Cleaning Out the Old PC Stuff

from JoeUser Forums

As part of my end of the year routine, I started cleaning out my office which was in worse shape than I originally thought.  First order of business was heading to the closet and cleaning out my “PC stuff” box.  This box has a collection of items dating back several years.  Much of it is old cables, hard drives, and various PC related parts that I collected while building or fixing PC’s.

I found all kinds of stuff, but quite a bit of it I was able to keep, as it will come in handy for future upgrades.  This was the result of my cleaning, with my keep and trash piles.

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63,409 views 30 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

I keep meaning to sort through my box'o'PSUs, cables, drives, and bits and dump the oldest machines from the closet as well, but keep having other things to do :p

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

but keep having other things to do
End of quote

WoW is evil like that, innit. }:)

TouchTasks - Access tasks with ease on Windows touchscreens.
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top

  :thumbsup:

Move to Michigan.  It's real incentive to get rid of crap.  o_O

Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting Zubaz, reply 3
 

Move to Michigan.  It's real incentive to get rid of crap. 
End of Zubaz's quote

Have no fear....there's always more, and think of all the great crap waiting to be collected there....and the stuff that'll graduate into 'crap' status while there...

Here...take 5 and have a laugh at this: George Carlin's "Stuff" 

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

I have those speakers ^_^

I threw out a large bulk of cables once.  It had some old stuff in it that I 'knew' I'd never us again.    Then I got stuck with an old TV and I needed all my cables to survive a weekend, but had none of them (actually I was able to manage, but that isn't the point.  It would have been much easier if I kept my trash)

Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top

I just got rid of my old computer. My new stuff should be coming today :D

 

I'm so happy :'(

Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top

Hold off on being happy until you turn it on and it doesn't 'splode. ;)

Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top

Yeah, tell me about it. I have my old PC components in the closet. And by old I don't mean just previous. I mean... A Cyrix 200 CPU(with MMX!!!)... Today, it's slower than my cell phone... an ancient 3.2 GB hard drive...  Damn, that's less than a DVD! I'm talking JUNK! Why can't I get rid of this!?

Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top

I just rebuilt my system ... I have the same problem ... I have a habit of

collecting old hardware and stick it on the shelf for future use.  :borg:

 

I also, update my hardware WAY TOO much ... :erk:   I figure it's time

to slow down ...  Most likely I'll clean up my older hardware as soon

as I get some free time .. B)  

Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top

I actually threw away a gallon size ziplock bag of old DIMM and SIMM that I'd been holding on to "just in case"

I did keep my first 40 MB HD with Win 3.1 and AOL on it for "old times sake".  :)

Reply #11 from WinCustomize Forums Top

i guess im one of the tidy people..ive nothing to throw away. well i did give away unused package of DVD+R disks to friend..

Reply #12 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting The_Regicide, reply 8
Yeah, tell me about it. I have my old PC components in the closet. And by old I don't mean just previous. I mean... A Cyrix 200 CPU(with MMX!!!)... Today, it's slower than my cell phone... an ancient 3.2 GB hard drive...  Damn, that's less than a DVD! I'm talking JUNK! Why can't I get rid of this!?
End of The_Regicide's quote

 

the thrash can can work

Reply #13 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting The_Regicide, reply 8
Yeah, tell me about it. I have my old PC components in the closet. And by old I don't mean just previous. I mean... A Cyrix 200 CPU(with MMX!!!)... Today, it's slower than my cell phone... an ancient 3.2 GB hard drive...  Damn, that's less than a DVD! I'm talking JUNK! Why can't I get rid of this!?
End of The_Regicide's quote

 

and BTW thats even an worst pc than my self made mini pc

Reply #14 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Quoting Thrawn2787, reply 6
I just got rid of my old computer. My new stuff should be coming today

 

I'm so happy
End of Thrawn2787's quote

...

Don't you ever do that again.

You only get rid of the old one after the new one works.

Quoting Zubaz, reply 10
I actually threw away a gallon size ziplock bag of old DIMM and SIMM that I'd been holding on to "just in case"

I did keep my first 40 MB HD with Win 3.1 and AOL on it for "old times sake". 
End of Zubaz's quote

-8MB 33MHZ SIMM
-300bps modem
-30MB HDD with 3.1
-133MHZ P1

Not all from the same system, obviously, but those are the oldest components I have lying around.  And I've got a 13" floppy drive around here somewhere...

Reply #15 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I've got about 3 boxes to go through.  I have a hard time getting rid of anything.  I may need that...

