How do you store your "parts"

[Ih8reno]

Just doing a cleaning of my spare parts and unused systems and I thought it would be fun to see just how everyone cares for the maintenance and upkeep of their macs. I have an entire closet filled with older Macs, software, parts etc. everything is carefully packed away for somewhat easy access.

 

[Gamer9430]

Damn, that closet is a heaven. Currently, I have stuff at the top of my closet (no pic since I'm not home) buy I've ran out of room, so I plan to put some stuff on display in the basement when it's done being redone. Because of that, some stuff that I previously had in there, like my eMac, had to be taken out, so currently my room's floor is a dumping ground for my collection

 

[bunnspecial]

Mine is in what might otherwise be known as a "disaster zone."

As many of you all know, I am also a watchmaker. I grabbed a very nice 1920s Rosenberg Watchmaker's bench out of a lab at school that was waiting to go to surplus(Rosenberg was the name in watch benches at one time). My intention was to use it at my apartment for watch work(my main bench is still at my parent's house). Before I dug up enough spare tools to stock it, it slowly got repurposed to store computer parts. It's actually sort of ideal for this(although I'd rather have it to do watch work). There are about a dozen drawers down the right side, gradually getting deeper as you work down the bench. The four hold memory, sorted by type(EDO FPM 168 pin DIMMs, 30 and 72 pin SIMMS all in one drawer, 168 pin SDRAM in the second drawer, DDR-1 the next down, and then DDR 2). I've gone through and bagged the SDRAM by speed and type, as it was a mess, but the others have a small enough amount in them that I can just toss everything together. Moving on down, I have a drawer for video cards, another of miscellaneous parts, then the bottom three have hard drives sorted by type. The top of it has-literally-all kinds of parts that with no semblance of order. There are several unsorted DIMMs, a bunch of video cards(including a rare Radius Precision Pro XP Nubus card), some hard drives, shotgun shells, other random ammunition for which I don't have any other use, a couple of empty "collectible" ammo boxes, an 1850s Seth Thomas Ogee clock(that still keeps time when I remember to wind it-it runs about 30 hours on one wind), and a 1940s Zenith AM/FM radio(I use the radio fairly often).

I have chest of drawers with two drawers dedicated to cloths, one drawer dedicated to miscellaneous cables, and two more dedicated to various larger parts. I have things like optical drives, power supplies, and Powermac case parts stashed here.

My closet has the floor lined with MDD G4s(seriously) along with some boxes of various types of cables that are somewhat organized(i.e. a box for ADB cables, another for ethernet, yet another for Appletalk stuff). The right side of the closet has a few empty boxes, including a G5 box, an Xserve Box, and an MDD box. Since I also reload ammunition, the bottom floor of the closet has boxed/bagged component bullets, one of the higher shelves holds 1lb cans of powder, and the very top shelf holds a couple of 8lb powder kegs along with a few other odds and ends like a broken oscilloscope .

My computer desk has a lot of my reloading equipment, but a cabinet in the top part has about 10 hard drives stacked in it.

I have computers in about every hidey-hole I can find, not to mention assorted monitors(mostly flat panels, thankfully) and other peripherals.

 

[Gamer9430]

Mine is in what might otherwise be known as a "disaster zone."

As many of you all know, I am also a watchmaker. I grabbed a very nice 1920s Rosenberg Watchmaker's bench out of a lab at school that was waiting to go to surplus(Rosenberg was the name in watch benches at one time). My intention was to use it at my apartment for watch work(my main bench is still at my parent's house). Before I dug up enough spare tools to stock it, it slowly got repurposed to store computer parts. It's actually sort of ideal for this(although I'd rather have it to do watch work). There are about a dozen drawers down the right side, gradually getting deeper as you work down the bench. The four hold memory, sorted by type(EDO FPM 168 pin DIMMs, 30 and 72 pin SIMMS all in one drawer, 168 pin SDRAM in the second drawer, DDR-1 the next down, and then DDR 2). I've gone through and bagged the SDRAM by speed and type, as it was a mess, but the others have a small enough amount in them that I can just toss everything together. Moving on down, I have a drawer for video cards, another of miscellaneous parts, then the bottom three have hard drives sorted by type. The top of it has-literally-all kinds of parts that with no semblance of order. There are several unsorted DIMMs, a bunch of video cards(including a rare Radius Precision Pro XP Nubus card), some hard drives, shotgun shells, other random ammunition for which I don't have any other use, a couple of empty "collectible" ammo boxes, a Seth Thomas Ogee clock, and a 1940s Zenith AM/FM radio(I use the radio fairly often).

