I’ve got a problem. I’m a technology hoarder. I still have the first PC I bought myself some 15 years ago cause “I might use it for something!”

My desktop after that one is an unRAID box. The one after that is my “lab” PC (3d printing, embedded projects etc) and then finally, my current generation main PC.

I want to upgrade my main PC soon (can’t run new games, CPU and GPU limited), which means potentially kicking everything else “down the chain” to a new purpose as it gets a slightly better version of itself. I find the thought of this exhausting though. So much configuration/setup to give upgrades to things whose existence is only because I didn’t want to part with functioning hardware.

My current thought is to “break the cycle” by condensing all non-primary functions to my current PC, as an unRAID box hosting everything other than main gaming PC. From there, the rule needs to be tech goes into one of those two boxes, or it gets sold/donated.

What do you all think. Is that reasonable? How do you manage your spare equipment post upgrade?

  • borkcorkedforks
    2•1 year ago

    If you can’t install it into the new system or have beyond 1 or 2 parts in a category only existing as a backup it’s probably junk. If you have old ram or something that could still work on the newest board it might be useful but you probably don’t need 5 builds worth of ram. Especially if 95% can’t even be installed on to the new board.

    If you’re updating parts to have the latest all the time you probably need to sell your old parts just to afford new parts. And sooner the better to maximize the sell price. Personally I’m still using 6 year old hardware and will probably worry about upgrading when it bursts into flames or windows stops pushing security patches to the OS supported by the hardware.

    Drives would probably be based on size and age if they aren’t already in the system or on a NAS.

    • StickyOPEnglish
      1•1 year ago

      Drives thankfully can easily have extended utility, I don’t feel bad about those cause I haven’t hit my bay limits yet. Using them in the unRAID box also means I don’t really worry about them dying and losing anything valuable.

      Speaking of 5 builds worth of RAM… I found and disposed of a couple 128MB sticks the other day. Progress 😅