BEIGE GOLD

Where does all our OLD HARDWARE end up?

- Phil Iwaniuk

Look who's stalking

A word of warning to anyone about to ditch an old PC: wipe the hard drives really thoroughly beforehand. Data breaches from recycled PCs are alarmingly common, and sensitive documents from the USA's defensive intelligence agency and Homeland Security have been found and 'recycled' in Ghana's vast Agbogbloshie electronic waste dump.

How many PCs have you owned, and where are they now? It’s not something we give much thought to in the landscape of constant iteration and abrupt obsolescence that is PC gaming, but perhaps we actually should. Because the answer is probably: a lot.

At this very moment there are four PCs in my gaming room. There's the gaming PC play modern titles on, and which sees daily use. And then there’s the stack of musty beige boxes that indicate something more akin to a hoarding problem than a fun pastime.

A 1998 Packard Bell, meticulously rebuilt to the exact specs of my first ever home computer, plus accompanying CRT monitor in preposterously large cardboard box. An XP-era system built myself in about 2001, which hasn't been turned on since the Tony Blair administration. And another XP device, from Advent, in tasteful silver with 2003’s finest componentry inside and a flat panel monitor in, again, an absurdly big box.