I seem to have a computer part hoarding illness...anyone else suffer from this?

[Meghan54]

I know I'm not the only one.

I've been "playing around" with computers for over 20 years. My first "real" computer was one I built with help from a friend....based on an Intel 8088 cpu. My next was an AMD 386DX40 cpu based system.

Since then, I've had a bunch of stuff move in and out of my house. I did operate a small, self-owned computer repair/build/networking shop that was in business for about a decade.

All this leads to today. After 3 moves up and down the east coast, and the need to buy an outside store house to take the bulk of my computer leftover crap, I've finally decided to root through the dozens of boxes of junk and throw/dispose of most of it. But the crap I found.......

Well over a couple dozen boxes of old wiring, cables, etc. A pair of Corsair Obsidian 650D cases: one with a Corsair H100 cooler in the top, one with an Asus Max. Gene VI motherboard still attached.

An old PC Case Labs QMicra v2 SFF case.....which I'm sorta trying to put back into use, but its limitations are kinda major, rendering it a bit of work to put back into service.

Old video cards, old whatever cards, old cards of various--and now unrecognizable--types.

Old power supplies....and a couple of fairly recent vintage (Corsair HX620, Antec NeoEco 620W), old monitors, to include a 19" or 21"(?) Sony Trinitron crt, a Viewsonic 17" LCD.

Keyboards galore and mice aplenty.

Forgot the fans.....boxes of fans. 120's, 142's, 92's, 80's and other sizes not typically used. Some are even brand new and never used.

So, time to dispose of all this. Seems I cannot give away any of this crap.....been trying on CL for months....but who is surprised? It's loads of junk. LOL!

I hope the county transfer station (trash/garbage dropoff/collection point for those in the county without city trash pickup and take large crap like sofas, paint, etc. from any county resident) will accept all this admittedly crap that would contaminate by leaching if disposed of improperly.

Anyone have similar packrat/hoarding issues?

 

[lxskllr]

Yup. I quit saving junk electronics a good while ago, but I have so much from over the years, it's hard to tell. I need to figure out what I have that's still worth keeping, and get rid of the rest.

 

[Meghan54]

And that's the hard part.....winnowing out what to throw/keep.

I kept most of a water cooling loop I'd assembled a few years ago.....maybe 7-8 years ago. Pair of DDC2 pumps in series with an XSPC top, a HeatKiller 3.0 cpu block, Swiftech QP 120 rad, Swiftech res....the 240 rads I used are long gone. Don't plan on assembling a new loop, but the parts are just good and hate to get rid of them. Again, that hoarding mentality strikes.

Sad part is.....I began this cleaning out of crap just so I could move my riding mower into the store house....the house is a 10x16 (the largest the city will allow to be placed on one's property without incurring additional property taxes.)

But the majority of the store house is filled with boxes of computer crap, Christmas decorations, and empty boxes from crap I own/owned, such as TV boxes, printer boxes, etc.

Man, am I sad......

 

[VirtualLarry]

Anyone have similar packrat/hoarding issues?

Oh... yes. Talk to my (maybe) 20 PCs in my storage unit, still waiting for homes. (Yes, I know peeps, I'll be contacting you shortly, I should be visiting today.)

 

[ch33zw1z]

Yea, I tend to hoard electronics. The last couple years I've been purging. Best buy takes anything but monitors, I bring a box (or boxes there). Tossed a bunch of old stuff out finally.

I don't give them hard drives unless I can successfully wipe them or smash them

 

[ultimatebob]

I found that moving every few years is a great way to motivate you to pare back your old PC collection.

It's easy to horde old things like 50 pound 17" Trinitron monitors when they just stay in one place, but after you have to move them up and down a flight of stairs a few times... to the recycling center they go!

 

[ShookKnight]

I don't find it useful to horde computer parts.

Unless you have multiple family members and friends to build and fix computers for, no point in holding onto stuff.

Plus, it takes up a TON of room. And the hardware/parts become obsolete pretty quickly.

Also, if you need your system to be up all the time (i.e. you route everything from home functions and features like security, schedules, media, lights, etc.) then hold onto a few spare parts. But, nothing beyond what you need to keep your system up and running.

 

[ch33zw1z]

I don't find it useful to horde computer parts.

Unless you have multiple family members and friends to build and fix computers for, no point in holding onto stuff.

Plus, it takes up a TON of room. And the hardware/parts become obsolete pretty quickly.

Also, if you need your system to be up all the time (i.e. you route everything from home functions and features like security, schedules, media, lights, etc.) then hold onto a few spare parts. But, nothing beyond what you need to keep your system up and running.

Bolded: that's pretty much how it starts. You end up being the "computer guy" for friends and family. Hell, I just handed 10GB of DDR2 to a friend yesterday, he wants it for an old MAC for audio recording / mixing (he owns a small audio studio), I gave it to him free of charge.

I have an old 2GB DDR3 SO-DIMM I found in the same box, it came from my wife's 10 year old lenovo laptop (maxed it out at 8GB long ago). Last time I used it was on a MAC mini that wouldn't boot, turned out it was bad RAM, and this 2GB dimm proved it out.

