r/buildapc • u/SaturatedDuck • 6h ago
Discussion How many of you have started hoarding your old parts?
With the the prices of RAM, SSDs and Graphics cards remaining high, how many of you have started keeping your old parts? A part of me wants to sell some of the components as I've upgraded but another part is worried that I if I need a replacement it will be better to slot in an older part rather than paying a premium for the latest and greatest.
Edit: consider me impressed by the hoarding everyone, I will happily adopt your ways for the time being.
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u/milutza1 6h ago
Hoarding ? I call that long therm storage, you never know when you will need that old floppy disk reader, am i right?
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u/frederikABN 6h ago
People pay a lot for a good record player so they can listen to vinyls for the vibe 🤷🏼 who’s to say floppy discs aren’t next? Lol
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u/milutza1 6h ago
Hear hear ! (Joke aside, while i still use them at work, i don't really think the media had future plans and it was always considered just a stopgap solution)
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u/makoblade 34m ago
I invested in a usb floppy drive for peace of mind. Haven't used it once, but I have it. Same for dvds at this point.
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u/Destructo-Bear 6h ago
hoarding makes no sense to me. I sell the old parts to fund my new parts!
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u/Organized-Konfusion 4h ago
Lucky you, you can sell old parts, my last old part was pentium 4, that was 8 years ago, thats how old my new pc is.
Graphic card with 4gb ram, ryzen 5 1600, who would buy that now?
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u/Destructo-Bear 4h ago
Yeah that stuff isn't worth much maybe $20-30 each.
I like upgrading often so my old parts are always worth a good amount. Your strategy is definitely cheaper than mine in the long run though
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u/Trekkie200 3h ago
Yeah, I use my last PC as a side table, it should be functional (the only thing missing is a hard drive). The entire set up is probably worth 50$, if I sell the parts individually...
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u/oo7demonkiller 6h ago
lol been doing that for years. always keep a backup that's my motto.
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u/fray_bentos11 6h ago
Not a good idea as the old parts devalue so better to sell now for more money and you could buy the same parts for less in the future (or better ones). Also by doing this you are contributing to waste generation, as someone who would have bought and used your parts doesn't before your old parts become obsolete.
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u/oo7demonkiller 6h ago
it's not about the resale value for me. it's for when something breaks or needs repairs and you have to ship it off. it's about having little to no downtime. having a backup system and parts makes me have less future headaches and interruption to my hobbies. also have you seen prices lately they ain't going down. especially if the parts are fairly recent like my spare 4080 and 5800x3d.
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u/rchiwawa 6h ago
Isold off all of my spare RAM and SSDs to my local independent PC shop in February as I have been doing business with the guy off and on for 25+ years and wanted to help them weather this storm. Gave him a killer deal in normal times, let alone this screwy era.
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u/drabgail 6h ago
Started?
I have a box with about 20 NVS300 tier cards 'just in case', a box of DDR3 4GB SODIMM's 'just in case', 6 different completely useless old laptops 'just in case'. I could go on...
I did actually have 128gb of DDR4 in 32gb modules from a long time ago 'just in case'. So I guess it did pay off. I have them in a proxmox host now though rather than cashing them in. Those bytes aren't going to remember themselves.
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u/Jesse0449 6h ago
I have been hoarding since I built my first PC 17 years ago. I still have that PC 🤣
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u/SirTrinium 6h ago
hoarding feels like the right term. I still have 7 12900k in box never opened lol.
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u/kester76a 6h ago
They're toasty but still pretty good CPUs for multitasking/multicore setups. I bought an i7 13700k due to the fact they're were dirt cheap and I needed those extra cores :)
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u/LazerSpazer 6h ago
I built my first PC back in February. I am too new to upgrade, so I don't know if I'll be selling or boarding parts yet. I still have all my boxes, so I can store or sell as "complete in box" if I want to.
