Some E Waste FYI

I was going to put this in the computer section but the subject has become so pointed that I think everyone should at least be aware of it. To my fellow buyers, I am not suggesting a chicken little the sky is falling scenario.

First, I've been making LARGE lot purchases throughout the year of more than scrap value computer components and I am noticing the time of dual cores is coming to a close. Let me enlighten you guys to what I am seeing.

1. So many people are selling even SUB 70 dollar windows 7 dual core systems on craigslist, local adverts and even computer shops are doing systems with keyboards and mice, monitors and win 7 that someone like myself has to focus on the next stage and leave dual cores alone.

2. Prices are falling to sub $5 each for even 8400/8500 core 2 duo chips. We knew this would happen, as core 2 quads started hitting the scrap stream along with early H1 (first gen) i series that core 2 would falter...after all, why buy a chip for 10 bucks if your board can take a core 2 quad for $20?

3. Good news is that vintage machine sales are growing. I am watching this, compiling a list and hopefully a FAQ for the forum of what to be looking for and why it's such a hit with enthusiasts. I am an active overclocking competitor where every few months a group is given a particular series of processor to use in overclocking to the limits...it's fun, it's electronics engineering at it's finest in some cases...and I generate some sales from this now and then.

4. Optiplex 745/755/760 and in some markets 780 machines are as good as dead. I've tried selling bulk lots with ram and hard drives for as low as $15 each...to no avail, there are just too many of them in my area.

5. Cell phones, tablets, e readers, video game systems. Guess what? this is next on my list. As you can imagine the e waste market runs about 5 to 8 years behind the retail electronics market...this doesn't have alot of merit to video game system resale BUT tablets and cell phones are disposed of at the frequency of contract renewel...almost every two years. Older android phones are an absolute hit for enthusiasts who pride themselves in jailbreaking and modding their phones. Keep this in mind before you toss a bulk lot of cell phones in a box.

6. Screens, LCD vs, monitors, laptops and more. I've been told doom and gloom is on the horizon for screens of all kinds...with the chinese no longer buying them. Well...if you can't retail screens for a couple bucks a piece your doing it wrong anyways. I recap screens I think are worth the time and/or sell systems with a free screen.

7. Motherboards: Stop throwing away high value boards. If your about to chuck a i series 1155/1156 board and you didn't at least check it for blown caps...you might be losing money. AM3 boards? Same thing...and gaming boards with TWO PCIe x16 slots...you really have to pay attention to your scrap loads and know what you are taking in.



I just have to say this. Train yourself to know what you are looking at. It's safe to say we throw away money here every day without realizing it but we are doing our best to close the margins.

Sad but true....high end dual core machines work well but they are becoming a hard sell

I always enjoy reading these threads. I do not understand it, but I have numerous computers that fill two gaylords. A third one is about 1/4 full. Someday I want to tackle this part of scrapping. Most of these computers are least 15 years old. Live and learn.

I ran technical preview on several standard optiplexes, G35/G41 chipset nobilis rigs and a few other things...I'm of the camp what with the additional user friendly features people have come to expect from windows and android that a dual core machine will NOT be sufficient in any respect. Microsoft SAYS the minimum specifications for Windows 10 wil be 1Ghz proc, 2GB ram, 16GB hard drive space etc...the preview was still directX 9, requiring many features to be disabled. This minimum spec is to accomodate tablets, phones and other devices. The PC specification is expected to be a multithreaded dual core of 2Ghz or higher (four threads total of 8Ghz) and 3GB ram minimum, 48GB of HDD space and possibility of disabled features if the machine is not DX10 capable, which, most optiplex 755/760/780 and like machines of other brands are not. Point is, upgrading to 10 may not be feasible for many currently operating machines. Many people will do the upgrade, realize the machine is not cutting the mustard and our market is FURTHER saturated. I guess what I am saying to you all is plan to phase out your core 2 duo machines fairly soon, I expect the windows 10 push to crush whats left of the dual core market.

Ohh and I wanted to touch on one subject. Retail sales. Tablet sales over the 2013 and 2014 holidays were beat by PCs (laptops and desktops) two years in a row according to new egg and best buy. New egg says theyve sold more desktops in the last two years than theyve sold the five years prior. Dell claims their business sales on smaller machines (SFF) are up over all other form factors. Dell also says Latitude and Inspiron sales are up. Best buy claims the surface pro is outselling the ipad and that lenovos and dells are the hottest selling laptops. Do I think our future is bleak? Nope, not at all. Desktops will always have a place and quite frankly, all in one sales are a good thing, Most are aluminum cases (due to thermal and rigidity reasons) most use laptop type motherboards (also good) and most use either an on board power supply with a nice large aluminum heatsink or a large all copper heatsink. Reselling the standalone 150W power bricks HP uses is always a winner, people trip over, fray and break them all the time.

Other things I am noticing is the LARGE form factor tablets, that is tablets larger than 12 inches. AKA laptops without a keyboard. These are the trend, tablets with horsepower. As for desktops, enthusiast market is millions strong, if anything it will make the scrap market for desktops even better years from now because more and more machines will be gaming oriented.

Originally Posted by Scrappah

On the one hand the buying public is fascinated with bright and shiny new features but on the other hand at what point does it become so complicated that people become helplessly confused by it all. Something as simple as removing the start feature on win 8 really annoyed folks. ( Supposedly it's back for 10 ? )

I dunno.

