Slightly OT: Sources for slightly older PeeCee server class hardware

I've actually bought HW like this from ISellSurplus and eBay. Over the years, I've gotten two Compaq Proliant servers from eBay and both have been great. The one I'm running now was a new old stock Proliant 1600 and cost more than probably what you want to spend but still a fraction of the new cost. There are many recyclers on eBay who buy decommissioned corporate hardware and resell it. My first server (a Proliant 800) came from the accounting firm Ernst & Young (it had the asset tag still on it). Both of these were rack mounted servers. On ISellSurplus I got two Pentium II machines that I used for experimenting with Snort. I think they were $25 each but I had to buy the RAM and HD separately. -----Original Message----- From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Michael B. Brutman Sent: Sunday, February 12, 2006 1:47 PM To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Subject: Slightly OT: Sources for slightly older PeeCee server class hardware I've been using a Linux box as a firewall for the cable modem before Linksys and the other networking companies came out with small router boxes. Along the years the uses for the box have grown, so I do a little hacking on it, some file servering, backup/restore to the Windoze boxes, etc. The original box was an old 486-66 running Redhat 6.1. (It ran OS/2 2.1 originally). I only decommissioned it last year, and it is still sitting in the room waiting for it's next purpose in life. The current box is a Pentium 233, and it's been doing just fine except I fear that it's starting to crap out. It will not boot off of a floppy disk no matter what I try. I've tried 2 cables, 3 drives, and four different known good boot disks. I've stripped the system down, screwed with the onboard setup, etc. To make a long story short, after 3 hours I've finally decided that the onboard FDC controller is heading south. Disks are still readable, but only after you've booted from hard disk. The motherboard was an ABIT IT5H - good at the time, but given ABIT's reputation at the time I'm really happy that it made it this far. Since the end is near for this machine, it's time to get my data off of it and find a replacement. I'm thinking of something: - a little more robust .. ie, quality - needs to take a few PCI cards. Right now I use 2 NICs, 1 SCSI, and 1 video card. If some of those functions are on the motherboard that is fine. - Can be left on continuously and ignored. What's a good source for stuff like this? I'm thinking of monitoring eBay for items I can do local pickup on, but I'm not sure if small businesses that have this kind of hardware take the time to put it out on eBay when it comes time to upgrade. (I'm in Rochester MN, so my sources of this stuff are limited.) Any ideas on the floppy controller?