What is the oldest piece of continually running hardware you currently use with your rig?

[windwhirl]

Dont know just how old it is but my sandisk cruzer mini 128 meg thumb drive. Use it several times weekly to store recipes.

I remember my uncle having a 16MB USB drive. That was like in 2003 or something.

Makes me wonder when we stopped using floppy disks for some tax filing... I remember back in 2011/2012 we had to carry floppies to the bank so that the teller could load some files to the computer and pay this tax. It was really annoying because the application that we had to use for it only allowed floppies, and we had to make one floppy for each client... It was "fun", though, carrying +30 floppies in a bag

 

[Ruru]

Makes me wonder when we stopped using floppy disks for some tax filing... I remember back in 2011/2012 we had to carry floppies to the bank so that the teller could load some files to the computer and pay this tax. It was really annoying because the application that we had to use for it only allowed floppies, and we had to make one floppy for each client... It was "fun", though, carrying +30 floppies in a bag

And that makes me wonder when I stopped putting a floppy drive in my rig.. probably 2006 and it was already just because aesthetetics. I had a 512MB USB drive already back then for school work etc.

 

[Space Lynx]

Belkin Desktop microphone I got in 2003 from walmart for like $8 still works and people say I sound just fine online. lol

 

[windwhirl]

Belkin Desktop microphone I got in 2003 from walmart for like $8 still works and people say I sound just fine online. lol

Thinking about it, mics don't really wear out much, do they? Aside from the cable due to handling over the years, of course...

 

[Jetster]

Remember, Oldest piece of continually running
as in still in use, I have some old hardware laying around but still in use is another story. It's still a C2Q9550 use it everyday

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

Probably my pumps now, how long do 18watt Laing DDC pumps typically last 20 years?.

They're 5 years old now I think maybe older.

 

[Space Lynx]

Remember, Oldest piece of continually running
as in still in use, I have some old hardware laying around but still in use is another story. It's still a C2Q9550 use it everyday

I still use that mic. Never had the want to buy a better one. /shrug

edit: it is rare that I use it, but I do use it sometimes when I need a mic. probably once every 6 months, I don't really talk much online, but yeah its nice that it has lasted me so long. I remember my mom got it for me same time she bought me a Compaq PC with big crt monitor bundles at wal-mart back in the day... those were the days. wish I had never got rid of that PC.

 

[stinger608]

Oldest era of hardware that I use is a 2003 era Alienware desktop system. Can't remember the exact specs but it's old.

Aside from that, I do fire up my old Packard Bell that has a 486 DX 100 running Windows 3.11 for work groups a couple of times a month. Not a daily system.........For obvious reasons. LOL

 

[biffzinker]

For obvious reasons. LOL

Is one of the obvious reasons the old HDD? Does it still have the original HDD?

 

[lexluthermiester]

And that makes me wonder when I stopped putting a floppy drive in my rig.. probably 2006 and it was already just because aesthetics.

For me that was 2014. I bought and still have a bootable USB floppy though, with a collection of floppy discs.

 

[stinger608]

Is one of the obvious reasons the old HDD? Does it still have the original HDD?

Yeah, it's a 410 meg (not gig LOL) hard drive. Hell, I can remember being able to install a ton of games on that size of drive. It was huge in it's day.

 

[djisas]

Hmm, I inherited, a couple years ago a french azerty Fujitsu Siemens laptot, it's massive and it comes with ATI radeon 9700 and an Athlon 64, last time i powered it up it still worked, on battery...
So, it's nearly 20 yo by now...

 

[Nuckles56]

The oldest items in my rig are the USB card reader which was recycled from an older HP prebuilt (~2010), the 2TB HDD and the 500GB Samsung 850 EVO from 2016, everything else is no more then 2 years old.

 

[s3thra]

And that makes me wonder when I stopped putting a floppy drive in my rig.. probably 2006 and it was already just because aesthetetics. I had a 512MB USB drive already back then for school work etc.

For me that was 2014. I bought and still have a bootable USB floppy though, with a collection of floppy discs.

For me I think it was 2009. I finally saved enough money that year to retire my old Northwood P4 system and build a new Phenom X4 9950 BE rig, sans floppy drive.

 

[300BaudBob]

Pair of Hitachi hds723015 hard drives nearing 9 years. Use them for archive data still or temp storage. Though most of the time they are not actually spinning .

 

[8BitZ80]

Hard drives can last for such a long time, much longer than they rightfully should. I've still got the 1TB WD Blue drive that now holds all my Steam game files, which was originally my OS drive going back to January 2014.

