Question At what point is your old CPU garbage?

[CuriousMike]

I was just throwing out an old Antec case / guts - I even left an ASUS B350 mobo in it.
I pulled out the Ryzen 1700, the 250GB SSD and the 16GB of DDR4 ram.

I have no idea why I kept those parts - the Ryzen 1700 is useless, the 250GB SSD is too small / useless and the ram... well... I have two other Ryzen 5x00 mini-itx builds that are already maxed on RAM.

But yet I kept these pieces.
I seem to always keep my old pieces ... they just sit in the garage for about 10 years until they're finally recycled.

What do you do with your old hardware? Do you hold onto it "just in case" ?

 

[biostud]

I plan to donate my 5820k to someone who might enjoy it, and don't have the finances to buy a computer themself.

 

[Hotrod2go]

Reading such threads pains me... as some of you may remember, I was involved some years ago in a charity sending computers to Eastern Europe.
That CPU is still OK, the SSD is perfect for an operating system and some programs, and that wasted motherboard could have made a difference in the life of someone less fortunate.

Dear god...

Yes indeed, not to mention keeping them out of landfill.

 

[Zepp]

Yup. I have the 3015e in an Ideapad 1 11". It's just acceptable (very sluggish on start) but still a significant upgrade from Stoney Ridge.

The main issue with it is 4GB single channel 1600mhz (yea you read that right) DDR4.

I swapped an 8GB stick into mine. I would have preferred at least a 3050U in the machine I got but nothing else at the time had the combination of features for the budget price.

 

[NTMBK]

The PC I keep under my TV to play games is still running a Haswell i5... that CPU is far from garbage!

 

[gdansk]

They become "garbage" when it is a chore to do even basic tasks because of application bloat over time.

My parents use an old i5-2400 and it's still fine despite being over a decade old. I expect Core 2 Duo CPUs to struggle with the modern web but no longer have one to test.

 

[biostud]

They become "garbage" when it is a chore to do even basic tasks because of application bloat over time.

My parents use an old i5-2400 and it's still fine despite being over a decade old. I expect Core 2 Duo CPUs to struggle with the modern web but no longer have one to test.

My parents has the same CPU, but I've upgraded from 4GB to 16GB memory and from a HDD to a SSD, and they only use it for internet and office work.

 

[AnitaPeterson]

Sorry to harp on this, but the more I look at this thread, the more I'm bothered by the tone-deaf attitude in the OP as a brutal illustration of the discrepancy between the U.S. and the rest of the world (or between the affluent and the poor.)

IMHO, to discard perfectly good technology without even giving it a second chance shows a disdain for others, akin to "Let them eat cake".

Particularly if you're an old-timer on these forums... why even brag about it? "Hey, look at me, I'm so rich I can afford to toss a last-gen motherboard in the garbage and it's literally not worth my effort to box it up and deal with going to the post office".

Ugh.

 

[biostud]

Sorry to harp on this, but the more I look at this thread, the more I'm bothered by the tone-deaf attitude in the OP as a brutal illustration of the discrepancy between the U.S. and the rest of the world (or between the affluent and the poor.)

IMHO, to discard perfectly good technology without even giving it a second chance shows a disdain for others, akin to "Let them eat cake".

Particularly if you're an old-timer on these forums... why even brag about it? "Hey, look at me, I'm so rich I can afford to toss a last-gen motherboard in the garbage and it's literally not worth my effort to box it up and deal with going to the post office".

Ugh.

If I have something that could be to value of anyone, and I don't plan on selling it I alway just give it away, either to a charity shop, or just put in a ad to pick it up for free. Once I had to move I had to cleat out my cellar room, and after taking some personal stuff there were a lot of old stuff I wasn't going to bring, but could still hold some value or be useful. I just put in an ad that said that if they were willing to take all my old stuff they could have it for free. Two days later my cellar room was empty, and I didn't have to do any work

 

[Insert_Nickname]

They become "garbage" when it is a chore to do even basic tasks because of application bloat over time.

My parents use an old i5-2400 and it's still fine despite being over a decade old. I expect Core 2 Duo CPUs to struggle with the modern web but no longer have one to test.

Main "problem" with C2D/Q, first and second gen Core ix CPU is the IGP, since it's not DX11 compatible. But toss in a basic GT710 or similar (perhaps even a 1030 for video decoding) and everything is good to go.