Reply #16 from WinCustomize Forums Top

My system decided to turn the newest bits into 'trash'.....a new PCI-USB card decided to lose the little white bit in the USB female....and spike and kill the system requiring a hard reset....

On its way out it took with it the USB HD TV Tuner that I'd had for about a week.

I'm not impressed.

Reply #17 from Stardock Forums Top

Not all from the same system, obviously, but those are the oldest components I have lying around. And I've got a 13" floppy drive around here somewhere...
End of quote
I can beat that.  I have cassettes from the apple ][ with linear notes on where to fast forward to to run each app.  I no longer have a cassette player and apple to run them . . but I can't bear to throw them out.

My wife and I had significant "discussions" on my keeping the Apple ][c while preparing to move.  I won because I could prove that it worked.  :)  (I also got to enjoy playing MS Flight Simulator)

Reply #18 from Sins Forums Top

You owe me a new pair of eyes, Zubaz.

Reply #19 from Sins Forums Top

Ah, MS Flight Simulator... The proof that even Apples are IBM compatible :P

BTW, I have 4 gigs of ram in my new machine and... the disturbing thing is, I have more than that in my box-o-ram. I have a 1GB DDR2 stick three 512MB DDR2 sticks, two 256MB DDR1 sticks, eight 128MB sticks of varying generations and, half a dozen 32s and 16s. About 80% of what I listed doesn't work. About 40% of those are obviously disfucntional, being cracked, melted or whatever. OK, I think it's time I go get rid of my stuff. And it's fitting, too, since tomorrow it's the Three Wise Men... I'll go present gifts to the trash bin :p

Reply #20 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

I can beat that. I have cassettes from the apple ][ with linear notes on where to fast forward to to run each app. I no longer have a cassette player and apple to run them . . but I can't bear to throw them out.

My wife and I had significant "discussions" on my keeping the Apple ][c while preparing to move. I won because I could prove that it worked. (I also got to enjoy playing MS Flight Simulator)
End of quote

It's only got 5 1/4"s.  :P

Also, what the hell, I can't seem to 1) find anything stating that a 13" ever existed, or 2) find my 13".  (Not that I'm terribly worried about the latter; I know it's in a box somewhere, I just haven't seen the box in a year or three.  Nor have I looked that hard today.)

WHO PURGED MY FLOPPY FROM THE UNIVERSE?!

Reply #21 from Demigod Forums Top

I think everyone has this problem. My dad threw out the first computer he bought the other day, and I had to stop him from trying to salvage a 2 GB hard drive. "This cost me £180". We did get some handy drive bay screws out of it though. "Should I keep a floppy drive? What if my other floppy drives break and no-one sells them anymore?", "It's true, you might never be able to use your Windows 95 emergeancy boot disk again!"

486 dx2 66, the height of technology for a little while.

Of course I can't really talk - there's still a Commodore 64 with a broken power brick in my wardrobe.

Reply #22 from WinCustomize Forums Top

LOL.....getting a great chuckle reading through this. Through the years, I have purged much of my old puters and parts. Actually sold my IBM 486 *pause...think....*yeah, had to be the 486....for $25 buck, cause he wanted something to dink around with. I do still have my 8 year old Gateway, but I don't know why. It crashed hard, and I am unable to get into it. Some day, though, I may be able to clean it up, and let the kids bang away at it, as it has XP on it. We'll see.....LOL

Reply #23 from Sins Forums Top

I am envious of all you people who had 486s and Commodores and... earlier stuff... I'm such a late bloomer  :'(

Reply #24 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I actually threw away a gallon size ziplock bag of old DIMM and SIMM that I'd been holding on to "just in case"
End of quote

Oh noes!!  8C I make key chain fobs otta my old ram modules, great conversation pieces for people that have know idea what they are. ID, your not throwing that anti-static bag away are you?  :grin:

Reply #25 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

It wasn't my stuff, but I just cleaned out the basement storage area at work. I don't know enough about old electronics to tell you exactly what that crap was, but I know it was obsolete in the 70s and some jackass kept it when we changed buildings 12 years ago. Piles of 5 1/4 floppies, stand-alone drives for them, cables for things no one remembers, a section of cabinets badly burned in an explosion 10 years ago (sadly, that's not a joke), a gas chromatograph that's too radioactive to throw away but too expensive to dispose of properly, records of faculty searches from 20 years ago, and more.

To give some perspective, we have chemicals from the 40s and glassware from the 1890s that people just won't let us throw away. Unfortunately, the state "ethics" rules (lol Illinois) won't let us sell the stuff on eBay, where it's worth quite a bit.