Sentimental about old hardware?

[WildW]

I am strange - I realise this - but I wonder if anyone else suffers from the same problem. Specifically, I find that some old hardware has sentimental value to me and that I don't want to part with it.

The hardware in question, an old Asus A8R32 MVP Deluxe (http://www.anandtech.com/show/1948) with socket 939 Athlon 64 X2 4200. Sure, it's slow now. . . 2.2GHz CPU, DDR memory, but it was my first dual-core machine. It was the rig that carried me through my Battlefield 2 clan days. I sold it to my best friend who used it as his main machine. It's been my girlfriend's media centre. It's probably the best quality motherboard I've ever owned, and even though it's now 5 years old it works flawlessly.

Now, following an upgrade, I have it back in my posession once again. I did briefly consider getting rid of it on eBay, but I now find that I can't wait to build it back into a working machine. I keep an old PC under my desk at work to help pass my lunch hour, and this box is at least going to run Minecraft better than the Pentium 4 it will replace, so I'm viewing it as a free upgrade.

The idea of tweaking this motherboard again feels pretty much like fooling around with an old girlfriend. I realise that is probably not normal.

Do any of you folks have similar thoughts, feelings, or inappropriate emotional responses about any old hardware that you just can't part with, or would love to track down again?

 

[xylem]

Sounds pretty normal to me, especially considering the fact that it will be serving a practical purpose, under your desk at work. I'm tempted to make a comparison to the "old girlfriend", but, errrm.. better sense prevails.

 

[BoomerD]

Hell no. As long as it's useful, it's hardware. After it's outlived its usefulness, it's junk.

(same as xylem's old girlfriend)

 

[MentalIlness]

(same as xylem's old girlfriend)

:biggrin:

 

[immunoboy7]

My Tyan Tiger S2460 with dual Athlon XP 1800+. It is 10+ years old, and froze on me once in seven years of use. My daughter now uses it to play kiddie games on PBS and Nick. Works well for that.

 

[Turbopit]

I have fond memories about my old C300. I had paid a friend who has/had a home IT business to build my first computer for me. It was based around a celeron 266. Within a month I had spent so much time o the internet learning about computers that I decided to get the new Celeron 300 and overclocked it to 504. I had grown up working on cars so tinkering with that first computer provided some of the same feelings for nights when I couldn't be out in the garage.

 

[DaveSimmons]

I hate to throw away working parts that are now "too slow" for anyone to want -- I had to do that with a perfectly fine socket 370 1.3 GHz mobo/CPU that was in my old music server after I had no takers at $29 shipped in FS/FT.

It would have made a great gaming system 8 years ago, now it's considered junk

 

[corkyg]

There is an old saying among horsemen . . . never fall in love with your horse - it will keep you from getting a better one. I learned from that mistake, and can now smile and say, I have never bonded with my computers.

 

[MentalIlness]

OP,

I have that same motherboard still here. A8R32 MVP Deluxe. However the CPU I had for it was a Athlon 3500+. And yes, I agree that I have a little sentimental value to my hardware.

I have

A8R32 MVP Deluxe
ABIT AN8
Gigabyte 7VAXP

Radeon 9600
Radeon 9800 Pro
Radeon X800 Pro
Radeon X1800XL
Radeon X1900GT
BFG 7900GTX OC
EVGA 8800GTS 640
EVGA 7600GT CO
Radeon HD 3870
EVGA 9800GTX
2 x HD 6870

I doubt id ever sell'em. Dont know why, just wouldnt. I guess they would make a great wall plaque.

EDIT: Forgot to add. I bought the A8R32 a few days after it launched, and a year ago, one of the caps started leaking. Was out of warranty to replace. So yea, it could happen. Other than that, it ran flawless the entire time.

 

[Zap]

I find that some old hardware has sentimental value to me and that I don't want to part with it.
...
Do any of you folks have similar thoughts, feelings, or inappropriate emotional responses about any old hardware that you just can't part with, or would love to track down again?

I do have some old hardware with sentimental value, but if I really had to I would get rid of them. What I have is an old Abit BH6 motherboard (custom BIOS with Quake III logo) with a Pentium III CPU, SoundBlaster AWE64 Gold sound card, Voodoo3 3000 and Voodoo 5 5500, some VIA C3 CPUs (with dead mobos with bulging caps), an old NVIDIA dual GPU card (maybe dual 6600GTs on one PCB?), Chaintech AV-710 sound cards, Turtle Beach Santa Cruz sound card...

But yeah, sentimental only to an extent.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

I have an old Asus P4T 533 C Rambus board and 3.06Ghz netburst (northwood) system that I can't part with. Day of Defeat days (kustom kettle server administrator) I killed alot of people on that system with the K98, MP44, etc.

I also can't part with my un-abused Q9650 system. 8g DDR2 900 CL4 @ 1.9v, Asus Premium P45