Take a drive to Minn./St Paul and shop the Goodwill ($5 to $100), UofM
warehouse($5 to $50), and each month 3M has a auction at their warehouse and
you can get a pallet load of boxes for $25.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael B. Brutman" <mbbrutman-cctalk at brutman.com>
To: <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Sunday, February 12, 2006 12:47 PM
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?