I have chest of drawers with two drawers dedicated to cloths, one drawer dedicated to miscellaneous cables, and two more dedicated to various larger parts. I have things like optical drives, power supplies, and Powermac case parts stashed here.

My closet has the floor lined with MDD G4s(seriously) along with some boxes of various types of cables that are somewhat organized(i.e. a box for ADB cables, another for ethernet, yet another for Appletalk stuff). The right side of the closet has a few empty boxes, including a G5 box, an Xserve Box, and an MDD box. Since I also reload ammunition, the bottom floor of the closet has boxed/bagged component bullets, one of the higher shelves holds 1lb cans of powder, and the very top shelf holds a couple of 8lb powder kegs along with a few other odds and ends like a broken oscilloscope .

My computer desk has a lot of my reloading equipment, but a cabinet in the top part has about 10 hard drives stacked in it.

I have computers in about every hidey-hole I can find, not to mention assorted monitors(mostly flat panels, thankfully) and other peripherals.

I was wondering how you stored 50 computers in an apartment, lol. I really should organize the stuff I have into boxes and drawers like you have so I don't need to rip them apart finding a small part or something.

I think the better question here is if anyone is worried about theft or your computers getting stolen?

 

[jbarley]

I think the better question here is if anyone is worried about theft or your computers getting stolen?

Good question, considering the average "crackhead" low-life thief would not know that the 5 or 6 laptops on my desk have virtually no value on the street once it became known what they were, so they'd probably get tossed and then we'd all be losers.

 

[2984839]

I store them stuffed tightly in jumbled pile in a cabinet. I am afraid to open it.

 

[bunnspecial]

I was wondering how you stored 50 computers in an apartment, lol. I really should organize the stuff I have into boxes and drawers like you have so I don't need to rip them apart finding a small part or something.

I think the better question here is if anyone is worried about theft or your computers getting stolen?

I don't have all 50 PPC Macs in my apartment-one is at work, and I have nine at my parent's house at the moment(although they'd like for me to reduce that number dramatically).

I do have them stashed everywhere in the apartment, though. One corner has a stack of three beige boxes(two G3s and a 7100). There two Macs and a PC that sit directly behind my desk chair. One wall is lined with G4 towers. There's a B&W, a G4, and an iMac at the foot of my bed, along with the original CRT for the B&W. Another corner has a couple of G4s stacked in it. I have two G3 minitowers stacked next to the watch bench, right next to where the closet door opens. My "hotrod" Quicksilver sits on the floor in front of the chest of drawers next to a 22" Cinema Display. I also keep a Cube power supply nearby there so I can hook up a Cube if I want it. My "home" G5 sits on the floor next to my desk, and there's a Cube sitting on top of it. I have a couple of dead CRTs and stripped-out G4 cases that I need to take for recycling. One(large) landing has a stack of System X rackmount servers along with my "hotrod" B&W, one of my better Quicksilvers that never gets used, my 8600, and 7350 WGS. Another closet upstairs has a B&W and a Quicksilver stuck in the corner.

At least for the computers, I try to keep the occasionally used ones in such a location where I can get to them if I need/want to. All of my PCI-based OWR Macs have video cards with VGA out, so I keep flatpanels hooked up to them all the time without taking too much room. The 22" Cinema gets presses into use if I need to hook up a G4 quickly(I also keep an A1006 nearby so I can hook it up to anything with DVI out).

Laptops don't take up much room and I rotate through most of them pretty frequently, so they get stacked in whatever convenient out-of-the-way place I can find.

