What do you do with your old PC parts?

[Grummgug]

I still have my Commodore Vic-20 I got in the 80s in the closet somewhere.

[Independent voter]

I've sold some on ebay but didn't like having to box stuff up and ship. I leave computer stuff in the alley and it disappears. I suspect computer gnomes.

[Tuor]

Like someother have said, i have some trouble throwing my stuff away, the good news is that i don't change my equipment that often. But i always try to give them a use to old machines. Used my old k6 computer as my main machine until around 2006, after that i started running old games there (mostly Dos based games), my old P4 (which i got 2nd hand after the K6) is currently equiped with a TV tunner, and i still use it often, and my main machine which i use for everything else .

[Sole-Warrior]

keep them in a box, sell them 30-40 years later as antiques for several hundred dollars (Inflation adjusted) to get my money back.

[moremana]

I give them to my kids, they are all in their mid to late twenties, they usually just play D3, wow, and lol, so my last years equipment is more than enough for them.

[Torus]

I made a 2nd PC from my old spare parts and hooked it up to the flatscreen in the living room for watching Netflix.

With old broken hard drives, I open them up for the super powerful magnets. Those things are so strong you could practically break a finger if you let 2 of them smash together. Fun!

[haxartus]

I sell them, unless they are really cheap, in which case I keep them for testing. I have some really useless stuff, like DDR400 RAM, a semi-broken 350W PSU (causing random restarts) and a Pentium 4 CPU. I even have a floppy drive, even though I haven't seen a motherboard that supports the intefrace in years.

[kendro1200]

I've kept most of my old parts. Every now and then someone I know has something that breaks and if I have a part that can hold them over until they can pick up a replacement then I lend it out. I still have my first computer in my closet, it was an old laptop from 1992 complete with its expansion docking port, with a video card in said dock to let it connect it to a good old monitor. It'd take a lot to get me to throw away or sell off old parts, particularly after I heard a story about a professor that was trying to consolidate all of their old work as they were retiring, and had some old punch cards with programs. Unfortunately the only place that had a card reader was some place in Texas, and they had to ship it over to California at a hefty price (for shipping and the renting fee). Moral of the lesson, either constantly keep your stuff backed up on the latest medium, or keep a means to access all of that old information. If you pick the latter, you can occasionally rent it out in a couple of decades at a hefty price.

[Deleted]

Yea but why do you need if you have a better, newer one. Just turn it on for nostalgic reasons from time to time? I mean if it just sits in some corner and collects dusts, it's still useless clutter and old PCs aren't very decorative either.

I keep atleast 1 pc backup, you can always be unlucky with your newest pc breaking down.

[Dedweight]

Depends on the parts, old working PCI-E GPU's, RAM, HDD's, PSU's or Monitors I'll hold onto just in case one of those fail. Old CPU's and Motherboards I'll generally take them to be recycled.

[Deleted]

I keep atleast 1 pc backup, you can always be unlucky with your newest pc breaking down.

Well I got my laptop for that and it that breaks down too, I suppose I could always use my phone. But yea, that actually happened with the current one, it didn't start because of the faulty motherboard. They wanted to take it into warranty but I asked for a new one or money back because there was no way I was gonna wait for 2 week till they fix my brand new product.

[Kellhound]

Including premade PCs, laptops, smartphones..?

It's soon time to upgrade and I have no idea what to do with my old parts. If they were really outdated and worthless, I'd just throw them into garbage but I don't think I5 2500k and 24" monitors etc. are quite there yet. so what do you guys usually do with them? Throw them away, try to sell them(is it worth it and how much of a hassle is it?), store them in your attic?

I have not retire a computer since the late 90s. I give them away or use them for something else. My mom still has my 266 MMX powered laptop.....

[Deleted]

Whoa, someone got out of the bed on the wrong foot this morning..

Sorry, did I sound angry? : ( I didn't mean to sound angry : (

[Solidsteel]

Make new machines from parts I've scavenged from my old rigs and friends. Then I stick them in my basement or let a family member use them.

[Nathiest]

Pile it up in my bedroom and let it collect dust. Why what do you do with it?

[Deleted]

I've saved all I have, but then I've not had that many different setups. I've saved them mainly because dumping them will cost a bit and here you have to take them to the dumpsite, and it's a whole big thing. So, I've got a few PCs I could run as Linux servers or something. I still love the way PCs are all modular, as opposed to Macs where you just buy one thing and you're stuck with it.

[Notchris]

I generally use them to build/upgrade PCs for people I know who can't afford a new one.

[Tisane]

We keep them, give them away (or rarely sell them). We have quite some second-hand computers, parts, smartphones, printers, audio equipment and tons of cables in our storage. Sometimes we re-use the computers or their parts, in case one of our (relatives') PCs break down. Same counts for smartphones. (Especially since phone-companies here usually don't give you a temporary phone in case yours has to go for a fix, or you get a really, REALLY crappy one.) We lend the printers to others. We switch or use the old audio equipment depending what we need it for. And almost all our old cables are exchangeable with new PC/Printer/Audio/Phone cables. If the old stuff is damaged or broken, then we throw it away of course. Takes some space, but it's a nice money saver and a helping hand.

[Denkou]

Why not sell them? It sure beats throwing them away, and you get some money out of it, too.

If you must throw them away, please at least properly recycle them.

[Drsolders]

Either sell them or save them and build a new pc with it. I ended upgrading my pc, and used the mobo/ram/gpu/hdd/case to build my brother a pc he just had to fill in the PSU/CPU