Free old technology

[stuart rodgers]

Hi everyone. 

I've been watching linus on YouTube for awhile and get amazed at how much tech becomes obsolete.

I wanted to know what happens to all this technology. I live in the UK and have put many wanted posts on recycling sites but never have and one email. I really enjoy taking something that didn't work and trying to fixed it but if I can't be able to use it to donate it's parts to bring something back to life.

Thank you for your help and time 

[WereCatf]

What happens to all the stuff varies quite a lot by country. Here in Finland we have a very healthy recycling-culture and it's been made really easy to e.g. recycle any old electronics; you can just take the stuff to any store that sells electronics and they'll take the stuff off your hands for free and send it forward to be properly recycled. While some people do try to sell their old computers, parts or such in second-hand markets, a lot of people just make use of the easy recycling and thus we don't have as much old electronics and stuff in circulation as some other countries might have -- this can be both an upside and a downside, what with it being a downside for us nerds, who might wanna play around with older items. Also, due to how our system works, you can't go and visit recycling-centers and get stuff from there -- once the stuff is there, it's off-limits and that's that.

[Crunchy Dragon]

You can get old hardware for free, although it likely won't be worth much for anything more modern than Windows XP. The only older hardware I've been able to get my hands on is a dual Athlon MP system, an Athlon 64 X2 3200+ system, and an Athlon 64 X2 3800+ system.

[Beef Boss]

With free stuff you just have to get lucky, I've gotten free computers with I3's in and windows 10 or windows Vista lol. 

[DirtyDane]

I wish I had a recycle shop in my area, they're all so far away.

[DrAwesome821]

I've saved a few computers from the scrap heap myself, including a Tandy 486, a few PowerMac G4s, an Apple IIc, a Radio Shack TRS-80, a Pentium II Dell, and a lot of core2duos. I still have the Tandy, the G4s, the Dell, and the core2duos. The Tandy and G4s are my summer projects, the Dell I hope to get up and running again soon, just need a fresh install of 98SE and drivers. The core2duos are being used as workstations at my workshop, mainly because they work well for web browsing and google sheets. Honestly it's fun to tinker with old computers, provided you have the time and space for them.

[Razor Blade]

3 hours ago, stuart rodgers said:

Hi everyone. 

I've been watching linus on YouTube for awhile and get amazed at how much tech becomes obsolete.

I wanted to know what happens to all this technology. I live in the UK and have put many wanted posts on recycling sites but never have and one email. I really enjoy taking something that didn't work and trying to fixed it but if I can't be able to use it to donate it's parts to bring something back to life.

Thank you for your help and time 

I know what you mean... Even around here computer recycling is apparently popular. There are half a dozen "pull and pay" auto salvage yards that also take scrap metal or batteries. About a month ago I was there dropping off old batteries I saw what appeared to be a 42U rack bent to hell I almost died... There are also a few places that take old electronics to recycle the gold and other materials out of them. The county even has a clean up day which you can take any old electronic device to be recycled...

 

On the other side of the coin when you do find junk electronics...it's on craigslist or a yard sale where the owner thinks its worth gold...for example here is a local craigslist ad... $50-100 I could maybe see but I just can't see that old dinosaur being worth half a grand! (not saying this is junk BTW it's actually in good shape)

 

Spoiler

 

[MedievalMatt]

21 minutes ago, Razor02097 said:

I know what you mean... Even around here computer recycling is apparently popular. There are half a dozen "pull and pay" auto salvage yards that also take scrap metal or batteries. About a month ago I was there dropping off old batteries I saw what appeared to be a 42U rack bent to hell I almost died... There are also a few places that take old electronics to recycle the gold and other materials out of them. The county even has a clean up day which you can take any old electronic device to be recycled...

 

On the other side of the coin when you do find junk electronics...it's on craigslist or a yard sale where the owner thinks its worth gold...for example here is a local craigslist ad... $50-100 I could maybe see but I just can't see that old dinosaur being worth half a grand! (not saying this is junk BTW it's actually in good shape)

 

 

...... you get the desk too.....

[paddy-stone]

9 hours ago, Razor Blade said:

I know what you mean... Even around here computer recycling is apparently popular. There are half a dozen "pull and pay" auto salvage yards that also take scrap metal or batteries. About a month ago I was there dropping off old batteries I saw what appeared to be a 42U rack bent to hell I almost died... There are also a few places that take old electronics to recycle the gold and other materials out of them. The county even has a clean up day which you can take any old electronic device to be recycled...