My room mate is moving out at the end of the summer, and I'm hoping I'll be able to afford to keep the entire apartment to myself(I think I'll be able to). If everything plays out the way I want it to, I'm going to move most of the computers up to his bedroom where I can hopefully leave them more accessible and a little bit more permanently set up.

 

[Gamer9430]

I don't have all 50 PPC Macs in my apartment-one is at work, and I have nine at my parent's house at the moment(although they'd like for me to reduce that number dramatically).



I do have them stashed everywhere in the apartment, though. One corner has a stack of three beige boxes(two G3s and a 7100). There two Macs and a PC that sit directly behind my desk chair. One wall is lined with G4 towers. There's a B&W, a G4, and an iMac at the foot of my bed, along with the original CRT for the B&W. Another corner has a couple of G4s stacked in it. I have two G3 minitowers stacked next to the watch bench, right next to where the closet door opens. My "hotrod" Quicksilver sits on the floor in front of the chest of drawers next to a 22" Cinema Display. I also keep a Cube power supply nearby there so I can hook up a Cube if I want it. My "home" G5 sits on the floor next to my desk, and there's a Cube sitting on top of it. I have a couple of dead CRTs and stripped-out G4 cases that I need to take for recycling. One(large) landing has a stack of System X rackmount servers along with my "hotrod" B&W, one of my better Quicksilvers that never gets used, my 8600, and 7350 WGS. Another closet upstairs has a B&W and a Quicksilver stuck in the corner.



At least for the computers, I try to keep the occasionally used ones in such a location where I can get to them if I need/want to. All of my PCI-based OWR Macs have video cards with VGA out, so I keep flatpanels hooked up to them all the time without taking too much room. The 22" Cinema gets presses into use if I need to hook up a G4 quickly(I also keep an A1006 nearby so I can hook it up to anything with DVI out).



Laptops don't take up much room and I rotate through most of them pretty frequently, so they get stacked in whatever convenient out-of-the-way place I can find.



My room mate is moving out at the end of the summer, and I'm hoping I'll be able to afford to keep the entire apartment to myself(I think I'll be able to). If everything plays out the way I want it to, I'm going to move most of the computers up to his bedroom where I can hopefully leave them more accessible and a little bit more permanently set up.

Does your room mate mind your abundance of computers?

 

[bunnspecial]

Does your room mate mind your abundance of computers?

He actually doesn't mind...for the most part. I gave him a Quicksilver, which placated him somewhat . He's into computers also, but lately has been on a kick about building low energy stuff(with AMD processors ) as well as Rasberry Pis.. In any case, when I brought up the rackmounts, he was the one that encouraged me to grab all of them. When there were 40 monitors lined up to go to surplus, he begged me to grab some for him too.

So, I think I keep him from complaining too much as long as I toss him an occasional bone . His girlfriend is also a computer programmer, so enjoys playing with some of the weird stuff I come up with.

The funny thing is that he's actually sort of anti-Mac now, even though he was the one who got me hooked in the first place. When my last Windows laptop died on my suddenly(quite literally while I was in the middle of a Powerpoint slide) he offered to let me borrow his since retired aluminum Macbook to finish up my presentation. I used it for a week and a half, then went out and bought my Macbook Pro the day after I'd passed my presentation.

 

[128keaton]

He actually doesn't mind...for the most part. I gave him a Quicksilver, which placated him somewhat . He's into computers also, but lately has been on a kick about building low energy stuff(with AMD processors ) as well as Rasberry Pis.. In any case, when I brought up the rackmounts, he was the one that encouraged me to grab all of them. When there were 40 monitors lined up to go to surplus, he begged me to grab some for him too.

So, I think I keep him from complaining too much as long as I toss him an occasional bone . His girlfriend is also a computer programmer, so enjoys playing with some of the weird stuff I come up with.

The funny thing is that he's actually sort of anti-Mac now, even though he was the one who got me hooked in the first place. When my last Windows laptop died on my suddenly(quite literally while I was in the middle of a Powerpoint slide) he offered to let me borrow his since retired aluminum Macbook to finish up my presentation. I used it for a week and a half, then went out and bought my Macbook Pro the day after I'd passed my presentation.

