Free Computers and Monitors - University Students and Faculty

[Undream]

I work in the IT department of a small liberal arts college in Michigan. We still have Dell 133's on the desks of 200+ faculty/staff, with 15" monitors. If a college is throwing away P II, P III, then thats just crazy.

Rigth now, we are just throwing away Pentium 75 and less. Big 300+ shipment of P4-1.8's this summer.. I'll be damn busy. We're going to format the Dells and auction them off...although, I really wonder who would want 200 P133 machines

 

[Cleaner]

OSU like any other state agency HAS to spend it allocated budget each year no matter what. If they don't spend thier budget then they will recieve proportionally less money in the next year's budget. Thus you have departments who replace all of their hardware every year or two, for rich departments, and sometimes never, for poor departments. I know that my department, The Office of Information Technology (OIT), bought 50 Dell GX400's with 17" monitors and stuck them in a basement because they had extra money at the end of the fiscal year. When I left that job they were still sitting in that dank, humid basement and had been for at least 6 months. OIT is just one department of OSU and they have at least 5 large rooms filled from floor to ceiling with computers, monitors, and printers. AND THEY JUST KEEP BUYING MORE!!! It doesn't matter what they have in storage they buy completely new for each project. My coworkers, who were students, and many others thought this was ridiculous.
Well if you guys want to hear any more stories of governmental/university corruption and frivilous spending of taxpayer money just ask.

 

[neovan]

<< I work in the IT department of a small liberal arts college in Michigan. We still have Dell 133's on the desks of 200+ faculty/staff, with 15" monitors. If a college is throwing away P II, P III, then thats just crazy.

Rigth now, we are just throwing away Pentium 75 and less. Big 300+ shipment of P4-1.8's this summer.. I'll be damn busy. We're going to format the Dells and auction them off...although, I really wonder who would want 200 P133 machines >>



Undream Have you ever heard of SETI! Come join us in the DC Forum HERE

 

[LoneShadow]

I worked in the IT department for my univ. So when new machines came, they replaces the old ones. according to the fed. gov, we have to surplus all of the old machines. but some of the ram, hdd, good monitors were salvaged for re-using. Someone did steal some ram, they got into trouble. I asked my supervisor, she let me take some parts and a monitor home, and told me to return it whenever i dont wanna use it anymore.

Usually univ policy is to surplus all old equipments, which are auctioned.

Now the bad part is, the way they handle the transporting these machines. jeez, i bet those machines will die before the truck leaves the campus.

Another Tip for people buying universtity used machines in auction. Avoid buying the old monitors, they are on 24hrs every day, I found few of the old monitors die after few years.

LoneShadow

 

[littlezipp]

<< I go to UCD, all our surplus equipment goes to the Bargain Barn. The deals aren't the greatest but once in a while you'll stumble across a gem. >>

That is some advice I will remember!

 

[knightc2]

This wouldn't surprise me as stupid as big businesses and some universities are. No wonder tuition is so high. My school, unfortunately, sent all the old stuff to University Salvage to be sold. Most of it was crap and way old. Good luck to anyone that actually finds anything usable that any university is throwing away.

 

[skoog]

damn.... I also work for OSU... unfortunately I work for the poor as dirt department. About 20% of our computers are still Pentium 1s. I found out this year our entire IT budget will be 2000$. I have heard of this place where they dump all the equipment. I know some guys who work for other departements and They throw away TONS of good stuff.(department of economics and the business college are two rich areas to name a few) Every University is like this. IF you have a university near you call the IT department and just ask what happens to thier old equipment.

 

[outcastunderscorep]

a kid im in class with has an internship at a vertrans hospital. its a government run place. he said they they have all this stuff that they buy and never use. then just throw out new in the box. but taking it out of the dumpster is theft of government property. people were paying the trash company to be able to get stuff out of the trucks after it was dumped.

you could get lucky but most of the stuff with my old HS and the college i goto gets surplused out and sent to other parts of the county

-oc

 

[PEZCORE]

im going to be going to OSU in the fall, one of my teachers has a son who goes there. She has told me that he has gotten tons of great deals buying stuff from there computer dept. things like 15"lcd for $50, complete p3 system for $20. i guess they just sell everything at any price.

 

[her209]

I dont see how this is a useful thread, or even a HOT DEALS thread for that fact.

First of all, not everyone can get in this so-called deal.
And secondly, you haven't disclosed the school. How do you know other forum members don't go to the same school? I mean, whats the difference if other forum members know what school is giving away their trash.

 

[TeflonMan1]

Yeah so far at our dorm this semester Ive seen 2 old monitors laying oustide which appear to have been dropped from the 4th story window. They were then stripped of any interesting components. So I guess you could call that some free stuff.

 

[WageSlave]

WHERE IS THE HOT DEAL !

THIS THREAD SUX

If you cant provide a way for us to get these things this is a crappy ice cold deal


its like someone said once in response to another LAME thread like this.... . 'I found a 5$ bill on the street once, it was lying next to a blue car and I just picked it up'

or something

Stop posting this garbage

someone please like this dungheep

 

[Gog]

It's nice to see that the complaints have been in the minority and that some useful info has been exchanged between members concerning getting computer equipement that is being discarded either for free or at a major discount. Unfortunately this post only applies to students and faculty members of colleges.



<< I dont see how this is a useful thread, or even a HOT DEALS thread for that fact. >>




<< First of all, not everyone can get in this so-called deal. And secondly, you haven't disclosed the school. How do you know other forum members don't go to the same school? I mean, whats the difference if other forum members know what school is giving away their trash. >>



I've addressed both of these comments already, perhaps you should read the thread before posting.

