The oldest component in your Main Computer??

[RoadWarrior]

Yeah the only "real" computer components still in use that are really old in my rigs are the floppy drives. Pretty sure I've got one with a 1991 date on installed somewhere, the one is this rig is at least 5 years old, but can't be bothered pulling it to check the date. The oldest component I'm sure about at the moment, would be the circa 1996 1.6G hard drive that's sitting in a removable bay, I had old stuff on that I'm backing up. However, I suspect that the NIC is quite venerable also, it's a 3Com 3c905B, they've been around for quite a while, that's possibly a mid 90s unit.

I did have a tradition of keeping an original IBM PC speaker with a 1984 date tag on it, as part of every new main rig build, but it somehow didn't get into this one. Possibly because it was intended as a second rig, but due to a lemon motherboard it got promoted to my main rig. That speaker was in the first "PC" compatible machine I got which was an IBM XT, I upgraded it to a 386, then as I upgraded again and again has been in a 486, 5x86, K6, K6-2 and is currently in my mothballed second, ex-main, rig with a applebred 1600.

Come to think of it though, the fan and blower in here I got from surplus stores could have been new old stock, the all metal Pabst fan in particular looks kind of 80s.

 

[jcw122]

Floppy drive is obviously the oldest technology in most computers, so I'll forget that for now.


I don't really have any old parts, but the oldest technology I have in my case is probably my 9800Pro, or my HDD or DVD-ROM.

 

[schnikies79]

My modem! I don't use it here at school but at home I still do. Bought it from circuit city in '97. Works just fine!

 

[Slayer2003]

The only things I didn't get new/OEM when I put this box together, were a few 3-pin fan y's. and 1 of the 2 dl dvd-rw's that I brought over from a system i sold a month before.

 

[Benvanz]

hmm, thats a tough one, I am guessing its a molex connector or a case screw from a computer, that is so old that I could not find the processor

 

[futura2001]

Oldest component?
Probably my case.
It will have reached the decade mark in March-ish.
Although I am eyeing a new case, and have been for the past 9 years or so; I'm always too cheap, too broke, or spending my computer money on other components.
Beyond that, I have a Nokia 445xi from 1998, and a Lacie Electron from 1999. My CRTs have aged like fine wine, although the 445xi is starting to turn to vinegar, so I am thinking of replacing it and moving the Lacie to a secondary monitor role...

 

[ThePerfectCore]

The sound card, a SB Live! Value. It came with a pentium III 450 that my family bought in 1998.

Or was it 1999?

 

[d94]

thermaltake v2000a ~ 3yrs old or so, modded that sucker for WC and it pwns!

 

[skou]

Outside of the recycled case material, (LEGO bricks) my video card is from 2001, as is my Yamaha 24X10X40 CD burner.

Some of those LEGOs are from the '60s.

Oh, any one running an older vid card?

steve

 

[usp8riot]

My dialup modem, like 6 years old. Then got 2 small fans from my old pc I rigged to the side of my case. And my entire PC is about 3 years old except the 6800GT. Almost time to upgrade but 'til PC's as a whole get twice as fast as mine, I am steadfast on keeping this one.

 

[TollhouseFrank]

the floppy in my compy.... have had it since.... 1995 or so?.....

next oldest is one of my DVD drives.... it's still going after having had it since 1998....

Next beyond that is my monitor... got it around 1997-1998'ish... back with 19" was still huge....

 

[>HyperlogiK<]

Excluding floppy drives, it was a circa 1990 heatsink on my RAID card, but that is gone now. Now it is a second PSU from about 1998 running cooling.

I must think of some way to hook this up:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/LABORATORY-LA...590197838QQcategoryZ26230QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[Zulu-1]

my floppy drive which i got from a 486.... gotta love it!

 

[ghettocomp]

Oldest component? Hmmm..

TV Card, 6 years - still used in my TVR computer
Connor 230Mb Hard drive, 9 Years - in my Smoothwall box
SCSI 50MB Hard drive, 14 years - used to test SCSI cards, will store an occasional MP3 file.

 

[RoadWarrior]

Heh, I've got an ancient "tester" hard drive, 40MB Seagate 351A/X, got a load of dos diagnostics on it and a copy of Doom I (for oldskool burn in) came out of a Amstrad 286 originally I think. It's probably been connected to just about every mobo I own at some point, usually gets the honor of 1st POST of any hardware. Also use it sometimes for flashing BIOS from. It can be used to boot any PC hardware whatsoever, no BIOS HDD autodetect, no problem, it's type 17.

 

[speed bump]

Probably my case, and floppy both from right after poeple thought ATX might might matter but hey its huge and the floppy is from a very early socket 3 586 from about 96 that was never used for anything other than orginally loading the OS on the comp.

 

[threeme2189]

ahh my NEC monitor i got from my aunt is pretty old. and my keyboard its atleast 8-10 years old.
i also have a speaker (yes one out of two) thats about 6-7 years old.
and a few old screws.

 

[techun]

..2600 mobile?
what year were they made?

 

[RoadWarrior]

Heh, forgot about keyboard, using an IBM model M with a 30th May 1990 manufacture date on it.

 

[shellshock]

mine is probally 2 old nidec beta fans that were pulled out of a 1986-1987 packard bell computers psu's. still running strong. defnally the best fans in my case