# What's your oldest piece of computer equipment
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-oldest-piece-of-computer-equipment/425852
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [November 9, 2007, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-oldest-piece-of-computer-equipment/425852 "2007-11-09T23:58:55Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Fugazi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fugazi)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2007, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-oldest-piece-of-computer-equipment/425852/1 "2007-11-09T23:58:55Z")
That you still use.
I got a new computer recently. My daughter got my old one. I did a complete wipe and reinstall of XP.
So I’m searching the internet looking for drivers for the TV card in it. A Hauppauge WinTV card. Which got me to thinking, “no wonder I’m having trouble finding drivers for this, I bought it back in '99”. Still works pretty good too, once I tracked down the drivers.
Definitely the oldest thing that I still have in use.
How about you?
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### Author:  [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2007, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-oldest-piece-of-computer-equipment/425852/2 "2007-11-10T00:07:31Z")
Do speakers count? I have a set with “Gateway 2000” stamped on the front. They came with my second PC, back in '95 or so.
Up until a few months ago, I was still using the Compaq iPaq I purchased in August 2000. It still works, but the battery won’t hold a charge, and the software is out of date.
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### Author:  [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2007, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-oldest-piece-of-computer-equipment/425852/3 "2007-11-10T00:16:47Z")
My keyboard is from 1985.
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### Author:  [@Dunawake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunawake)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2007, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-oldest-piece-of-computer-equipment/425852/4 "2007-11-10T00:18:26Z")
I still have my Dual 800MHz Mac G4 tower I bought at the beginning of college. That would be from around Sept. 2001. I finally replaced it with a new Mac Mini last month.
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### Author:  [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2007, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-oldest-piece-of-computer-equipment/425852/5 "2007-11-10T00:36:29Z")
I still use my Apple II monitor for a TV (granted, my bedroom TV and not my primary device). Bought November 1984.
Brian
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### Author:  [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2007, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-oldest-piece-of-computer-equipment/425852/6 "2007-11-10T00:50:24Z")
My sound card is from 1998.
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2007, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-oldest-piece-of-computer-equipment/425852/7 "2007-11-10T01:16:55Z")
Has to be my HP 1215 PhotoSmart printer. Don’t remember when I bought it.
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### Author:  [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2007, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-oldest-piece-of-computer-equipment/425852/8 "2007-11-10T01:35:06Z")
Until this summer, my work computer (I do Web design) was an Optiplex GX1. The processor, RAM and drives are all new but only one mobo was ever going to fit in that case and that’s the mobo I used (was able to upgrade the CPU with a [Powerleap](http://www.powerleap.com/).
According to Dell’s site, the Optiplex GX1 was released in 1999. I say that’s pretty f’n impressive for anything that old to still be part of a daily heavy-use machine.
Right now it’s sitting next to me, and gets used every other Friday when my co-worker works here with me.
Actually now that I think of it I think I got my HP Pavillion in 1998, and its mobo is in use in a machine I built for my cousin…and the monitor is the one I’m using right now.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2007, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-oldest-piece-of-computer-equipment/425852/9 "2007-11-10T01:56:33Z")
I’ve got an old Sharp 386-based laptop (the first production laptop with a colour screen) - it has a massive 80mb hard drive and runs Windows 3.1. I’m thinking about using it for an automation project.
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### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2007, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-oldest-piece-of-computer-equipment/425852/10 "2007-11-10T02:13:32Z")
My floppy drive is still the same one I got with my very first computer I purchased with my own money, back in 1996.
However, I don’t think I’ve actually used it in three or four years, even though it’s installed and hooked up. Floppy disks just don’t figure in my life that much any more.
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### Author:  [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2007, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-oldest-piece-of-computer-equipment/425852/11 "2007-11-10T02:20:44Z")
The “…and actually use” stipulation is the kicker. Otherwise, I would mention my ZX81 that I bought in 1983. 🙂
Still in use…? Probably my scanner, which is about four years old. Competing with it are the hard drives out of my old PC, the rest of which is a husk on the floor.
