3 ms·

Imagine how much better off the whole planet would be if we recycled computers for use by other people, kept and repaired computers, and didn't accept the idea

Imagine how much better off the whole planet would be if we recycled computers for use by other people, kept and repaired computers, and didn't accept the idea that rendering a web page should take half a gigabyte.

zanny 8y ago
I have a shelf of old parts including a Pentium 4 ATX board with working CPU and some DDR2 I found. I have a dozen or so hard drives that still pass all their SMART readings (even if most have old age and wear level warnings). I have a few 10+ year old monitors that look like spoiled eggs with how inaccurate their colors are but aren't broken. I keep it all around as a "if someones board etc dies, at least it works" kind of thing. I have some old GPUs too that still work including some 8800s, an X1800, and a GT 520. If they broke, it wouldn't be worth my time to fix them, but they are still working hardware, even if they aren't the latest tech.
- cr0sh 8y ago
  I once saved my bacon with an "old" (I don't really consider it old) 8 MB S3 PCI video card I had lying around. I had bought an AMD chipset motherboard that assumed (in the BIOS) that you were going to use a CPU with onboard video (ie - an AMD "APU"). I was setting things up, and my CPU was an AMD without onboard video, because I figured the motherboard, like all the others I'd ever set up, would switch automagically to the PCIe video slot, which had my old NVidia GPU in it. Nope. POST beeped that I didn't have any video output. So - I could either buy another CPU - or another mobo. Neither was an option. But I thought - maybe I could plug in a PCI video card and it would recognize that...? Dug through my various boxes-o-junk and found one. Dropped it in, and it worked - long enough for me to switch the BIOS video option over, after which I could use my GPU. I was kinda shocked at the BIOS, though - it was my first time using something "modern" - and it was a pretty GUI with a mouse and everything (then I started learning about UEFI which the mobo supported - a lot of things had changed since my last system, which was a Core2Duo board).
waiseristy 8y ago
I wonder at which point the power efficiency of these old machines outweighs the environmental impact of tossing them and buying a modern machine.
- cr0sh 8y ago
  The oldest machine I own which theoretically works (I've never plugged it in, because I don't want to start a fire) is my Altair 8800. It has a linear power supply with huge caps (one is about the size of a small soda can) - which is why I've never powered it up, because a fire could be the literal result (the whole system needs a complete refurbishment to get it into operating condition). Even so, I doubt it consumes more than a 100 or so watts, though a chunk of that would be dumped as heat of course. The entire system is probably far under the general TDP of today's desktop systems (maybe just the GPU alone).

zanny 8y ago

I have a shelf of old parts including a Pentium 4 ATX board with working CPU and some DDR2 I found. I have a dozen or so hard drives that still pass all their SMART readings (even if most have old age and wear level warnings). I have a few 10+ year old monitors that look like spoiled eggs with how inaccurate their colors are but aren't broken. I keep it all around as a "if someones board etc dies, at least it works" kind of thing. I have some old GPUs too that still work including some 8800s, an X1800, and a GT 520. If they broke, it wouldn't be worth my time to fix them, but they are still working hardware, even if they aren't the latest tech.

cr0sh 8y ago
I once saved my bacon with an "old" (I don't really consider it old) 8 MB S3 PCI video card I had lying around. I had bought an AMD chipset motherboard that assumed (in the BIOS) that you were going to use a CPU with onboard video (ie - an AMD "APU"). I was setting things up, and my CPU was an AMD without onboard video, because I figured the motherboard, like all the others I'd ever set up, would switch automagically to the PCIe video slot, which had my old NVidia GPU in it. Nope. POST beeped that I didn't have any video output. So - I could either buy another CPU - or another mobo. Neither was an option. But I thought - maybe I could plug in a PCI video card and it would recognize that...? Dug through my various boxes-o-junk and found one. Dropped it in, and it worked - long enough for me to switch the BIOS video option over, after which I could use my GPU. I was kinda shocked at the BIOS, though - it was my first time using something "modern" - and it was a pretty GUI with a mouse and everything (then I started learning about UEFI which the mobo supported - a lot of things had changed since my last system, which was a Core2Duo board).

waiseristy 8y ago

I wonder at which point the power efficiency of these old machines outweighs the environmental impact of tossing them and buying a modern machine.

cr0sh 8y ago
The oldest machine I own which theoretically works (I've never plugged it in, because I don't want to start a fire) is my Altair 8800. It has a linear power supply with huge caps (one is about the size of a small soda can) - which is why I've never powered it up, because a fire could be the literal result (the whole system needs a complete refurbishment to get it into operating condition). Even so, I doubt it consumes more than a 100 or so watts, though a chunk of that would be dumped as heat of course. The entire system is probably far under the general TDP of today's desktop systems (maybe just the GPU alone).