What to scavenge from old computer motherboard?

[Dan1400]

Hey guys and gals!

I got two old motherboards from junkyard near my home and i was
wondering what components can i desolder and re-use in some of my
projects, i am new at building electronic circuits and stuff.
So far i am pretty sure i will be taking some capacitors, piezo speakers
and maybe some diodes, do you have any tips on what IC`s, transistors
and similar more complex components that can be found
on old motherboards can be practically re-used?
Thanks in advance for any helpful tips and will be glad to provide any additional info!

 

[Reloadron]

You pretty much called it. Maybe a few inductors tossed in. There are also the connectors if you ever have future use for them. I just maintain a bone yard box with some motherboards plus a few old chassis. When I need something I look on the boards I have. I don't have the time or patience to strip the boards and file by pile with the parts.

Ron

 

[Dan1400]

You pretty much called it. Maybe a few inductors tossed in. There are also the connectors if you ever have future use for them. I just maintain a bone yard box with some motherboards plus a few old chassis. When I need something I look on the boards I have. I don't have the time or patience to strip the boards and file by pile with the parts.

Ron

Thanks for the tip, i guess excluding the 3V button cell (it still worked!) and holder there really are no more rare components in there,
except some DC voltage regulators, jumpers and similar "small game" :-D.

 

[Joe G]

i take just about everything off them, i use most of the surface mt resistors quite a bit, the 1206 ones fit just about perfect between the .100" holes on those
perf boards, you also have a thirmister or two on some of them, and most of the brds i have had several invertors on them, also the jumpers come in handy, i just
started one day and got any numbers off the componants and looked for the data sheets just to see if i had a use for them, it also helped me to learn what type
of componant it was.."sot23,...."

 

[JimB]

Crystals, oscillator modules, configuration jumpers and the pins they sit on, although the pins can be a bit of a bear to get out.

A blowlamp or a heat gun is sometime effective in bulk removal of components
Beware the smell from the burning board is bad!

JimB

 

[Dan1400]

i take just about everything off them, i use most of the surface mt resistors quite a bit, the 1206 ones fit just about perfect between the .100" holes on those
perf boards, you also have a thirmister or two on some of them, and most of the brds i have had several invertors on them, also the jumpers come in handy, i just
started one day and got any numbers off the componants and looked for the data sheets just to see if i had a use for them, it also helped me to learn what type
of componant it was.."sot23,...."

I forgot about these thermistors, but i think my motherboards have them integrated (in CPU and north bridge), thanks for the tip on surface mount resistors working well with perfboards, i got two spare so i think i will give it a shot sometime.

Crystals, oscillator modules, configuration jumpers and the pins they sit on, although the pins can be a bit of a bear to get out.

A blowlamp or a heat gun is sometime effective in bulk removal of components
Beware the smell from the burning board is bad!

JimB

I gotta learn to use the crystals and oscillator modules, never used them before
(as i said i am a rookie :-D) but now that i think about it the CMOS clock crystal
could be used in digital clocks, right?

 

[ericgibbs]

hi Dan,
I do the same as Ron, keep all the old PCB's in a box, until I need the odd part, else you have to find an organised 'home' for all the bits you taken off

 

[EN0]

If you can find any heat sinks, I would try to keep those. You never know when they might be handy, especially in power applications.

 

[DerStrom8]

As mentioned before, I suggest you just hold on to all your old circuit boards. My workshop is filled with piles of them two feet high, and if I need a component, that is the first place I look.
Before I took this approach, I would desolder a couple of components from the circuit board that I knew I needed and tossed the rest away. Then, a couple weeks later, I realized that for another project, I needed something from the board that I had just thrown away. That's probably one of the worst feelings in the world--it makes you feel really stupid
So the moral of the story: If you have enough room, keep any circuit boards you can find--you will thank yourself in the future!
Der Strom