There should be laws that require every owner of computers and related equipment to ship their disposed items to the IT asset disposal industry. They have professional recycling processes that ensure almost nothing ends up in the garbage dump.
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What should I set aside when scrapping computers at work?
- Thread starter aaron7
- Start date
There should be laws that require every owner of computers and related equipment to ship their disposed items to the IT asset disposal industry. They have professional recycling processes that ensure almost nothing ends up in the garbage dump.
VintageComputerman
Veteran Member
It's moving in that direction. I can't take computers to the transfer station without paying a fee for every item. $15.00 a computer and they get the computer. There is a local recycle in a city near me that will come to your door and take it all free of charge. I have to give them a call soon to haul away all the computer junk I have left in my building.
Makes sense. There is a lot of money in metal recycling. But obviously only in bulk. The real money is in old AC units with a lot of copper and catalytic converters with a lot of platinum.
Tetrium2
Experienced Member
I tend to disagree with the clone cases being worthless in case the case is an AT style case.
These are becoming impossible to find.
Chuck(G)
25k Member
Makes sense. There is a lot of money in metal recycling. But obviously only in bulk. The real money is in old AC units with a lot of copper and catalytic converters with a lot of platinum.
Not to mention copper plumbing from foreclosed houses and buried cable from municipal lighting systems...
Seriously, there are signs that the price of copper has been due to hoarding (the BBC did a series on this about a month ago) and one should be prepared for the bubble to pop. (Remember the Hunt brothers?)
It is all about demand and supply. I do not believe there is a lot of demand for those and these are still found on eBay: http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_from=R...&_nkw=mini+tower+at&_sacat=See-All-Categories and http://computers.shop.ebay.com/i.ht...+at&_osacat=58058&_trksid=p3286.c0.m270.l1313.
Here is one for a great price: http://marketplace.vintage-computer.com/auction_details.php?name=486-System&auction_id=110449.
Perhaps. Metal prices fluctuate a lot. It also depends on demand and supply.Not to mention copper plumbing from foreclosed houses and buried cable from municipal lighting systems...
Seriously, there are signs that the price of copper has been due to hoarding (the BBC did a series on this about a month ago) and one should be prepared for the bubble to pop. (Remember the Hunt brothers?)
Druid6900
Veteran Member
I tend to agree with this. I get requests for complete systems (386, 486, P1) until they find out what it's going to cost to ship it. They fail to realize that, at that time, metal and shipping were both cheap.
What we usually end up doing is I'll ship them a complete P1 system minus the case. The MBs I ship are ATX form factor and they source a case locally. Even a new case will probably still take a P1.
Some clients have actually paid to ship a system with the case because they just can't source an AT case and PSU, and they need a pre-ATX motherboard.
I'm running out of ATX P1 motherboards.
Copper was used quite a bit in the housing boom here, now it is being purchased by the chinese for their building bubble. Face it, it is much cheaper to recycle metals from electronics then it is to dig deeper and deeper into the earth and grab a small bit out of tons of dirt.
Most of my P1's are AT boards plus a couple ATX systems. AT cases are getting harder to find, expecially the older desktop ones with the PS switch on the side. Ebay seems to have full tower AT cases for servers more then vintage mid towers and desktops gamers would want.
I get the feeling that p3/p4/Athlon 32 bit systems are going to be super rare down the road because every one is going directly to the recyclers these days.
Most of my P1's are AT boards plus a couple ATX systems. AT cases are getting harder to find, expecially the older desktop ones with the PS switch on the side. Ebay seems to have full tower AT cases for servers more then vintage mid towers and desktops gamers would want.
I get the feeling that p3/p4/Athlon 32 bit systems are going to be super rare down the road because every one is going directly to the recyclers these days.
Druid6900
Veteran Member
Most of my P1 boards are AT as well, that's the problem. It's very hard to find an AT case to put them in at the other end of the shipping route and it's damn expensive to ship the system with the case.
Over the last few years, I've probably scrapped 100 AT cases and now I'm beginning to regret it. At the time, I figured that anyone who wanted an AT style motherboard would be using it as a replacement board so the cases were just taking up space.
The clients that I'm getting that want a complete system are getting them as a back-up system for their Legacy equipment.
In most cases, the company has someone that is, at least, capable of swapping out the motherboard, so, if they have heart failure at the shipping estimate, I suggest that they buy a complete set of the internals and just swap components that fail.
