[Nath'aal]

Basically I have a store room full of unused PCs and computer parts and I'm wondering what you would do with all this stuff. Here's a quick rundown of the types of things that are available.

15 pentium 4s
50 pentium 3s
20 pentium 2s
over 100 HDDs ranging from 10 - 80 gigs
lots of 10/100 NIC cards
some old graphics cards
other random cards
Power Cables and VGA video cables (actually any type of cable you can think of) out the wazoo
ZIP drives, 3.5 Floppy drives, CD-R drives

I'm thinking about building a cluster or two from the P2s and 3s, but I can't think of any reason why aside form the "coolness" factor. Basically though, it just seems like a waste to throw all this stuff away. So, what would you do with it all?

[rhagz]

Donate it to the local school system.

[Nath'aal]

I'm not even sure they would take machines this old, but I guess I will at least check into that. Anything else?

[rhagz]

There is really nothing you can do with it. Keep some of the best drives for backups and whatever, but P2s and 3s have no value. Some schools would probably have use for the P4s, even if it's just elementary school using them for word processor type stuff.

[Damain]

Depending on where you live, you might also look into having the MB's, CPU's, and daughter baords ground up, melted down, and have the gold extracted. My brother did that with less stuff, and got about $500 USD. Of course, that's in San Jose, CA.

[Malosar]

Daycare centers as well would probably take the P4's.

[aegnor]

I had a similar situation at work and we sent to computers to an electronic recycling place. Depending on where you live this might be an option.

[Fozzik]

There are usually charities or similar organizations in most areas that will take computers to referb and give out or use themselves. Probably, like others have said, I might keep a few machines to run some Linux and some hard drives to play with...but other than that I'd probably give most away.

[dakyres]

Ya thought about using one or two to build a few data tombstones out of? Always nice to have an old pc floating around with 400gig of storage on it for the network

Other than that, no more than what was stated - problem with technology like that is once its out, its out. The old II's and III's are still viable as data processor units if nothing else though, and Linux takes less than WoW to run.

[rabb1t]

Well, they would probably be worth something to the countries that aren't higher end. The only problem is that the cost in shipping them to said areas would be prohibitively expensive.

[MrCoffee]

http://folding.stanford.edu/

Start folding with them!

[rabb1t]

Folding would make those older systems explode.

[Kurron Nye]

Originally Posted by Nath'aal

Basically I have a store room full of unused PCs and computer parts and I'm wondering what you would do with all this stuff. Here's a quick rundown of the types of things that are available.

15 pentium 4s
50 pentium 3s
20 pentium 2s
over 100 HDDs ranging from 10 - 80 gigs
lots of 10/100 NIC cards
some old graphics cards
other random cards
Power Cables and VGA video cables (actually any type of cable you can think of) out the wazoo
ZIP drives, 3.5 Floppy drives, CD-R drives

I'm thinking about building a cluster or two from the P2s and 3s, but I can't think of any reason why aside form the "coolness" factor. Basically though, it just seems like a waste to throw all this stuff away. So, what would you do with it all?

I would not bother making a cluster out of that stuff, because the end results would be a cluster that is outperformed by current, single PCs (and likely would cost less in terms of time and effort).

I would dontate the stuff, but not just by dumping it on GoodWill. Check your local high schools, espcecially the vocational ed departments, and get in touch with the instructors. Many high schools have tech ed programs and would love to get their hands on parts to use in class for the students to work with.

Like In know one my region's high schools has a tech ed dept where they get the students A+ Certified as well, and having real parts to work with would make them very happy.

[Tiesiaan]

Just noticed this thread, been doing a lot lately heh, start of summer and all that.

For all computer donating I would suggest Global Technology Academy. This is a non-profit computer learning program for high school students based out of Seattle at Garfield High School. During 2006 I went on a trip with them to Turkey. Basically what we did and what GTA does is set up computer labs in developing countries (or in the case of Turkey, for summer camps).

Anyway, should check it out.

http://www.globalta.org/

[Dragon-RD]

What id do with it is :

If were talking old 3DFX graphics cards here, put em in a frame and hang em on the wall. (R.I.P 3DFX)

The rest id donate, but I agree with you it does seem a waste to trash it all.