any luck buying good parts on ebay?

[carangil]

I've had an itch lately to get all the parts together to build a mean 486. (or even a 386) I sort of want to recreate the system I had when I was a kid.

I've been looking in the obvious places, like ebay, but I come across a bunch of 'working' cpus, 'working' ram and 'working' motherboards, all sold as-is, and usually not as sets.

Now, its obvious to everyone, you need all three at a minimum to post. (Thank goodness I have a known good ISA VGA card laying around my house!)

What would everyone's recommended route be to get this going? Buy one of each (mobo, cpu, ram) and if it doesn't work, keep buying parts until it boots?

Does anyone have any better places to buy used, but working, parts?

 

[wmmullaney]

I would definitely try posting in the wanted section of this forum first, you never know what junk someone might want to get rid of

 

[barythrin]

Well, have you checked craigslist.org or freecycle in your area? You're in a prime hotspot for old technology and also lots of unwanted junk in everyone's garage. I imagine a 486 or 386 isn't very difficult to come by (486 probably easier) and definitely a working one.

FWIW I've had good luck on ebay even with as-is although yes there are stores out there that as-is means they tested it and it doesn't work so mark it as-is. "Weird Stuff" or if they still have that first saturday or whatever it was I would think would be an easy way to get one cheap.

Other options as mentioned are requesting it here, the marketplace here, or other auction sites and computer recyclers in your area.

 

[Unknown_K]

386 and 486 systems are getting rare to find locally, just about anything offered as junk on freecycle is a P2 or above these days.

Vintage stuff on ebay is pretty much gone except for a few items and those people want a crazy amount for (ebay fees have alot to do with turning ebay from a flee market type place people get rid of junk to more like a store with Buy it Now listings).

Years ago I used to pick up lots of ISA/VLB cards for little or no money, same for 386 and 486 motherboards on ebay.

Doesn't hurt to try freecycle, or find the local electronics recyclers and see what they have. Or you can just watch ebay for 6 months daily until something comes up. You would probably have better (and quicker) luck in the wanted section of this forum since plenty of people have that kind of stuff and probably don't want it.

As far as the stuff working, I find if people kept it this long it was probably working then and still is now. People sell as-is so they dont have to deal with people having buyers remorse or endless tech emails back and forth. Some of the sellers get stuff by the carload and don't have time (or know how) to test the items, and for the prices they get its not worth the time. The only time I would be even slightly cautious is when somebody is selling a known valuable rarity as-is, then it might be tested broken. Still I recieved parts that were sold as dead that actually do work fine, depends on your ability for fix stuff.

 

[Old Thrashbarg]

Yeah, you should be able to find 486 parts, or a whole system, on Craigslist or Freecycle. Like barythrin said, you're certainly in the right area to find that stuff. Post a want ad on CL and Freecycle, see what happens.

Also go stop by Weird Stuff if you haven't already. They sell all sorts of old crap, I'm sure you could at least turn up some useful parts there.

Also, as far as eBay goes, look for a seller called "lamcsales". He has decent prices, and he's never done me wrong. You gotta be careful to research part numbers and such so you know exactly what you're getting, since he's not exactly verbose in his descriptions, but that aside, he seems to be one of the better old parts sellers on the 'Bay.

 

[leaknoil]

486 systems are getting hard to come by. Unless you live out in the midwest or south most stuff below p3 has already been recycled or shipped overseas.

That said there are probably a few still in people's basements and sheds they just haven't bothered getting rid of yet. Problem is they can't imagine anyone would ever want them. Straight into the trash or recycling. They wont even bother asking if someone wants it.

I actually needed a ISA box a couple months ago and started looking around. I think I even posted a wanted ad here. Weird Stuff is a weekly stop for me. Nothing except a few untested motherboards. That place doesn't really deal in vintage computers. The e-recyclers instantly trash them so they are a dead end. I never did find one until one showed up in a random pallet of junk I won. It wasn't even listed as part of it.

You can find the motherboards and cpus but, the hard part seems to be the case and power supply. The few ones you can find are usually custom ones from AST, HP, or Compaq. No use if you have one of the generic AT motherboards. Finding a case with that AT keyboard hole in the right place is such a pain now. If people think the named brand 486 boxes are worthless you can imagine what they might think the value of a generic 486 clone is.

I think there may be a few 'collectors' out there with a mess of them stashed away as well. Either thinking they are valuable or waiting for them to become valuable. I'd certainly say they are becoming rarer but, maybe just not rare yet.

I wonder if they will ever actually become real collectors items though. Though a zillion 486 boxes sold seems like they were just a stepping stone to something else in computer history. Anything that would run on a 486 would run on a quad core xeon of today or the 386 of the earlier days. Not like a Apple II or PDP 11. PC's haven't really changed since 486 days other then they got rid of the 5.25" floppy. Otherwise you can't tell the difference between someones 8 core mini super computer and a 20Mhz 386 from the outside.

