# How to Get Rid of Slave Computer



## Prockamanisc (Mar 19, 2019)

I don't regret building a slave computer when I did 4 years ago, but the technology has advanced and the prices have dropped in a way that I'lll be happy with an all-in-one computer. 

What should I do with my slave? Would it be worth it to strip it for parts and try to sell what I can? Should I save it for a rainy day? Should I turn it into something else, like a Pro Tools rig? 

I think I spend a total of $3,300 on it, I think I'd be lucky if I could sell off its components for $1-1.5K.


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## JohnG (Mar 19, 2019)

I recently had two spares; gave one old PC to a friend who writes esoteric, _avant garde_ music, but held onto the second surplus one. 

You never know when you'll get "just one more library, the last one, honest...." And you want some extra horsepower for it.

Then again, depending on your music, maybe you really can work with just one?


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## chillbot (Mar 19, 2019)

Prockamanisc said:


> I think I spend a total of $3,300 on it, I think I'd be lucky if I could sell off its components for $1-1.5K.


I think that is optimistically high for four years old, technology drops quick! We recently sold two 64GB machines (complete) for around $500/each and I thought that was pretty fair.

(EDIT: Though we sold the RME cards separate and got almost as much as for the computers.)

The problem with keeping it as backup or for a "rainy day" as you said, is there's a good chance it will sit in the closet for another two or three or more years and by then it will be worth pretty much $0. If you think you can get $1k for parts now I would do that while it's still an option.


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## Prockamanisc (Mar 19, 2019)

After comparing and doing some research, I'm realizing that a lot of my investment was into RAM, and that seems to be holding its price pretty well. SSDs have dropped, so that's where most of my loss will come from, but maybe I'll maybe try and repurpose them. Problem is, they're all $500gb, so buying that many enclosures would bring the cost way up. 

Everything else seems to only have dropped about 33% in value. Here's what I found:

Price I paid (4 years ago): $1,800 (not counting SSDs). Current new price: $1,325. Trending price on eBay: $1,325. Loss: $595.


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## Jeremy Spencer (Mar 26, 2019)

Prockamanisc said:


> Problem is, they're all $500gb, so buying that many enclosures would bring the cost way up.



You could install them in your new PC if there's room.


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## Prockamanisc (Mar 26, 2019)

Wolfie2112 said:


> You could install them in your new PC if there's room.


I finally have a Mac Master computer that's strong enough, and the current model doesn't have room for it. To buy an enclosure for 4x SSDs, it would cost around $300. So I'd rather fill that with 2TB SSDs in order to maximize it.


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## Jeremy Spencer (Mar 26, 2019)

Cool! What Mac did you get?


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## Prockamanisc (Mar 26, 2019)

Mac Pro 2013 w/ 64gb RAM. It's good enough for my needs, but I'm still very open to buying the new Mac Pro, as long as it's what we want.


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