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What should I set aside when scrapping computers at work?

An old passively coold AGP video card would be good enough for industrial applications. Newer PCIE cards wtih fan that clog up are not exactl what you want for the shop floor (yes, there are passivly cooled ones that require a decent airflow).
 
Just pointing out that the dated design may signal the end of ISA-equipped motherboards, period.

I'm not aware of any Nehalem or Sandy Bridge ISA-equipped motherboards, are you?

Perhaps a good time to start hoarding.
 
Here's the Vox Tech. one

Both AGP video, which makes the design, what, about 2006?
Well, AGP's been around for a while so its hard to say. However, if you closely compare both mobo's, I think the NISYS wins by a nose. The design looks fresh. I'd have a hard time popping for 3 big ones just to say I had it in my collection. Sure like to to find one in someone's junk heap though. Either one would make a sweet gaming rig.
 
Just pointing out that the dated design may signal the end of ISA-equipped motherboards, period.

I'm not aware of any Nehalem or Sandy Bridge ISA-equipped motherboards, are you?

Perhaps a good time to start hoarding.

Core2Duo ISA equipped board here: http://www.adek.com/ATX-motherboards.html

Note that it doesn't support DMA, its likely the ISA slots are connected to the same LPC controller the parallel/serial/PS2 ports are running off of.
 
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.

I have several PII/PIII boards with ISA slots. Some are straight PII chipsets, some are PII or PIII boards and some are SIPP/FCGA.

In most cases, I have some of everything :)
 
Core2Duo ISA equipped board here: http://www.adek.com/ATX-motherboards.html

Note that it doesn't support DMA, its likely the ISA slots are connected to the same LPC controller the parallel/serial/PS2 ports are running off of.

Yeah, that's too bad. BTW, their MB-800V is a VoxTech product; the MB-8650 is a 2005 product from IEI (Taiwan) and the MB-P4BWA is from Commell, otherwise known as Taiwan Commate Computer.

IOW, Adek just shops the market and marks stuff up. It's also possible that some of the Taiwan outfits buy their stuff from other Taiwan outfits.
 
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Here's the problem as I see it.

How long should you keep scavenged stuff before you consign it to the trash? One month? Two years? Twenty years?

(I'm not kidding)
 
Here's the problem as I see it.

How long should you keep scavenged stuff before you consign it to the trash? One month? Two years? Twenty years?

(I'm not kidding)

If I had a source of local free machines I would probably keep mostly cards of interest, some motherboards, working drives, and a few of the super clean and working machines pre Pentium 1. If you find a cleaner 486 then what you have, sell the crappy one and keep the better one. Cards and boards are easy to store and have some value even if/when you finally want them gone. Also keep the Pentium 1 CPUs and older. I could store a ton of parts in my garage if I wanted to (its huge and well sealed).

The thing is it is a hobby for me, as a business you need to turn the stuff over to make any money. After a while you will see what other people like to buy (and pay the most for) and adjust stock as needed.

I look around my basement and see a few machines I want to ditch (too many of the same thing). Saved up a bunch of boxes to ship items as I get tired of looking at them. Just havn't got around to it yet. Too many people want to save everything from the recycler, then you turn into a hoarder.
 
Too many people want to save everything from the recycler, then you turn into a hoarder.
Guilty as charged! :D

But at least I have a big house (with an attic! :D ).

Sorry to pull this a bit off topic again, but I wanted to mention that the most recent consumer boards with ISA slots are Socket A SDRAM boards (most don't have ISA, some have one and one or 2 odd ones have more then one) and some Tualatin boards with VIA chipsets (The i815 ones don't support ISA, but there are a few that do have ISA and use a bridge chip).
Afaik no DDR consumer boards support ISA out of the box, only by using a bridge chip.
The bridge chip may pose an extra hurdle when it comes to DMA etc.

I've noticed standard AT cases are nearly completely gone from the second hand market in The Netherlands since a few years now and I've seen posts made by several people searching high and low for such a case. On Vogons someone ended up having a new AT case shipped from the US all the way to Europe (price was in excess of $100 shipped).

While the new cases definitely look 'cool', I think some of the clone cases have a very nice 'retro'-look so, depending on how the clone case looks, it may end up getting more wanted (like having a LED display or having a rocket type switch instead of the push button).

I might go take some pics of a couple cases to 'enhance' my examples (sorry for my poor pick of words, non-native English speaker here :p ).
 
I've noticed standard AT cases are nearly completely gone from the second hand market in The Netherlands since a few years now and I've seen posts made by several people searching high and low for such a case. On Vogons someone ended up having a new AT case shipped from the US all the way to Europe (price was in excess of $100 shipped).

From my personal experience it should be relatively easy to find old cases in NL. People generally have a lot stashed away in their attics, closets, garages, spare rooms et cetera. Just a matter of spending time locating items. There are also many flea markets where I would expect you would find items. Then there is www.marktplaats.nl, www.speurders.nl, www.helpmij.nl, www.tweakers.net and so on. :) Also, the EU's largest market for vintage equipment is right next door: www.ebay.de and so on.
 
That's an easier one, older cards are probably easy to throw in an anti-static bag and toss to a forum group or auction site for resale. I suppose one could do the same with PCI cards too. On the bright side if they're wrapped they don't take up a HUGE amount of real estate. They let folks with already built systems upgrade and expand which is usually desirable.
 
Problem is the amount of volume I move through here every week. I must scrap at least 10 boxes; some weeks (like last) it's closer to 30!

I see everything from IBM 5150's to Core2 systems for dissassembly. I keep the stuff I know I can resell (3GHz P4 stuff and up) but the rest, till now, has been going to scrap (aside from the XT stuff of course).

I'll set some things aside now and then but I really still don't know what's worth keeping.

Should I save every hard drive if it works 100%? Or only sub-1gb drives?

ISA cards... save them all? Save only video? 8bit?

VLB cards... anyone use these at all?

5.25" floppy drives... aside from the full height stuff?

Motherboards... 486 and back? P1 and back?

Laptops... we get tons of P1/PII laptops. Sometimes older but not often. Worth bothering with?

No way I'm keeping cases, sorry guys! Unless someone needs a specific one that I can look out for.

You get the idea!
 
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