Sucker for old hardware

[ThoughtVelocity]

I just got an old Compaq Deskpro with an additional extra 500MHz processor from our IT guy at work, free and clear. I know it is nothing special, but damn how I love tinkering with this older gear. However my wife is sure to look at me funny when I come walking in the door tonight with this thing! Well, she knew what she was getting into when she married me, right?

Anyone else share my affliction?

[onlinebacon]

Yep!!

I got around 3-4 old boxen, dad brought em home from work, from the skip outside, we also got around 8 p4's wrong model for the company, we have a fully updated family now

[antidrugue]

Mouhaha, fow suw.

I love getting my hands dirty with some old piece of hardware (I usually get them for free). Right now I have 4 spare computers (all p3, between 450mhz and 1ghz). Most of the time I have to repair them a little, then I can give them to whoever I please.

Yop, I like that.

[drakebasher]

When I leave the office in the evening, I walk the long way around the block to see what's been left for trash pick-up. Last night I walked away from a Compaq box with an Athlon CPU, but I was tempted. Two weeks ago I pulled a nice small Compaq from a dumpster: I added some ram and have Debian running on it now. I have 6 working boxes and only one that I paid for (from eBay). My network is hooked together with a 24-port SMC EZ Switch that a friend recovered and the network is wired mostly with a 50 foot long ethernet cable I found and cut down. My HP 870Cse printer and (2) 17" NEC monitors came from trash as did my main 57k modem. My best find has a 1.3GHz AMD Duron, 500Mb RAM, 40Mb hard drive, DVD ROM, CD/RW and Windows XP*. I carry a screwdriver in my satchel just for scavenging. I'm gonna go wash my hands, now.


*I think that machine was thrown out because it was shutting down right after loading Windows: re-setting the CPU heatsink with good heat transfer compound fixed that.

[onlinebacon]

Wouldn't want to get caught with that screwdriver, concealing a weapon or that is what it would look like.

/me wanders off to look for gold garbage

[Game master pro]

Everyone here that thinks old is 500mghz sucks =(, i wish i had a computer that good, and yes i love old (which is not 500mghz, my computer is only 366 >:{) stuff, every year the local boy scouts hold an auction that has thousands of computer, i usually buy like 20 whoo, most of them are actually pretty good, its all donated stuff, and you might need to tinker with it, make it work. install linux XD.

[ExpertBeginner]

I just can’t bring myself to throw out or ‘get rid of’ an old computer. Even things considered ‘old’ these days like Pentium 2’s and 3’s, are really powerful, and can still do so much. It’s just that technology speeds ahead at such a rate, that something that was top notch a few years ago is rendered obsolete very quickly.

Anything 200mhz + is quick to me, so when people start chucking away ‘old 1ghz’ machines that are ‘too old to do anything with’ I think to myself ‘what a waste of perfectly good technology’ – sure it can’t run the latest 3D games, or the latest bloated office software, but it can do so much more, and that’s good enough for me. You just gotta run the software it was designed to run.

[jaboua]

Nice! Just last night, I found the old pentium2 lappie again and the whole charger (I had been looking for it, I only found half last time...). Now, I'll see if I can get it on net again, last time I connected it to the internet I has ISDN

Now, I need an ethernet card... And I'll have to see if I can get the flatpanel on the box working too, now the integrated one just makes weird noises and shows lots of flickering colours...

(it's a compaq armada 7400)

[bidi]

I also have my share of older hardware. A Gateway that came with a 500Mhz Celeron, and a custom built one with a 450Mhz PIII. Both of those have some sort of linux on them. Haven't turned them on in a while due to lack of time, not to mention space. Besides that, I have a 500Mhz K6-2 and 200Mhz P-MMX processors just sitting in one of those conductive bags. I also have a Compaq Contura Aero 4/33C, which came with a 33Mhz 486SX. Currently it just sits on my desk because I can't find the external floppy drive that came with it. I still turn it on every once in a while to play the original 3D first person game: Wolf 3D.

[geese]

got an old dell 33Mhz 386 and a 66Mhz 486.

Though the only thing I've been able to do with the 386 is play pacman.

I remember there was this 486 commercial that goes - "want to make your 386 fly . . . 486."