in Germany, officially it is always "protecting the environment".
However, there are again and again recycling centers trying to offer good used stuff, and this makes the profiteers of the throw-away-society mad.
Then these bribe the local politicians to stop recycling centers providing stuff for socially weak people, so that these have no choice but to buy cheapo crappy new stuff instead of used good stuff.

That's the dirty part of politics; but what's the rationale made by those local politicians? Like "trash might contain toxic waste" or "electronic waste might contain sensitive personal or corporate info" etc.?

Joakim wrote on 2021-10-11, 04:48:

In my country it is illegal to take anything from other people's trash, or at the recycling center as it is the property of the municipality.

i can understand that a person couldn't just walk into a recycling centre and take things for various reasons i'm ok with (it's a place of work, items have been 'processed', safety etc)

however i cannot understand that if a neighbour puts a laptop into a bin and I then take it out of the bin that somehow a 'crime' took place

stupid laws undermine good laws by making 'law' itself look unjustifiable or laughable

retardware wrote on 2021-10-11, 05:51:

Here in Germany, officially it is always "protecting the environment". However, there are again and again recycling centers tryi […]
Show full quote

dormcat wrote on 2021-10-11, 04:16:

Seeing lots of VOGONS folks mentioning this, I couldn't help wondering what's the rationale of not allowing reselling electronic e-waste? Elected politicians got to give some reasons, no matter how ridiculous they might be.

Here in Germany, officially it is always "protecting the environment".
However, there are again and again recycling centers trying to offer good used stuff, and this makes the profiteers of the throw-away-society mad.
Then these bribe the local politicians to stop recycling centers providing stuff for socially weak people, so that these have no choice but to buy cheapo crappy new stuff instead of used good stuff.

that kind of assertion needs evidence. It certainly sounds plausible and i suspect it also - but is there a meeting in some electronics business about how to stop people re-using things that have already been thrown away?

I think their focus will be more about 'planned obsolescence' and the feature adding cycle of pretending this years thing is better than last year's thing, that's where their money comes from rather than some poorer people reusing a n electrical/electronic item that has already been thrown out

I find most people still in the thrall of the 'consume, buy it new, buy it again next year' mentality - among all generations and all political views (ie even young supposedly 'green' and liberal people concerned for all kinds of "justice" still wont want anything that isn't new and cool, and i'd have hoped for better from them).

But i do sense a slow resurgence for re-use. It's driven mostly be economics, namely everything becoming more and more expensive means people stop buying stuff so much, and secondarily by a mix of environmental concerns and a modest growth in 'maker' or diy culture popularised online

one ironic benefit, if it can be seen as such, of a high consuming throwaway society is that those of us happy to reuse can have good items for a fraction of the new cost

a further irony, if electronics are not allowed to be re sold for 'environmental' reasons then if the person buys new it has been newly dug up, newly smelted and formed, newly shipped and newly delivered - all at huge energy and material costs!

gerry wrote on 2021-10-11, 08:25:

I find most people still in the thrall of the 'consume, buy it new, buy it again next year' mentality - among all generations and all political views (ie even young supposedly 'green' and liberal people concerned for all kinds of "justice" still wont want anything that isn't new and cool, and i'd have hoped for better from them).

I don't want to risk breaking forum rules so I won't post it, but there's a famous comic depicting a young blonde female wearing a Che Guevara shirt surrounded by six working-class people around the world: Latin America for coffee, East Asia for clothing (the shirt with Che is still being finished), East Europe for p*rn, Africa for gems and rare earth elements, SEA for cosmetics and weed, and another black male for shrimps and chocolate. She's even sitting on the backs of the last two workers who are on their knees.

My personal observation is similar: many self-claimed "environmentalists" in Taiwan love sitting in air-conditioned Starbucks with their MacBook Pro, advocating the importance of protecting the environment and supporting local businesses via Facebook. 🙄

I can understand that they do no want people going to a recycling center to pick up stuff it is not safe and you would get scavangers hanging about all day long hoovering about like vultures.

The sad truth is that we send this scrap to Africa for "recycling", we just move the problem out of sight to be honest.

canthearu wrote on 2021-10-11, 02:26:

Good for free. Just check the PSU for any bloated caps. Some of the capacitors in these units don't get a lot of airflow and can fail over a longer period of time.

