In your opinion does ultra old hardware have a use?

[ng4ever]

What do you think ?

Like 5 to 10 years old plus

 

[auntjemima]

10 years, nah, not until people want them for retro builds, which I don't think will be as popular as earlier pentium or earlier systems.

5 years old? Lol, yes, I use one that old now.

 

[ZodaEX]

Of course. My PC is mostly 11 years old (aside from the GPU) and it still runs everything I've ever thrown at it. Plays all my games smooth from F.E.A.R. to Dying Light to Red Dead 2.

 

[gvx64]

Yeah, I still use my 2010 PC and it works great. I do lots of encoding and I use it for surfing, watching videos, etc. I upgraded the RAM to 8 GB a while back and it definitely made it a lot more usable (it originally had 4GB which just isn't enough in 2022).

It is currently running win 7 with a Linux Mint dual-boot. That said, I have been told here that I should not be using Win 7 directly as my computer is likely compromised and contributing to the botnet problem because win 7 has become heavily exploited since it stopped getting service updates. I am planning to switch over full-time to an actively serviced LInux distro where I would like to run Win 7 within a virtual environment where it will be safer from exploits. I am not sure if win 7 will be fast enough to be usable within a virtual machine on such an old computer but I still want to give it a try.

 

[ZodaEX]

Yeah, I still use my 2010 PC and it works great. I do lots of encoding and I use it for surfing, watching videos, etc. I upgraded the RAM to 8 GB a while back and it definitely made it a lot more usable (it originally had 4GB which just isn't enough in 2022).

It is currently running win 7 with a Linux Mint dual-boot. That said, I have been told here that I should not be using Win 7 directly as my computer is likely compromised and contributing to the botnet problem because win 7 has become heavily exploited since it stopped getting service updates. I am planning to switch over full-time to an actively serviced LInux distro where I would like to run Win 7 within a virtual environment where it will be safer from exploits. I am not sure if win 7 will be fast enough to be usable within a virtual machine on such an old computer but I still want to give it a try.

The anti Win7 fear mongering here is very overblown. As long as you have a decent firewall, antivirus software and exercise cation and restraint on the internet, you'll be fine. Actually find it very refreshing to never have to come home to find Windows Update broke something again while I was away at work.

 

[vegeta535]

The anti Win7 fear mongering here is very overblown. As long as you have a decent firewall, antivirus software and exercise cation and restraint on the internet, you'll be fine. Actually find it very refreshing to never have to come home to find Windows Update broke something again while I was away at work.

Your anti everything not win7 is overblown. I never had windows update brick my install. If you had more modern hardware you would have less issues. You are hardcore knee napping that 3080ti with that CPU and windows 7. There is absolutely no reason to be still using windows 7. A retro box? Sure but not as a primary everyday gaming PC.

 

[pendragon1]

5-10yrs is not ultra old, 15-20+ is.
ultra old stuff/ewaste, like those 5800 ultras, is useful for squeezing money out of people though...

 

[scottypippin]

Specific to PC hardware, I think the lifespan of a device is most heavily influenced by whether it can fit a use case for someone, and whether they can afford something better. I would argue that I've seen people where old hardware is what they want and all they really need. I would also concede that there is a limited number of folks for whom I'd actually say the old hardware is the  best decision for them.

In regards to the hardware, there's plenty of times where just installing an SSD in an old 2014 laptop you get from some rando for $20 for exmaple can enable it to boot quickly and perform basic tasks in a reasonable time. Maybe another 2-3 years in a specific person's use case, (where that use case is not running Crysis). In those 2-3 years maybe the hardware fails, but if someone just needs to check email with a full physical keyboard (i.e. not on their phone) are on a tight budget.....I don't see a major issue with running 10 year old hardware until it impedes the use case. Usually this is older folks, so for those folks I'd fall in the "install Windows 10" category....but I don't want to argue about that.

This certainly has its limits:
- No SATA interface would be a no go.
- I personally wouldn't stick someone with a single core CPU on modern software.

Where this outright fails is when the use case changes or when the person actually has the money for something that can handle their goals. Maybe someone wants to run Spotify in the background at the same time as editing a power point or maybe wants to run video calls...... then a dual core 3000 series i3 can't handle that. Additionally, if you have even $400, you can find a used Ryzen 5000 laptop with 6 cores for about that price in US markets. So, in my mind, you gotta be really down in the dirt to not be able to afford recent-ish hardware.

