[SOLVED] What to do with old components?

[justinbower]

I'm finishing a new build, and have some ~9 year old but good condition components from the old computer I don't know what to do with. They include an AMD Athlon II X4 630 processor, an hd4850 graphics card, 8 gb of some sort of RAM from that era, an MSI 760GM-E51 motherboard, etc. Is there anything I can feasibly do with these? All are working fine, lightly used (though 9 years old now). I assume they have no value, and it's not worth Ebaying, but I have no idea what else to do with them.

 

[Math Geek]

you can use it to set up your own server of some type to learn something new. try a firewall, file server or other project you might want to play with.

otherwise you could donate the system to a local charity. i work with my church refurbishing old pc's to give to those who don't have one. they may not be good for modern gaming but they will run office and homework apps with no problem.

or of course goodwill would not complain either. they can sell it for $50 or something and add that to their money pool.

 

[justinbower]

I didn't realize that people did charity builds, cool. I'll look in my area. I'm happy for someone to have it as a working system.

 

[Math Geek]

my church collects them as does the local community college. they let students get em working to gain experience and then sell them to others who need them for like $25 usually to support the efforts.

if i recall right, the high school i taught at also had a computer club that did similar projects.

good luck and i hope you find a good home for that old pc

 

[hang-the-9]

I didn't realize that people did charity builds, cool. I'll look in my area. I'm happy for someone to have it as a working system.

One thing to watch out for is scammers on craigslist and such asking for "free computers for my autistic son" or "for church", there is a good number of them that just pick up your stuff for free then turn around and sell it to someone. Try to deal with either a known charity or directly to the place you want to donate it to.

 

[Math Geek]

sadly i've run into that myself. we give away the pc's from church and have seen them on craigslist the next day.

so we are a bit more selective now and work with church memebers to identify the right people for our limited freebies.

 

[USAFRet]

I have as well. Some years ago, I refurbished and gave away a stack of ex-corporate laptops. 8, I believe.

6 months later, all were gone. Physically broken, pawned, stolen...