Bringing my computer into the 21st century

[Rich Braun]

Scott Prive writes:
> Don't write off the cost of a new motherboard as too expensive. If you're
> looking to avoid "legacy hardware" and you are upgrading your CPU... then
> dump that motherboard.

I'll second this sentiment.  Old computer hardware is no longer worth keeping,
unless you have a particular application which can use it as-is.  The upgrade
treadmill costs too much time and $$$ to be worthwhile.  This has been true
for at least a few years, but with the price drops of the past 24 months, we
truly have arrived at the era of the throwaway computer.

Maybe instead of paying a deposit on Pepsi bottles, we should be paying a
chassis deposit on new computers:  the supplier should be required to take the
old one back and do something responsible with it, kinda the way oil-change
shops have strict requirements for what happens to your old motor oil.

At this point the computers around my house have gotten some serious age on
them, in fact I think my email server is a 333MHz box, but they still work
fine and as long as they don't need hardware upgrades, I just keep them going
indefinitely.

The minute you start talking about the complexities of one SCSI interface vs.
another, it's time to chuck the old PC and start over.  (I used to work for
DEC-SHR, in the old SCSI-2 days--this stuff was a nightmare then and is even
worse now.)  You'll be far happier with a $400 Microcenter PC and an 3Ware
controller off the shelf than with a pile of used SCSI drives.  And you'll
have more money left over afterward:  I have a distinct memory of what
happened when I jumped on the gigabyte-drive bandwagon at the end of 1992 and
wound up spending a lot more to get everything overhauled than it would have
cost to just throw everything out.

Question for the group:  I have a pile of old PC computer hardware which fills
 a bushel-basket.  All of it's obsolete but it all works and it could be
useful to someone.  It's reminiscent of the old DEC-salvage shop to which I
was so attracted back when I was 19 or 20.  Where might I find a worthy place
to donate this stuff for the benefit of today's teenagers?  In fact I'd like
to get it out of the house so I don't find myself tempted to go down the path
proposed by Scott:  dredging out an old chassis or hard drive trying to bring
it back to life, sucking up weeks of time in the process...someone else could
spend those same weeks learning something.

-rich