 

On the other side of the coin when you do find junk electronics...it's on craigslist or a yard sale where the owner thinks its worth gold...for example here is a local craigslist ad... $50-100 I could maybe see but I just can't see that old dinosaur being worth half a grand! (not saying this is junk BTW it's actually in good shape)

 

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OMG, what a pile of shit that is... worth about $50 tops, and that's because it has a wooden unit thrown in, lol.

 

Seriously, anyone even thinking about buying something like that would be better off using an android tablet/phone unless they specifically need x86 programs to run, or need a big screen output etc.

If they do need to run x86 progs etc as above, then IMO it'd be better to spend the $100 on an atom or similar, which would still be miles better than that.

[xriqn]

12 hours ago, stuart rodgers said:

Hi everyone. 

I've been watching linus on YouTube for awhile and get amazed at how much tech becomes obsolete.

I wanted to know what happens to all this technology. I live in the UK and have put many wanted posts on recycling sites but never have and one email. I really enjoy taking something that didn't work and trying to fixed it but if I can't be able to use it to donate it's parts to bring something back to life.

Thank you for your help and time 

I got quite lucky last summer, some generous couple gave me an old 2006 dell inspiron 530 with 2gb ddr2, core 2 duo e4400, no hdd and a radeon hd 2400 pro for free. That system is now "The Oldie" under my profile with the specs I upgraded it to. For interest's sake it only cost me £15 - £20 to upgrade that machine. Got the 8.1 key from ebay.

[mitchell2380]

what ? 

[SirMonti]

You can also ask around your friends and family, lots of people may have old tech sitting in storage that will never be used.  Also look for other connections, I've seen many companies and schools where (for example) the head of IT has a bin or full room of parts/machines waiting to be recycled or used as spare parts and will let staff/students occasionally take something home. 

Back in high school almost all the parts I gathered to work with came from people who were happy to give away their 'junk' electronics that were taking up space.

[Canada EH]

On 4/9/2018 at 4:23 PM, stuart rodgers said:

Hi everyone. 

I've been watching linus on YouTube for awhile and get amazed at how much tech becomes obsolete.

I wanted to know what happens to all this technology. I live in the UK and have put many wanted posts on recycling sites but never have and one email. I really enjoy taking something that didn't work and trying to fixed it but if I can't be able to use it to donate it's parts to bring something back to life.

Thank you for your help and time 

You need to find commercial e-recyclers in your city, then you will be able to find some really great deals.

If you have a friend in the IT business you can score lots of goodies.

[Ace McPlane]

On 4/9/2018 at 7:23 PM, stuart rodgers said:

Hi everyone. 

I've been watching linus on YouTube for awhile and get amazed at how much tech becomes obsolete.

I wanted to know what happens to all this technology. I live in the UK and have put many wanted posts on recycling sites but never have and one email. I really enjoy taking something that didn't work and trying to fixed it but if I can't be able to use it to donate it's parts to bring something back to life.

Thank you for your help and time 

Right on man.

I totally love restoring old beasts myself too.

I've got an old powerbook 180c at home that I fixed by dropping it.

I guess that makes me the anti-linus

Anyways, dig around kijiji, your local used merchants, ebay, etc. There are lots of dirt cheap, broken computers out there waiting for someone to restore them to their fomer glory

[dionkoffie]

I like restoring old hardware too, but only hardware that's special or worth repairing. Had tons and tons of pentium 4 or other Windows XP machines laying around. I threw them away because they're not worth anything. 

 

 

[Ace McPlane]

26 minutes ago, dionkoffie said:

I like restoring old hardware too, but only hardware that's special or worth repairing. Had tons and tons of pentium 4 or other Windows XP machines laying around. I threw them away because they're not worth anything. 

 

 

Yea, those are pretty ubiquitous. I wouldn't mind having an original IBM windows 95 or 98 machine though just for playing retro games that don't work in virtual machines or dosbox alone.

[dionkoffie]

Just now, stateofpsychosis said:

Yea, those are pretty ubiquitous. I wouldn't mind having an original IBM windows 95 or 98 machine though just for playing retro games that don't work in virtual machines or dosbox alone.

I have an Pentium 3 Windows ME machine laying around with a 64mb vram videocard in it. It's fun to play some older titles on it. 

[Ace McPlane]

3 minutes ago, dionkoffie said:

I have an Pentium 3 Windows ME machine laying around with a 64mb vram videocard in it. It's fun to play some older titles on it. 

Cool, windows ME did NOT do well though

If that's the original operating system, that machine might be a bit rare. Not worth anything of course.

[2FA]

I have access to free, outdated computers at work but they're Core Duos (no not Core 2 Duos, og Core) or P4s so they're pretty much too old for modern software and too new for any useful older software.