You gave me an idea; I have a dead Corsair CX500 power supply that (typical for modern power supplies) has a big cooling fan in the bottom. I think I'll see if I can swap the Antec parts into the Corsair power supply case.

dormcat wrote on 2021-10-11, 08:55:

gerry wrote on 2021-10-11, 08:25:

I find most people still in the thrall of the 'consume, buy it new, buy it again next year' mentality - among all generations and all political views (ie even young supposedly 'green' and liberal people concerned for all kinds of "justice" still wont want anything that isn't new and cool, and i'd have hoped for better from them).

I don't want to risk breaking forum rules so I won't post it, but there's a famous comic depicting a young blonde female wearing a Che Guevara shirt surrounded by six working-class people around the world: Latin America for coffee, East Asia for clothing (the shirt with Che is still being finished), East Europe for p*rn, Africa for gems and rare earth elements, SEA for cosmetics and weed, and another black male for shrimps and chocolate. She's even sitting on the backs of the last two workers who are on their knees.

My personal observation is similar: many self-claimed "environmentalists" in Taiwan love sitting in air-conditioned Starbucks with their MacBook Pro, advocating the importance of protecting the environment and supporting local businesses via Facebook. 🙄

yes indeed, that is not to say there aren't also a lot of very earnest people who do genuinely care and do make a difference in their own lives, and indeed those inspired to think up new ways to help tackle the problem, but there are also far too many who simply want 'someone else' to take the hit and for themselves to look virtuous for demanding it (on twitter, not by actually doing anything useful)

Joakim wrote on 2021-10-11, 09:36:

The sad truth is that we send this scrap to Africa for "recycling", we just move the problem out of sight to be honest.

this is sad, and worth noting that as well as electronics most of the plastic put into recycling never get recycled either

recycling is good on the whole and we should do more, but the better approach (imo) is reuse

if we can get a toaster to work for 30 years instead of getting a new one every 5 years we have stopped 5 new toasters from being 'demanded', that's 5 (fractional) lots of mining, manufacture and shipping instances stopped

for us interested in old PCs though, we'd have to accept its a hobby and we wouldn't likely see our old PCs being used in organisations etc, they are not 'productive' though they may stop us buying so much new gear i suppose

gerry wrote on 2021-10-12, 08:47:

recycling is good on the whole and we should do more, but the better approach (imo) is reuse

...and the best is avoidance!

What has never been produced isn't there, hasn't to be reused, recycled, downcycled, thermally utilized or even deposited - never!

kind regards
soggi

This is the textbook definition of an e-waste rescue, as I literally snuck this out from being most certainly scrapped. An AOpen branded large tower case with a dual Pentium II 400MHz system inside. Unfortunately it won't power on, so either something's come loose or the power supply is dead. Still worth it though, I've never had a dual Slot-1 system before.

EvieSigma wrote on 2021-10-13, 19:48:

This is the textbook definition of an e-waste rescue, as I literally snuck this out from being most certainly scrapped. An AOpen […]
Show full quote

This is the textbook definition of an e-waste rescue, as I literally snuck this out from being most certainly scrapped. An AOpen branded large tower case with a dual Pentium II 400MHz system inside. Unfortunately it won't power on, so either something's come loose or the power supply is dead. Still worth it though, I've never had a dual Slot-1 system before.

PXL_20211013_173523003.jpg

PXL_20211013_173532558.jpg

PXL_20211013_173748806.jpg

PXL_20211013_173752660.jpg

What a find/rescue! Hope it is just the PSU.

Not hardware, but still wanted to share. Found it in recycling and its still sealed.

EvieSigma wrote on 2021-10-13, 19:48:

This is the textbook definition of an e-waste rescue, as I literally snuck this out from being most certainly scrapped. An AOpen […]
Show full quote

This is the textbook definition of an e-waste rescue, as I literally snuck this out from being most certainly scrapped. An AOpen branded large tower case with a dual Pentium II 400MHz system inside. Unfortunately it won't power on, so either something's come loose or the power supply is dead. Still worth it though, I've never had a dual Slot-1 system before.

PXL_20211013_173523003.jpg

PXL_20211013_173532558.jpg

PXL_20211013_173748806.jpg

PXL_20211013_173752660.jpg

Very nice, the almighty HX08.
Have a few HX45's myself. Congrats. 😀
6BXDU board? Hm I see PCI-X, so I guess not.
Edit; 6BXDS! 😁

Dog wrote on 2021-10-13, 19:54:

Not hardware, but still wanted to share. Found it in recycling and its still sealed.

Well now you've got minion number 56768 in trouble.