Wow, you sound like a great roomie, and tell your friend nice job getting a real girlfriend, not those fake 'geek' ones. I have a friend like you, crazy supply of parts and general electronics, grabs stuff from surpluses and whatnot. I too beg him for stuff. He just got a stellar Mac Mini.

 

[Gamer9430]

Wow, you sound like a great roomie, and tell your friend nice job getting a real girlfriend, not those fake 'geek' ones. I have a friend like you, crazy supply of parts and general electronics, grabs stuff from surpluses and whatnot. I too beg him for stuff. He just got a stellar Mac Mini.

And stellar it was... It was a great score by him, lol

 

[128keaton]

For those who don't know, me, my buddy, gavin and Gamer are in an iMessage group, we have roughly 100 photos since the middle of last year of anything worth mentioning. Its really great for fast trouble shooting.

 

[Gamer9430]

For those who don't know, me, my buddy, gavin and Gamer are in an iMessage group, we have roughly 100 photos since the middle of last year of anything worth mentioning. Its really great for fast trouble shooting.

yes, we are all in a group chat. Altemose used to be in the chat, but he has since requested not to be in it because of how much Keaton, his friend, and I text in it and the notifications got annoying, and believe me, I don't blame him for leaving, we text A LOT, lol.

 

[Ih8reno]

yes, we are all in a group chat. Altemose used to be in the chat, but he has since requested not to be in it because of how much Keaton, his friend, and I text in it and the notifications got annoying, and believe me, I don't blame him for leaving, we text A LOT, lol.

So you share pics of your newly acquired items?

 

[Gamer9430]

So you share pics of your newly acquired items?

You better believe it, lol. The second I hear about something I'm getting, I tell them, then take 10 pictures, which I'm sure gets annoying, hahaha. But we mostly use the chat to just tell each other about stuff that we're up to, if we need some tech support, general topics, and for me to report Minecraft server issues to Keaton, like when it's down or when we got damage thanks to some s$@t-heads who couldn't control themselves. I feel like we've become great friends because of that chat because of how much we socialize in it.

 

[Ih8reno]

That's great. I'm a bit of an oddity over here with my Mac interest (well interest in new and old technology) so this site is the only access I get to others bitten with the same bug.

You better believe it, lol. The second I hear about something I'm getting, I tell them, then take 10 pictures, which I'm sure gets annoying, hahaha. But we mostly use the chat to just tell each other about stuff that we're up to, if we need some tech support, general topics, and for me to report Minecraft server issues to Keaton, like when it's down or when we got damage thanks to some s$@t-heads who couldn't control themselves. I feel like we've become great friends because of that chat because of how much we socialize in it.

 

[Gamer9430]

That's great. I'm a bit of an oddity over here with my Mac interest (well interest in new and old technology) so this site is the only access I get to others bitten with the same bug.

It's not that odd of an interest. I just tell everyone who questions my collecting habits that one day they will be worth some money and when i somehow become poor, I'll sell them.

 

[Ih8reno]

It's not that odd of an interest. I just tell everyone who questions my collecting habits that one day they will be worth some money and when i somehow become poor, I'll sell them.

Yeah, I've bought and sold some systems myself to get the collection I've wanted.

 

[bunnspecial]

I never view collecting as a money-making proposition. Let's be honest too that our Macs(at least the ones I'm collecting) aren't worth that much now and probably have yet to bottom out in the value curve.

My watches are a little bit of a different story, as I do frequently make purchases with an eye toward turning a profit on them to fund other purchases. Overall, though, I'm in the hole.

 

[Gamer9430]

I never view collecting as a money-making proposition. Let's be honest too that our Macs(at least the ones I'm collecting) aren't worth that much now and probably have yet to bottom out in the value curve.



My watches are a little bit of a different story, as I do frequently make purchases with an eye toward turning a profit on them to fund other purchases. Overall, though, I'm in the hole.