 

[TXHokie]

I hear ya. I have the "but there's enough parts to build a linux box to run something" syndrome. Hard to throw anything out.

 

[ultimatebob]

I hear ya. I have the "but there's enough parts to build a linux box to run something" syndrome. Hard to throw anything out.

Sure, but you could also just get a Raspberry Pi instead and use that as your Linux box. It will be a lot smaller, easier to maintain, and will probably be cheaper in the long run once you factor in the cost of powering it.

Right now, I'm hanging onto an old Amazon Fire tablet to use as a punishment if my daughter if she breaks her iPad. That thing is so horribly slow that she'll hopefully learn why it's important to take care of her stuff

 

[Captante]

Oh... yes. Talk to my (maybe) 20 PCs in my storage unit, still waiting for homes. (Yes, I know peeps, I'll be contacting you shortly, I should be visiting today.)

Saw this thread and thought of you immediately!

Not to imply I don't have a fair-sized pile of (mostly) crap myself even after doing a mass-recycle/disposal a couple years ago.

 

[randay]

Oh... yes. Talk to my (maybe) 20 PCs in my storage unit, still waiting for homes. (Yes, I know peeps, I'll be contacting you shortly, I should be visiting today.)

if you have a working windows xp box ill take it!

 

[BoomerD]

I used to have that addiction. When we moved out of CA in 2012, I hauled 2 loads to a local electronics recycler, donated a couple of older, but still working pc's to Goodwill, trashed a bunch of crap...then, when we moved out of our last house, I purged more. I still have a couple of boxes of stuff in the garage that I know I'll never NEED, but....


I guess I'm not totally over it yet...but working on it.

 

[Scarpozzi]

When I moved from my last house about 10 years ago, I knew I needed to lighten what I took with me so I ended up giving all my spare parts to a friend who had a brother interested in PC stuff...

The advantage was I was able to get rid of boxes without throwing them away and without the recipient picking and choosing what they want. It worked out.

 

[killster1]

i have a few walls of hardware, just mount the motherboards to the wall, the gfx to the wall, save the best of best 120mm, 2x nice keyboards 2x nice mice, im sure someone on craigslist will take it for free you trying to charge money? you can mail me the hx620 sounds like it could get some more use. problem solved, oh yea recycle the monitors..

 

[Fritzo]

Yes...I have cables and boards from 30+ years ago.

Funny you mention it- I'm scheduled to clean my basement this weekend and was planning on trashing all of that stuff. Might take pics to go down memory lane

 

[ElFenix]

Why do I have so many IDE cables

I decided to do some cleaning for the new year. Tossing so many IDE cables, s-video/composite/component cables, VGA and DVI cables, molex to sata adapters, fan adapters, and other obsolete junk. Keeping more HDMI and USB cables than I should (including lots of mini-B cables) along with every...

forums.anandtech.com

not pictured: various dead motherboards, garbage tier routers, the 3 gallon bags of USB and HDMI cables, gallon bag of SATA cables, or my boxes of boxes (need to go through those next), box of assorted AC adapters, a couple of ~15 year old computers from the dawn of the x64 era. 2 empty antec P180 cases b/c, tho lacking in bells and whistles, they're still better built and better damped than any case i've had since.

 

[Exterous]

I have some stuff to get rid of but I'm too lazy to take it to the recyclers. It's not a ton so it just seems like wasted effort.

Why do I have so many IDE cables

I decided to do some cleaning for the new year. Tossing so many IDE cables, s-video/composite/component cables, VGA and DVI cables, molex to sata adapters, fan adapters, and other obsolete junk. Keeping more HDMI and USB cables than I should (including lots of mini-B cables) along with every...

forums.anandtech.com

I still have 3 because you never know when you might need one. As for 3 - well I have no idea if any of them work so 3 seems like a pretty good chance I'll have a working one if I ever need it

 

[nakedfrog]

It's not uncommon for hobbyists of various types, honestly, having all this extra stuff around for reasons.

 

[skyking]

reasons, yes
that's it

 

[dasherHampton]

You think you're sick? I still have the %^&ing boxes.

There's a Voodoo 3 3000 sitting in it's original box, with all manuals and everything within eyeshot as I type.

 

[Zanovar]

Heh.lots of old graphics cards.I usually give them away these days,nephews etc.just found a 5770 egg,and lots of nvdia oldies.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I hoard a lot of stuff too but way I look at it, it has no monetary value so it's either I keep it, or it ends up in a landfill. I may as well keep it and if I'm in a situation where I can't keep it anymore then at that point I'll get rid of it.

It's rare but sometimes I need an old oddball part like a PCI video card or VGA cable so I'll go dig one up. I have a bunch of IDE hard drives rated in MB, or network cards with a BNC port. Those have little to no chance of being needed though...

 

[skyking]

I have my arm in a sling for another 3 weeks and then I'll be home for several months rehabbing. That is one of my goals digging into my pile of goodies and pruning it with extreme prejudice.

 

[skyking]

One of my techniques from the earlier pruning was to take an old computer, open up the case and fill it with a whole bunch of extra cards like it was a shipping container!
It would be like Christmas at the recycle center.