On that note a little side story.
I have a cheapo work phone (straighttalk by Walmart) that I turn off at night and whenever I don't feel like answering because some tweeker needs a desperate fix and wants me to buy his stuff for a few bucks at 10.30 saturday nights or 6.30 sunday morning, which both has happened).

Anyway.... My old one wasn't even a smart phone, so I went to Wallyworld thinking of upgrading to the cheapest Droid.... Expected to spend $80 was hoping for 60 and ended up getting one for $30!!!!
Works like a charm. Everything I need for my biz for $45 a month and a one time cost of $30.
My buddy who needs to 'upgrade' too and was thinking of a iPhone saw it today and was impressed.
Unless you run some super fancy apps or browse the web all day long on it this thing does everything he wants and needs.
Hardly anybody 'needs' the new shiny and fancy stuff. It's all a gimmick!
But let's hope people keep buying into it, so we get their discards a few years later

I have some 745s in, still. With Windows 7 on them, I can't break the $100 mark. Once mine are gone, I'm done with them.

As for CPUs, I finally took the plunge and am building a nicer office system. I went AMD, because of Intel motherboard costs. Don't scrap the LGA 1155 motherboards- the CPUs are relatively cheap, but the motherboards are over $75 minimum.

The lowest CPU that I pay decently for is the Q6600. If it's below that, it's not going to be too hot.

Originally Posted by ChildhoodDream

I'm not real knowledgeable on computer things, but I do have a idea of many areas of that concept from bits of information that I read and such.

I wanted to ask if those duel core computers are what the gamers use for arcade builds and such.

If I'm way off base,
then as Miss Emily Latella would say:

never mind...

In a word..NO. Enthusiast machines are quad core with large cache per core...this if it as the engine...and to run high end gaming systems it needs to be a Ferrari.

2015 Gaming system would be the following (gets you in the game pretty well)

i5 "devils canyon edition" - quad core 3.5 ghz ....or even an i7 quad core
32GB gaming high speed ram
SSD drive and a regular data drive
750-1K watt certified power supply
high end motherboard with all USB 3.0
Geforce GTX 980 (ie one bad ass video card)

most people would par this with a dual or triple monitor setup
trust me, this is a GODZILLA stomping monstrosity...and can be had for about $1600 retail

I have been running a quad core with a pared down version of the above for about 2 yrs...but then again I build mine from scratch....and when I build them they will last because of the quality of components I put into them...I also do some graphic design and a number of other things, so it is money well spent for me....the average user (non gamer) need no where near even what I have.

And yes, I know that might sound like alot of Greek...but it isn't too hard once someone shows you what components are what and really what they do...the rest is just a small learning curve.

I'm not a gamer, but my system would be a basic gaming rig.

AMD FX-4300 (High end Quad Core)
8GB RAM (Many Core 2 Duos won't run this)

Throw in a GTX660, and you have a basic rig that could play GTA V or similar games.

A Core 2 Duo would be at more at home with GTA IV, which was released around 2008 if I remember correctly. Core 2 Duos are available on eBay for less than $100. They're a good machine to check E-Mails and do the basics- a student or home office PC if you will. But, the prices are getting to the point where there isn't much profit in them. I'll sell off what I have, as I'll still do well on them. But, they'll be the last batch. An early i5 or even i7 isn't much pricier, and is a much, much nicer machine.

I'm running an AMD FX 9590 (8 cores) and the office computer (the one I am on now) is an all scrap build. Q9550, 8GB DDR3, Q41 Intel board, Nvidia 560Ti, HP 545W workstation power supply shoehorned in (they are in my opinion the best most stable power supplies you can get in your scrap stream). I ran technical preview in dual boot on this particular machine...it's snappy, thanks in no small part to the gigantic 500GB SSD (250GBx2 Array). I think the last generation of Core2duos will be alright at the onset, when loaded up with 8GB and the fastest hard drive you can get (Most cases an SSD).

Anyways, the point is the dual cores look to be going dodo soon, plan for it.

My old office PC is just a 2.66 GHz Core 2 Duo on 8.1. It does the job, but I agree that they're on the way out.

If I had that graphics card and 8GB of RAM in my work computer, I'd never get anything done!

I'd also say that the 775 Xeons are on the way out, too. I'm not knowledgeable enough on the AMD Opterons to know much there.

Interesting thread ! E-waste is challenging because the landscape keeps changing every few months. Today's "better than scrap" item will be obsolete in a few months so you have to keep the stuff moving through the shop.

There might be a pattern here. You might say that there's a market for the latest generation of a thing.There's a market for the second most recent generation. Beyond that .... the tech is obsolete and goes straight to scrap.

If the pattern holds:

The debut of the second generation of i-cores rendered the core 2 duo's obsolete.

The debut of SSD's rendered all SATA 2's (3GB/sec.) obsolete.

The debut of Win 10 will render all win 7 operating systems obsolete.

The most recent DDR3 memory renders all DDR2 memory obsolete.

As 4 gb memory chips become the standard all 1 gb chips will become obsolete.

Bottom line ...if you're focus is on "better than scrap" value you don't want to get too heavily invested in stock because you might get stuck holding the bag.

Exactly, though technically we're on the Third generation of the i-Series CPU. I think SATA hard drives will stay relevant, though- at least the larger ones. They don't make many 1TB or larger SSDs.... yet.

I'm interested in seeing how Windows 10 does. It'll either go over very well, or 7 will still be king.

As well as the core 2 market. DDR2 is drying up fast as well. Great post and I totally agree with it all.