Making use of old parts.

[Origin Saint]

Hi all, I recently attained a ton of old computer equipment and I was wondering if there is a way to use some of it externally. Example being, I have some CD-ROM drives, and I was wanting to use them externally. I realize that they will either need some type of makeshift outlet plug (a definite last resort), or battery powered. I will post some pictures of the things I'm wanting to try and use externally.

The first picture is a old micro speaker. It has the normal power cords to attach to a motherboard and a normal 3.5mm audio jack cord. I was thinking maybe stripping the wires and connecting them to a series of batteries and then just connect the speaker jack to any device I want to listen to. Would this work? Or am I trying to push a little far here.

The second is a USB cord from a Dell. The USB end would show in the front of the computer case and the back would plug into the motherboard. Is there any way to rig this so that I could plug one end into a computer and use it as a USB extender/hub?

The third picture is a old CD-ROM drive. I was wondering it there was a way to power this up and be able to plug it into a computer and use it as a external CD drive.

The fourth picture is a small sound piece out of a Dell as well. The front would be showing out of the front of the case, and you would plug in your speaker/headphones and microphone here. Is there a way to use this to have extra jacks for something?

As I said, this is all just used and abused left over junk parts that would have been thrown away, and I got for free, so I just wanted to see if I could find a use for some of it. Thanks for any help and assistance in advance.

 

[spirit]

I just keep all my old parts because you never know when you may need them. Those CD drives are handy if they work because you never know if you'll get a PC one day which either doesn't have a drive or has a broken one.

You can definitely use the CD drives externally, there are probably kits you can buy online for cheap prices which will allow you to do that.

 

[jsutintimber]

That’s really great that you keep your old computer parts. Yes, you can make use of your old computer equipments. Go to a computer repair center which assemble the computer parts and ask them to fix them.

 

[S.T.A.R.S.]

I have TONS of old computer parts and equipment.And I got all that for free lol and it all works.(Just had to clean them all using extreme methods lol).

But considering how much old computer equipment and parts I have,I don't think I will ever have to actually BUY a new computer lol.
Well...maybe one day I will...for a change

Anyway yes you can use your old parts.For example the CD-ROM can be used as an external one.This is what I use to power up old CD-ROM drives externally:

With that you can power up any IDE or SATA HDD and any IDE or SATA CD/DVD-ROM drive.

Yes you can also use your USB cord to make a front USB entrance.However you might need to get a converter to convert the other end of the cord to a normal USB plug (unless if it already is normal).Here is what I mean by NEEDING THE CONVERTER:

So if that's the case,convert the other end of the USB cord to a normal one using the appropriated converter.

And here is what I mean without needing the converter:

By the way if you have old PSU,you can use it to power up any other things you want such as:

-many hard disk drives
-many fans
-many CD/DVD-ROM disk drives
-many floppy disk drives
-and so on

I used one old PSU I got to power up a data device I made: 10 hard disk drives,6 blue led fans and a 10 port USB hub.

And of course in the case if you want to let's say attach 5 hard disk drives and your PSU does not have enough number of let's say MOLEX connectors,you can always extend them using one of the following:

And of course you can always use MOLEX to SATA or SATA to MOLEX power cable converters in order to use your IDE or SATA devices:

Cheers!