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What Do You Do With Old Computer Parts?

Posted by Hemos on from the donate-throw-'em-rebuild-'em dept.

yoyoma writes "I am planning to rebuild our desktop computers. What do other slashdotters do with old computer parts? I would prefer to donate them. These are some old parts that I will end up with: two GA-686LX motherboards with PII 233, greater than 224 MB RAM (the new computers will take DDR), some video cards (Matrox) and possibly two ATX cases with 300 watts powersupplies (looking for quieter, smaller cases). Decent enough, but they will have no hard drives, floppy drives, or CD drives. TecsChange, and this other place accept donation of parts. Has anyone done this? What about the receipts for tax purposes?"

5 of 389 comments (clear)

  1. Computer Renassaince (sp?) by FortKnox · · Score: 4, Interesting

    There is a store (in Cincinnati, at least) called "Computer Renassance" (bad spelling, I know) that buys old computer parts. It isn't hundreds of dollars for the old stuff, but its cash.

    Plus, its nice to buy some old stuff (like 200Mhz motherboard/chip) for linux boxen from the store for cheap...

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    Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
    1. Re:Computer Renassaince (sp?) by Lxy · · Score: 5, Interesting

      You're kidding, right? Computer Renassaince is the worst place to buy or sell stuff. They have nice low end PII systems that cost MORE than an E-machine with 17" monitor. They don't give you decent cash for hardware and they sell it for rediculous prices. My local CR has a nice area I call the "legacy scrap heap", a place where you can buy REALLY old hardware at the price it's worth. 486 CPUs for 99 cents, 30 pin SIMMS, etc. Otherwise if it's on the shelf you're paying too much. Used floppy drives: $30. 210 MB hard drive: $40. It's rediculous.

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      There is no reasonable defense against an idiot with an agenda
      :wq
  2. WTF? Get Thee to Ebay........... by fataugie · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Sell 'em! Good God man, tax deduction? Much more problems that it's worth. Keep in mind that you can only write off a percentage of the total value. Hardly worth the effort if you ask me. IF you feel benevolent, then just give them to the local charity or whatever.

    Otherwise, sell them to some geek on Ebay, charge a fair price and people will pay you to ship to them.

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    WTF? Over?

  3. This is one old part I couldn't do without by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Over 10 years, I've saved 2 Hercules video cards and 3 MDA monitors (amber and white) for my various desktop boxes, first to have a console to use the SoftICE debugger and be able to debug graphical VGA programs, and then to have a second console thanks to the mdacon driver in Linux (I use it mainly to tail /var/log/message on the second screen). It even has a virtual framebuffer that works great provided my ATI is never in text mode (i.e. in framebuffer mode too). Additionally, Hercules cards provide an additional parallel port. How cool is that ? :-)

    I dread the day motherboard manufacturers will finally kill ISA slots though ...

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    "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
  4. Donate to FREE GEEK by casa_azul · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Portland, Oregon - FREE GEEK is a non-profit that takes older equipment and makes simple end user Linux boxes (FREEK BOXes) that are given to needy individuals for a few hours of community service recycling computers. The computers come with a class on how to use it and everything. (we've given out a couple a hundred in the last year). http://www.freegeek.org