Given that, you could argue perhaps charity is the only use case and....that kind of fits. Old laptops that only need to serve as education or a stepping stone for someone out of step with modern tech...that can be a second life for a 5-10 year old machine.

Bottom line:

There is a small subset of people who can't (or can't be convinced to) spend enough to get a modern device that would improve their use case noticeably. For these people, if they can get ahold of (basically) donated old hardware and get help tuning it up....using that old hardware for their everyday tasks makes sense for a period of time. Ideally, though, the money they didn't spend on the bottom of the line modern hardware should be re-invested in a new one soon after. Or even better.....someone can be charitable themselves, and gift them something modern.

I'm less versed on the Win 7 conversation happening here, so I'll keep my mouth shut there.

 

[rhkcommander959]

LGA 1366 with the 45nm hexacores are still very useful while being 12 years old, and can be ran under windows 11 with some work. I would stick with 7 or 10 myself.

6c 12t with triple channel isn't bad at all, Overclock that westmere to 4+ ghz, and it can prove even more useful! You have a server ready to go, or a super cheap gaming build for 4K, where the cpu won't really hold you back much but 1080p you'll have a lot of lost frames. Rtx 30 series compatibility is hit or miss on x58 though.

S775 and before, not so much. But they are fun to tinker on. Lga115x+ and lga2011/2066 is plenty useful, same for AMD phenom 2 and up.

 

[daglesj]

For day to day use I would not push an old machine with less than dual core with hyper-threading. Dual core alone doesn't really cut it now. YMMV but I don't go for it.

Anything less than that CPU wise goes in the trash, including anything older than DDR3 and SATA2. I've dumped a load of GPUs recently due to them not being boot capable with modern versions of Windows etc. No USB3 is a good push to trash as well.

Don't get sentimental.

 

[ochadd]

The use case for old hardware is slim. I forget this often myself. In my office at home and work are Core 2 Quads, AMD X4, and quad core Nehalem Xeons combos that I thought... "These would be great machines for someone". I never find a use for them. By the time you tell someone they need to buy a case, SSD, power supply, keyboard, mouse, and a monitor they either can't afford it or would rather put something newer in.
The cheapest of brand new gen parts come in at ~$200 for CPU and motherboard together. AMD 5600G and $80 MB for instance.
They would make perfect servers but the people who need servers already have old machines in their closet. They don't need mine. I tried to give away Dell R710 servers and sell R730 servers dirt cheap but no takers locally. By the time you pay for shipping and seller fees, it's not worth the hassle.

 

[Luke M]

10 years old means ivy bridge, 32GB DDR3, USB3, SATA3, PCIe3, EFI firmware, etc. Not much wrong with it. You have to go even farther back before you get into the category "old junk".

 

[jimthebob]

5 year yeah easily. My server is built around a 6700k and does everything I ask of it no problem and that CPU was released Q3 2015 according to Intel's site so it's 7+ year old tech at this point (which feels weird to say considering how relevant it can still be).

 

[rhkcommander959]

5 year yeah easily. My server is built around a 6700k and does everything I ask of it no problem and that CPU was released Q3 2015 according to Intel's site so it's 7+ year old tech at this point (which feels weird to say considering how relevant it can still be).

Depending on the motherboard and your willingness to mod, you could do a CoffeeTime mod and drop in an 8700K or similar for a cheap jump in performance! I wouldn't bother with a 7700k, any other 8th gen, or any 9th unless you get a deal or ES 9900K.

I've got a 9600K on a Z170 for instance, running a smooth 5ghz OC. Great board I had laying around, and a great 9600K, made sense to me.

 

[jimthebob]

Depending on the motherboard and your willingness to mod, you could do a CoffeeTime mod and drop in an 8700K or similar for a cheap jump in performance! I wouldn't bother with a 7700k, any other 8th gen, or any 9th unless you get a deal or ES 9900K.

I've got a 9600K on a Z170 for instance, running a smooth 5ghz OC. Great board I had laying around, and a great 9600K, made sense to me.

Woah, I had never heard of such a thing for this gen of stuff 🤯 I haven't looked into it much but how is the risk factor? Any downsides?