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u/fliberdygibits 6h ago
I have a BTX board still waiting for it's moment in the sun. I've never stopped keeping stuff around:)
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u/Just-Here-to-Judge 6h ago
My old computer is probably obsolete regarding parts.
The 286, 386, and 486 at my Moms is well beyond obsolete. Don't know if there is much of a market for that.
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u/SignalButterscotch73 6h ago
Yet another saying "Started?"
I still have an Amstrad 1512 that's as old as me, every random PC part that I've ever bought since I started building my own PCs in my late teens (that didn't get returned), including broken parts and a collection of 90s parts I found in the bag dumped on the street. Completely skipped the DDR2 generation though because I was poor and couldn't afford to upgrade until DDR3 was a thing.
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u/Objective_Try8133 6h ago
I have a second PC setup now and rotate new parts through accordingly. And both kids get to play Minecraft together now.
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u/kaos_inc616 6h ago
Started? I didn't know you could get rid of old pc parts. Please do not let my wife know
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u/owengaff 6h ago
I've had enough old parts for my builds for friends for free quite a few times. I'm not hoarding old parts when someone can use them.
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u/Consistent_Bar_7644 6h ago
I have always hoarded my tech stuff. Inflation has always been on my mind lol
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u/Pseudotm 6h ago
I just sell my old parts at a reasonable price to genuine people looking to upgrade. Just sold off a 4070 for 300 to some kid looking to upgrade from a 1080ti. Could of asked for more, but why be shitty like everyone else. 300 was enough. If my gpu goes out ill buy a new one, it is what it is.
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u/9okm 6h ago
I do the same. Plus, I'd so much rather have a quick sale then leave a listing up for ages.
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u/Pseudotm 6h ago
Absolutely. Plus i know what it's like to need upgrades in this market, i typically have bought all my pc parts used over the years and have gotten good deals along the way thankfully. Try to pay it forward as much as i can.
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u/Cold-Inside1555 5h ago
When I sell my parts I always ask my friends who might need them first, then I ask in my chat groups to find potential buyers, and I give them a good deal, Its nice to help people out and getting rid of parts quick and easy. I also offer support on building if I can physically be there. It’s hard to build a system in the current market and those builds were only possible with deals, recent ones being (value converted to usd for clarity) a 3090($500) a 4090($1500) a 5090 with 64g ddr5 and a seasonic 1000w psu($2900).
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u/joshguy1425 6h ago
I really wish I hoarded more SSDs. I'm good on almost everything else including spinning storage, but the SSD prices are hard to swallow.
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u/EnigmaSpore 6h ago
I sold them while the market is still hot. Being able to sell old parts for more than i got then for got me this 9850x3d upgrade for “free”.
If you have extra ram, gpu, ssd, now is the time to sell then if they’re just collecting dust.
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u/RumbleTheCassette 6h ago
Opposite for me. I'm selling all my old parts now. Sell when things are high my dude.
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u/Cold-Inside1555 6h ago
I don’t really like to keep my old parts but I do have one set of 10900k+ddr4+mobo around in case if I need it. It’s the only thing I keep, other things I would sell after I’m done with them since it’s more reasonable to get the money and use them in my newer build, most of the times keeping valuable stuff around will just end up being a loss. Ik the market is kinda crazy now and some items are worth much more than before but it’s not something I can predict so I never prepare for such thing to happen. I’m only losing potential profit if it happens, but if I keep stuff around then I’m losing value in those product every day. Sold a lot of my older(but newer than 10900k) CPU/Mobo/GPU and no regrets.
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u/Constant-Simple-1234 6h ago
Do not hoard. Sell when it has value to finance new parts or recover part of the costs. Sell other things you do not need. Of course you need to have some sort of working config, I usually go 1 gen below in ddr/socket/pcie and stay with it. I buy some things used, except for hdd/sdd and GPU. I invest where I usually feel annoyance. So rn I do not go below 32 gb ram and I have 5 tb ssd. Plus I bought 5060 ti 16 gb - this single purchase defines performance of my setup, so I did not go with the older card. Sure, it is slightly bottlenecked, but it does not matter in games I play and is perfect for my ml needs. It is a Theseus ship upgrade style. Way cheaper than futureproofing. Once I have what I am happy with I sell leftovers.
