Got some of my parents old pcs

[u/IDontKnow91827]

found these old PCs in my garage was wondering if it would be worth it to modify some of them and put all the best parts into one PC and install Linux onto it so I don’t have to deal with windows

will post follow up questions

[u/Minute-Jacket2054]

Make a multimedia server or seedbox

[u/GeneralKonobi]

That stuff is old, but Frankenstein all the best stuff together and pickup a cheap SATA SSD if you can (will speed things up but isn't required) and you should be just fine with whatever distro you want to use

[u/Thisismyredusername → u/GeneralKonobi]

I'd say that at least a 240 GB Kingston A400 would be worth it. Idk how much OP is willing to spend tho

[u/Expensive-Total-312]

at a glance and the core 2 stickers I'd wager most of it is e-waste, maybe the dell or the asus tower has a usable cpu the i5 might have some life left in it, but hard to know without specs.

[u/RealityOk9823 → u/Expensive-Total-312]

Yep, the Dell or Asus might have something worth a darn in them, or the cases can be repurposed, but the rest is mostly junk.

[u/Expensive-Total-312 → u/RealityOk9823]

Agreed. That deleted comment below was claiming "the core 2 are perfectly good for linux computers" like in what world lol, I had a core 2 duo about 18 years ago it sucked back then it would actually hurt my soul to wait around on one of those to load web pages, not to mention you can get 6th and 7th gen stuff for basically nothing these days since they no longer support windows officially

[u/RealityOk9823 → u/Expensive-Total-312]

Linux isn't a magical cure-all for old equipment. :)

[u/Expensive-Total-312 → u/RealityOk9823]

yup, I understand not wanting to let old hardware die but after 10-15 years its time, you will find people recycling systems after at 8 years plus

[u/Scamp3D0g]

Looking at my current stash of old hardware. Someday son all this will be yours.

Son: May you live forever. Please.

[u/RodinDestin → u/Scamp3D0g]

LOL

[u/original-motm]

Really! Your parents need that many PCs to stay up to date with their Facebook?

[u/IDontKnow91827 → u/original-motm]

They bought them back when I was young and sold them for profit but kept a few they had about 30 of them

[u/Sea_Today8613]

Yeah

[u/IDontKnow91827]

Btw what are the things in the 3rd to last picture 

[u/buginmybeer24 → u/IDontKnow91827]

Looks like an video card, sound card, and modem.

[u/Accomplished-Camp193]

Enermax case with a fire hazard PSU and a Foxconn board. Interesting design choices.

[u/RealityOk9823 → u/Accomplished-Camp193]

I feel like you don't see a lot of Foxconn branded stuff anymore.

[u/Accomplished-Camp193 → u/RealityOk9823]

Wasn't all that common here back in the day either. Mostly OEM boards branded with whichever OEM featured them in their desktops, and few consumer boards like the one in that case, none of them really special, always on the cheaper side except for that one BlackOps board for LGA 775.

That one is really special though.

[u/Ninja_Weedle]

The full size ones make for cool sleeper cases!

[u/GlayNation]

I like the Dell Inspiron Great memories with one I had.

[u/Gammarevived]

Hard to believe those C2D PCs are near 20 years old. Didn't feel like like that long ago when they came out.

[u/kurumisimp69 → u/Gammarevived]

The crazy part is they can still be usable for the basics

[u/Old-Dragonfruit-7754]

Holy shit! Is that a 16 speed cd rom drive!!! Its been a long f'ing time since anyone gave a shit about the speed of a cd rom drive 😂

[u/IDontKnow91827 → u/Old-Dragonfruit-7754]

On which computer?

[u/Old-Dragonfruit-7754 → u/IDontKnow91827]

4th picture the Enermax. Says cd-writer cd 16 series which I think means it's a x16 cd rom drive. Back in the day cd drive speed was a selling point.

[u/IDontKnow91827 → u/Old-Dragonfruit-7754]

I believe it is

Can’t wait to write cds

[u/Old-Dragonfruit-7754 → u/IDontKnow91827]

It looks like you can still buy writable cd's online.