(I won't take this any further in this thread if I have additional questions, I don't want to totally hijack the thread lol)

 

[rhkcommander959]

Woah, I had never heard of such a thing for this gen of stuff 🤯 I haven't looked into it much but how is the risk factor? Any downsides?

(I won't take this any further in this thread if I have additional questions, I don't want to totally hijack the thread lol)

I used my bios programmer and a software mod called coffetime, modded up some bios to make it take any cpu from 6th gen to 9th gen including ES, and then you just take some copper tape to jump a pin pad to tell it to take a coffeelake cpu.

Some motherboards you have to insulate some pins, I drew up a plan and cut vinyl for my cpu, easily blocked any pins just in case.

Pm me if you have more questions, I might start a thread too!

 

[GiGaBiTe]

Your anti everything not win7 is overblown. I never had windows update brick my install.

Good for you. I have a conga line of customers that disagree with you, including authoritative national news organizations that have been covering thousands of people getting bricked Windows machines from bad Windows updates for years. And Microsoft publicly apologizing and rescending several major updates because of it.

If you had more modern hardware you would have less issues. You are hardcore knee napping that 3080ti with that CPU and windows 7. There is absolutely no reason to be still using windows 7. A retro box? Sure but not as a primary everyday gaming PC.

I used Windows 7 as my primary gaming machine well after it was EOL'd and had no issues. I still use it on my work laptop because of proprietary legacy software that doesn't work on Windows 10.

If you run a good ad blocker, security plugins and don't do dumb things like go to sketchy download sites, you'll be just fine on a Windows 7 machine if you're behind a good firewall. If you do something dumb like DMZ a Windows 7 box to the internet, or host a web server on it, then yes, prepare to be owned by Russian and Chinese botnets.

 

[psy81]

I still use my Phenom II 965 PC. It has dual boot Windows XP and Windows 7.

XP for retro gaming paired with a NEC MultiSync LCD 1970GX, 19 inch, 1280x1024@ 75Hz monitor.

I also use it for backup storage of all my files in Windows 7 mode with a 1920x1080 monitor.

PC actually sits at my parents home since it has all my backup data. For what I use it for its perfect and runs great. Keep in mind I dont do any online activities with this PC and offline with no antivirus software.

What kinda sucks is I can't power both monitors at the same time maybe due to resolution limitations of the GTX 580 so looking for a new card to stick in this PC.

Long story short, yes old hardware has its uses

 

[Dan_D]

Does old hardware have a use? Beyond target practice, I think five to seven year old hardware still has some viability for ancillary uses or for extremely young children's games which aren't usually aren't all that demanding.

At 10+ years old, I don't think most hardware has any value outside the context of a museum. It should be thrown away, recycled if possible or shot. Retro gaming is something I honestly don't get. I think people sometimes make decisions that don't make sense based on feelings of nostalgia alone. When we are taking about old cars or guns, I can understand it too an extent, but I'm not convinced that playing your 25 year old games is really better on hardware from the period.

 

[vegeta535]

Good for you. I have a conga line of customers that disagree with you, including authoritative national news organizations that have been covering thousands of people getting bricked Windows machines from bad Windows updates for years. And Microsoft publicly apologizing and rescending several major updates because of it.




I used Windows 7 as my primary gaming machine well after it was EOL'd and had no issues. I still use it on my work laptop because of proprietary legacy software that doesn't work on Windows 10.

If you run a good ad blocker, security plugins and don't do dumb things like go to sketchy download sites, you'll be just fine on a Windows 7 machine if you're behind a good firewall. If you do something dumb like DMZ a Windows 7 box to the internet, or host a web server on it, then yes, prepare to be owned by Russian and Chinese botnets.

Again there is no reason to be running 7 on a primary modern system. I see absolutely no benefit in it. Yea we still have a XP box at work to run out old CNC machine. It is not connect to the network either. Even my cheap ass company that pushes everything off as long as possible company pushed everything to windows 10 before EoL. Any way you do you.

 

[GiGaBiTe]

Again there is no reason to be running 7 on a primary modern system. I see absolutely no benefit in it. Yea we still have a XP box at work to run out old CNC machine. It is not connect to the network either. Even my cheap ass company that pushes everything off as long as possible company pushed everything to windows 10 before EoL. Any way you do you.

