Old desk top computer?

[un2xs]

I acquired a bunch of older desk tops when I cleaned out a storage unit. Are approximately ten year old desk tops of any value? Would there be any thing worth saving, such as power supplies or drives? Are they ang goid for anything other than vintage gaming machines or boat anchors?

[Deus Machina]

Monetary value? Not much.
Useful value? Any sturdy PSU with PCI-E and SATA attachments is still useful, as well as optical drives.
I just replaced my mom's 12+ year old PC, and swapped the CD/DVD drive and PSU right over to her 'new' (actually a hand-me-down, from me) one. They're still working fine. Some of those last forever.

Or if you or a friend are electronic tinkerers, I've seen plenty of cases of PSUs being adapted to things like 3D printers, anodizing or electroplating setups, electrolytic rust removal outfits, and the like.

[THE_Incredible_Hulk]

Do they have serial and parallel ports built into them? Run XP?

[kevdupuis]

With the exception of a Rspberry Pi 400 I just picked up my other 4 machines are all over 10 years old with the oldest being a P2- 300 with the huge MMX chip running 98 SE that I built 22 years ago. I still use them for old software that won't run on newer machines especially my older digital shop manuals and games.

[punkncat]

I would say it's very much according to make and parts. I have an "in" for decommissioned Dell office computers about every 2.5-5 years. Ten years old puts you solidly in the core "i" generation of processors and if a decent model that you are capable of wiping and reinstalling OS they can readily be $80-100 a pop on Craigslist. When this home school thing went on the demand for PC went really high. We are probably on the back side of it, but still worth looking in to.

[glaman5266]

Monetary value? Not much.
Useful value? Any sturdy PSU with PCI-E and SATA attachments is still useful, as well as optical drives.
I just replaced my mom's 12+ year old PC, and swapped the CD/DVD drive and PSU right over to her 'new' (actually a hand-me-down, from me) one. They're still working fine. Some of those last forever.

Or if you or a friend are electronic tinkerers, I've seen plenty of cases of PSUs being adapted to things like 3D printers, anodizing or electroplating setups, electrolytic rust removal outfits, and the like.

+1
There's a few things you could do with the individual components, but as they are they're probably not worth much.

I'd bet many of those can run some form of Linux. Most Linux operating systems don't require much juice. Maybe something to dip your toes into? If not, maybe revitalize them & donate them to a school or the needy or something?

[un2xs]

There are over two dozen desktops. Not very many monitors. Some of the cases had XP tags on top. Some cases had 256meg and 512meg written on pieced of tape.

I have not gone back to the shed to open any of them back up... maybe this week once it warms up again.

My parents grew up during the depression. I hate to see usable things go to waste. I just don't know what is still worth tinkering.

[ghilliesuit]

There are over two dozen desktops. Not very many monitors. Some of the cases had XP tags on top. Some cases had 256meg and 512meg written on pieced of tape.

I have not gone back to the shed to open any of them back up... maybe this week once it warms up again.

My parents grew up during the depression. I hate to see usable things go to waste. I just don't know what is still worth tinkering.

Yea, totally understand about not wanting to waste stuff. I would say maybe take a system image of the OSs if you want. Then you could use software like ViritualBox or the like to run the old OSs on a modern PC in virtual. Tech is just one of those things that does not hold value long. Especially non-enterprise level desktop computers. You may find some decent components that someone may want, but my guess is most of them are low-level towers from their day (aka the components probably are not worth much).

I think the best thing you might be able to do is recycle them responsibly.

Either way, good luck.

[punkncat]

XP tags on top

had 256meg and 512meg

Far older than 10 years. Unless you are really into computers as a nerd out project/for fun, these are best destined for the trash or recycler. Of this age in a modern market they are virtually worthless to any other than a very small niche group that you may or may not be able to "get in touch" with. Isn't worth the effort.

[Grendel]

Recycle or donate is likely the best option. If you like to tinker and play with computers you could use them to build a Beowulf node (cluster). I built one back in the mid 2000s then used it/donated its number crunching to various cloud based research (Bonic). It was fun for a while but does take maintenance and space kept it up for about 10 years but did not move my machines when my job moved me.

[Tarsun2]

$ wise, probably nothing.
Parting them out will also be a waste.
You can donate them or use them for personal projects.

take the hard drives out and learn about raid arrays. then configure a home server.

you can install linux and mess around with that. Maybe then you could sell them.. maybe.
i use Ubuntu.

you can take the innerds out of the case and mount them to a board to hang on the wall and have a working wall mounted computer. (kindda neat)

you can do oil immersion (also kindda cool)

but yeah, mainly the only use will be personal projects.