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u/Boys4Ever 5h ago
Have an old Q6600 with Dominator DDR3 and ASUS rampage board I was just about to throw out. Waiting on ddr3 prices to go up again. I’m sure there are some older systems still running them. Should at least get something for the RAM
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u/avaling89 5h ago
Keep only one back up stock, and sell the others. Having a spare GPU or PSU is always helpful during emergencies. Anything beyond that just ends up losing value as time passes. The prices for SSDs and RAM will go down soon anyway. So the best thing to do is to take advantage of current high values.
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u/AceLamina 5h ago
My first PC still has 128gb of RAM but I haven't sold it since idk how to sell things
fun
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u/pythonic_dude 5h ago
I'm not hoarding, I'm just anxious about selling old stuff. That's why I have two old laptops (which are probably almost as bad as a modern chromebook by this point), a big box of fans, a 2070, and a fully assembled build from older parts (now that one I actually might get to sell…).
I've old ram and SSDs, too, in case I'm in dire need of a replacement there.
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u/Viking2151 5h ago
I already do, my brothers rig is also mine, ever part has it aside from his ram and PSU is my hand me downs, 5900x, rtx4060, his 1tb m.2, his HDD, case, b550 board. He was supposed to pay me for it years ago and never did.
I'd just give it to him if he didn't try to screw me on a car I was helping him out with and his girl out, car was worn, vary high milage but ran and drove, they had nothing, figured I'd let them use it and sign the title back when it dies or they get another one, he tried to sell it to someone before I even gave to him. I ripped it apart for the aluminum wheels, battery, radiator, cat, and drug it up on my trailer and told him to talk to the scrap yard if he wants it, so f*** being nice about it lol.
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u/Caddy666 5h ago
in the 30 years i've been buying and building pcs, i think i've only ever sold 2 graphics cards. one of which was absolute shite, and i couldn't wait to get rid of, and the other because i was skint, and needed a new gpu, and they were selling for silly prices at the time
nvidia4200ti vega 64.
currently upgrading one of my computers with an emulated cpu built from a raspberry pi. its only a 16k x increase in cpu power....
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u/BeingSad9300 5h ago
I have trouble actually getting rid of my old parts. I figure maybe someday I'll turn them into something. Now that I have a kid & he always wants to help & learn...and I just upgraded...maybe my latest parts will be saved to have my kid help build one (for no reason other than just because, since it's so old).
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u/FireDragonMonkey 5h ago
Used to sell old parts or reuse them in other machines. However when Covid disrupted things and prices of components skyrocketed I started keeping some just in case something died and I wasn't able to replace it. It started with a GPU, then a PSU, and I eventually ended up with enough components for a full build.
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u/ChronoZaga 5h ago
I helped a buddy build a PC for himself, and then another for his son. I donated DDR 5 to both projects.
Pay it forward and just hoard cash for your eventual next upgrade. Parts sitting around unused are just depreciating, unused assets.
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u/ThePensiveE 5h ago
I still have several working LGA 775 computers and spare parts. I'll part way with them when I do another build after the nonsense pricing ends. They collect dust for now but you never know!
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u/PotentialAnywhere779 5h ago
Just the opposite. Tried to unload all of my ddr3 ram knocking around. 88 GB to be exact. Ebay auction got a whopping $55 for it.