Chuck(G)
25k Member
I suspect that finding cases that will accommodate a full-sized AT motherboard is equally daunting.
Druid6900
Veteran Member
Yes, I'm sure it would be. I also remember offering up a couple of full-sized AT desktop cases a couple of years ago for shipping cost and no one wanted them.
Druid if you lived on this side of the border you would have no issues giving away AT case.
The best time to snag stuff is when nobody else wants it, after that the supply runs out and prices go up.
Do you do most of your business in the US or Canada? I would think corperations that need some piece of equipment running would be willing to spend more money then a collector would (untill the supply runs out in the market).
It is actually kind of hard to find generic ATX cases locally, everyone has OEM cases on freecycle that are not full ATX or just plain suck. I have had decent luck getting older cases NIB on ebay for around $20 shipped (for my late generation AGP gaming boxes). Many AT motherboards will fit in an ATX case if you have the ATX to AT bezel installed. Those bezels used to be super cheap on ebay in bulk but lately they are $10 or so.
The best time to snag stuff is when nobody else wants it, after that the supply runs out and prices go up.
Do you do most of your business in the US or Canada? I would think corperations that need some piece of equipment running would be willing to spend more money then a collector would (untill the supply runs out in the market).
It is actually kind of hard to find generic ATX cases locally, everyone has OEM cases on freecycle that are not full ATX or just plain suck. I have had decent luck getting older cases NIB on ebay for around $20 shipped (for my late generation AGP gaming boxes). Many AT motherboards will fit in an ATX case if you have the ATX to AT bezel installed. Those bezels used to be super cheap on ebay in bulk but lately they are $10 or so.
Druid6900
Veteran Member
Actually, I had the offer on HERE for a month before I scapped them.
Most of my clients are US based and, you're right, the Fortune 500 companies don't care what something costs, if they need it, they need it and they will pay for it without a blink.
However, since I am an equal opportunity mercenary, I deal with SMB clients as well and they aren't as willing to fork out the shipping costs so, we go the "I'll send you ATX based boards and you get the cases down there" route. THEY are the ones depleting my supply of ATX P1 boards.
I get a lot of business from those places that you have to request a quote from on something you want (since they don't actually HAVE it and have to scramble around to find one) and, strangely enough, computer stores (probably trying to solve someone's problem and look like stars. They pay shipping without to much bitching too, since they are going to pass it on the the customer anyway.
Where they get the cases on their end doesn't concern me, but, in a lot of cases (no pun intended), they just want a box to put it in.
On earlier AT motherboards I tell them to take the board I sent them, along with their dead computer to a computer shop. Find the oldest guy there and have him swap the motherboard. Just remind him that all the black wires go together
Most of my clients are US based and, you're right, the Fortune 500 companies don't care what something costs, if they need it, they need it and they will pay for it without a blink.
However, since I am an equal opportunity mercenary, I deal with SMB clients as well and they aren't as willing to fork out the shipping costs so, we go the "I'll send you ATX based boards and you get the cases down there" route. THEY are the ones depleting my supply of ATX P1 boards.
I get a lot of business from those places that you have to request a quote from on something you want (since they don't actually HAVE it and have to scramble around to find one) and, strangely enough, computer stores (probably trying to solve someone's problem and look like stars. They pay shipping without to much bitching too, since they are going to pass it on the the customer anyway.
Where they get the cases on their end doesn't concern me, but, in a lot of cases (no pun intended), they just want a box to put it in.
On earlier AT motherboards I tell them to take the board I sent them, along with their dead computer to a computer shop. Find the oldest guy there and have him swap the motherboard. Just remind him that all the black wires go together
Tiberian Fiend
Veteran Member
What can a Pentium 1 do that a Pentium 2-4 can't do as well or better?
Chuck(G)
25k Member
Welcome to my world--how many ISA slots does the typical Pentium 4 system have?
NathanAllan
Veteran Member
I would really love to get a P4 with ISA slots, that would be the best thing ever. I ran across a PIII with one lone ISA slot but that was a while back and it was an oddball machine anyway.
P4 with ISA would be a great thing to behold.
JDT
Veteran Member
Pretty sure I have a s478 board with 3 ISA and a half dozen serial port headers... probably an industrial control board.
Chuck(G)
25k Member
Well, Soyo's bankrupt; they had a socket 478 P4 board with 3 ISA slots; that leaves Vox Technologies as one of the last furnishing P4 motherboards with ISA slots and passive backplane solutions. Be prepared to pay through the nose.