What to do with old computer parts?

[Mtt48]

Over the past 25 years or so a giant collection of old computer parts have been quietly collecting dust in my parents basement. I have a huge collection of old computers, old CPUs, GPUs, modems, anything you can think of really.

I was wondering if there is any value in all of this stuff. I am thinking particularly any gold on the hardware that could be melted down and sold (cash for gold baby!!). Has anyone done this and is there any value at all in it?

Thanks

[Rathji]

probably not

[The Yen Man]

I take mine to Staples and recycle it. I doubt there is much value in any old computer stuff. What use can there possibly be for it?

[Hanni]

No. The reason you pay an eco fee on new electronics is to subsidize the recycling of old electronics. The effort required to get the metals out of them is not financially viable on it's own, so the industry is subsidized to keep them out of landfills.

[Mtt48]

So I still have to go to work on Monday? Damnit!

[Hack&Lube]

Some of it could be valued by collectors. Some could be valued by vintage computer enthusiasts who need parts. Don't toss it all indiscriminately. I would toss most things from the mid-90s onward (take to Staples for recycling).

You'd probably kill yourself first with the heat and acid and caustic chemicals needed to get gold out of old electronics.

[Hack&Lube]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Pent...item19caa15883

Pentium 200MMX system sold for $160 lol

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Pent...item19caa15883

Pentium 200MMX system sold for $160 lol

Just looking at some of the other similar auctions....what an insane, overpriced niche market. Since when are yesteryears junkers today's "vintage gaming systems".

I wish I'd thought of it

cool link though, thanks for sharing that

[TorqueDog]

Man, makes me wish I still had my machine from high school. Celeron-A 333MHz processor (overclocked to 416 MHz), 640 MB of SDRAM, and an ATI All-in-Wonder Pro with a Diamond Monster Voodoo2 12MB daughtercard. I could have sold it as a 'vintage semi-enthusiast PC'.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by TorqueDog

Man, makes me wish I still had my machine from high school. Celeron-A 333MHz processor (overclocked to 416 MHz), 640 MB of SDRAM, and an ATI All-in-Wonder Pro with a Diamond Monster Voodoo2 12MB daughtercard. I could have sold it as a 'vintage semi-enthusiast PC'.

I'm actually staring at my Pentium III 450 and my Pentium 200 MMX CPUs right now as they have been sitting under my monitor for some months. I can't bring myself to extract my AMD 386 from it's motherboard. I keep telling myself I will rebuild it one day.

[Mtt48]

I remember buying 4 mb of ram for my 486 25mhz PC for like 350$ 20 years ago so I could speed up Doom 2. I still have all of that stuff.

I have an old 286 with an on/off switch that seriously goes from the front of the case and has a long green plastic stick type of thing that reaches all the way to the back of the case to toggle the actual on/off switch on the computer. It looks so ridiculous.

[sclitheroe]

The Olivetti 8086 clones were the best, because they had NEC v20 chips running at 10mhz - not your standard 8 mhz like all the other clones. Sped up gorilla.bas something fierce

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

The Olivetti 8086 clones were the best, because they had NEC v20 chips running at 10mhz - not your standard 8 mhz like all the other clones. Sped up gorilla.bas something fierce

Man, I wish I had Qbasic right now, nibbles and gorilla are calling me!

[TorqueDog]

I had a book as thick as an encyclopedia on programming in QBasic. What memories.

[The Yen Man]

Man, I didn't know they had a market for these things. It makes me wish I kept my old 386SX-16. It was glorious with it's 4MB of RAM, 8 bit soundcard (fancy!), and 80MB HD. It even had a snazzy turbo button that made it go from a paltry 10MHz to a whopping 16! Ah, good times.

[TorqueDog]

I had a Sound Blaster AWE32 ISA sound card... those things were the dog's bollocks back in the day.

[photon]

Kijiji + "Free" in listing = gone in 24 hours, no driving to Staples or electronics recycling required.

I just did this with a bunch of stuff, floppy drives, IDE CD-ROM drives, etc.

[bc-chris]

Originally Posted by Mtt48

Over the past 25 years or so a giant collection of old computer parts have been quietly collecting dust in my parents basement. I have a huge collection of old computers, old CPUs, GPUs, modems, anything you can think of really.

I was wondering if there is any value in all of this stuff. I am thinking particularly any gold on the hardware that could be melted down and sold (cash for gold baby!!). Has anyone done this and is there any value at all in it?

Thanks

you could always try this.....

[MaDMaN_26]

You can also recycle at best buy. Door greeter guy will take it from you... I took a crap load on a cart to them, and ya he pointed to a spot near the entrance door and said just leave it all there.