DC and puter part balance?

cellarnoise

Senior member
Mar 22, 2017
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So.... I replaced a power supply that had a cooling fan going out with a more efficient power supply. I'm saving power bill money in the long run, right?

So... I feel accomplished as I just now replaced the bad power supply cooling fan. Powered it up and no smoke! and the fan is quiet!

So... I now have a nice and quiet power supply that is doing nothing.... I could sell it but I now have some blood (literally), sweat and maybe a tear invested into it. Who would want to give it up after that much personal investment?

So... why not build a puter around this not very old power supply for DC?

I'm think it might be hard to have a perfectly decent puter part sitting around doing nothing?...
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
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Well, every "PC Nerd" needs a replacement PSU "on standby", just in case... (of an emergency PSU replacement need).

The PSU is one part that I actually would NOT "build around", as far as having a spare part and wanting to make a new PC. Case, CPU, RAM, GPU, yeah maybe. PSU, probably not. (Unless I already had proper spares for all of my current PCs already, and it was a decently-high-quality one. Other than that, no.)
 
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Assimilator1

Elite Member
Nov 4, 1999
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When I removed the Corsair TX650 from my main rig last year (it was 11yrs old then), I kept it as a spare for a couple of months or so, then my 2nd rig's PSU fan got noisy (similar age), so I swapped it to there. The Corsair unit that came out of there is now my spare ;).
 

cellarnoise

Senior member
Mar 22, 2017
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Well I appreciate the responses. I'm relatively new to D.C. and I now look at any puter part from a power to point ratio........... with excess old 4+ year old laptop noise from fans factoring in somewhat.

I'll still seek balance for now. Haha :)

I really have never had old puter parts around unless they really were end of life...
 

Markfw

Moderator Emeritus, Elite Member
May 16, 2002
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Well I appreciate the responses. I'm relatively new to D.C. and I now look at any puter part from a power to point ratio........... with excess old 4+ year old laptop noise from fans factoring in somewhat.

I'll still seek balance for now. Haha :)

I really have never had old puter parts around unless they really were end of life...
I have an entire bedroom full of spare parts, and even a couple of functional computers that are too slow to use. (dual core, quad core)
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
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I have an entire bedroom full of spare parts, and even a couple of functional computers that are too slow to use. (dual core, quad core)
Mark, you're the most hard-core computer geek enthusiast that I know. And I mean that with great respect. :)

(I thought I was a serious computer geek enthusiast, until I met Mark. It's frustrating trying to sell anything to him, he's always like, "yeah, I've got like six of those laying around"... LOL!)

Edit: Sorry for using outdated slang that might be prejorative, didn't mean it that way, more of a badge of honor.
 

Markfw

Moderator Emeritus, Elite Member
May 16, 2002
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I even have computers fully functional from years ago. An XP1700 for example. Runs DOS. You name it, I probably have one or two or 10. (or 100 as in power cords)
 
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Assimilator1

Elite Member
Nov 4, 1999
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I've got a fully functional Celeron 366@550 computer, at least it was when I last ran it years ago! lol. I built it with the intent to use it as a legacy PC for old games, but I've never used it!
But otherwise, once I retire parts from my 2nd rig I (sooner or later :p) I sell most of the parts on, I don't have the spare space to keep them! That said, I have got some gear that I haven't gotten around to selling....... anyone want an HD 4830? :tearsofjoy:. I did chuck out a load of old gear last year for recycling.
 

Endgame124

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Feb 11, 2008
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I’ve got a pentium 200 mmx with sli monster voodoo 2 12mv cards in my basement. It used to get used regularly for a number of old games, but I haven’t turned it on in a few years. Originally I had those voodoo 2s in a pentium 2 400, but that got sold without the cards.
 
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Assimilator1

Elite Member
Nov 4, 1999
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I had a Pentium 166 MMX as my 1st PC back in the day :), but I sold/exchanged that for a Pentium 200 MMX (which I overclocked to 225 MHz :)), I then sold that on to get a K6-2 350 (which was largely pointless due to its poor FPU!). The Celeron 366 replaced the K6-2, a big jump in performance that was!
 

crashtech

Lifer
Jan 4, 2013
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I'm not that sentimental when it comes to PC hardware. I save way too much junk as it is! My oldest system is a dual Xeon E5440 rig. It's a bit unusual in that it has a floppy controller and a PCI slot, but also has a PCI-e x16 GPU slot. So I can use it during Sprints to run an older GPU if it's a close race, and it may come in handy someday to read a floppy, though the last time I tried that, the data were corrupted.