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It is not just nostalgia. I recently bought a dual core Pentium 2.2Ghz motherboard with a cpu and ram plus a half height desktop case(with an itx PSU) from the

It is not just nostalgia. I recently bought a dual core Pentium 2.2Ghz motherboard with a cpu and ram plus a half height desktop case(with an itx PSU) from the same era all including shipping for $15. Out those $15 almost $10 was shipping. Why? Because the motherboard has sata ports and I needed a cheap, low power dvr for my security cameras. I then got a 1tb sata drive for about $12 including shipping(shipping is all within one EU country so it is pretty cheap). What does this have to do with retro computing? Well, if retro enthusiasts didn't exist those parts would most likely go to be recycled already. They all came out from a decade old business PCs and I remember the time when people would pay me to take them away. In some sense it is a result of raspberry pi shortages and resulting exorbitant prices that people are much more likely to use old pc hardware for stuff they would use a raspberry pi before. Before anyone comments on power consumption let me say it is possible to run a lot of pc hardware under clocked and undervolted to reach some really low power consumption levels.

iso1631 4y ago
> Because the motherboard has sata ports and I needed a cheap, low power dvr for my security cameras How much power does it draw?
pmontra 4y ago
There are ARM single board computers with SATA ports that draw single digit Watts. Example: the Odroid HC4. If you don't need some x86 only application they might be OK for you.
mhd 4y ago
> It is not just nostalgia. I recently bought a dual core Pentium 2.2Ghz motherboard[...] Yeah, the Core Duo age is probably outside my limit for "retro". At least for now, although this is also at the point where a) you can still run most contemporary stuff outside of high-res video or games without issues, b) accessory and display tech is also mostly in line (flat screens, SATA etc.) and c) few people would use this as vehicles to run old _software_. A good example would be the legion of people still using older Thinkpads. They rarely do this out of retro-enthusiasm.

iso1631 4y ago

> Because the motherboard has sata ports and I needed a cheap, low power dvr for my security cameras How much power does it draw?

pmontra 4y ago

There are ARM single board computers with SATA ports that draw single digit Watts. Example: the Odroid HC4. If you don't need some x86 only application they might be OK for you.

mhd 4y ago

> It is not just nostalgia. I recently bought a dual core Pentium 2.2Ghz motherboard[...] Yeah, the Core Duo age is probably outside my limit for "retro". At least for now, although this is also at the point where a) you can still run most contemporary stuff outside of high-res video or games without issues, b) accessory and display tech is also mostly in line (flat screens, SATA etc.) and c) few people would use this as vehicles to run old _software_. A good example would be the legion of people still using older Thinkpads. They rarely do this out of retro-enthusiasm.