# Junk Yard Computers



## Chanticleer (Dec 4, 2008)

I have this tendency to scavenge old computer parts from all kinds of places (friends' old boxes, roadside dumpings, salvage yards) and assemble them into moderately powerful machines. I call them "junk yard" computers.

They aren't high end gaming rigs or anything (though the fastest computer currently in my house was upgraded with several salvaged components), but I really think they're worth the time and kind of neat. 

I was wondering if anyone else out there had a passion for salvaged or refurbished computers?


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## Skittle (Dec 4, 2008)

I would love to do that! I love stuff like that.


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## Lowblock (Dec 4, 2008)

If I could, I'd give this 10 year old laptop.

6 gigs, 933 MHZ Pentium 3 processor, FLOPPY DRIVE (OMFG), and a bunch of other OLD stuff.

The screen lags like crap, the mouse leaves behind trails that are nto wanted, and cannot be fixed.


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## Chanticleer (Dec 4, 2008)

Lowblock said:


> If I could, I'd give this 10 year old laptop.
> 
> 6 gigs, 933 MHZ Pentium 3 processor, FLOPPY DRIVE (OMFG), and a bunch of other OLD stuff.
> 
> The screen lags like crap, the mouse leaves behind trails that are nto wanted, and cannot be fixed.



Actually, floppies are kind of neat if you get the hang of them.

They don't store much, but they're really cheap these days and can take a beating, thus they're nice for sharing old files with friends. Also, if you get a drive and scavenge old floppies, you can bump into a lot of neat stuff, (I've found everything from old games to journals.) Oh, and a bootable diskette can be a lifesaver.


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## X (Dec 4, 2008)

the only computer parts i have found were broken.


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## Runefox (Dec 4, 2008)

Oh, of course!

My router (router/proxy):

-pfSense (BSD-based)
-Pentium 3 Socket 370 800MHz CPU
-192MB PC-100 RAM
-6GB HDD
-Creative 24x CD-ROM (not working)
-AOpen MX3W PRO Motherboard
-2x TP-Link Gigabit Ethernet Cards (Realtek RTL-8169 chips)

My "Gaming Rig":

-Windows 95B OSR2 w/USB Support (mostly used for DOS mode, but runs Starcraft nicely)
-Intel 486 DX4/100
-4GB HDD
-32MB RAM
-1MB Trident ISA VGA Card
-Sound (one of the following):
-->Creative CT2290 SoundBlaster 16 ISA (onna these guys)
-->Eagle/ESS ES1868 ISA PnP AudioDrive w/ESFM (beautiful FM MIDI! =D)
-->Crystal CS4232 AW32 ISA w/HW Wavetable+OPL synth (awesome card)
-Mitsumi 24x "Quad Speed" CD-ROM (sounds like a fighter jet taking off! =D)
-Unknown IBM PS/2 Motherboard
-3Com NIC of some sort (can't recall)


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## mmrr24 (Dec 4, 2008)

"If I could, I'd give this 10 year old laptop."
HA! My Toshiba ist 15 years old! SALVAGED OUT OF A DUMPSTER!!!!
Worked fine, all I had to do was plug it in... I love free stuff!


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## Nanakisan (Dec 4, 2008)

best computer i ever rebuilt

hmmm

1986 TRS-80 III
dual 5-1/2 floppy drives
Dos 5.1 with BASIC

built in BW/monitor
integrated 8bit sound
ability to expand to tape cassette player and have internal HD

uses the z-80 processor
aka Zilog 80
heres a link to what it was used for
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z80
lol

best part is

the computer still works
even the drives


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## Irreverent (Dec 4, 2008)

Chanticleer said:


> I was wondering if anyone else out there had a passion for salvaged or refurbished computers?



Somewhere in a rack, I have an old Compaq Deskpro III (386, 150mb hdd, 10/half ethernet via AUI) running Xenix (pre-linux variant that ran on an 8086 in '86).  Every now and then I stumble on a floppy disk that I need to get a old config file off.  A lot of old IBM protocol converts still running in production too.


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## hyprthecat (Dec 5, 2008)

www.freecycle.org is also a good source, find your local chapter, none the less I have done the same, I built one entirely out of old parts and gave it to my mom, however its time to upgrade that one and whatnot.


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## rollabottom (Dec 5, 2008)

my first computer was a "junk box" computer - it was cobbled together from 3-4 broken computers i inherited.  I had to break down and buy a NIC for it.  Ended up putting a half dozen different Linux distros on it and playing a whole lot.  It was pretty much worthless, the it was a great learning experience.


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## net-cat (Dec 5, 2008)

My current system has parts of varying age. The floppy drive is actually from a computer my family bought in 1995.

A couple years ago, I threw/gave away anything that was under 1GHz, though.


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## CyberFoxx (Dec 5, 2008)

Heh, old hardware? I got tons of old hardware. Two of my servers are made from mostly "old" hardware.

