Old computer parts

[TatamiMatt]

Hi all,

 

I have a family member who works in IT, specifically with quite old machines, im wondering is there any use/suggestions for salvaged parts to not have them go to a scrap heap and just end up as E-waste?

[Blasty Blosty]

Make a retro pc setup?

 

@Average Nerd this is your forte

[Average Nerd]

Just now, Blasty Blosty said:

Make a retro pc setup?

 

@Average Nerd this is your forte

Ehh, most of my old machines serve absolutely no purpose, I just hoard them. So I'm not really the right person to give recommendations for what to actually do with them.

[Needfuldoer]

What parts? How old?

[TatamiMatt]

4 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

What parts? How old?

15 years or so, maybe as early as 8-10 depending on the day, currently theres an xeon, an i3 (going to get more info on them later), probably DDR2/3 ram depending on processor age and a Quadro FX 1800 going to be dumped, going to salvage any fans and storage as theyre more useful anyway in the present semi-regardless of age. I understand a lot of parts are so far gone its not worth it (FX1800 for example) but just in the future, if its possible to do something to reduce e waste and give parts a new life, then why not

[Needfuldoer]

2 minutes ago, TatamiMatt said:

15 years or so

Personally, I wouldn't bother with any of that. To me it's all "too old to be useful, too new to be interesting".

 

It's fine for tinkering with and learning on, but I wouldn't want to daily drive anything that old.

[Blasty Blosty]

4 minutes ago, TatamiMatt said:

15 years or so, maybe as early as 8-10 depending on the day, currently theres an xeon, an i3 (going to get more info on them later), probably DDR2/3 ram depending on processor age and a Quadro FX 1800 going to be dumped, going to salvage any fans and storage as theyre more useful anyway in the present semi-regardless of age. I understand a lot of parts are so far gone its not worth it (FX1800 for example) but just in the future, if its possible to do something to reduce e waste and give parts a new life, then why not

I would love an old pc with a CRT monitor to experience how games were meant to be played back in the day, like the original half life

[TatamiMatt]

4 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

Personally, I wouldn't bother with any of that. To me it's all "too old to be useful, too new to be interesting".

 

It's fine for tinkering with and learning on, but I wouldn't want to daily drive anything that old.

Yeah thats kinda what train of thought i had already, just wondering if there was any interesting uses for it, like removing the gpu and pcb and using the blower style card as a hairdryer or something ridiculous 

[Somerandomtechyboi]

26 minutes ago, TatamiMatt said:

15 years or so, maybe as early as 8-10 depending on the day, currently theres an xeon, an i3 (going to get more info on them later), probably DDR2/3 ram depending on processor age and a Quadro FX 1800 going to be dumped, going to salvage any fans and storage as theyre more useful anyway in the present semi-regardless of age. I understand a lot of parts are so far gone its not worth it (FX1800 for example) but just in the future, if its possible to do something to reduce e waste and give parts a new life, then why not

Theyre only good for tinkering around or if you have a use for a second pc or a low power server if theyre new enough, rarer pieces of hardware like the og 775 rampage extreme or an x58a oc would be worth something as a collectible or for overclocking as most of em will probs be high end oc boards

 

Spoiler

My tinkering around is just overclocking which can be pretty fun on this old hardware especially when you are in territory where very few have gone

 

I mean noone wants a stupid dualcore 1366 xeon but i have a use for them so i can buy em dirt cheap and bin imcs maybe even get 3500 at some point

[TatamiMatt]

Just to update, im going get them anyway to tinker with i think, never opened a GC up fully before or delidded a cpu so gonna give it a shot, tis an Xeon W3503, 2 core 2 thread 2.4GHz 15 years old also fyi

[OddOod]

So, the interesting thing about this super old hardware is that it's either worthless or priceless but there is no way to tell the difference by looking at it.
Friend of mine has 6ish big totes of old pc trash because he has a side hustle as The Wolf of PC support. He has essentially sold a pair of 14 year old sound blaster card to a company for 10 grand because they used that specific card to output machine control signals for their primary production line. 

[Lurking]

15 years old won't be usable for modern Internet/YouTube etc. And for use as a server or similar it either won't be powerful enough, or too inefficient when running 24/7. Not even speaking about reliability and support. 

 

I run a 6000 series i3 with 8 GB to watch Streaming TV on HD. That basically is all it can do. And it is significantly slower than 6000 series i7 with 16 GB I use for the same purpose on 4K. I can't think hardware 5+ years older than that can be enjoyable.

[TatamiMatt]

i got the part home anyway yesterday to tinker with here what was brought home, i think some of you will like these, odd and a little interesting

 

Xeon W3503

i3 505

Quadro FX 1800

Quadro FX 370