 

[winryan]

I love it so much when people say, lock this...like they have some authority or sumthing, and then the thread just keeps hanging around....a long time. It's like they try to fight the battle and lose. Total losers to waste their time posting a dumb post saying lock this.

 

[WageSlave]

What is a good topic for a new thread?

New threads are for posting the deals you have found. We also have four ongoing threads at the top of the forum for other types of posts:
~~~~ Rebate Tracking Thread ~~~~ to ask for, or post information about, current rebate programs.

~~~~ IWANNA ~~~~ to ask for hot deals on the items you want.

~~~~ How Do I ~~~~ to ask how to price match, etc.

~~~~ Brag & Moan ~~~~ to rave about your great experience or complain about how badly you were treated.

 

[toshiba3020]

You want to know why tuition is so high, its because every day I get 6 or 7 flyers/letters/handouts/booklets/etc from diffrent colleges. This despite I have contacted most of them and told them I am not intersted in them, and have already commited myself to one college. Even the college I am going to sends me mailings to convince me to goto their school, I have filled out many documents and sent them a lot of money to reserve my place at the school. Its insane..

 

[bizmark]

I've picked up a lot of great stuff from the CS dept at my university (PM me if you're really curious as to where I go to school, but it looks as if this is prevalent across many universities throughout the US).

To the person who made the "crappy old Apples" comment: Mac Quadras (25MHz) could do video editing. PPC's like the 8500 (120-180MHz) had built-in A/V ins/outs including S-Video in and out. (I got one of these for free when it was being trashed by the CS dept.)Which is something that you still don't see in most PC's today. Plus they can read DOS/Windows files such as MP3's burned to CD. So they're really not so bad especially if you're interested in things like video editing but you're on a college student's budget.

Plus any Mac monitor that says "Multiple Scan" on the back of it is compatible with any PC. And as we all know, monitors are the one thing that you can rarely find very cheaply, and even if you do the shipping will cost you an arm and a leg. Free + $0 shipping for a 17" Trinitron sounds pretty good to me.

They just have all the stuff piled up in the hallway when they let it go. I think that it basically saves a big headache because they don't have to throw the stuff away (illegal in some cases? I think), they just leave it outside their offices and it magically disappears. And somebody else gets good use out of it.

Maybe a change of title would alleviate some peoples' anger over this thread?

 

[JBark]

<< What is a good topic for a new thread?

New threads are for posting the deals you have found. We also have four ongoing threads at the top of the forum for other types of posts:
~~~~ Rebate Tracking Thread ~~~~ to ask for, or post information about, current rebate programs.

~~~~ IWANNA ~~~~ to ask for hot deals on the items you want.

~~~~ How Do I ~~~~ to ask how to price match, etc.

~~~~ Brag & Moan ~~~~ to rave about your great experience or complain about how badly you were treated.
>>



No thread crapping. If the subject matter of a deal does not interest you, do not post negative comments about it, or about other members, in the thread.

Possibly the worst examples we have had of this have been in posts for free religious items, such as bibles, etc. If you want to discuss religion, or any other such non-computer topic, do it in our Off Topic forum. The discussions in that forum cover a wide range of topics, but needless flaming and rude, mean-spirited posts are not welcome there, either.

Stick to discussing the deal. Do not post needless rude or trivial comments about someone else's posts. Flaming can only hurt someone's feelings. Nuisance posts, such as "In before the lock," "IBTL" or other needless bumps just recycle bad threads and force good ones off the first page of the forum.

Think before you post. Rude posts can kill a good deal. For example, posts for deals on sexually related items such as condoms and lubricants are ok, but if others cannot refrain from posting lewd or childish remarks, that would be reason to lock or delete the thread.

When are negative comments allowed?
*If you know a "deal" is a scam.

*If the post contains improper links, such as click-through referrals, etc. If you know a better link for the same deal, post it in the thread.

*If there is any other reason to warn others about an offer or link. For example, many sites offering free magazine subscriptions have been known to continue billing credit cards long after the subscription was cancelled. Also, if you know a vendor has a bad reseller rating, you are doing your fellow members a favor by warning them.

I don't how this deal would meet any of the three criteria for allowing negative comments, it's not a scam, it's not a referral, and most universities are pretty legit companies. I'm sure many students didn't know that most of their colleges have surplus sales and such, and now they can hopefully get some good deals on used computer equipment.

 

[Galilee77]

erickotz- I'll gladly give you all the info I have regarding the deals at RIT. I didn't realize that I wasn't set up to get e-mail. I'll fix that immediately so feel free to send me a message with any questions you might have. That goes for everyone else too.

 

[Cleaner]

her209 & wageslave obviously can't read. I said that I went to the OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY and that ANYONE can buy computer equipment from the Surplus department. Scroll up and read.

 

[piasabird]

At our community college we don't buy and LCD screens. However the newest equipment is in the labs then it is sent to the offices till it cascades down to the giveaway time. This year they gave away a few P166/P133 for 5$ each. It is easier than having someone haul them all off.

 

[djchemistry]

Here's the HOT DEAL
U.C. Berkeley auctions off old equipment (i.e. desks, chairs, computers, etc...) through their excess and salvage department located on San Pablo & University Ave. It is very easy picking up something down there.

*Insider Info*
Many of the campus computer labs replaced their 17" trinitrons and PIII-600's with new Dell LCD's and computers. Therefore the old trinitrons and PIII systems are headed down to excess and salvage for auctions. And let me tell you, our excess and salvage dept. isn't exactly common knowledge. Hardly anyone knows about it. Good luck fellas. See you down there.

Excess/Salvage @ Berkeley