What to do with a (very old) outdated PC?

NooBish AbbZ · 5 Dec 2023 at 15:47

Hi all,

I replaced my gaming PC around 18 months ago and my old PC is still sat here in my office doing nothing. What do I do with it? The components are massively outdated (circa 2012) and by the end of it's life it was blue screening. (Radeon 7950, Core I5 2500k, Z68 AP D3 Mobo, so stuff that literally isn't even worth selling.

It seems like a waste to just bin it, but also I need to wipe the HDD if I'm not going to destroy it.

StarShock · 5 Dec 2023 at 15:54

Legit, take the hdd out and smash it and give the rest to a kid. With the addition of a cheap sata ssd and a clean unlicensed windows install it can play a lot of games just fine and loads of kids want machines that will play fortnite, minecraft and roblox.

The_Arbiter · 6 Dec 2023 at 06:48

The topic has been covered recently, not sure of best search terms though. Charities, schools, free on FB collection, etc.

***F1ZZY*** · 6 Dec 2023 at 08:00

Ssd and new windows.

Pass to family member. Older people want to browse and not much else. Younger kids can play basic games as above and learn how to use pc stuff.

It has value to some people.

NooBish AbbZ · 6 Dec 2023 at 08:09

***F1ZZY*** said:
Ssd and new windows.

Pass to family member. Older people want to browse and not much else. Younger kids can play basic games as above and learn how to use pc stuff.

It has value to some people.

Yeah I completely agree hence I didn't want to essentially just take it to the tip!

therealdippy · 6 Dec 2023 at 12:48

I recently got rid of the two 10+ year old PCs that my daughters used to use. It was very satisfying stripping them down so that I could put the parts in separate plastics, metal & electronics bins which I then took to our local recycling centre. I did the same with an old laptop but that was less satisfying as it was hard work to separate some of the components.

gbradders123 · 6 Dec 2023 at 17:38

Take out the hdd and chuck it on fb marketplace, will get something for it and wont be adding to e waste

Quartz · 6 Dec 2023 at 18:08

NooBish AbbZ said:
I replaced my gaming PC around 18 months ago and my old PC is still sat here in my office doing nothing. What do I do with it? The components are massively outdated (circa 2012) and by the end of it's life it was blue screening. (Radeon 7950, Core I5 2500k, Z68 AP D3 Mobo, so stuff that literally isn't even worth selling.

If you can fix it, keep it as an emergency spare and guest PC. The most likely failure is the HDD so replace the HDD with a SSD and repaste the CPU cooler.

mattyfez · 7 Dec 2023 at 00:47

rebuild it it as a general media rig if you want to keep it, or keep it for spares and repairs.

Another option would be donate it to a relative or charity for people who can't afford a computer.

ooStevo · 7 Dec 2023 at 01:14

siclilmonkey · 7 Dec 2023 at 09:53

Facebook market place - wont get much for it but it will have a new home and not be e waste

Mr Mcgoo · 7 Dec 2023 at 18:03

i had a 9100f with a gtx 780 heavily overclocked that i handed down to my eldest daughter. When i built her a 9600kf rtx 2070 i handed the other system to my youngest daughter for her early birthday present and she loves it. She only plays roblox so it more than enough for that

Old tech still has good use for kids as a starter even if they have to use low 1080p on more modern games. i started on pentium 3 450mhz voodoo 2 in 2002 (12 years old). very old tech and still had fun on some classics back then. This solidified my love for pc gaming.