Disposition of old parts

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Shriek
Posts: 46
Joined: Thu Jul 15, 2004 7:54 am

Disposition of old parts

Post by Shriek » Sun Jul 30, 2017 8:47 am

Having finally come to the realization that I don't actually benefit from having a closet full of obsolete PC parts, I'm wondering what most folks do with old & used, but still good, parts.

When I built my previous PC 8 years ago, I went ITX form factor, expecting that it'd be replaced in a few years and would then be repurposed as a media PC. Since then, we've seen an explosion of appliances (smart TVs, NAS, Roku, etc) that are just as good or better at that role than a full PC. So now I've got a bunch of decent used, briefly used (PicoPSU before needing a GPU upgrade), or entirely unused (Alpine 11 Pro that I thought would fit under the PSU) parts that I really don't expect to use again. The wife doesn't need it, and I don't have kids, and I quit building PCs for friends & family years ago because I can't handle being the tech support line. So what to do with this stuff?
  • The default solution is throw it in the closet, because I'll come up with a use for it the day after I ditch it all
  • Part it out on ebay?
  • Put the whole thing on ebay as a bundle? With the small case, shipping shouldn't be insane. Might be rid of the whole thing faster, but seems unlikely that anyone would be willing to pay much for this specific collection of used parts.
  • Bin it and move on, there being nothing here worth the effort?
  • <insert brilliant suggestion here!>
For context, these are the parts in question:
Intel E6300
ZOTAC GF9300-G-E Socket 775 (has WiFi module, but Ethernet port appears to be shot)
SILVERSTONE Sugo SG05-B w/ 450W PSU
Pioneer DVR-TS08 DVD+/-RW
ARCTIC COOLING Alpine 11 Pro
3.5" 500GB HDD
4GB DDR2
Asus GTX 550 Ti
PicoPSU (120W? can't remember atm...)

CA_Steve
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Location: St. Louis, MO

Re: Disposition of old parts

Post by CA_Steve » Sun Jul 30, 2017 3:51 pm

The parts are pretty ancient. I'd prolly keep the case, the DVD writer, and maybe the pico PSU and turn the rest in to a local recycling place. Figure out the street value of the parts you turned in and take a charitable deduction.

Shriek
Posts: 46
Joined: Thu Jul 15, 2004 7:54 am

Re: Disposition of old parts

Post by Shriek » Sun Jul 30, 2017 7:02 pm

Yeah, I guess my perspective's been skewed by the fact that I had few complaints about using these bits a few weeks ago. I tend to forget that the question isn't "Are these parts still useful to someone?", it's "What's the minimum cost to replace it?".

I think I'll take your advice about the parts to hang on to and ditch the rest. Doubt I'll be itemizing this year, but interesting point about the deduction--I didn't realize recycling could apply.

CA_Steve
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Joined: Thu Oct 06, 2005 4:36 am
Location: St. Louis, MO

Re: Disposition of old parts

Post by CA_Steve » Sun Jul 30, 2017 7:51 pm

Depends on where you take the parts. Some are charity organizations that make their money from recycling.

Olle P
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Joined: Tue Nov 04, 2008 6:03 am
Location: Sweden

Re: Disposition of old parts

Post by Olle P » Mon Jul 31, 2017 1:39 am

What I do with my older stuff? Depends on what it is and how useful it still is.
* Old HDDs are used in my system to store less important and rarely used files. As i buy new drives the older ones, that are more than ten years old, get phased out and discarded.
* PSUs are used as long as they're functional, should be around 20 years of service life, more if it's a "high quality" PSU. I see no reason for you to throw away that 450W PSU unless there's something wrong with it.
* Replaced graphics/CPU/RAM/mobo that's too slow for me I've typically sold to some colleague that want a cheap upgrade. Also goes for monitors.
* Optical drive is also something to be used until broken, or it doesn't fit any need you have at all.

More lately a lot of my still functional parts have gone to be part of my kids' computers. (New additions to the family's computer park.)

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