What vintage PC hardware is considered highly collectible or ordinary and unwanted?

[computerdude92]

I came across lots of old computer parts throughout the years. I don't understand why a 386 and 486 are more valued than a Pentium 1 or Pentium II. I know of course a Voodoo card is a golden collectible. And obviously the mass market low end gear such as the cheap Riva TNT2 M64 are too unspectacular. I have the bad habit of e-cycling a lot of old stuff... So I want to know what your opinions are on what is worth saving. Which parts would people pay good money on? Take my rare working Athlon 1.4GHz model C for example. I don't want it but I know it's worth something to someone.

[Rick Ethridge]

Look up the price of a slot A 950 MHz or higher Thunderbird Athlon. I have one but won't let go of it.

[Stone]

Look up the price of a slot A 950 MHz or higher Thunderbird Athlon. I have one but won't let go of it.

That's a slot A, not a Socket A, right?

[SomeGuy]

There are lots of opinions here, but for me, this would be similar to what would make a good "tweener" system.

Off the top of my head, what I would look at:
-Generic AT or ATX form motherboards and cases.
-Have BIOS support for *two* real, internal floppy drives.
-Plenty of ISA, and/or PCI slots
-Faster CPUs with ISA, but also support for ISA DMA
-Support for a variety of OSes (drivers for OS/2, 3.1, 95, 98, NT, XP, the more the better)
-Bonus points if FDC supports FM encoding,
-5.25" floppy drives.
- For monitors, late 1990s CRTs. LCDs with proper 4:3 aspect and better lower resolution support.
-The motherboard should use a coin cell CMOS battery instead of a Dallas or Odin integrated clock/battery chip.
-Over all "no nonsence". Anything with retarded Blue LEDs goes in the chipper shredder.

[Stone]

For monitors, late 1990s CRTs.

Here's a couple:

http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthrea...d-VGA-Monitors

[falter]

I came across lots of old computer parts throughout the years. I don't understand why a 386 and 486 are more valued than a Pentium 1 or Pentium II. I know of course a Voodoo card is a golden collectible. And obviously the mass market low end gear such as the cheap Riva TNT2 M64 are too unspectacular. I have the bad habit of e-cycling a lot of old stuff... So I want to know what your opinions are on what is worth saving. Which parts would people pay good money on? Take my rare working Athlon 1.4GHz model C for example. I don't want it but I know it's worth something to someone.

I think 386/486 has a bit more nostalgia because that was a time where changing CPU made a noticeable difference in performance, without doing much else. Every change with PCs at that time was a new and exciting thing. That effect was largely gone with the Pentium. The first PC I had to myself was a 286 clone that I kept upgrading into a 486DX-66. It was just a really fun time. The 386 is particularly special for me because I couldn't afford to get one before they were superceded by the 486. My friend had a 383/33 tower and used to bring it over to play Falcon. The envy on my end (compared to my 286-10) was palpable.

[Unknown_K]

Generally anything people lusted after new will be wanted when people go retro.

Low end video cards are better then nothing, but they won't be worth much either. Last generation VLB cards with decent chipsets and 2MB+ RAM are no longer cheap. Gamer PCI cards are worth saving, same with gamer AGP cards.
I think Pentium 1 boards are getting collectable now, especially the last generation SS7 and the earlier HX chipset boards that can cache more then 64MB of RAM.
Any HD under 4GB is worth holding onto.

Last generation Socket A boards that can do 400FSB and run the last Athlon 3200+ would be a good bet (most went directly to the scrappers and were rare to begin with since people had moved on to Athlon 64 socket 754 by then).

286 to 486 stuff is probably not hitting the recycling bin much these days, those days are gone. But newer stuff people don't care about much now will be worth selling in a decade if you are still around and have storage space.

[Plasma]

I guess what's "worth" saving is really a time/space/money equation. If you hold on to anything long enough, it will likely become valuable again. In the early 90s nobody wanted a 5150.

Things in particular I have noticed increasing in value:

TTL monitors
AT cases
AT form factor motherboards (XT to Super Socket 7)
VLB cards
Gravis Ultrasound and Roland sound cards. About 12 years ago you could occasionally get a new GUS PnP on ebay for $30. Now they are going for around $200 used. Good thing I already have my stockpile...

[Rick Ethridge]

Slot A is correct.

[mR_Slug]

It seems a shame to just dump stuff that's working. Say you have a few cheap video cards why not offer them as a lot, on the trade section or ebay or whatever. Large items are difficult sometimes. Stuff goes up in value too. Once upon a time, I sold 12 PCI 486 motherboards on eBay for £1 + shipping! These had no historical significance and were nothing special. Today people really want these. I used to throw out stuff all the time, and I regret most of it. Also rarity or historical significance seem to have little to do with desirability. I found an Intel model 402 486 motherboard (one of the first) the other day for £20. It's rare but no one wants it, or even knows of its existence. If I could just find the memory card for it...