best cheap/free scores 1.1

[mikay786]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Today’s carboot buys

Bose acoustimass 15 6.1 series II system - £160 - bit much but in really clean condition and complete.
2 x original Xbox’s, games and three pads - £22
Huge box of radio gear pye pf85 radios, batteries and charger, Sallie talkies. Seems to be ex prison stuff some of the walk-in talkies say “home office” on them. £20 for the lot
Apple wireless keyboard - £5
Ps1 cheat card - £1
A few other bits and pieces.

Not a huge lot but we have Sunday to go yet! Radio stuff was a punt know next to nothing but there was so much of it thought it would be hard to lose at £20.

[Curious.George]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Three more 48V x 7.2AHr battery packs (for UPSs).

Another 96GB (12x8) of PC10600 DDR3.

A Netra T5220.

And, a dinky little Eee PC that I'm hoping I can use for those times when I need to run an "exposed" *BSD and don't want to risk any of the "real" machines (I'd have prefered something smaller -- ideally, a slide phone with a USB port for NIC and secondary storage)

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

I haven't gotten shit lately.....but I haven't been looking either. I'm on the final push to finish my house.

[Curious.George]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

I haven't gotten shit lately.....but I haven't been looking either. I'm on the final push to finish my house.

Silly Rabbit -- Houses are NEVER finished!

[stj]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

ooo, i saw that on a utube vid yesterday - in some states you dont pay tax on a property until it's complete.
so a lot of people include an extension or room that spends it's whole life under a tarp!!!

[Curious.George]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

ooo, i saw that on a utube vid yesterday - in some states you dont pay tax on a property until it's complete.
so a lot of people include an extension or room that spends it's whole life under a tarp!!!

I'm not sure if that is true in the US. But, I've heard that to be the case in MX.

[stj]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

it was the u.s.,
i saw it on the EWU channel.
(explore with us)

[Curious.George]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

it was the u.s.,
i saw it on the EWU channel.
(explore with us)

Interesting. Usually a building permit is required before any substantial" work is done. And, these aren't pen-ended arrangements.

Recall WHICH state?

[stj]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

i think it was Arizona.

[Hondaman]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

My neighbor threw out another computer. The Dell Dimension 4400.

2.2 GHz processor, probably 256 Megs of Ram. It has the heavy "clamshell" case. I damaged it getting it apart, because I really don't care. Lots of dust inside, but both optical drives are there. No idea how many hours are on the HD. I'll check in a few days/weeks.

When I plug it in, the PSU fan begins to spin immediately. Press and hold the power button for 4 seconds, the fan stops. Start it with the power button and the PSU fan comes on, but no single beep, and the monitor stays in sleep mode. I am guessing the PSU is faulty.

Am I a magnet for "loser" computers that nobody wants? Years ago, this neighbor threw out an E-machines PC mentioned earlier in this thread. A year or so before that, my other neighbor gave me an old first-generation 400 MHz Mac G3 (single-core CPU, air cooled, hardware limited to 128 GB IDE drive).

[stj]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

that's an o.k. machine for a backup-box / file server.

[TechGeek]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Sounds more like no power is going to the CPU or RAM. Swap the CPU and/or RAM and see if it comes back. If not, try another PSU. If no luck there, bad motherboard. Junk it.

[momaka]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

My neighbor threw out another computer. The Dell Dimension 4400.

2.2 GHz processor, probably 256 Megs of Ram. It has the heavy "clamshell" case. I damaged it getting it apart, because I really don't care. Lots of dust inside, but both optical drives are there. No idea how many hours are on the HD. I'll check in a few days/weeks.

When I plug it in, the PSU fan begins to spin immediately. Press and hold the power button for 4 seconds, the fan stops. Start it with the power button and the PSU fan comes on, but no single beep, and the monitor stays in sleep mode. I am guessing the PSU is faulty.

Am I a magnet for "loser" computers that nobody wants?

Eh, I wouldn't call those "looser" computers anymore - at least in terms of quality. The "quality" you get with PC nowadays is easily 10x worse: desktop motherboards with half hardware using flimsy laptop parts, skipping heatsinks on chipsets that run blistering-hot, and proprietary PSUs that stop working "for no reason". Oh, and cases that have managed to surpass cheap Deer cases in terms of steel thickness... or should I say thinness? That's your modern "desktop" PC today. Sure they all cram a powerful -i5 or -i7 in there... but when it dies shortly after warranty, what's the point?

At least with the old "looser" computers, you get decent build quality - particularly the OEM cases. Yes, not much use for a Pentium 4 these days, especially online. But for a few specific purposes, they are okay, like playing/streaming your ripped DVD and music library, typing docs, and playing older games (if you're into those).

Sounds more like no power is going to the CPU or RAM. Swap the CPU and/or RAM and see if it comes back. If not, try another PSU. If no luck there, bad motherboard. Junk it.

That's a wee bit too quick to jump to conclusions there.