C2D/Q is cutting it a bit fine, but they're still about as capable as Airmont small cores, so fine for basic use. Of course you want some flavour of Linux on them, as Windows Update absolutely kills them.

 

[igor_kavinski]

My parents use an old i5-2400 and it's still fine despite being over a decade old.

Same CPU for me at work. Runs fine with Crucial MX300 SSD.

 

[Markfw]

If I have something that could be to value of anyone, and I don't plan on selling it I alway just give it away, either to a charity shop, or just put in a ad to pick it up for free. Once I had to move I had to cleat out my cellar room, and after taking some personal stuff there were a lot of old stuff I wasn't going to bring, but could still hold some value or be useful. I just put in an ad that said that if they were willing to take all my old stuff they could have it for free. Two days later my cellar room was empty, and I didn't have to do any work

The last 2 I gave away was a 2600k and motherboard and 12 gig ram to the next door neighbor kid , then a dual Xeon x5675 and 24 gig ram (and a 7970, should not have done that one) to a church to host zoom when covid shut the church down.

 

[Hotrod2go]

My parents has the same CPU, but I've upgraded from 4GB to 16GB memory and from a HDD to a SSD, and they only use it for internet and office work.

For that kind of usage model, decade old cpus are fine. The real problem is or was, I/O storage & RAM capacity. Fix those up, like you have & life goes on!

On one of my systems here, with FX-8350 CPU + 2000MHz Ram, typical CPU usage according to HWiNFO64 fluctuates between approx 40-70% across all 8 threads, That's with Brave browser using multiple tabs & video playback from one of them. That is the reality with today's internet.

 

[IntelUser2000]

C2D/Q is cutting it a bit fine, but they're still about as capable as Airmont small cores, so fine for basic use.

What! You mean Goldmont Plus to equal Core 2. I think you are very underrating the Core 2. More likely you are very overrating Airmont. Goldmont Plus is 30% faster per clock compared to Goldmont, and Goldmont is another 30% faster than Airmont, in addition to vector and FP enhancements.

This means Airmont is slightly above a 0.13 micron Pentium 4 with 512KB cache and 800MHz bus. Maybe 15% faster. Quite slow by modern standards.

At least Silver/Airmont was usable for basic tasks. The previous generation clocked lower and remember, Silver/Air performed 50%+ faster than the previous Atom. That Atom was slow in everything. Imagine that. Silver/Airmont is 15% faster than Pentium 4, and 50%+ faster than the previous Atoms. Meaning the much disregarded Pentium 4 chips were 30-40% faster than those Atoms.

 

[Shmee]

My server is using a Gigabyte X58 board and a Xeon X5660. Still works fine for now. It has been upgraded to 48GB of RAM though :O

 

[GodisanAtheist]

I'm in the same boat as OP.

Not really big on reselling old parts, but really tenaciously hang on to old CPUs and GPUs as I sort of consider those parts to be the "heart and soul" of my PCs and I keep them as a sort of weird tribute/memorial for the good times that PC brought me.

Most of the rest of the computer gets Theseus' Shipped though, and parts get used way beyond any sort of legitimate resale value is left (Have an m.2 drive, an OCZ Vertex 2 120gb SSD, and a Seagate Momentus hybrid drive in my main PC right now).

I'd actually really like to assemble a display case/cases for my CPUs and GPUs so I can display them like wall art in my office so they serve a greater purpose than collecting dust in my garage computer bin however.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

What! You mean Goldmont Plus to equal Core 2. I think you are very underrating the Core 2. More likely you are very overrating Airmont. Goldmont Plus is 30% faster per clock compared to Goldmont, and Goldmont is another 30% faster than Airmont, in addition to vector and FP enhancements.

Notice I wrote "about as capable". Having experience with both, that's just my opinion from actually using them rather then going by theoretical performance. Airmont (as in Braswell package) + SSD is still very usable for basic tasks. Main problem with Braswell is that you can't put more then 8GB of memory in them.

I certainly don't mean to disparage Core 2. A 2006 architecture still somewhat usable today say it all. Core 2 also use an older instruction set, which amongst others lack HW SHA support. That hurts Core 2 quite a lot in today's environment.

But you don't want modern Windows anywhere near either. Windows Update kills both equally. Linux is way better in that regard. My Celeron 3050-based laptop run just fine with Mint/Xfce. It can barely run Windows.

