Show me your pile of PC boxes, fans, HDDs, cables, etc. I know you have them!

[PCG Jacob]

Hello, you lovely lot.

I'm writing up an article on how PC gamers love to, let's say, hoard old boxes and PC parts. I know, those eight fans and two HDDs from the early 2000s will come in handy very soon, but in the meantime, take a pic of it all and fire it my way I'm after piles of boxes, fans, hard drives, cables, cable ties, old cases. All that good stuff.

I'll kick things off with my own pile of shame. This is only a taster of what I have lying around, as most of it has spilled into surrounding rooms in my house and a storage container.

https://imgur.com/a/LzGWGBr

I'd love to showcase your pictures in the finished article, so if you'd be happy for me using your image please let me know in your reply. I'll be sure to credit you accordingly!

This is a judge-free zone. We're all guilty of keeping stacks of old stuff around with the intention of using it for something later on. It's a perennial PC gaming problem.

Thanks for your time!
Jacob

 

[PCG Dave]

I was very good when I moved into my current home 18 months back, because I got rid of every single duplicate cable I'd been hoarding for the past twenty years.

Though that obviously means I still kept one of each, regardless of how old, obsolete, or irrelevant it was. There's a big bag at the bottom of my wardrobe with a whole load of useless cables that will immediately somehow become vital should I decide to get rid.

 

[Sarafan]

I have a gigantic tower composed of boxes in my room, but most of them are... shoes boxes! I store some things in them and it's the only reason they're still here. Of course there are also some old PC components boxes as well, but not many. I usually sell old parts when making an upgrade and they're more expensive when you put them in original packaging. Potential photo probably wouldn't be interesting, although there are some tasty bites like the original box of GeForce 7800 GS and some old game big boxes. I'd love to see other people collections however.

 

[Alm]

https://imgur.com/a/8kP3KuK

View: https://imgur.com/a/8kP3KuK


I have a draw full of cables. Not just computer cables, mind you. Came in useful recently when my new GPU needed PSU cables.

EDIT: I used to have boxes and boxes of computer stuff, but I got rid of it a few years ago when I realised Steam was the future.

 

[neogunhero]

Too bad I have all my old boxes stored away at my parents house in their attic haha. Every single GPU and CPU I’ve bought in the past 15 years, my case boxes, RAM and fan cases… PC hardware packaging has always been too good to throw away. Graphics card boxes are the best at it, with all their shiny metallic ink and textured cardboard, and the boxes are usually very sturdy and heavy duty too. I had a plastic grocery bag full of cables at one point too which I may have thrown out apart from an extra DisplayPort and HDMI cable. It seems a ton of PC gamers are guilty of doing this

I’d love to rummage through my physical game collection some day too. I wonder if an original boxed copy of The Orange Box will ever become valuable one day.

 

[Slasken]

I don't keep hardware boxes. I throw away any evidence as soon as it is installed. 😂

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I mostly sell whatever stuff in the original packaging when I upgrade. Whats left is split between our basement storage and a couple cupboards around my desk.

Spoiler: Pics

Used to have more but I moved countries about 10 years ago and only brought what could fit in an extra suitcase. There's a Dreamcast , 1080p monitor, Atari 2600 and ST, Spectrum ZX2 and probably more in my Dads attic that I'll maybe ship one day if we ever have space. Feel free to use any pic.

 

[SWard]

I’d love to rummage through my physical game collection some day too. I wonder if an original boxed copy of The Orange Box will ever become valuable one day.

The Orange Box remains the best set of games I've ever seen boxed

 

[Colif]

Here is the pile of boxes from my last upgrade

Not throwing away as they contain 3 spare fans, my spare Seasonic PX750 and my old RTX 2070 Super

also have an old PC still in my room

 

[TechTempest]

I pretty much keep ALL of my boxes knowing that there's a good chance I sell them down the line. Here is my closet of tech boxes, PC parts and many cables.

