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geekhack Community => Other Geeky Stuff => Topic started by: Photoelectric on Sat, 28 December 2013, 01:00:23
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Just found a bag of random old computer parts, trying to figure out if I should toss them or if they might still be of use to anyone. The first step is identifying what they are...
There are 3 sticks of RAM, a 60GB brand new sealed 3.5" IBM hard drive, and a bunch of PCI cards that I'm still identifying. Some appear to be graphics cards, some are perhaps modem card, etc. The RAM seems of some antediluvian origin. Anyway, if anyone here is an expert on old computer components, perhaps some of these will look less mystifying to you than they do to me :D
RAM:
[attachimg=1]
[attachimg=2]
Various add-on cards:
[attachimg=3]
[attachimg=4]
[attachimg=5]
[attachimg=6]
[attachimg=7]
[attachimg=8]
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EDO RAM is old school RAM that I haven't seen since I built a computer with my dad in the late 80's or early 90's.
Following the RAM, it appears that that first card is an AOPEN MR56PVS-RI modem. The next two appear to be modems as well with that last one being a 56k fax modem. Then you have what should be an ATI Rage 128 Pro Ultra GL 32MB AGP card, a D-Link PCI Ethernet Adaptor (http://www.dlink.com/us/en/home-solutions/connect/adapters/dfe-530txplus-10-100-fast-ethernet-desktop-pci-adapter), and a Creative Labs Modem Blaster 56k modem.
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Thank you!! I'll have to do more reading on those. I wonder if anyone would care to have them now or if they are best to be recycled.
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Someone may like the Rage for nostalgia's sake, but everything else would likely be a freebie for cost of shipping since I don't really see any contemporary use for it.
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Yeah, thinking the same now, looking at some google results. I guess I can list them as freebies on Craigslist. They were all lumped together in some insulation bags in a box, also with that 60GB IBM hard drive and some disquettes--I didn't even realize I had "inherited" all that among my dad's old stuff after he passed.
P.S.: found out that the ATI Rage 128 Pro Ultra card I have is a Dell part 9K099. Seems to be the last revision of the Rage chips before the next generation was renamed Radeon.
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The middle RAM has the size - 32M. Minute, by today's standards. Those went up to 512M IIRC. All SD RAM, either PC100 or PC133.
The cards are a mixture of ISA, PCI and AGP. ISA has the big copper pads on the edge connector. PCI has the narrow copper pads. AGP has the overlapping rows.
AGP are all video cards. Only works on older mobos now.
The DFE 530-TX is a network adaptor, 100Mbps probably.
The first ISA card could be a sound card, the others could be modems.
The last card with Creative on it - they made a lot of sound cards back in the day, but the connector looks too big. Could be another modem, or it might be a sound card.
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Put them on ebay. You'd be surprised how many people need really old stuff for really old computers that have hardware failure. Since stuff like that isn't made anymore, you can make a little bit of money.
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Put them on ebay. You'd be surprised how many people need really old stuff for really old computers that have hardware failure. Since stuff like that isn't made anymore, you can make a little bit of money.
Not in this case... LOL
Could be fun trying to get online using dialup though
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'old'
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60 GB is a decent size for a backup hard drive. It will hold a lot of stuff such as thousands of photos or MP3s.
Really small hard drives <20GB are not viable for much, but if you take them apart they have awesome magnets!
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60 GB is a decent size for a backup hard drive. It will hold a lot of stuff such as thousands of photos or MP3s.
Really small hard drives <20GB are not viable for much, but if you take them apart they have awesome magnets!
And they have that voice coil which allows for tearing it down, adding a laser and a mirror, and making a hard drive "oscilloscope". :thumb:
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Maybe able to get few dollars for each of everything but the modems. Modems are pretty much useless by now even with retro computer enthusiast. Maybe the top ISA modem if it is also a soundcard with 3.5mm jack, that could get something maybe.
Old small hard drive, sometimes can get a good price. I have some old computer that the bios won't recognize disk over a certain size, so you are pretty much stuck with that. Though I have gotten into the habit of just replacing those with cheap small CF cards when they die as it's much easier to find and a performance increase as well.
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EDO RAM is old school RAM that I haven't seen since I built a computer with my dad in the late 80's or early 90's.
What he has there is pure SD-RAM for 133mhz motherboards that use the P3 setup. Because EDO ram has totally different slots, I should know I still have a working Powermac 8600 which used all EDO ram which is smaller in length compared to these pics that are shown here.
No such thing as EDO SD-RAM had ever existed. It's either EDO or SD-RAM, I suspect the idiot manufacturer had labels that were thrown on everything leaving their factory hence the red circle, denoting that it's sd-ram.