This means Airmont is slightly above a 0.13 micron Pentium 4 with 512KB cache and 800MHz bus. Maybe 15% faster. Quite slow by modern standards.

At least Silver/Airmont was usable for basic tasks. The previous generation clocked lower and remember, Silver/Air performed 50%+ faster than the previous Atom. That Atom was slow in everything. Imagine that. Silver/Airmont is 15% faster than Pentium 4, and 50%+ faster than the previous Atoms. Meaning the much disregarded Pentium 4 chips were 30-40% faster than those Atoms.

I still shudder at the thought of Atom 230-powered Netbooks. Well. At least they where cheap and cheerful.

From the other camp, Brazos-based laptops running x64 Windows still give me nightmares.

 

[Asterox]

Nothing ryzen based is useless, especially not an 8 core. I have the weakest ryzen based 6w dual core they make in a laptop I use everyday.

Even many pre-ryzen AMD's are still fine for some light use cases especially with linux.

Pre-phenom/core2 is when I'd start to deem them useless.

Ok, so you agree that the author of this thread should be sent in Russian Gulag.

 

[maddogmcgee]

I bought a business at the start of the year and inherited a bunch of core 2 duo era laptops and desktops. The laptops were literally so old and chunky when running linux that a hammer to the hard drive was more time/cost efficient than anything else. They were really not worth the time to login and format the hard drive. The desktops I want to trial on Chrome before I toss. Not because its worth my time but because I am a nerd and curios. Having said all that, I just bought a 2 in 1 chromebook with a 4 core i5-10210U and actually expect it will be more than sufficient for my work use. Touch screen and can run a bunch of Chrome tabs is all I will need for a long time.

 

[fleshconsumed]

If you think 1700 is not worth boxing up and taking to the Post Office donate it to somebody. Or put it up for sale on facebook marketplace/offerup/craigslist. Somebody will be more than happy to take it off your hands for $40.

Reuse and recycle before putting it into trash.

These are perfectly good components and some poor sod still using c2d/c2q will be ecstatic to upgrade to an 8 core.

 

[Shmee]

I bought a business at the start of the year and inherited a bunch of core 2 duo era laptops and desktops. The laptops were literally so old and chunky when running linux that a hammer to the hard drive was more time/cost efficient than anything else. They were really not worth the time to login and format the hard drive. The desktops I want to trial on Chrome before I toss. Not because its worth my time but because I am a nerd and curios. Having said all that, I just bought a 2 in 1 chromebook with a 4 core i5-10210U and actually expect it will be more than sufficient for my work use. Touch screen and can run a bunch of Chrome tabs is all I will need for a long time.

This I can agree with, might as well toss the spinners, especially since they are 2.5 in drives. Replace with SSDs. A light Linux distro should work then.

 

[Zor Prime]

I have a 1700 box that is doing two things at the moment:

1, Blue Iris server,
2, V Rising game server.

Works brilliantly! I don't think the CPU utilization ever hits 50% -- usually chills around 20-30%.

When I get rid of a CPU it's because it doesn't support CPU instructions of software I'm using anymore (even then I just pop the CPU out of the motherboard and put it in my collection.)

 

[evident]

I have several desktops here & one is 12yrs old. Oldest one does what I want it to do & runs win 10 just fine. Computers are a bit like cars, if they get you from A to B, then that's all that matters.
The OP should so a spot of research on ebay & be prepared to be shocked at what some will bid or buy when its about a decade old already!

I got $250 for some mini itx sandy bridge era motherboard back in 2019. was shocked. I have a bunch of old hardware dating back to core duo / 1st gen i7 that i need to clear out before i even considering buying anything modern to replace my desktop.

I have a skylake i5 that i still use windows 7 on because i REFUSE to give up windows media center on my one TV. the DVR just works so perfect.

my current desktop is a ryzen 5 3600 and a haswell i7 as a home server/NAS.

 

[JasonLD]

If you think Ryzen 1700 is garbage, try using A6 based laptop today. It will struggle even playing 720p youtube videos.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

I cringe at the thought first then cringe at the effort to sell something old

 

[evident]

I cringe at the thought first then cringe at the effort to sell something old

Really depends what it is. I'm cleaning out a house now... and i'm trying to sell old film developer stuff, enlargers, and manual lenses. brutal.