Old hardware - Keep?, Why? or Throw away?

[Chocki]

I'm having a bit of a spring clean and have come across some old hardware and was just wondering if there is any reason to keep it and why?.

I have come across an original Orchid 3DFX graphics card, this was one of the first available in this country!, ahhhh Quake!.....

A Vibra 16 soundcard, one which could drive speakers directly!.

Oh dear, 3 ISA multi I/O cards!, jumpers aplenty lol....

A Psion 3c complete with programming manuals, leather case.

A SW60 midi soundcard, on ISA.

A CGA graphics adapter card on ISA.

A VRM module (2.8v P55c or 2.9v AMD K6)

A REX-3 pcmcia organiser (very early PDA which fitted into a PCMCIA slot).

Other bits and pieces.

Is any of this worth keeping, or selling?, or just bin it?.

 

[Zefan]

Anything that works flawlessly should be kept for troubleshooting purposes, i.e those PCI Graphics cards and maybe the sound.

 

[MeatLoaf]

Yes i always have an emergenct backup supply. Ive got an old pci gfx card in case my primary gfx card fails so at least i can still use the pc. Also got an old CDROM drive in case my drives fail, a pci modem in case my router breaks, and a 256Mb stick of ram in case that dies as well. Only thing ive not got 2 of is cpus.

 

[oxygene]

I agree its always worth keeping spares around, never know when they will be needed. As for personal experiance I can say thta gathering spares over the years has given me enough parts to build 4 new pcs, not uber fast but good for file servers / parents / selling to newbees / etc

 

[jellybeard999]

anything on ISA is safe to throw out i think

but if its PCI, keep hold... comes in handy for parents pcs etc