what to do with old hardware

What do you do with your old / unused hardware? Cables, Hard drives, motherboards, and others peripherals you have around? Stuff that is broken or just too obsolete to use.

Solution 1:

There are a lot of people out there with far more time to tinker with "worthless" parts than I have - freecycle.org. It doesn't head to a landfill AND you don't have to take it any farther than the curb. Win-win.

Solution 2:

We have a company locally that recycles old computers for schools and people who otherwise couldn't afford a computer, so a lot of stuff goes there. Old parts that can be assembled into computers, I've used for

• mail servers
• router/firewalls for friends, with m0n0wall
• network storage with FreeNAS

Solution 3:

This is what I do with old printers:

Solution 4:

Give it to me!

...

Just kidding :)

Solution 5:

I hate throwing out hardware that still works, I feel that it could always come in useful later, when something breaks and there's a crisis. So it usually ends up in a big box of bits. I'll try to organize it but eventually it gets overrun and I have to throw some out or find a new home for it.

Often working parts will get re-purposed for a home project or used in a friends old PC that needs repairs.