Well, I collect because I enjoy them. The part about selling them is more of a fall back in case I ever run out of funds. Some ill gladly sell, but others, like my 512ke, G5, and whatever rarer and useable computers come my way, I'll hold on to for as long as I can, and make sure they work for as long as possible. I have to make sure that 512ke is around for the 40th anniversary, even the 50th. By then it will be impossible to fix unless we invent 3D printing capable of printing metal and electrical parts, or better yet a time machine to go and buy the parts new in the 80s!

Me and my wild fantasies...

 

[bunnspecial]

For anyone interested, here are some photos of(part) of my disaster of an accumulation.

I also have to show the bullet stash stacked on top of a G5 box, and my powder stash. If anyone else here is into reloading, you might notice some rare items in there . I actually bought the two cans of Bullseye last week-the first I'd seen for sale in about two years. I have about a pound and a half of Unique on the shelf, plus most of an 8lb keg on the shelf above. I have a case(10 cans) of PB on the floor that I picked up last fall because of its imminent discontinuation.

 

[eyoungren]

For anyone interested, here are some photos of(part) of my disaster of an accumulation.

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I also have to show the bullet stash stacked on top of a G5 box, and my powder stash. If anyone else here is into reloading, you might notice some rare items in there . I actually bought the two cans of Bullseye last week-the first I'd seen for sale in about two years. I have about a pound and a half of Unique on the shelf, plus most of an 8lb keg on the shelf above. I have a case(10 cans) of PB on the floor that I picked up last fall because of its imminent discontinuation.

Image

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Looks a bit like my garage – only you are more organized.

Interested to know…since you collect watches and Macs. Will you be collecting the Apple Watch (buying/selling/trading)? Or is that something that's too new?

 

[bunnspecial]

Looks a bit like my garage – only you are more organized.

Interested to know…since you collect watches and Macs. Will you be collecting the Apple Watch (buying/selling/trading)? Or is that something that's too new?

I'm going back and forth on the Apple Watch. It's much too new for my collection.

I rarely even wear a wristwatch, although I have a 1950s Longines on my wrist at the moment. My parents are also giving me a 1980s Datejust for graduation(two tone bracelet with a champaign dial-the only Rolex I actually like ) and it will likely get worn practically daily. Aside from that, I'm curious about the Apple watch, but can't stand the look of the low end ones(to the point where I wouldn't be caught dead wearing one) and the higher end ones are too expensive for what-at best-would be a curiosity for me.

Even the '80s Rolex is pushing the bounds of what I consider too new(although, as a gift-and a significant one at that-I certainly will wear it a LOT), but then I often consider anything made in the 20th century too new for my taste

 

[eyoungren]

I'm going back and forth on the Apple Watch. It's much too new for my collection.

I rarely even wear a wristwatch, although I have a 1950s Longines on my wrist at the moment. My parents are also giving me a 1980s Datejust for graduation(two tone bracelet with a champaign dial-the only Rolex I actually like ) and it will likely get worn practically daily. Aside from that, I'm curious about the Apple watch, but can't stand the look of the low end ones(to the point where I wouldn't be caught dead wearing one) and the higher end ones are too expensive for what-at best-would be a curiosity for me.

Even the '80s Rolex is pushing the bounds of what I consider too new(although, as a gift-and a significant one at that-I certainly will wear it a LOT), but then I often consider anything made in the 20th century too new for my taste

I have a SEIKO Kinetic that I bought when I was 26 or 27. It's the only one I've ever seen with that particular face. Anytime I do a Google search for it all I ever find is something that has the model number it does but does not look the same. Aluminum and gold plated about $150 on sale.

Not expensive (although it was to me at the time) and certainly not a sought after item, but I do like it a lot. Unfortunately, I was much thinner then and now I need to get off my lazy butt and have a jeweler add links back so I can wear it again.

Maybe I'll take a pic tonight.

 

[iModFrenzy]

yes, we are all in a group chat. Altemose used to be in the chat, but he has since requested not to be in it because of how much Keaton, his friend, and I text in it and the notifications got annoying, and believe me, I don't blame him for leaving, we text A LOT, lol.

Would love to be apart of that, only got imessage on my new mac though.

Gamer, you have steam?