 

[OF24]

Jacob, you are free to use my pile of shame on your article. I'm running out of ceiling and storage space is very rare and expensive around here. I have a spreadsheet with the kind of stuff that is inside each box

https://twitter.com/x/status/1654492191077662730

View: https://twitter.com/OF24com/status/1654492191077662730

 

[KeirUK]

You can never have too many old hard drives right? 😬

Some of my collection of random old stuff 😆

 

[OF24]

Yikes, you have more old hard drives than me here. At my parent's home I have an extra dozen

 

[neogunhero]

Some of my collection of random old stuff 😆

Your collection of old OS boxes is very impressive!

 

[KeirUK]

Yikes, you have more old hard drives than me here. At my parent's home I have an extra dozen

haha I keep meaning to go through them and check what's on them and have a clear out but as I'm sure we all know, plans to clear out usually just stay as plans 😆

 

[KeirUK]

Your collection of old OS boxes is very impressive!

haha thanks! I have every version of Mac OS X / Mac OS X Server and *most* of Windows. I am always on the lookout for the few that I'm missing 😄

 

[Colif]

You can never have too many old hard drives right? 😬

I feel you can, and you may have reached critical mass

Most of my parts are scattered all around,not in one place
I haven't been allowed to collect too much junk.

Do spare monitors count as boxes? I have a few.
I have an entire drawer full of Burnable DVD's that I never used. I don't have a drive any more...

 

[KeirUK]

I feel you can, and you may have reached critical mass

Most of my parts are scattered all around,not in one place
I haven't been allowed to collect too much junk.

Do spare monitors count as boxes? I have a few.
I have an entire drawer full of Burnable DVD's that I never used. I don't have a drive any more...

It all counts! 😆

 

[ZedClampet]

I'm not happy with mine, so no pictures. I bought two nice tool bags and....then dumped everything in them haphazardly. Not old boxes. I got rid of all of those. Just cables, peripherals, etc. But they require significant digging, which was not a part of my original plan.

 

[Colif]

i have a box full of old mice in the garage I think. I used to buy a new one every year until I found one that stuck.

I need a way to identify cables as I have no idea what some are.

 

[Radiant Reality]

I dont have ace to keep old pile so i get rid of it

 

[PCG Jacob]

You can never have too many old hard drives right? 😬

Oh man this pile puts my old stack of HDDs to shame, and I ultimately did end up getting rid of those as i really had no need for any of them. I'm sure that's absolutely not the case here 👀

Thanks for all these pics, folks! 🙏

 

[PCG Jacob]

need a way to identify cables as I have no idea what some are.

I'm convinced all these boxes of old scart, component and misc video cables I have will come in handy one day when I pull all my old consoles out the attic... one day...

 

[debrota]

Hello, you lovely lot.

I'm writing up an article on how PC gamers love to, let's say, hoard old boxes and PC parts. I know, those eight fans and two HDDs from the early 2000s will come in handy very soon, but in the meantime, take a pic of it all and fire it my way I'm after piles of boxes, fans, hard drives, cables, cable ties, old cases. All that good stuff.

I'll kick things off with my own pile of shame. This is only a taster of what I have lying around, as most of it has spilled into surrounding rooms in my house and a storage container.

https://imgur.com/a/LzGWGBr

I'd love to showcase your pictures in the finished article, so if you'd be happy for me using your image please let me know in your reply. I'll be sure to credit you accordingly!

This is a judge-free zone. We're all guilty of keeping stacks of old stuff around with the intention of using it for something later on. It's a perennial PC gaming problem.

Thanks for your time!
Jacob

For me the rationale is that I can't economically obtain parts for old PCs today. eBay is pricey. If I let go my collections of cables, cords, drive bay covers, hard drives, floppy drives, tape drives, motherboard standoffs, power supplies, memory modules and chips, CRT monitors, cooling fans, CPUs, interface cards (ISA, VLC, EISA, PCI, PCIe), and screws of every conceivable type... I might as well give up on vintage computing altogther. Of course then I could also send all the boxes I've saved to recycling...