Re-Use the old CPUs/systems, or get rid of them?

[GundamF91]

Just wondering if anyone reuses old CPU/systems. I still have a complete set of Pentium II 223 and its board and parts, as well as a complete set of Athlon XP-M "Barton" with its Socket A board. I have lots of fond memory using them: all those nights of college papers on the Pentium II, and the fun overclocking experiments done on the Barton. I haven't fired up either for quite a few years, but I can't seem to find a good use for them, other than them taking up space. I wouldn't mind having a server or HTPC type rig, but neither could do much for modern computing.

So do you all just keep your old rigs sitting in the basement? Or what else is there to do something with them?

 

[Brainonska511]

If I had such a collection, I'd either: a) throw them in the electronic waste, or b) make some kind of art type display for my personal use.

 

[fffblackmage]

My previous E6320 + 650i mobo were sold on ebay.

My older rig with the Athlon XP 2600+ Barton is still in the closet, along with some old graphics cards like a X1950XT and HD4830.

 

[Blastman]

I would get rid of systems that old.

I have 2 Celeron-T's systems (1.0 and 1.1) overclocked to 1.4/1.54 Ghz with 500MB of SDRAM each. One is being used as a server but the other is just sitting in a pile. I'm pretty close to junking those, as hardware is pretty cheap these days. I can get a Pentium E5700 (3.0, 2MB L2) for $70 (Canadian), and with a inexpensive motherboard and memory I'm probably under $200. I could just throw that in my old case/psu and have modern computing speed with a good amount of ram. So, if I ever need another machine I can put something relatively modern together for not much.

I can't even surf the web these days without going over 500MB of memory (new web browsers use a ridiculous amount of memory), and it's not worth my time to try and get more SDRAM. These old systems also only have USB 1.1, AGP graphics, and IDE hard drives, which are all out of date.

 

[Deanodarlo]

Depends if you have room for a few more PC setups. Machines and parts sitting around doing nothing are pointless, and you may as well get rid. Retro-machines need to be in use, or not kept at all in my opinion.

For instance, I have kept the following using old PC parts, but I've found useful roles for them:

SYSTEM:

Aopen X-Cube SFF running a Barton XP-M, nforce2 soundstorm (my fav chipset of all time), 1GB RAM and a 9700pro. All hooked up to a 4:3 monitor.

USE:

Runs MAME, SNES, Megadrive etc emulators. Also a few 3D classics like Quake III, UT99 in XP, and some older Win98 games via dual boot. Has arcade sticks hooked up.

SYSTEM:

Biostar iDEQ SFF running an Athlon 64, nforce3, 2GB RAM and a x800XT. Again, 4:3 monitor.

USE:

Runs older 3D games like Farcry, Morrowind modded, FEAR etc and is in a LAN using an old router with the above machine. Play a few Quake 2/3, UT99 and 2004 deathmatches against mates now and again!

My other two PC's are more modern and for HTPC/server and main gaming/computing duties. Also have a netbook just for web surfing.

So, if you can put the old hardware to good use, then keep.

 

[StinkyPinky]

I've got some ancient old Dell as a licence server at work. Some relic I inherited. Something like P3-700 with 256mb ram. Just total rubbish but it does the job and I can't be bothered replacing it.

 

[Bartman39]

I donate alot of my old stuff to Goodwill as they either resell it or donate to places like shelters and such...

Otherwise I give it to one of my nephews to build and learn with...

 

[Evadman]

I donate or recycle the stuff that is that old, but keep the CPU for memories if recycling.

 

[WildW]

I was given a few old Dells a month or so ago, asked to turn one into a media centre and told I could keep/do whatever with the rest.

So, for the last couple of weeks I've been using a tiny SFF Optiplex GX260 with 2.4GHz Pentium 4 as my websurfing machine. It is so blissfully silent compared with the quad core gaming rig, and it plays Dungeon Keeper 2 without screwing up the graphics or sound

 

[EliteRetard]

Ill just say that there are people out there who might like some of this stuff...if its Pentium 4 era or better its definately worth donating. I know a few people whos main rigs are such hardware. Heck somebody mentioned a 4830, thats better than whats in my own persoanl gaming rig (probably the X1950 too lol). If its in good working order and you arent using or are gonna toss it I (or someone else) can find uses for stuff like that and would be willing to pay for shipping.

RE-PC is a good place to donate if you have one locally.

 

[Habeed]

At some point, it's got to be better to buy newer hardware than to run the old stuff due to power efficiency. I'm not sure when that point is, precisely : it's case by case, but obsolete computing hardware beyond a certain age will cost you more money to run than you save vs. just buying new hardware from newegg.

 

[MemberSince97]

I have too much in the closet , I mean wtf help...

 

[infoiltrator]

Young children can use old pc s and games. New to them. No loss when, if they break.