I _do_ have a PowerMac 8100/80 system from 1995 or so, which I sometimes turn on. It still works, but I need to hook it up to the net, which means I have to get a router/firewall and stuff.
And I only retired my Amiga monitor when I got my flatscreen, a year and a half ago.
If you count calculators, I still have the Commodore calculator that I had in Grade 11. 🙂
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### Author:  [@LH75](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LH75)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2007, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-oldest-piece-of-computer-equipment/425852/12 "2007-11-10T02:30:12Z")
I have an IBM Thinkpad 770 laptop that I use for a business application.
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### Author:  [@Bobotheoptimist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bobotheoptimist)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2007, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-oldest-piece-of-computer-equipment/425852/13 "2007-11-10T02:33:39Z")
My kids computers speaker/subwoofer is from 1994.
The computer has had the motherboard/mem/processors changed 3 or 4 times, and the case, drives & power a couple, but it’s still the same computer from 1998.
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### Author:  [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2007, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-oldest-piece-of-computer-equipment/425852/14 "2007-11-10T03:05:06Z")
The floppy drive in my main PC was a 3.5" add-in to my old XT clone. So that dates to about 1990ish.
(I have kept the parts to the XT and drag them out from time to time for funsies.)
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### Author:  [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2007, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-oldest-piece-of-computer-equipment/425852/15 "2007-11-10T03:33:37Z")
a) I am typing this on one of about 4 or 5 genuine “Saratoga” [Apple Extended Keyboards](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Extended_Keyboard) that I own. Vintage 1990-92.
b) I boot my WallStreet PowerBook (G3 Series '98) several times a month, sometimes to scan stuff (hmm, see entry below), sometimes for other purposes. It’s been mine since '99
c) The scanner is a [Umax UC-630](http://www.rainbow-software.org/images/hardware/uc630_.jpg) SCSI 3-pass RGB flatbed. There are no OSX drivers for it so that’s one of the things I switch to the WallStreet for. Vintage 1995.
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### Author:  [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2007, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-oldest-piece-of-computer-equipment/425852/16 "2007-11-10T03:53:20Z")
I still have/use the oversized pencil I had in Kindergarten. Almost 40 years old now.
I no longer use my brain, or that would get the prize.
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### Author:  [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2007, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-oldest-piece-of-computer-equipment/425852/17 "2007-11-10T04:11:02Z")
I guess it would be the floppy drive from the 1998 Sony Vaio minitower, our first computer, and the Lexmark Z51 printer from the same time.
Before I saw that the OP asked “…that you still use…” I was all set to tell you about my Atari 400, with the tape drive. It still works, but I can’t figure out for the life of me why I’d ever turn it on again.
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### Author:  [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2007, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-oldest-piece-of-computer-equipment/425852/18 "2007-11-10T04:21:25Z")
Do cables count? I still use a parallel port cable back from 1991 or so, since it is about 24 feet long…impossible to find nowadays.
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### Author:  [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2007, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-oldest-piece-of-computer-equipment/425852/19 "2007-11-10T05:27:01Z")
My computer was originally bought in 1998 for my first year at college. I’ve since built and rebuilt it a few times. The only original parts are a CD burner, a broken 3.5 inch floppy, one of the hard drives, and some of the cables from the innards. Everything else has been replaced at least once.
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### Author:  [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2007, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-oldest-piece-of-computer-equipment/425852/20 "2007-11-10T05:30:07Z")
[QUOTE=GuanoLad]
However, I don’t think I’ve actually used it in three or four years, even though it’s installed and hooked up. Floppy disks just don’t figure in my life that much any more.
[/QUOTE]
I wouldn’t be surprised if it doesn’t work any more. Years of dust being sucked though it and not being in regular use seem to kill them.
One thing I’ve learned, when you get a new computer, put tape over anything you won’t use often (card slots, front USB ports, floppy drives) but still may want to use. It helps keep them from getting clogged with dust.
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