Do you ever go through one of your boxes of computer and tech doodads...

[ZedClampet]

And you find something and think, "What the heck is this?" Then a moment later you think, "Well, I can't throw it away because I don't know what it is."

And you know that years later, after your passing, your children will be going through your things and think, "What the heck is this?"

And then 500 years from now, your ancestor will be boarding a colony ship with all his belongings, and the ship's Purser will hold it up and say, "What is this? Do you really need to bring it?" And your ancestor will say, "I'm afraid to leave it. I don't know what it is."

And this thingamabob, whatever it is, will begin its long journey to a new galaxy...

Or are you more sensible and just throw it away?

 

[Pifanjr]

The main problem is that, every so often, you find you do actually need one of those cables you didn't know the purpose of. So you can't just throw all of them out or you might find yourself without, for example, the charging cable to your cordless drill that you haven't used in three years.

 

[ZedClampet]

The main problem is that, every so often, you find you do actually need one of those cables you didn't know the purpose of. So you can't just throw all of them out or you might find yourself without, for example, the charging cable to your cordless drill that you haven't used in three years.

Exactly, and that is an area of great annoyance for me: tons of custom charging cables. The need to be standardized charging port(s) or something. We are sort of there with USB I guess.

 

[Colif]

I have a few storage boxes full of cables and other things I will probably never use again. Unless its busted beyong use, I generally just put old things away in case the new thing fails or doesn't live up to my expectations. Its the doubt that makes me keep them. Same applies to mice and their cables.

I have to wonder where the cable for my Sony 4k monitor I haven't used in 5 years is. Its only kept as a spare, I try to have at least one spare of some things around... Now I have two spare GPU, one I will never use again and the other which is going back in this PC in a few months. Sure beats buying a new one for my new PC.

I will buy a USB cable just to find its not the right one, so instead of returning it, I will put it away just to later find a use for it. I still have a spare 3 metre USB A to C cable in my drawers, it will be useful eventually.

Totally normal drawer contents

Realistically, I have a chest of drawers with 8 drawers, only two of which have any clothes in them and I don't really ever wear those anymore. Rest of its full of old PC hardware, or boxes for pc hardware, or old DVD R that I never used, or old phones. Its the history of me I guess. Drawers more useful for what I can put on them now.

I have cables with all 3 popular USB connectors now - A, B & C - as well as more as micro also exists. USB B mainly used for audio equipment and Printers, Eventually everything will be C, but until I got a new power board with 2 USB C charging slots on it, I was limited to how many chargers I had.

I never bothered with the Apple connector type. They returned to the sane side and use USB C now that EU basically forced them too.

 

[BeardyHat]

I have...3 drawers?

I do have some stuff that's old and outdated, which I probably won't be using again (small capacity 2.5" SSDs, old laptop RAM of insufficient size), but by and large, I feel like I use the vast majority of the stuff that I keep.

I'm constantly hunting in my drawers (I do need better organization) for cables and parts, most recently having pulled out an old Corsair 500w PSU and 500Gb 2.5" SSD for a build using old hardware.

Before that, it was digging out an old Raspberry Pi4 to setup inside arcade cabinet to replace the crummy JAMMA based board in there.

I actually went to the thrift store a few weeks ago and bought some standard PC power cables, because I ran out of them in my drawer connections...

I do need to better organize my stuff to make things easier, so I'm not constantly pulling everything out and then putting it back in.

 

[neogunhero]

A few years back I did this, and went through my motherboard manual randomly. That's when I found out I had misplaced a few things, like my SSD not in the PCIe 3 slot (older motherboard, also had PCIe 2) which made it slower. As I haven't really bought much PC parts in a few years besides a CPU last year, I've since thrown out these boxes. I'll keep them for a bit if I ever need a replacement part or to check the manual, but after a while I just throw them away.

 

[Johnway]

Mercifully, i don't have a vast scrap yard of tech in my room. The most are the spare PSX cables and even then i just toss out the old ATXs ones when i get a new psu as that will have all the relevant ones i would need.

it does make me worry what to do with my current pc when i get rid of it. i might have to look for a charity or sell it as bits in the hopes it makes money or leave someone else to deal with the problem of +7 years old parts.

 

[neogunhero]

it does make me worry what to do with my current pc when i get rid of it. i might have to look for a charity or sell it as bits in the hopes it makes money or leave someone else to deal with the problem of +7 years old parts.

Sell it online locally. There's probably a young aspiring PC gamer near you looking for a solid Fortnite and Minecraft machine.

 

[ZedClampet]

Sell it online locally. There's probably a young aspiring PC gamer near you looking for a solid Fortnite and Minecraft machine.

In fact, if you wrote your ad to say, "Play Fortnite and Roblox in all their splendor with this well-seasoned gaming machine! (custom built!)" you'd probably have 8-year-olds fighting in your driveway trying to buy your PC.

 

[Colif]

I have given 3 of my last 6 PC away. They all went to a friend who couldn't afford one at time. Same friend each time. The only things he didn't get was storage each time.
Number 3 is still in the garage as I liked its case too much
Number 5 is still in my room as ... see above
Number 6 is current PC

IBM Aptiva (with Intel Celeron 300)
AMD Duron 850
AMD Athlon 1800
Intel Dual Core
Intel I5 4690k
AMD R7 5800x3d (ignores fact he updated CPU)

So I am on 3 of each from Intel and AMD right now, and Intel need to get act together to keep it even after my next PC... they have 5 years. Next will be AMD.

 

[Johnway]

Sell it online locally. There's probably a young aspiring PC gamer near you looking for a solid Fortnite and Minecraft machine.

i've had a look around and apparently some manufacturers will recycle pcs for you, but its also got me wondering: can i steal/harvest parts and stick them in my pc? i mean its going to be tossed in the bin i'm sure there might be a way to cobble together an improved pc. Some unfortunate soul tosses out an old gaming pc with a 2080 or an AM4 motherboard with processors etc.