 

[Dark Shroud]

I still have a P4 3.0ghz, 1.2gigs of ram, & a HD 4670 1GB DDR3 system running for the family to use. It does well enough for web surfing & typing. The problem with P4s is that they do use a lot of power compared to new CPUs. It is best to donate or recycle them.

Just yesterday I recycled a burnt out PentiumD system at Bestbuy for free.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

Sorta an old system (motherboard + RAM are new) :
E5200 @ 3.8GHz, G41MT-D3, 2x 2GB DDR3, 8800GTS 320 --> Hackintosh

HP P4M laptop w/cracked screen --> VNC/RDP/FTP/HTTP server on campus

HP nc6400 laptop w/cracked screen --> Secondary torrent system (on second ISP)

Acer Aspire 4720Z laptop w/cracked screen --> Secondary torrent system (on second ISP at folks)


In case you're wondering if I'm a careless and clumsy lout, no, I got all those lappys for a song on Craigslist (~$15-20 each). Can't beat a cheap 15W system with gigabit, USB 2.0, firewire, wifi and media card reader

 

[RU482]

might as well hold on to them. Sooner or later we'll all be melting this shit down for the gold.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

might as well hold on to them. Sooner or later we'll all be melting this shit down for the gold.

Funny you should mention that. I grabbed a huge box of Pentium 60s when my lab closed down and flipped it on eBay for quite a few $$$s.

 

[jiffylube1024]

If I had the space I may keep a few older systems as a "museum" of sorts, but I wouldn't keep anything in the < 2 GHz range right now, nevermind a Pentium or PII class system.

I do have fond memories of certain systems though - the old Celeron 300A, the Tualatin 1 GHz P3's, etc.

 

[EliteRetard]

Heh, I just picked up a 1.6GHz Athlon XP w/ 2x512MB Windows XP and a 17" monitor for 250$ from RE-PC for a freind who runs a sub shop. Yeah he could have gotten a much better new system for 150$ more but he doesnt make any money and doesnt need the higher speeds. Its just used to run a "security camera" and some office/tax software. And actually, XP is much better for him and the software he had.

If somebody has a full system even if its old, it can be usefull. Claim it as a couple hundred tax deduction and you wouldnt be dishonest.

Last year I finished scrapping together an AMD X2 3800+ with a 3850 for my dad as a "gaming computer". He had a 486 as his main office rig but it couldnt handle newer games like Red Alert 2 and such. I even showed him how to hook it up to the old TV and that was just the most awesome thing for him.

My mom has a P4 2.6GHz Asus P4C800 2x512MB and a 9700 Pro and uses it with CS4 etc (was my old gaming rig untill my freind donated me his).

Mines an origional Core2 with an 8800GTS 320MB.

I work with tons of older stuff like that. I could name several more systems off the top of my head many under 2GHz.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

If I had the space I may keep a few older systems as a "museum" of sorts, but I wouldn't keep anything in the < 2 GHz range right now, nevermind a Pentium or PII class system.

Ouch, the nc6400 has a 1.83GHz Core Duo and the Aspire 4720Z has a 1.83GHz C2D.
They're still both extremely useful.

For that matter, the brand new Macbook Pro is only using a 2GHz i7

 

[EliteRetard]

What I have a rather hard time getting are decent power supplies and video cards for a reasonable price (I actually have a system right now that needs both).

Older CPUs are fairly easy to get...usually you can find whatever fits in the cheap MOBO you got. You can buy any DDR/2/3 and a cheap HDD, hopefully reuse an OS you had or try to find something cheap like a broken system that has a COA that you can use. But the hardest part really is the video card. For some reason people glob onto these things and refuse to let them go or simply want way to much for them.

And Im a sucker for reasonable video cards...I dont want your stupid FX-5200. Dont know why. I guess the lowest end from any series is kinda taboo for me.

 

[EliteRetard]

I actually paid 40$ for that 3850 last year...back when a 4850 was 150$ and a 5850 was 250$. And people have these things in their closets just sitting. That could be a jackson in your pocket.

 

[T101]

I use an old MMX166 overclocked to 200 for playing old Dos games. And I use an Athlon XP (barton) 3000+ as a document viewer when playing pen-n-paper RPGs. I have an Athlon 700 that is running FreeNAS and provides storage on the network. And I have a PIII450 that I paid a lot for when it was released I just dont have the heart to throw away, but have not found a use for yet.

 

[boran]

Whatever you do, I would not use those old systems for servers or such functions, you will pay trough the nose for electricity.
I used to run my old computers as servers and I was surprised to see they got 80Watts idle power. that would come down to 700 kWh/year or almost 1/5th of an average family electricity usage (3300 kWh/year)

I had two of those and one newer amd that also used 80 watts. together those three would have been 2100 kWh/year.

I reccomend using them as spare parts repositories, emulation machines, etc. but definetly not for 24/7 operation.

 

[eternalone]

Burn them they are the devils tools.