I say try re-seating the RAM first, and just one stick at a time, too. Fixed a lot of PCs with that problem.
Next, inspect the PSU for bad caps or test with a known-good PSU.
Those clamshell P4 Dells typically come either with a Delta, Newton, HiPro, or Lite-ON PSU - all of which are known to contain crap caps. After so many years, I wouldn't be surprised to see some bad ones there... which is a shame, because those are some of the most reliable designs these companies came up with. As such, I do find it worthwhile to recap them. Just finished a 305 Watt Lite-ON two weeks ago (posted on BCN too). Fairly solid PSU (though I personally prefer the Delta and HiPro units, as Lite-ON often has some design quirks I don't like too much).

**EDIT**
Speaking of build quality on these old PCs, here's an interesting "bashing" video I found on that matter:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6agB3QZdBc
Like the guy in the vid says, they really don't make them like they used to.

[brethin]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

It isn't worth saving, I can't even give away old P4 systems anymore they go straight to the recycle center for ¢ per pound.

Unless it's a rare item like a dual socket or something I don't save any system with less than a quad core cpu. I will pull a CPU from lesser machinces if it's like rare and fast, otherwise the whole box goes to the recycle center.

[TechGeek]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

It isn't worth saving, I can't even give away old P4 systems anymore they go straight to the recycle center for ¢ per pound.

Unless it's a rare item like a dual socket or something I don't save any system with less than a quad core cpu. I will pull a CPU from lesser machinces if it's like rare and fast, otherwise the whole box goes to the recycle center.

Why not get the PSU, HDD, and any ODDs out of it?

[Curious.George]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Why not get the PSU, HDD, and any ODDs out of it?

You can save whatever makes sense to you, personally -- but, you have to justify the cost (time/space) to "save" it and the likelihood that you'll need it at a future date.

Had a colleague who used to cut the power cords off of toasters before discarding them. His thinking: if he ever needed a HEAVY DUTY power cord for a small appliance, he'd have one!

But, he quickly lost his perspective on this -- last time I saw him he had a decent size "collection" of scrap power cords, and yet to find an opportunity to use ANY of them!

I now focus on small "high value" items and/or items that I can "store" INSIDE something else. E.g., each time I find a sufficiently large set of DIMM/SODIMMs, I upgrade the memory in a box and discard the "old", smaller set (unless there is another box that it can be "stored inside"!)

Power supplies, optical drives, etc. tend to take up a fair bit of shelf space, if you can't put them INTO something.

OTOH, the value as a recycled item of these isn't worth a special trip to the tip -- hence, you've got to store them someplace until you've got enough of a pile to make the drive worth the time/effort.

[momaka]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

It isn't worth saving, I can't even give away old P4 systems anymore they go straight to the recycle center for ¢ per pound.

Yes, when it comes to re-selling, indeed anything less than a quad-core is not worthwhile these days.

But if you like playing with PC gear and assuming you've not filled your house to the brim already with other PCs and PC parts, a Pentium 4 PC can still be a useful tool.

That said, there is a local thrift shop near here that often has some P4-era PCs around for sale for around $20. Not sure how they do it, but they do appear to be selling. Go figure.

You can save whatever makes sense to you, personally -- but, you have to justify the cost (time/space) to "save" it and the likelihood that you'll need it at a future date.

Yes, cost of time and space are always worth considering... but there is a 3rd factor in there sometimes: fun.
I have quite a few PCs now that aren't really worthwhile keeping (in terms of how much space they take and how little they do for me). But occasionally, I mess with them and use them to teach my nephews stuff about computers, and the fun from that far outweighs the rest, IMO.

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

^
This, atleast for me. Some things are worth more than others, obviously...I've got some junk around here, but I've also got some really unusual stuff, that to some could be worth a chunk. I don't do it for the resale.....when asked prices, I usually say 3x (or more) the real-world value, which scares them away. I have a large facility, storage is cheap....but I do keep the true junk weeded out.

I do resell stuff, same as the rest of us packrats....I gotta eat too...but there are some items that I really just don't want to part with.... If it's worth something in my mind, but worthless in the real world, so be it.... Modern stuff, easy come easy go.... It's my vintage creations & weird sleeper builds I seem to get a little attached to.

[ratdude747]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Desktop (consumer level) wise I'm with brethin in the lack of value in older systems (PIII-P4) although my cutoff is core2 or so. Exceptions being macs (obviously) and odd things. DVD burners and HDDs I'll keep for workstation projects and the like.

Laptops are different... they take less space and thus I have a wide variety of units still around. Heck, I just revived my old Sony Vaio (with primitive hard-switched hybrid graphics), and it's a 1st gen Core 2 (upgraded from a core duo). I have things as old celeron mendocino kicking

And for workstation/server stuff... anything older than netburst I've already given to Topcat ; anything newer I keep due to that being my "specialty".

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

^
I don't keep any of the consumer-grade stuff either....as my SMP-oriented collection wasn't aimed at the consumer market....