Gateway/Firewall (Oni):
Intel Celeron 333 (Mendocino) (Slot 1)
ASUS P2L97 Motherboard
2x128MB PC-133 DIMMs
2xD-Link 530TX 10/100 NICs
Voodoo 3
WD 10GB

Fileserver/Mythbackend (Bonaparte):
Intel Pentium III 450 (Katmai) (Slot 1)
ASUS P3B-F Motherboard
4x128MB PC-133 DIMMs
SMC 10/100 NIC
Hauppauge PVR-150
ATI Rage IIc
Promise PATA Controller
On-board PATA:IBM 13GB
2xWD 8GB (Pulled from two XBoxes)​Promise PATA:WD 120GB
Maxtor 160GB
Seagate 250GB​I still have several Socket-7 boards laying around here, along with CPUs. And a bucket full of Slot-1 CPUs as well.


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## Nanakisan (Dec 5, 2008)

CyberFoxx said:


> Heh, old hardware? I got tons of old hardware. Two of my servers are made from mostly "old" hardware.
> 
> Gateway/Firewall (Oni):
> Intel Celeron 333 (Mendocino) (Slot 1)
> ...





*does a blank stare and drools over the voodoo 3


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## amtrack88 (Dec 7, 2008)

My room is stacked with them.

P4 2.6GHz Sony Vaio
P 90Mhz Techmedia Intel 430HX w/Windows 2000 (currently dead, I think the memory is bad. Though its nice that this system can use either EDO or SDRAM, though system limitations cap it a 64MB)
P3 800MHz Compaq Presario
P3 750MHz Intel 810 system w/Windows 98 (This one was an amazing find, it had never been booted before. So upon boot, i was asked for user information. I had a 500MHz Celeron and 32MB of memory, upgraded to a 750 Pentium and 128MB.)
P3 700MHz Intel 440 system with w/Win Server 2003 (This one actually runs as my web server)
AMD 800MHz slot A system w/Windows 2000 (another one a friends dad gave to me)
P3 1GHz Compaq Presario 2700 laptop (a friends grandmother gave this to me when the harddrive failed and she didn't want to fix it. A new disk cost me 50 dollars to replace and it was good as new. The battery even holds a charge for up to 2 hours, amazing for a 7 year old laptop)
Apple Macintosh SE/30 (1989) (Found this on on the side of the street. Sports a 20MB drive and a 3.5 inch 1.44MB floppy drive. Boots normally and is actually quite usable, I've played Sim Earth on it)
Tandy 1000SX w/DOS 3.2 booted from floppy (1986) [another I found on the street, was an entire set. Had the Monitor, the printer, keyboard, two joysticks, and lots of software (including Zork 2, which is awesome)]


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## TheComet (Dec 7, 2008)

My computers are generally like that, I use alot of older parts and get it up to par with somewhat up to date computers, combined with a few bought parts.

The only part I won't scavenge are the hard drives, too risky to put work on an old hard drive that may die at any given moment


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## TheQuestion (Dec 8, 2008)

I love building computers with the old parts i have, built 5, gave 2 away, and sold one. 

The only problem is that even after you set it up for the person they, somehow some way **** it up.


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## balancedmind (Jan 3, 2009)

What I enjoy about old computers is getting them to work for me- laptop I'm typing this on is an older Dell Latitude. It has a P3, a 45 gig HDD and an Nvidia Geforce 2 Go. It's a decommissioned military unit- they had to wipe it before I could get it. Running Win 2k- works great. Has plenty of space for music and a few movies... I also got a Gateway P4 desktop from them with an 80 gig HDD- I turned it into a backup server/torrent box. uTorrent's web ui is a godsend- I can upload torrents remotely, and when they're finished, FTP to the box and pull the files off. Don't have to mess with flash drives. Helluva lot faster, too, laptop doesn't have USB 2.0...

...where was I? Oh yeah. I live near an Air Force base; I had a summer job there and they had a bunch of older hardware (3-5 yrs old) that they were getting rid of with the hardware upgrade cycle they do. They give it to some NGO who turns it around to schools... but I nudged the arm of the guy in charge and he was happy to give those two computers away. My advice is to ask around at local medium to large businesses- see if they've got "old" hardware they want to unload. They probably do- but you have to talk to the right person in their IT department. I got lucky, and I worked with the person to talk with.


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## Koda (Jan 3, 2009)

I have a pile of franken computers in my basement actually. Nabbed one from a dumpster, nabbed another that was going into a dumpster, got some parts ones from family/friends, rebuild em, and usually give them to others who need em. There's still one unit which I'm gonna throw on ebay or give to the salvation army. And then 2 empty cases which had like Pentium 1s and 2s. 

Actually, I spent most of today rebuilding a server, and another HUGE machine. Both somewhat decent, one is a P4@2.5 GHz, the other is a PIII@1.0GHz. Got another box which runs my Linux gateway that was an old HP Kayak XU, with 2x PII@450MHz. 

I like re-purposing old things.

I've only recently thrown out 5 CRTs I had, as I'm slowly replacing them with LCDs


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