Just because you have no personal reason to run Windows 7, doesn't mean that applies to everyone else.

but I'm not convinced that playing your 25 year old games is really better on hardware from the period.

It's not "because it's better", it's because if you don't run it on period hardware, it often won't run at all. Even if it does, be prepared for a bad time.

Games in the early to mid 90s that used Windows used APIs that don't exist anymore, or have zero support in modern Windows. Many also used 16 bit code, which won't run at all unless you have a 32 bit version of Windows, which ended with Windows 10. Many more also used timing specific code that literally relied on the system's own lag to function properly. Case and point, Lego Island. Try to run it on a machine even several years newer than when it was released and you'll have a bad time.

Just like there are poorly coded games today, there were poorly coded games back then, or games optimized for machines of the time. They won't run on a modern machine.

Few other examples of games that don't work right, or at all:
Command & Conquer (basically all of them up to RA2)
Sim City & Sim City 2000
Sim Tower
Yoot Tower
Populous: TB
DX5 & DX6 games

You can spend hours and days and weeks trying to cobble together hacks, community patches and " get er workin' " guides on how to make your old games work, or you can just fire up a vintage machine and play your games without any fuss. And not have to worry about Microsoft changing some hidden something in some forced update that breaks everything and you have to start all over again.

 

[cdabc123]

Stop the 7 vs 10 debate. You guys are off topic and there are plenty of threads to bicker about the topic already. This thread is more so about hardware which may include relevant software of the time but not this 7 vs 10 nonsense.

10 year old stuff is still just fine. I have sandy bridge hardware running a server. westmere mining rigs, and "nostalgia" rigs as they are fun to overclock.

And old os are fun I just recently got a toshiba libeberata 50c running and it's amazing how snappy the thing is compared to slow or bloated modern machines. The HD light only turns on when you actually do stuff. A wild thought coming from modern os


For really old hardware I see the collector appeal and think it's cool but I also love emulating old processors on fpgas. It teaches me how they work as far as operations and structure and can be near identical in use to the older harder to obtain thing.

 

[LukeTbk]

Few other examples of games that don't work right, or at all:

Wouldn't some of those work on dosbox ?

 

[Dan_D]

Wouldn't some of those work on dosbox ?

Exactly. Between that and VM's, I see little reason to run games of that era on period hardware.

 

[daglesj]

I used Windows 7 as my primary gaming machine well after it was EOL'd and had no issues. I still use it on my work laptop because of proprietary legacy software that doesn't work on Windows 10.

Now you sure of that? I had a customer recently that had a bunch of Windows 7 machines that ran 'prop legacy software' from the turn of the century. He had been told by two other IT specialists that it would never work on Windows 10.

I laughed, took one of the machines home, cloned the 7 build to a SSD and then upgraded it to 10. Worked fine. All his machines are now on 10 and SSD tech. He was so chuffed he took me and my other half out for dinner!

 

[daglesj]

Does old hardware have a use? Beyond target practice, I think five to seven year old hardware still has some viability for ancillary uses or for extremely young children's games which aren't usually aren't all that demanding.

Hmmm my 2016 x99 5960X with quad channel RAM still keeps up with the AAA big boys no problem. There is always a huge range in hardware from any period. It's just the lower end half that really turns to junk a lot faster than the rest.

I have $2300 sitting to buy the guts of a new rig for 2023 but to be honest I'll wait till 2024 if it doesnt pack up before then. May well have $3300 to spend then...

 

[GiGaBiTe]

And old os are fun I just recently got a toshiba libeberata 50c running

Hope you recapped the entire thing, including the screen. Else it's not going to be working for long. I fixed up one of those a year or so ago, they're not easy to repair, especially after having all of the capacitors leak and destroy large parts of the logic board. God speed if the capacitors eat the boost converter section on the logic board that power the screen's backlight.

Wouldn't some of those work on dosbox ?

DosBox is for DOS games, not Windows. While DosBox can "run" Windows up to 3.x, it doesn't do it well.

Exactly. Between that and VM's, I see little reason to run games of that era on period hardware.

Haha, you have no idea what you're talking about. Point me to a VM that will run Windows 3.x-ME with hardware acceleration. Also point me to one that will run at period correct speed.

