I love Craigslist!!! Just scored some computer stuff YAY!

[Bryce]

I was browsing Craigslist and just scored the motherload, well to me. Just got off the phone with the guy and he said he'd hold it all for me and I'm picking it up tomorrow morning, yay! He also said it's all in working order except one server so just gotta get RAM/drivers for that XD. Here's what I am getting:

1 dell poweredge server (1U)- 2x 1ghz PIII cpus ( i dont recall what model it is)
1 IBM Netvista (tower)- P4 1.8Ghz i believe
1 industrial server (4U size rack mount) (833Mhz P3)
(no ram or drives included)

-backpack external cdrom (lpt interface)
-intermec wifi access point
-micrsoft sidewinder precision joystick (usb)
-8 ~300w power supplies (at/x and p4 compatibles)

 

[Fire2box]

It doesn't look like anything I want asides maybe the server's and the joystick.

I think I had a sidewinder but it wasn't USB.

 

[Bryce]

I'm only interested in the servers really, but he said must take all of it so yea. Though the servers seem pretty ok to me for simple web/file/etc servers, don't you think?

 

[Fire2box]

I'm only interested in the servers really, but he said must take all of it so yea. Though the servers seem pretty ok to me for simple web/file/etc servers, don't you think?

I actually have no experience with servers. I just got DSL less then a year ago. <_>

My church has like 5 industrial sized servers housed in a backroom of the chlidren's center. That place is VERY high tech, they even use laptops for their computer classes. I could never attend since it is only pre-8th.

 

[bgi39jsjw0ggg]

It's all kinda meh. Those things are going to be noisy and suck up a lot of juice, but not provide much horsepower in exchange. The really nasty part is going to be the ram and hard drives. Those are likely going to take ECC ram, which isn't cheap. Make it P3 generation stuff and you're really paying out the ass. The hard drives will likely need to be SCSI, so there's a buttload more money.

Given the likely total cost, you would likely be better off buying a brand new system using desktop parts from newegg, then throwing ubuntu server edition + vmware on there. A quick pop over to newegg and I was able to price a 2.5ghz core2quad, 4 gigs ram, antec900 case (I love that case), 430w power supply, 1tb hard drive and Intel BOXDG35EC mobo for $562 before rebates. That's just a quick check, I'm sure you can find a better price for similar stuff if you look. Keep the board, though - I have 2 of them, and I've run everything from vmware esxi to solaris to ubuntu to xp64 on them. They have driver support for EVERYTHING.

But yeah, the ram alone makes that a lousy deal - P3 ram usually means SDRAM, and ECC server SDRAM is around $50 for 512mb. If you want to make one of those a file server, it's gonna be a lot more. SCSI drives cost a small fortune - around $120 for a 150gig drive.

 

[Bryce]

You're probably right, but hey, I can't pass up on free computer stuff!

 

[mm3]

How much was the loot? If it was free send some my way!! haha

 

[Jon]

You're probably right, but hey, I can't pass up on free computer stuff!

No sane person could!

I'd take Pentium 100 machines even if they're free! I love it when old technology can be re used. I have a whole pallet of dell power edge server machines I'm going to be working on soon that I picked up for free, a few of them will soon be hosting my website!

 

[Bryce]

A pallet of them!!!

I wonder if I could get away with posting on Craigslist for old computer equipment donations XD. Think that'd work or no? Some of it would get donated to a computer factory for under-priv. kids, but some would be for me XD.

 

[timmahtherebel]

I got a laptop with a busted screen... lol.. hooked it up as secondary to my monitor ( its on the floor behind my desk leaning against... I'm using it to host a friends website, been up for 7 months.. and I got it from Craigslist.
For the curious it is a

Dell Latitude
Pentium 3 1Ghz
512MB RAM
40GB HDD

Surprisingly it stays cool... party because I run a huge fan all the time when I'm in my room lol! ( I h

 

[Jon]

I got a lot of stuff going to companies that I knew were getting rid of IT equipment, and let them know that anything they were going to have to pay to get rid of, I'd take for free. I never got a NO answer, I guess it's easier for them to let some guy roll up in a van and make it disappear then it is to pay for disposal.

It never hurts to ask, man! Schools, large companies, you name it. If they have tech, chances are that it will get upgraded and old things will be discarded. If you're serious about it, I'm sure you can find lots of free equipment! I've even got lab equipment that way like digital scopes, Fluke multimeters, bench power supplies, variacs, you name it. People throw out some crazy shit.

 

[mm3]

This is pretty much what I do all the time -- I go down to my local rec center where there's an eCycle bin (people throw away "old" or "broken" computer stuff) that's seperated from the dumpster next to it so that it doesn't go to a landfill. You wouldn't believe what people throw away! A **perfect condition** Dell Dimension 3000. 512MB RAM, 40GB HDD, Pentium 4... NO DUST. Thing was almost brand new but it had a virus on it. Reformat and the thing is good as new.

 

[ShoogyGlider]

i have actually found some attends vintage diapers on craiglist for 3 dollars a pack and i bought 24 packs and i sold them for 42 bucks each on ebay. it was so cool i was so happy

 

[ajsco]

A few years ago our school was throwing out all the computers, and there was a message in the notices if anyone wanted any of the computers for nothing, most people laughed and said no. Anyway I took 4 and sold them for £125 each .

 

[Rissy]

Huh?
What are you computer otaku on about?

 

[Bryce]

The damn guy wasn't there and his phone was disconnected when I tried calling him