Is there a need?

[cdz25]

Im a beginner repair technician and I am getting a few older pc's that usually have hard drive failures. Most are p2's or amd k6-2's running on motherboards 233-533 mhz's my question is. After I strip them down and salvage the cd drives out of them or maybe a good drive and cables, should I save the processors,mbd,power supplies,fans and heatsinks off these systems? Is there still a market for these products?

[Atomic Rooster]

Sure. put them up for sale on eBay. I'm sure somebody will buy them.

[RamonGTP]

There probably isn't much of a market... But I'd be cool to collect all those things... Who knows, in a few years they could be considered "classics"

[Bill in SD, CA]

If they're working, save them.

Market?

Check Ebay.

Bill

Edit: Boy was this jumped on right away.

[HeadBand]

theres always gonna be some guy that will want like 100 systems no matter what speed....i would but its hard to find monitors....mabey this summer i will buy like a big lot of them on ebay for cheap and drive down to pick them up

hey its fun to dink around with stuff

[John Prophet]

on the P2 systems you could check out the motherboards and see if they can take P3's etc...

Actually one of the MOST important skills for techs today is being able to look up and find information....so for practice it would be cool to pretend those machines are in for service from a paying customer...so see if you can find all the drivers...PLUS see if you can find the upgrade options.

Also, one of the most needed things as a tech is to learn/re-learn/overlearn how to install windows with drivers and updates etc.

So those older machines would be good practice.

JP

[Brainchild]

I'm a packrat,I save everything,so my opinion is prolly irrelevant.

350-500+ computers are good for kid computers.I mean like my kids,under 12,don't do internet,just some cheap fun games.In fact I have a 400 sitting in the corner just in case this rig quits,which is very possible<knock on wood>

Or you could throw a nic in each and network them together and do some Distributed Computing

[StealthyV]

good advice jp.
I have about six Pentium one's...between 100mhz and 333mhz cpu's...

I'm selling one to a kid here at college who needs a word processor and instant messaging/internet surfing machine. he's a studious guy, not interested in gaming or intensive proggies...with 32mb of ram, dunno if he'd be able to play even Doom! lol
you could always sell the puters to the local retirement castle! perfect "thin clients" for e-mailing!

~branson

*edit: btw, the puters I mentioned are all for sale, if you're interested, and they have onboard lan, no cd-rom drives. they were workstations at my dad's work, with win98 installed. the cases are salvagable, so in worst case scenario, I'll use them as door stops and mini-tables.

[Mickwish]

Packrat #2 here.

There is a need for older PC's where low-income families or students can't afford new ones. Many charities have a place you can take or send older PC's or parts now, and some have ïnternet cafe"-type places they set up for almost free access, so if you regularly are junking stuff, check the options in your area for this.

I still have a shed full of 386/486 boards , cpu's and cards. No idea why, really.

Cheers
Mick

Oh, and ditto on the DC farm thing!! It's fun, if nothing else!

[StealthyV]

Originally posted by brainchild


Or you could throw a nic in each and network them together and do some Distributed Computing

I just joined over at UD and I hope I didn't lose my personal stats (4+ years of puting time)

it's alright though...all my machines will be joining.

~Branson