Hello guys!
I have not been on this forum for quite some time, however, in the time I've been gone, I've developed quite a love for Linux and open source. I haven't booted into Windows for little over a week. Of course I'm still quite the novice, though. I am considering learning C as well for fun. I've spent these past few months after school hours behind the monitor, most often using Linux! I enjoy Manjaro linux with the i3 window manger on my laptop, but I have also used Debian quite a bit.

Anyway, I have been looking for some old hardware to experiment with. I'm talking 486DX era stuff, perhaps even up to the Pentium 2. I would also consider a Pentium 4, but I'm really looking to stretch the limits even further, as I have ran Linux on a Pentium 4 already. But I honestly have not had the best luck looking for such hardware, all the recycling places in my area don't let people take computers, and none of the thrift stores sell them anymore, or when they do, they are snatched up almost instantly. I don't usually ask for things, but I have not been finding anything more than a few old NIC cards and a 8 bit BNC network card from the 80s. I have tried the local classifieds including Craigslist, but have not got much response.

I have had an interest in old technology (namely computers) for quite a while, but the only old computer I have at the moment is a Commodore 64, which is cool for games, but that's about it. I think if I can put an old computer to good use, that it's pretty awesome! Some uses for old computers I was considering:

• Server (Web, local SSH, etc)
• Spare PC for daily use
• Experimenting with Linux and learning
• Fun

Also, some of the kinds of hardware I'd be interested in:

• old Mac stuff perhaps
• 486DX era motherboards or systems
• Pentium 1-2 era stuff
• AT(X) cases
• PSU's
• RAM
• video cards
• Old AMD K6 up to Athlon stuff

So, if you have some old computer hardware laying around not being used, let me know! I'd also like to show my computer class at my high school what I've done with Linux on these old machines, so maybe they can be interested in it too! I'm in Western NY state, BTW. If you want, I have some things (not much) that I could possibly trade.

Thanks, -A

I have a MiniMac circa 2000'ish.
No Idear what's on it.
It boots but not with my LCD HDMI displays.

...for someone more motivated than I, or less fortunate and needs a "project".

A Mac would be nice! I looked it up and it seems there's also an Amiga-like OS for that. That would be something interesting to do. I do have a DVI and VGA monitor i can try it on as well. Let me know!

Hi...

I have an old generic (whitebox) ATX mini tower (with power supply) that once housed a Pentium 4 motherboard. It was given to me by a neighbor a couple, three years ago. The motherboard had bad capacitors so I stripped everything out, except an old DVD-ROM drive that I put in it. It still has a 1.44 floppy drive in it, as well, including the IDE cables. I know the PSU works but I'm not sure about the drives, you would need to test them. Size wise, it kind of looks like this. I've not done anything with it since then so if you'd like to have it, I'll just give it to you, if you can pay postage. It might take me some time to round up a box and packing materials but if you're interested or have any questions, let me know.

I also have a couple untested PS2 keyboards and mouse.

Regards...

I have an older AMD K6-III+ @ 550Mhz somewhere that possibly still works. Probably about 5~6 years ago, I attempted to install whatever was the current version of Sidux at the time (based on Debian Sid), and the installer claimed the CPU was too slow for installation.

I recently gave away a laptop with an AMD Turion64 ML-34 @ 1.8GHz (single core), and the latest version of Linux Mint with KDE worked just fine.

I know Debian based distributions have recently dropped support for any CPUs that aren't at least a 686-class CPU.

Hello,
I think it would be cool to try to put a distro on the K6-III! I'll search the web and see what a good distro would be for it. I could also try something like OpenBSD, which I've used on old machines in the past. I'll send you a PM because I'm quite interested in this machine!

Hello,
I might be interested in a case, but I'll have to see how much money I can round up for postage.

When I get a chance, I'll see if it still works. It was sitting in an attic for quite some time, and now it's in a basement. Hopefully it hasn't become a home for spiders.

Ok cool! I sent you an email from the link on your website just a few moments ago. Even if there are a few non-working components, I may have replacements.