No such thing exists, and will probably never exist. The best thing now is DosBox-X, a fork of Dosbox that allows running Windows 9x with crippled video. It barely has functioning video drivers with bad VESA emulation. Forget running games at any respectable speed. The rest of the hardware is no better. Emulated sound, slow DOS level disk access. You may as well try installing Windows 9x on a 386 and say that is OK to play 3D games on. Not going to happen.

Now you sure of that? I had a customer recently that had a bunch of Windows 7 machines that ran 'prop legacy software' from the turn of the century. He had been told by two other IT specialists that it would never work on Windows 10.

I laughed, took one of the machines home, cloned the 7 build to a SSD and then upgraded it to 10. Worked fine. All his machines are now on 10 and SSD tech. He was so chuffed he took me and my other half out for dinner!

Yes, I am quite sure of it. Said software relies on ancient ActiveX controls, which don't function properly in 10 on whatever crippled version of IE11 was included with Windows. Now that MS removed it and replaced it with the "edge compatibility mode", it doesn't work at all. UI elements won't render and buttons for critical functions are missing.

Also have another customer of mine I had to build an old machine for his plotter, because somewhere between version 1809 and 2004, Microsoft broke the parallel port. They never bothered to fix it, and official manufacturer rep said there was no way around it. Doing a bit of digging, they apparently started breaking COM and Parallel ports back as far as 1511.

It's sad how many Microsoft apologists there are today that excuse their widely documented faults, problems and abhorrent behavior and pretend everything is rainbows and unicorns.

 

[daglesj]

It's sad how many Microsoft apologists there are today that excuse their widely documented faults, problems and abhorrent behavior and pretend everything is rainbows and unicorns.

Well I always say it's a 33/33/33 thing. Is it not also up to the manufacture of old stuff to keep it going? If they don't care then why should MS have to keep looking backwards? Also if something is that vital then shouldn't the customer also have the gumption to find a new solution and invest in it?

99 times out of 100 in my experience, this issue is usually down to the customer being a tightwad. "I paid $1000 (most likely pirated) for this software back in 2002 and I've made $8,000,000 from it since then but I can't afford to find something newer or better! I need to sweat this asset till I retire! So sonny you need to keep this XP machine going!"

 

[GiGaBiTe]

Is it not also up to the manufacture of old stuff to keep it going? If they don't care then why should MS have to keep looking backwards?

Because Microsoft advertises the features as supported, when they don't work. If MS had said that they would be removing COM and Parallel port support, and removed all drivers for said devices, it would be another story. But as it is, they advertise support for COM and Parallel ports that don't work, and have no plans on fixing them.

This is entirely on Microsoft, it's not the job of the equipment manufacturer to fix someone else's software.

Also if something is that vital then shouldn't the customer also have the gumption to find a new solution and invest in it?
99 times out of 100 in my experience, this issue is usually down to the customer being a tightwad. "I paid $1000 (most likely pirated) for this software back in 2002 and I've made $8,000,000 from it since then but I can't afford to find something newer or better! I need to sweat this asset till I retire! So sonny you need to keep this XP machine going!"

You're completely out of touch with reality.

 

[LukeTbk]

DosBox is for DOS games, not Windows. While DosBox can "run" Windows up to 3.x, it doesn't do it well.

Yes and some of those are DOS game or at least I played them on DOS, like SimCity-SimCity 2000, has a rule if it is on the gog store:
https://www.gog.com/en/game/simcity_2000_special_edition

It will work on an up to date windows 11 machine, I feel the issue will be more in between game when game became windows only affair but not recent enough to be in the today mold.

 

[daglesj]

Because Microsoft advertises the features as supported, when they don't work. If MS had said that they would be removing COM and Parallel port support, and removed all drivers for said devices, it would be another story. But as it is, they advertise support for COM and Parallel ports that don't work, and have no plans on fixing them.

This is entirely on Microsoft, it's not the job of the equipment manufacturer to fix someone else's software.




You're completely out of touch with reality.

Tight then. Got it!

 

[cdabc123]

Hope you recapped the entire thing, including the screen. Else it's not going to be working for long. I fixed up one of those a year or so ago, they're not easy to repair, especially after having all of the capacitors leak and destroy large parts of the logic board. God speed if the capacitors eat the boost converter section on the logic board that power the screen's backlight.