 

[Darshevo]

What kind of money are you looking to spend? I can check with some of the local guys and recyclers. I have been trying to stick to obscure stuff and 286 to older stuff (Pile was getting too big :D)

-Lance

 

[MikeS]

Shipping's the killer these days (especially from up here in the other CA). Druid and I take AT-style desktop and tower cases and PSs to the scrap yard all the time 'cause they just ain't worth shipping anywhere; I've got half a dozen waiting to go as I write.

Even motherboards and cards are usually not worth the time and trouble to ship.

 

[Unknown_K]

Shipping's the killer these days (especially from up here in the other CA). Druid and I take AT-style desktop and tower cases and PSs to the scrap yard all the time 'cause they just ain't worth shipping anywhere; I've got half a dozen waiting to go as I write.

Even motherboards and cards are usually not worth the time and trouble to ship.

Don't have many computer collectors in Canada? Shipping over the border is probably not worth doing unless it is something rare and special.

 

[Anonymous Coward]

If you want a 486 on the cheap, the best was to go about it is to pick one up already assembled. The only problem with this method is that you might get stuck with a low profile system, or a budget box full of cheap junk.
I prefer to build my systems with hand selected components. There is still quite a lot available to choose from online, and if you are smart it can be fairly cheap too. (depends on your definition of cheap, I think $10 for a good card is reasonable). There is good stuff on ebay from time to time, but you need to be patient. There is a seller on there called "lamcsales" who has a good selection and decent prices.
Most used parts should work fine, with the exception of old hard drives and motherboards. Motherboards usually die from bad or leaky CMOS batteries, and sometimes bad traces or solder joints from being tossed around too much. I have a few boards here. What specifically did you want?
Getting an AT case might not be necessary if you already have an ATX case. You can buy a converter cable and backplate for something like $10.

 

[carangil]

Well, I kinda want to recreate the system I had when I was a kid. My parent threw out my box of awesome parts ( I had a working 286, 386 and 486 motherboard in a box) when I want to college, thinking it was worthless junk.
I had a 486-100mhz. BTW, I recently saw one on ebay I'm going to get, comes with a VESA card and some RAM; it's a nice place for me to start.

Ultimately, what I would like is:

486DX2-66 or 486DX4-100
at least 8mb ram, but would like 16
vesa graphics (at least 800*600*256)
sound blaster 16
any-old IDE card
ide cd drive
solid state hard drive
floppy (mostly just for the first boot to get the OS on)

about the hard drive: I have a 450mhz k6-2 that i've recently converted over to compactflash. There's CD to IDE converter which pretty much turn a CF card into a solid state drive. It's awesome for old systems, since 2GB is plenty (and sometimes too much!) for an old pc, and there's no moving parts!

 

[Anonymous Coward]

I think I've got a good board for you. It was very popular in its day:

http://artofhacking.com/th99/m/E-H/32553.htm

I've got a DX/4 100 CPU for you. The IDE/FDD/IO is build in, so you won't need a separate controller. I don't have any spare IDE CD-ROM drives, but I do have an IDE DVD ROM drive (which also works as a CD-ROM drive) from Pioneer that has a very nice old style beige panel.

http://www.ultradrives.com/images/pioneer_dvd114.JPG

I have an SB16 for you. The graphics adapter I'm not sure of, but I can point you to a Mach64 VLB 2MB on ebay that's of reasonable price.

Normally I wouldn't be so generous, but I'm moving, so I need to get rid of some weight.

Send me a private message if you're interested. I can set it all up and test it for you. It's yours for the cost of shipping.

 

[Lutiana]

Ultimately, what I would like is:

486DX2-66 or 486DX4-100
at least 8mb ram, but would like 16
vesa graphics (at least 800*600*256)
sound blaster 16
any-old IDE card
ide cd drive
solid state hard drive
floppy (mostly just for the first boot to get the OS on)

There is a place in Sunnyvale that sells tons of ISA cards. I know for a fact you can get some Sound Blaster cards. Check out there site here. They are pretty cheep, my 2 ISA SB-16 cards cost me $4.

They will probably have most of the stuff on your list, but alas I have not yet found a 486 class motherboard or chip there yet.

about the hard drive: I have a 450mhz k6-2 that i've recently converted over to compactflash. There's CD to IDE converter which pretty much turn a CF card into a solid state drive. It's awesome for old systems, since 2GB is plenty (and sometimes too much!) for an old pc, and there's no moving parts!

CF -> IDE adapters are great, but remember that most CF cards have a finite number of writes before they get damaged, or more to the point sectors stop working. Solid state drives address this issue by having some very creative algorithms to stop any single area from being pummeled more than other, thus extending the overall life of the drive.

Not that I am saying your setup is bad, just make sure you make backups often. I have a CF drive in one system as a main OS drive, then I back it all up to a hard drive that is plugged in. That way I get the reliability and speed out of the system.

 

[carangil]

Sorry for bringing back my old thread... but I'd just like to thank Anonymous Coward for the 486DX-4 and Sound Blaster he dug up for me.

Now that I have a base system that POSTs, I can rebuild the 'dream 486' I used to have and relive the DOS days without an emulator.