Old PC's--Anything Worth Salvaging?

[rayvt]

Maybe install Linux and donate it?

Even old machines run well with a basic Linux install. I use Xubuntu, which is fairly lightweight, but offers tons of configurations options that allow me to make it fit like a glove. But a straight default install is fine for most people too.

-ERD50

But an old, slow, obsolete computer is still slow even with Linux.

 

[rtroxel]

If you like to play around with Linux, then old PCs and equipment aren't necessarily a problem. For example, I was able to run a supposedly defunct Fujitsu ScanSnap ix500 scanner on Ubuntu, even though the Mac or PC drivers were no loger available. This saved me from having to purchase an ix1500 or later scanner.

In fact, I used to bring home 3-year-old PCs that my employers had decided to toss out, in the name of "progress" (having the latest and greatest, supposedly). I would install Linux (Red Hat, later Ubuntu) on them and be perfectly happy.

I recently tossed a PC that I had purchased in 2005, but only because the two hard drives were breaking down, and there seemed to be an overall slowness to everything. I did salvage a few cables, a mouse and keyboard.

Monitors are a different issue, however. As soon as flat-screens became available, I began tossing all my clunky CRT monitors!

Roy

 

[camfused]

Old PCs have a huge power draw vs newer mini PCs. From a green perspective, perhaps old PCs should just be disposed of (in a recycling fact), instead of reused for uses like routers or bitcoin mining.

 

[Duplex]

I've enjoyed reading this thread. I have a long reply to it.

I have quite the collection of old PCs my oldest is a Mac 512k. This was my grandfather's PC that he wrote his WORLD WAR II book on. It has the original software, boot, disk, carrying Case etc.

I have a Dell desktop computer that runs Windows XP and is the only computer I have that has Microsoft office. It has the 2003 version which is probably my favorite version. I really dig the clipart and a lot of the cool word processing plugins for words and graphics, etc. I have a number of old applications that are on that computer. No gaming though and no video. It's just a cool snapshot of that time. I got it used in 2008 from a friend for free and it was the first computer that was my computer. I never hooked it up online and I just did a lot of journaling and writing. It has Britannica encyclopedia on it which was really cool for looking stuff up. I had dial up at the time and we had just one family computer so this was a real life line for information and using technology. It still runs today.

I was kind of like mainframe kid in high school only on a much much smaller scale. I picked up a bunch of junk computers that people didn't want. I cleaned them up. I put Linux on them. I got them operational. I would donate them to individuals in need. Schools and non-profits do not want these computers. They would just see them as junk. But a number of individuals could utilize the computers. I also taught free computer classes at one point that I helped lower income and elderly people understand and use computers. They were the main people I gave the old computers to.

I have raspberry pis. I really like those computers. I have an original one and then I have a raspberry pi 400 that I have hooked up to the display with my windows XP machine. That display has both one HDMI port as well as one VGA. So it's nice that I could toggle inputs and bounce between the two.

I have a ton of old smartphones too. I mostly had cheap Motorola phones from older flip phones to the smart ones and it's interesting that they can be used as portable FM radios still and Wi-Fi devices. You can use Bluetooth chat to allow them to communicate to each other even without internet. You can run F-Droid and have them get software without having to be logged into the app store.

So much Computer technology is affordable especially 2nd hand It feels like Moore's law is alive and well...I think people give up on technology and gadgets because of what a disposable society we live in. And also the fact that these older devices don't have all the bells and whistles etc. So we just cast them aside like we do most consumer goods. But I feel like technology can really last so much longer than most People are willing to use it.

I have many more stories but I'll just leave it at this for now.

 

[HI Bill]

I tend to remove the old HDD and destroy it. In Hawaii, old cables are often corroded, and the motherboards and other components often have some oxidation. I recycle the whole thing. I once was able to resell a custom-built machine that was about 8 years old for less than $100, but that's probably not feasible now.

Two years ago, I build a powerhouse machine for video editing. I removed the HDDs from my old computer, and upgraded to SSDs (4TB X2 in RAID 1 mirroring). My wife is still using this machine, and it's working great. It even has a Blu-Ray reader/writing, which I've never used!

 

[USGrant1962]

Maybe install Linux and donate it?

Even old machines run well with a basic Linux install. I use Xubuntu, which is fairly lightweight, but offers tons of configurations options that allow me to make it fit like a glove. But a straight default install is fine for most people too.

-ERD50

YMMV, as someone around here always says.

