"Old" Tech that You must Keep

[Automobili3XF]

My Laserdisc player, because i like Laserdiscs! 

It also plays CDs and DVDs pretty well.

[LAwLz]

USB to serial adaptor that complies with the RS-232 standard.

The adaptor itself isn't that old (maybe 5 years at most) but the standard it supports is now 60 years old (introduced in 1960).

 

Reason why I use it? Because for some reason switches for tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars still use that standard. And the ones who do have USB ports rarely work for a wide variety of reasons (for example you still need to emulate the console port, which requires special drivers which sometimes doesn't work, and with a bit of bad luck your USB port can send too much power to the USB port which can cause the switch to shut down).

[AZ Hobo]

[TrainFan475]

I keep another pc with an optical drive just in case.

I used to have a firewire card because I have a ton of mini dv tapes, but I had to sacrifice it for my vertical gpu mount. (the old pc has built in firewire anyway, but it's inconveniently under the desk)

I still have a box of new 3.5'' floppy disks lying around somewhere, and I don't have a floppy drive.

 

The list goes on

 

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

I keep an old PowerMac G5 around just in case I need an old machine to burn an image to a dvd or something.

[Koeshi]

4 hours ago, LAwLz said:

for some reason switches for tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars still use that standard

 

4 hours ago, LAwLz said:

the ones who do have USB ports rarely work

I think you answered why they still use that standard

 

I find it hard to throw a functional peripheral away.  An old system might get tossed once I have stripped it of anything useful, but drives/adapters/etc will go in a box, just in case

[Bombastinator]

54 minutes ago, Koeshi said:

 

I think you answered why they still use that standard

 

I find it hard to throw a functional peripheral away.  An old system might get tossed once I have stripped it of anything useful, but drives/adapters/etc will go in a box, just in case

Usable gets problematic though.  I’ve got a laser printer and a scanner for example, both of which are fully functional, but they’re so old I can’t get drivers.  I could build a cups/sane system to put them on WiFi and turn them into an appliance but I have to have a machine to run such.  I’ve also got an unopened pi zero but it doesn’t have useful usb out so it all got complicated.  The best solution turned out to be to buy new so I’m going to donate the whole mess to freegeek along with a bunch of other hardware

[Letgomyleghoe]

On 2/1/2020 at 7:05 AM, Lady Fitzgerald said:

Definitely an optical drive. I'm ripping a new CD right now and have six more to go after that. I won't own a machine without an optical drive.

Why not just buy an external one, in case drives can limit airflow...

 

Just my 2 cents.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

5 hours ago, scuff gang said:

Why not just buy an external one, in case drives can limit airflow...

 

Just my 2 cents.

External ones take up desktop space, which is already crowded, require horsing around with another cable, eat up a USB port, a hassle to set up, put away, and store, and are slower than internally mounted ODDs. I've never had an airflow problem with case mounted ODDs.

[Mnky313]

I have a probably 15+ year old KVM switch, I only need it for a keyboard/mouse so it works fine for that still.
My main laptop is an 8 year old Precision M6700 and will probably stay that way, it's got everything...
I have an old Pentium II system but it rarely gets used.

Also have a few 2006 Apple Xserve 1,1s... these are probably going to get sold if anyone buys them...

[Godlygamer23]

5 hours ago, scuff gang said:

Why not just buy an external one, in case drives can limit airflow...

 

Just my 2 cents.

Isn't that why we use fans? I mean I guess a small chassis can have that issue,  but even so. 

 

Storage drives are more likely to stifle airflow than optical drives. 

[Yogi_DaBear221]

So I've got a USB 3.5in Floppy Drive for my bunch of DOS games, I've of course got the PS1 and 2, an N64, a few of the old plug and plays that took the little extra cartridge to "expand" what it was capable of, I've got 2 Genesis IIIs, a SNES, and a NES, a PSP Go, I've got original silver fat Nintendo DS, somewhere I think I've got a Gameboy Advance still.

 

I think that when it comes to music equipment, age might honestly be a bit different. 

 

I've got the Digitech GNX 3 workstation pedal, that takes a Smart Media Card, which I don't even know that they make Smart Media Cards anymore. I'm pretty sure this came out in 2002. 

 

 

Then I mean again not that old but this amp of mine came out in 2009.

[Dabombinable]

That'd be my Gigabyte GA-5AA. Not the fastest SS7 motherboard nor most featured packed. But it does 1 thing that no other motherboard to date has managed: Supporting every single pin-compatible CPU (aka everything Socket 5, 7 and Super 7) without needing any BIOS updates (mine also works with 512MB SDRAM sticks, I've had it run XP with 1.5GB RAM). Plus the previous owner already replaced the normally dead VRM caps as well.

If I had one of the K6-III + for it, it'd actually be competing with far newer Athlon 1400 based systems (only got a K6-2 500 however).

[SkilledRebuilds]

I'd like to think it speaks for itself..when on a shelf aka a 3slot Display GPU or when you weigh the thing, and figure a spare brick never hurts to have.

 

https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/asus-hd-7970-directcu-ii-top.b247

This is my image, not google images.

 

ASUS HD7970 1GHZ TOP 3Slot