Well thats abit pessimistic and out of touch with reality (similar to some of your other comments...). I took the thing apart it was a very neat construction and appears to use some pretty decent components. Take a look at the pcb below if you want. The small handful of "at risk" capacitors it has all apear to be in a decent condition. The screen, processor, perpetuals should continue working provided nothing drastic fails.

I guess ive had far more luck with old computers then you have as generally if they start and run fine they are pretty good to continue doing that for years to come.

https://hardforum.com/threads/toshiba-libretto-50ct-teardown-and-possible-project.2023438/

 

[Zepher]

Does old hardware have a use? Beyond target practice, I think five to seven year old hardware still has some viability for ancillary uses or for extremely young children's games which aren't usually aren't all that demanding.

At 10+ years old, I don't think most hardware has any value outside the context of a museum. It should be thrown away, recycled if possible or shot. Retro gaming is something I honestly don't get. I think people sometimes make decisions that don't make sense based on feelings of nostalgia alone. When we are taking about old cars or guns, I can understand it too an extent, but I'm not convinced that playing your 25 year old games is really better on hardware from the period.

Can you believe this system is 11 years old now? 16 cores /32 threads, and 128GB of Ram.

 

[daglesj]

Can you believe this system is 11 years old now? 16 cores /32 threads, and 128GB of Ram.

A lot of the high end old computers from 8 to 12 years ago are like old MOPAR stuff. They will keep up to a point but then passed by the latest and greatest from today. However, they will still blow away 75% of the rest of today's off the shelf computing. The only issue with old rigs like that is power consumption. That's why I tend to let them go, epsecially if they are no longer being used to do real crunch tasks. Just wasting money using it as a web/office machine.

I remember having a dual CPU quad Xeon setup with 16GB of DDR2 ECC ram. Loved using it but I would be terrified at the power cost today. That DDR2 was a energy burner and I only had 8 sticks of it.

 

[GiGaBiTe]

Well thats abit pessimistic and out of touch with reality (similar to some of your other comments...). I took the thing apart it was a very neat construction and appears to use some pretty decent components. Take a look at the pcb below if you want. The small handful of "at risk" capacitors it has all apear to be in a decent condition.

I don't need to see the PCB, I know what it looks like having worked on one.

It uses those impostor electrolytics that look like large tantalum capacitors. You cannot rely on visual cues to determine whether a capacitor is bad or not, especially these types. When they leak, the plastic casing wicks the electrolyte under the base and eats away the board underneath. This often can't be seen without removing the capacitor. The caps can also leak between the body of the capacitor and the plastic casing. You won't see anything, the only way to test them is to remove them from the board and test them.

Old radial electrolytics also leak under the base due to rubber plug failures, you also won't see this unless you remove the capacitor, because these too wick electrolyte under the base.

You're free to ignore my advice about getting them off the board as soon as possible, you'll just end up with a dead machine. I also forgot to mention to get rid of that rechargeable battery pack and replace it as well. Those cause far worse damage when they go off. It should preferably have the wire lengthened and stored outside the machine.

 

[Zepher]

A lot of the high end old computers from 8 to 12 years ago are like old MOPAR stuff. They will keep up to a point but then passed by the latest and greatest from today. However, they will still blow away 75% of the rest of today's off the shelf computing. The only issue with old rigs like that is power consumption. That's why I tend to let them go, epsecially if they are no longer being used to do real crunch tasks. Just wasting money using it as a web/office machine.

I remember having a dual CPU quad Xeon setup with 16GB of DDR2 ECC ram. Loved using it but I would be terrified at the power cost today. That DDR2 was a energy burner and I only had 8 sticks of it.

I had one of those as well. It idled at around 300-350 watts with 128GB of DDR2. When I sold it I pulled out 96GB of ram since the client didn't need it and it lowered the idle power like 100 or so watts.
I still have that ram as well, they are on Dell memory riser cards.

 

[LukeTbk]

Even mid range regular hardware, 2012 would be around a 3570k and it has obvious use case for them.

If the electricity cost where you are not the path of old computer to server will tend to be quite natural.

5 years would be a strange question, in 2023 that would be asking if a 2700x/7700k can have an usage.

 

[Starfalcon]

That is why I retired my old AMD MP system, it guzzled down tons of power. I used it a lot back in the day as I had put a lot of big IDE hard drives in it, but as time moved on and files got bigger it got less and less useful. Eventually it was just mostly used for folding, and when power kept getting more expensive it eventually got retired and shut down.