As a computer hobbyist, every year or two I get a bug to install Linux on an old PC or laptop, usually Lubuntu or Mint. And every year or two I realize what a PITA it is. There is frequently something missing - usually drivers for a WiFi card or stick, graphics chip not recognized so it defaults to lowest rez, or peripherals (e.g., mouse pads) not recognized. About half of the time it works just fine. But the rest of the time you are plunged into that obscure apt-get and sudo stuff.

Fun stuff for a hobbyist, but not recommended for the casual user.

 

[indiajust]

BestBuy is the biggest recycler for electronics. I have dumped a river of all things corded and batteried in at least 3 states. Once I have completed file transfers, it all gets sold or donated. I got trade in value for some older apple stuff, everything else went to bestbuy.

 

[Old Microbiologist]

I also build computers and am loathe to throw away stuff. Old PC's are capable of running home servers such as OpenMediaVault to stream media and at least where I live it is still "legal" to have a torrent box running. Many people also build their own routers with complete security in them using operating systems like PFSense, OpnSense, or IPFire (I am using this currently but have played with all 3). I typically use small board computers (SBC) to run mini-servers and have a bunch of them doing different stuff, things like Pi-Hole or AdGuard Home (I use both). I bagged my OMV server and bought a cheap Chinese PC box with a small Celeron on which I run IPFire on. I have a Beelink PC (small box) also with a higher-end Celeron running Linux MX-21 and this is my media server, and torrent box plus serves as a Linux system for other homebrew stuff. I have 3 Raspberry Pi4s running Klipper for my 3 3D Printers. But, old PCs work just as well for all this stuff. The last PC I cast aside from normal use, worked for 3 years mining AltCoins using 3 GPUs and ended up earning me 3 Bitcoins. I bagged that when energy costs became insane and my wife was protesting the $500 a month extra. Bitcoins were $200 at the time so it didn't make sense. Who expected them to go to $60k? C'est la Vie!
Personally, I have a high-end PC I built running Windows 11 and a very old 2011 iMac I use for daily stuff like emails and web browsing. The PC is an energy hog as well so I tend to only turn it on when I need to actually do something serious like Video editing or testing out new programs. It also serves as a wireless PCVR server for my Oculus Quest 2. Used for VR painting using Vellum or sailing using Regatta VR.

Now I am getting seriously into AI stuff so the PC is back on mostly full-time. My son owns a company in Israel that is doing AI video enhancement and asked me to help him do some of the programming and backend stuff. So, now reading and testing a lot of stuff and then adapting OpenSource stuff for his company. This PC has an AMD Radeon RX5700XT GPU so very powerful. I will very likely change my iMac finally to a Mac mini with the new M2 processor. This iMac will go upstairs to the guest bedroom for guest use. I like to have both types of systems running. My wife is an Apple fanboy and has 3 iMacs running on her desk 2 of which are for Day Trading and the third for Adobe Photoshop stuff as she is an avid professional photographer. She also might be the best Photoshop/Lightroom user in the world and is sought out for her expertise all the time. These maniac photographers all have online photo sites so it is a large and close group. It keeps her busy when not Day Trading.

 

[target2019]

Old PCs have a huge power draw vs newer mini PCs. From a green perspective, perhaps old PCs should just be disposed of (in a recycling fact), instead of reused for uses like routers or bitcoin mining.

That is an important observation.

I replaced a 10-year old Fast Ethernet switch in my office. It consumed 40-50W.

The new Gigabit switch consumes about 10W.

From memory I think an old PC might typically consume 65 or more.

 

[Skitso999]

There is a market for older, working, PC's on eBay. If your PCs are functional, I would consider selling them on eBay after you've overwritten any personal data on the hard drives. You could also sell them without the hard drive for less money.

 

[ERD50]

YMMV, as someone around here always says.

As a computer hobbyist, every year or two I get a bug to install Linux on an old PC or laptop, usually Lubuntu or Mint. And every year or two I realize what a PITA it is. There is frequently something missing - usually drivers for a WiFi card or stick, graphics chip not recognized so it defaults to lowest rez, or peripherals (e.g., mouse pads) not recognized. About half of the time it works just fine. But the rest of the time you are plunged into that obscure apt-get and sudo stuff.

Fun stuff for a hobbyist, but not recommended for the casual user.

Definitely YMMV. I've installed a few different versions on 6 different pieces of hardware (5 laptops, one desktop), and didn't run into any significant compatibility issues. The biggest one, a while back was no out-of-the-box support for WiFi. But I hooked up a cable from the router to the Ethernet port (which few laptops seem to have these days), and it automatically downloaded the right WiFi driver, and I was good to go.