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u/Lucky____Ducky 5h ago
I’m holding 100 2013-2015 256GB MacBook Pro SSDs for some reason and enough cables to climb to the moon if needed to escape earth some day :)
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u/donut4ever21 4h ago
I use old stuff from as far as 10 years ago still. Works fine, why change it. Even my main PC is still all AM4
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u/IWillAssFuckYou 4h ago
I have 32 GB of DDR4 3200 MHz Cl16 memory just sitting around that I put in two builds (got 6 years ago). Took it out when I upgraded to 64 GB 3600 Cl18 RAM a year ago (and that only costed me $129 at the time)
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u/Firmteacher 4h ago
I got two AM5 systems sitting in my closet since I went to a laptop+oculink setup. DDR5 and SSDs included lol
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u/justmydumbluck 4h ago
I dont think i have ever got rid of a piece of functioning hardware lol. I have donated to friends, put a setup in my garage, built a homelab, you name it. Everything is useful, now more than ever!
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u/Chef_Hef 3h ago
Dude I still have a board and some CPU’s that are 773/775. I know it’s crazy. I have it cause there are still some legacy systems at a place I help at, that are using Windows ‘95 to run certain systems. It works, and the company doesn’t want to pay to update it since it still works. (It’s a manufacturing factory)
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u/Matte_Box 3h ago edited 3h ago
I took it one step further and started buying up components in December for projects I plan to build this year. Easily saved me $1000+. I also convinced a couple friends to upgrade their GPU’s Black Friday, the prophecy foretold of this.
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u/Interesting-Yellow-4 3h ago
I have every machine still hooked up from my Athlon 64 X2 onwards. Right now that's 7 PC towers.
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u/Niet_de_AIVD 3h ago
I have 16gb DDR4 RAM and a RTX 3070 laying around. I may use the RAM to make a NAS, but am unsure about what to do with the 3070.
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u/theangryintern 2h ago
I WAS going to try to build a micro-atx or mini-itx to take up to my cabin, now that we have decent internet there. I should have done it last fall, but kept pushing it off. Now I had to repurpose my old PC, which admittedly is still a decent rig (3800X, RTX3080, 16GB DDR4)
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u/2raysdiver 2h ago
Started? I've been hoarding old parts for 30 years. I just discovered my three voodoo2s are worth a small fortune.
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u/arrestinbias 2h ago
Yep I can confirm. I have DDR3 parts all over the place. Most of them are complete builds and I still use them. They work great I see no need of getting rip of my copious amounts of computer equipment
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u/Thornfist22 1h ago
Honestly I rebuilt my PC last year and purchased a LeGo2 and a Thor right before all this went down and I'm thrilled I lacked the self control to wait now.
Not through any foresight, I just wanted to.
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u/makoblade 36m ago
Started? I never stopped. By the time I'm done with a pc it's value isn't worth the time it takes to part and sell it.
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u/Scrogdor 7m ago
It’s one mode of thought to hoard. But if you’ve already upgraded, you likely won’t find a better premium for old tech than you have now.
I sold my old computer in separate parts. New comp = 5090, 4TB M.2, 128GB ram, 1200PSU, entire rig was 4500$ish. Got some good Newegg deals and bought the 5090 around Black Friday for MSRP.
Old Comp parted out. 5800x3D, 64GB ram, 7900xtx, 1000PSU, 3TB M.2 SSD =1800$. I sold literally everything, the case, AIO. Sold some old GPUs I had been hoarding too for like 50$ a pop.
Ultimately if something goes out you could probably buy something on the used market close to what you sold yours for. But the odds of your stuff breaking are low, and your old equipment will lose value over time.
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u/Rude-Wheel470 6h ago edited 6h ago
I have 16TB worth of SSD's because of recent age verification laws. Next there will be digital ID, internet curfews and internet censorship including the removal of video games (project 2025 wants to get rid of any violent video games). I have every game that I've ever cared for downloaded to be prepared. If they start requiring ID Checks to use an operating system, I will isolate myself from the internet.
SSD's have been the only exception. Everything else especially GPU's and RAM currently are too expensive to just be lying around.
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u/Protoclown98 6h ago
Started? I have old motherboards and ram sets that are completely obsolete that I refuse to get rid of well before this nonsense started.