Getting PCs that businesses throw out

[yhelothar]

My mom got a decent P4 system a while back from her friend's business throwing out their old PCs. So I know companies regularly does this.

I have a friend who's still chugging along on a P3, so I'm thinking about trying to hook her up with one of these.

I figure one of you computer geeks would be familiar with a good way to catch one of these.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Drive around middle class neighborhoods every trash day. At least a couple times a year here I see computers on the sidewalk just leaving my neighborhood, so if you did it regularly you'd get stuff.

 

[Soccerman06]

Craigslist?

 

[Perknose]

If you lived near Nebor you'd be all set.

I just cleaned house the other day and got rid of [...] a couple of old 7200rpm 1tb hds and all the gtx2XX video cards I had crammed on the shelf next to my desktop PC.

Of course, there's a downside, too. You'd be living near Nebor.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Of course, there's a downside, too. You'd be living near Nebor.

I'd gladly be his boyfriend for free computer hardware.

 

[yhelothar]

If you lived near Nebor you'd be all set.

Of course, there's a downside, too. You'd be living near Nebor.

ROFLMAO... atot never fails to surprise me in the great lengths they go in their e-penor charade.

He could at least put it up on craigslist if he's too lazy to ship.

 

[yhelothar]

Craigslist?

First place I tried. All I see is a P3 and a G4 imac.
I think the problem with craigslist is that there's too many old computer illiterate old geezers that think any old POS comp is worth something.

 

[ViviTheMage]

Your best bet is CL.

We sell our old T42's and P4 desktops to asset companies.

 

[duragezic]

I have an AMD Opteron 146 you can have if you pay S&H. I don't have a motherboard or RAM or anything like that though.

 

[silverpig]

First place I tried. All I see is a P3 and a G4 imac.
I think the problem with craigslist is that there's too many old computer illiterate old geezers that think any old POS comp is worth something.

I remember the days when adding: "internet ready and windows 98!" to the bottom of a craigslist ad saw a flood of emails offering asking price.

 

[RelaxTheMind]

middle class neighborhood garage sales. got a $700 (at the time) SLI rig for $25. story was that it was a deadbeat cousins... they had no idea all the goodies that were in it.

edit: after christmas is a great time to look for people tossing old gear. knowing people in IT departments are good to let you know when they do upgrades.

 

[rockyct]

First place I tried. All I see is a P3 and a G4 imac.
I think the problem with craigslist is that there's too many old computer illiterate old geezers that think any old POS comp is worth something.

Yeah, that's far more common. A computer they spent $1500 on five years ago does not mean it's worth $600, or even $150.

 

[lothar]

My mom got a decent P4 system a while back from her friend's business throwing out their old PCs. So I know companies regularly does this.

I have a friend who's still chugging along on a P3, so I'm thinking about trying to hook her up with one of these.

I figure one of you computer geeks would be familiar with a good way to catch one of these.

I have a P4 2.2GHz Northwood, motherboard along with 512MB Ram sitting in the basement from when I upgraded one of my P4 systems last year.

Disk drives, and video cards(it has onboard video so you don't need a graphics card to run it) have been harvested. You may have to get a new case for it because it was an ASUS barebone kit and I never wasted my time screwing the case back together after I harvested the items I needed. If you asked me where the screw parts are, I may not be able to answer your question.

If you want them for free, no problem. I won't pay to ship them though.

The last time I left it outside, the garbage people left it there and took our other things we had outside. I've been meaning to drive by an apartment complex and just put it in their dumpster for over a year but never got the chance.

 

[rcpratt]

Someone can take my piece of shit work PC that has restarted three times in the first 30 minutes of work while trying to open a PDF at the same time as a Word doc (OH NOES!), fuck my fucking life and screw this piece of shit.

 

[Iron Woode]

I do the same thing.

A friend is always upgrading old stuff and he gives them to me. So far I received 7 systems. Most are older P3 but free is free.

On Sunday morning I scored an Antec SLK 1400B tower and a socket 775 Intel D945PWM motherboard.

 

[lxskllr]

Dumpsters behind small-medium sized businesses. Medium sized businesses would probably be more productive. They'd have more computers with a faster turnover, but not so big that they have an official disposal program.

 

[alkemyst]

Around here you will get fined for them in dumpsters, there are many companies that will pick them up even free.

Only thing they charge to pick up now is if you only have CRT's going...

 

[fire400]

some companies are not tolerating other people picking up their garbage ...

know people before you know the company.

 

[lothar]

Around here you will get fined for them in dumpsters, there are many companies that will pick them up even free.

Only thing they charge to pick up now is if you only have CRT's going...

How can they fine someone if they don't know who dumped it? That's an unenforceable law.

I donated my CRT's to salvation army. Why pay to have someone pick up if you can donate and get a tax credit for it?

 

[Modular]

The question is; how much will you save by dumpster diving? Maybe just stop in at a local business and ask them if they have any old hardware laying around. It's much less embarrassing than crawling into a dumpster to look for a PC (when you probably won't find one in there anyways).

I'm not sure about this, but I know that PC components technically are not supposed to be thrown away like regular trash, so many companies most likely don't just toss them anyways for fear of fines and the like. Because of that, I'd guess that your best option would be to just talk to someone in a local businesses IT department.

 

[bobdole369]

I used to dumpster dive specifically for this. Back when computer parts stores were brick and mortar especially. There was a place called Computer Renaissance behind which I scored the motherlode one day. I mean VESA IDE cards, caching drive controllers, tubes and tubes of DIP RAM, SIMMS, SIPPS, 386 boards, 486 boards, 487's, 387's, about 40 power supplies, 15 various VESA video cards, etc. They must have cleaned out their parts bins cuz most of the stuff still worked, but this was like 96-97 so 486's were even a little dated.

 

[nonameo]

IF you were local to me, I have some old athlon XP stuff I could give you. I'm sure there's someone local to you that'll help you out.

 

[Golgatha]

How can they fine someone if they don't know who dumped it? That's an unenforceable law.

I donated my CRT's to salvation army. Why pay to have someone pick up if you can donate and get a tax credit for it?

Serial number on the computer is traceable back to the original owner. A business dumping a piece of equipment known to contain high amounts of heavy metals is a fineable offense. It's amazing to me how different the rules are for individuals vs businesses.

 

[Brainonska511]

How can they fine someone if they don't know who dumped it? That's an unenforceable law.

I donated my CRT's to salvation army. Why pay to have someone pick up if you can donate and get a tax credit for it?

Your local government doesn't run an electronic waste collection day every now and again?

 

[NikolaeVarius]

College Campus.

I go to all the dumpsters once a week at my school and pick up some awesome stuff.

I got some awesome Sony Trinitons in perfect condition and love it. Also tons of 100% operational computers that I use for servers and stuff.