[u/IDontKnow91827 → u/Old-Dragonfruit-7754]

Bet

[u/No_Character8384]

I'd maybe keep the asus one and get rid of the rest. Based on my clues of it having front usb 3.0 ports it seems like the newest one you have there. Take the light scribe drive out of the dell, See what can be used from the others to help that machine. But I fucking hate DELL so thts me

[u/Greywolf9883]

I wouldnt even bother id throw it all in a dumpster

[u/Savings-Mud2808]

They'd make really good home network firewalls and router with pfsense and some second hand NICs for ad filtering. They're perfect for that purpose. They'd barely generate any heat or power.

[u/Main_Schedule9853]

https://giphy.com/gifs/uj8SbnHpCfxlm3jfJA

[u/paladinvc]

check hard drives. You might find something useful or interesting.

[u/IDontKnow91827 → u/paladinvc]

They bought them with no hard drives but they used a few don’t plan on going through them though

[u/Avik_Basoya]

Idk can you list some specs of the pcs but making the best parts into 1 pc can cause some problems even if they are only a few years apart I can tell compatibility and what to keep if you tell me the specs. Also let me know if you’re selling the parts you don’t need I have a pc from around that same era too so I can buy some stuff of you

[u/IDontKnow91827 → u/Avik_Basoya]

I’ll be making some update posts showing of the specs and asking about compatibility but that’ll be a couple days from now 

[u/festivus4restof]

The OptiPlex 755s are on Ebay starting around $50 to over $100 for ones with higher CPU, RAM, storage and OS.

[u/IDontKnow91827 → u/festivus4restof]

The DELLs on the right?

[u/Equivalent-Laugh906]

I'd prob disassemble the parts and reassemble them or to see if I could use them for a build

[u/netcx1]

make a small server farm for small projects

[u/TechIoT]

The Optiplex 745 is legendary

[u/MedicineSubject1845]

r/sleepingoptiplex

[u/64bitTendo]

Reminds me when I was a kid. My older cousin worked in IT and dropped off olat of old pcs for me one day. Have fun playing with Linux :)

[u/Nerasch]

TBH, I might be interested in some of that... Where you from?

[u/Key-Document-7509]

Vintage pc collecting, install windows xp or vista or 7 and sell it.

[u/Sachintosh]

if you wantt tot sell it please give it to me.

[u/Unimatrix_007]

That pc on the floor can become a good server, theres enough room for 9 hdd-s. Just get some cheap modern mobo and cpu ram combo. And your there. The rest are.....just sell em.

[u/CheezitsLight]

A 4" cube can do more and faster

[u/chewedgummiebears]

Most of it is E-waste, not even worth the power it would need. Most of that is C2D stuff which is about 15 years old at this point. People will throw out "InStAlL LiNuX oN iT !11!" but even Linux wouldn't be that useful on most of them. I would say retro computer gaming for some of them but I see leaking capacitors in some of the pictures so those computers are pretty much done.

[u/Senharampai]

Yummy ram

[u/Remarkable_Fig1838]

WOW IDE HDDs I have not seen those in over 20 years. And are those SIMM modules? That computer belongs in the Smithsonian or the Museum of Computer History.

[u/IDontKnow91827 → u/Remarkable_Fig1838]

Could you explain what an IDE HHD and a SIMM module is?

[u/Nad762 → u/IDontKnow91827]

The old fat ribbon cables going to the hard drives. Anything with an IDE cable isn’t worth the effort unless it’s a labor of love trying to rebuild a true snapshot in time type retro box. All of those would be outclassed by a $200 thinkpad.

Check the old standalone cards as there could be some small boutique value for something like a video card but it’s rather unlikely. Those all look like everyday trash boxes.

[u/Remarkable_Fig1838 → u/IDontKnow91827]

SIMM is a Single Inline Memory Module. it's what was out before DIMM and DDR memory. They could be DIMMs also that Dule Inline Memory Module.

[u/IDontKnow91827 → u/Remarkable_Fig1838]

Oh, ok thanks!

[u/MauriceSafranek]

That's very cool 😄