Old School PCs going on sale for a bargain

[Milesqqw2]

The only useful thing I can think of for these is for a storage system where speed doesn’t matter, the problem with that though is that I don’t think that a cpu that old could handle many modern day drives. These aren’t useful for desktops at all, prob faster than more chromebooks though. 

[da na]

On 4/21/2024 at 6:15 AM, Archie_Altz said:

I honestly want to build and sell pcs so I kind of want to flip these , but Id honestly feel like an AH if i sold hardware as old as me xD.

Yeah so don't sell as new. They're great office machines for productivity, and they'll do nicely with old games, heck I'm using one right now. Just clarify that you are not selling a brand new fast computer.

[da na]

41 minutes ago, Milesqqw2 said:

The only useful thing I can think of for these is for a storage system where speed doesn’t matter, the problem with that though is that I don’t think that a cpu that old could handle many modern day drives. These aren’t useful for desktops at all, prob faster than more chromebooks though. 

A Core 2 Duo is more than capable of handling 20+ drives at a time. 

[GarlicDeliverySystem]

I doubt these machines would be able to run anything, apart from games of the time when paired with a decent GPU.

 

Another issue could be feature compatibility, simply because they lack some of the "newer" extensions like SSE4.2. Like CS2 would not even boot on that afaik.

 

As others stated they are also too new for retro enthusiasts, though I would caution that this is probably only a matter of time. Sooner or later they mid/late 2000s wave of nostalgia will hit and people will want to buy their dream machines from the past. Not many, though.

 

You could have a look at the machines and which processors/mobos are in them, if the CPUs are decent enough or "high-end" for the time people might be interested in at least those. So keeping the small bits (CPU and RAM don't need a lot of room) could pay off in a few years... or not.

[Kisai]

On 4/21/2024 at 4:14 AM, Needfuldoer said:

 

To me, Pentium 4s and Core 2s fall into a void where they're too "new" to be interesting but far too old to be useful. I'd pass.

 

 

Basically anything that can run Windows 2000 and 98 is useful for the "games released in 1996-2004" era, but without a high end era-accurate GPU, you're likely not going to find a good use for them.

 

Many Pentium 4 era computers only use is running a PCI (not PCIe) card for a vintage piece of software, and you'll probably find that these are going to be Firewire cards for camcorders of that era, and not a lot else.

 

[thrasher_565]

with out nowing the exsact parts its a guess on what there worth. hi end 98 pcs are a pain to set up so most just give up and just go p4 or athlon 64.

there the quadro 3500 witch would be like a 6800 but i dont no if it work for 98 and like i said a pain to get working.

 

i think there too slow to do much with other then that. other then giving it away or selling it for cheap.

 

i once got a p2 for school and well even oced... was kinda useless and that was like 2000 ish... all i used it for was to xfer diablo 2 items.

 

 

Edited April 22 by thrasher_565

[thevictor390]

On 4/22/2024 at 7:06 PM, thrasher_565 said:

with out nowing the exsact parts its a guess on what there worth. hi end 98 pcs are a pain to set up so most just give up and just go p4 or athlon 64.

there the quadro 3500 witch would be like a 6800 but i dont no if it work for 98 and like i said a pain to get working.

 

i think there too slow to do much with other then that. other then giving it away or selling it for cheap.

 

i once got a p2 for school and well even oced... was kinda useless and that was like 2000 ish... all i used it for was to xfer diablo 2 items.

 

 

I used a Pentium II laptop in 2006 to do all my homework, and run every game I could fit on its 10 GB HDD (Half-Life was the standout). Even watched torrented episodes of Top Gear.
The thing is, nowadays those basic tasks can be done with a Chromebook or iPad, there's not too much use for a desktop computer that can barely do the minimum.