 

[NamelessPFG]

Very old hardware does indeed have a use, because emulation isn't always perfect.

Sometimes, it's really nice; WinUAE, once you learn how to set it up, will save you a hell of a lot of money over buying an actual Amiga 4000 and especially CPU and RTG upgrades for it, while actually performing a lot better and being even more compatible for the most part. Ask me how I know.

Other times, it's a bit jank; there are PowerPC-era Classic Mac OS games that just don't quite run right in SheepShaver or OS X Classic Mode. Gotta have native hardware for that, and I have a Power Mac 9600 and a Mirrored Drive Doors G4 specifically for those. (Might wind up meeting in the middle somewhat with a beige G3, now that I have a G4 accelerator that should fit one.)

And in other fringe cases, I'm not sure there's an emulator that's truly usable in practice, like for those who want to experiment a bit with SGI IRIX and period-appropriate software of the day without shelling out for an actual SGI workstation. Take it from someone who was excited to haul home an SGI Octane for only $300, only for the PSU to go out and likely need to be replaced with another one for almost as much as the entire system ($250) because it's proprietary stuff, like almost everything else about it.

For IBM PC-compatible stuff, I actually keep a Pentium 4 EE 3.2 GHz/2 GB DDR-400/GeForce 6800 Ultra build around specifically to run Windows 98 SE natively, complete with an Aureal Vortex2 card for that sweet, sweet A3D. Win9x-era games are too new for DOSBox, and some of the ones I was targeting would be a stretch even for PCem and 86Box. It also happens to be a year-2004-appropriate Windows XP gaming build by complete accident, for a few rarer edge cases with games that don't like Vista and later.

For more recent PC games and software, note that I was using the same i7-4770K build I cobbled together in late 2013, with just a GTX 980 upgrade in late 2015, until this year due to a freebie 7700K and a cheap stopgap build, followed by $350 Micro Center 12700K/Z690 mobo bundle. It held its own in most games, but VR made it quickly apparent that the GTX 980 was more of a minimum requirement. Held up fine for 1080p60, even 120 Hz pancake gaming otherwise.

With that said, if you don't have a specific software compatibility/performance target in mind, there's some old hardware I would deem rather useless right now.

Case in point: my 2008 Mac Pro 3,1. It's an absolute space heater, a power guzzler, and the Penryn-era 3.2 GHz Xeons are simply too weak to handle a lot of modern tasks like simple 1080p60 video capture, never mind all the hoops you have to jump through to get it to run any macOS version later than 10.11 and other Mac-specific jank like no boot screens without a UGA-compatible BIOS (UEFI uses GOP), outdated Boot Camp drivers for Windows, crap like that. Oh, and it doesn't actually make PowerPC-binary games run any better in practice despite being significantly faster than an MDD G4 dual 1.42 GHz such that any Rosetta overhead shouldn't be too much of a setback.

There's also a bunch of HPE ProLiant Gen8 servers at work that, despite ranging from Sandy Bridge to Haswell-era CPUs, don't even support UEFI boot mode, take a small eternity to boot, and are also space heaters like the aforementioned Mac Pro if not moreso. Enterprises actually value performance-per-watt greatly because it saves them big time on power and HVAC bills, and getting old decommissioned enterprise gear for homelabbing ESXi, Proxmox, TrueNAS, etc. will quickly show you why. (Now if consumer platforms just had ECC support as a rule; it's a bit of a crapshoot on Ryzen, and Intel just wants you to either pay the Xeon tax or buy an unobtanium W680 mobo for Alder/Raptor Lake.)

Also, because of the aforementioned Micro Center bundles, anything prior to Alder Lake or Zen 3 is, to put it simply, a bad buy unless you're getting the old stuff for next to nothing.

 

[Susquehannock]

Of course. My PC is mostly 11 years old (aside from the GPU) and it still runs everything I've ever thrown at it. Plays all my games smooth from F.E.A.R. to Dying Light to Red Dead 2.

^^ that. I use thirteen year old Dell T3500 and T5500 systems (see signature) that I got for free and they are still quite relevant. Internet, movies, gaming, video editing, whatever.
And that does not include the AGP based retro gaming systems in the other room.