But there can be issues. When buying a new machine, I will do a search to see if there are any specific Linux support issues. But I've also put it on random machines w/o issue.

-ERD50

 

[Z3Dreamer]

Back in the day, I could build a PC from scratch or upgrade a CPU, hard drive, memory, video card, but these days - nothing. Even replacing the battery in a laptop requires way too many steps. My latest desktop purchase back in 2018 is the same. No open slots for memory, no bays for additional drives. Yes, I could swap out the existing memory cards. Yes, I could have purchased a mega-box but in my past PC boxes always had room.

I don't salvage any part from old PC's. I do remove the hard drive. In my old storage, I actually have hard drives from 2001. Yes, 22 years. I don't know if I have a cable. No, they are not MFM. Anybody remember that standard?

 

[qwerty3656]

Back in the day, I could build a PC from scratch or upgrade a CPU, hard drive, memory, video card, but these days - nothing.

My son just built a "gaming" PC - so it's still possible

 

[Ian S]

No, they are not MFM. Anybody remember that standard?

IDE was the old standard and used those wide thin cables. If you had two drives installed, you'd usually have to use pin jumpers to identify master and slave. Fun! My most recent desktop build is from circa 2015 and I think it was the first I built that had no IDE connectors only SATA. My earlier build had both IDE and SATA.

 

[statsman]

IDE was the old standard and used those wide thin cables.

I believe MFM drives re-dated IDE drives.

 

[Ian S]

Apparently, the difference between MFM and IDE drives is that MFM needed a separate controller while IDE drives had the controller built-in hence Integrated Drive Electronics. MFM is considerably older technology.

 

[Z3Dreamer]

MFM was in the 80's. IDE is practically brand new. 90's?

And you had to remove or add the mustard colored jumper. I forget why.

 

[statsman]

MFM was in the 80's. IDE is practically brand new. 90's?

And you had to remove or add the mustard colored jumper. I forget why.

I think with MFM you can have two hard drives per controller, and the jumper location determines whether a hard drive is a master or slave drive.

 

[target2019]

MFM was in the 80's. IDE is practically brand new. 90's?

And you had to remove or add the mustard colored jumper. I forget why.

Enable large block support?

Or forced it as the Master?

This is ancient history. But I like history.

 

[ncbill]

IDE was the old standard and used those wide thin cables. If you had two drives installed, you'd usually have to use pin jumpers to identify master and slave. Fun! My most recent desktop build is from circa 2015 and I think it was the first I built that had no IDE connectors only SATA. My earlier build had both IDE and SATA.

Don't forget dealing with termination issues with SCSI drives for those of us who went Mac instead...my first was the SE/30.

 

[Z3Dreamer]

Enable large block support?

Or forced it as the Master?

This is ancient history. But I like history.

I think the mustard jumper was for Slave/Master. And MFM's were massive in size and capacity (I am joking). I think they were at around 10MB. IDE was much later.

My initial PC that I severely modified was a speedy 286 processor. Was it the first dual core, that ran a 16 bit microprocessor? Today's processors seem to be 64 bit.

And who remembers those memory boards that would take up to 64 chips? You had to bend the ends of the chips to fit into the board and if you did any wrong, the whole board just wouldn't report. With this "new" technology, you could add an extra 1 MB of memory. Of course, the operating system of the day (DOS 2.x) could only use the first 640k. It would use this extra memory for something else.

And you had to back up data. But when you updated your operating system, the backups were no longer any good as the restore was not backward compatible. So, if you archived something on a DOS 2.x backup then upgraded your PC to Windows 3.0, those archived docs were not accessible.

 

[Z3Dreamer]

Another goody. On many programs today, the icon to save your file is a picture of a floppy disk. I suggest that most users of a certain age have never, ever seen a floppy disk. But I guess it is the accepted standard.

 

[Qs Laptop]

Another goody. On many programs today, the icon to save your file is a picture of a floppy disk. I suggest that most users of a certain age have never, ever seen a floppy disk. But I guess it is the accepted standard.

When you start looking for these sorts of anachronistic icons you see them all over.

Consider the phone icon on your smart phone typically shows the old style handset from the corded phone era.

The camera icon on many smartphones is an image of an SLR.

How about using an envelop for an icon for email?

Almost extinct now, but when your computer was busy, as when it was transferring files, the icon was an hourglass.