I was watching an old episode of the Computer Chronicles back when mechanical storage was overtaking floppy storage, and they had reservations when it came to the reliability of mechanical drives. As you would with something that uses bearings and motors and precision moving parts.

 

[stinger608]

Hard drives can last for such a long time, much longer than they rightfully should. I've still got the 1TB WD Blue drive that now holds all my Steam game files, which was originally my OS drive going back to January 2014.

I was watching an old episode of the Computer Chronicles back when mechanical storage was overtaking floppy storage, and they had reservations when it came to the reliability of mechanical drives. As you would with something that uses bearings and motors and precision moving parts.

I've still got an 80 gig Maxtor drive from the early 2000's that still works. It's an old IDE drive that was my main drive for about 5 years or so. Of course I don't use it anymore but it is still a good working drive. Amazing how long some older hardware has lasted.

Oh, and I love the avatar you have with the remade Gigabyte AORUS image.

 

[Mussels]

Oh yeah, i have a 32MB USB stick i use for BIOS flashing since its compatible with everything

 

[ThornRose]

A 320gb 2.5"spinning disk from a Toshiba 15" laptop. It's in a Xeon pc that's powered up but I pulled the video card, it's still going. Manufacture date is 2010. Also a Logitech G25 ffb steering wheel from about 2009.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Yeah, it's a 410 meg (not gig LOL) hard drive. Hell, I can remember being able to install a ton of games on that size of drive. It was huge in it's day.

True! I had a WD425MB drive that I used for several years because it was enough. IIRC, I upgraded to a 2GB model. Ah, good times.

 

[300BaudBob]

Hard drives can last for such a long time, much longer than they rightfully should. I've still got the 1TB WD Blue drive that now holds all my Steam game files, which was originally my OS drive going back to January 2014.

I was watching an old episode of the Computer Chronicles back when mechanical storage was overtaking floppy storage, and they had reservations when it came to the reliability of mechanical drives. As you would with something that uses bearings and motors and precision moving parts.

Hmm reservations about drives where the head floated above the surface (well until power off but that's what head parking software was for) vs. a system where the head is in physical contact with flexible plastic media ... Did they understand that? Not to mention hard drives had been around since the 50's. Of course floppies were a lot more reliable than cassette or paper tape.
But then I'm always suspicious of the bleeding edge so I understand their caution .

 

[Athlonite]

Yeah, it's a 410 meg (not gig LOL) hard drive. Hell, I can remember being able to install a ton of games on that size of drive. It was huge in it's day.

wow I just beat you in the storage size I've got an old Seagate 545MB pata drive which still runs as good as the day I bought it twice a year I take it over to a friends house who's into old PC's and plug it in and play tyrion

Hmm reservations about drives where the head floated above the surface (well until power off but that's what head parking software was for) vs. a system where the head is in physical contact with flexible plastic media ... Did they understand that? Not to mention hard drives had been around since the 50's. Of course floppies were a lot more reliable than cassette or paper tape.
But then I'm always suspicious of the bleeding edge so I understand their caution .

up until ten years ago I worked at a tannery which still used punch cards to run the recipes for the hyde drums it finally went poo and they replace it with a pentium 166 with MMX which is still going to this day so I believe

 

[rodneyhchef]

I just sold my Cambridge soundworks DTT 2200 5.1 surround system because I was given a Logitech z5500 setup

I also just retired a raid 10 array that I built when I had a Q6600/P45 system in around 2008. In all that time it only had one HDD failure under warranty

other than that I’m still running an i7-2600k that I bought in 2011. I can’t remember if my PSU is older or newer than the 2600k but it must be also getting on a bit (xfx 750w)

Last year I finally decided to sell my 430vx pentium mmx/sb awe64 gold retro gaming rig as I wasn’t really using it. I originally bought the motherboard in 1998. The guy I sold it to still messages me from time to time about it

 

[Ruru]

Last year I finally decided to sell my 430vx pentium mmx system/sb awe64 gold retro gaming rig as I wasn’t really using it. I originally bought the motherboard in. 1998. The guy I sold it to still messages me from time to time about it

I suppose that you got a pretty good amount of cash from it, as the prices of AWE64 Gold starts from 150EUR on ebay..

 

[Basard]

Order Date: 10/11/2008

Seagate BarraCuda 7200.10 ST3250410AS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive

I'm pretty sure this thing is immortal.