Vintage Slot Card Identification

Howdy y'all. Picked up a vintage server off the side of the road yesterday and wanted to see if anyone could I'd what these boards are and if they have any value. The smaller one seems to be the main CPU, and there is an i486 under the heat sink. The other board looks to be a hard drive array of some kind, and there were 3 boards that looked identical to this in the machine. Hoping someone is better at IDing these on ebay than I am, also trying to see if these are worth reselling or just scrap. Thanks.

https://i.imgur.com/EMIM6kL.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/S3stXra.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/9Ly0tVa.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/zJ4mvvK.jpeg

Based on the connectors, the top one seems to be a video card and the second one (with the jack) would be a network interface card (± modem).

The top one has a bios chip, a clock battery, a processor, and memory slots along with the video connectors. That's probably what served as the motherboard. I would class that as a large socket motherboard or telecom grade for scrap purposes.

The second one was probably a dial up modem board. Finger card for scrap purposes.

It might be possible to list them on ebay as untested and see if you get any offers. It's hard to imagine that there are all that many people who are into buying and collecting vintage electronics but you never know. A thing is worth what somebody is willing to pay for it.

Personally ... i prefer to do the expedient thing and send the vintage stuff straight to scrap. It's a known value.

I don't know these ones but have found willing buyers for older untested stuff if sufficiently neat on the Vintage Computing Forum at vcfed

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Originally Posted by hills

The top one has a bios chip, a clock battery, a processor, and memory slots along with the video connectors. That's probably what served as the motherboard. I would class that as a large socket motherboard or telecom grade for scrap purposes.

The second one was probably a dial up modem board. Finger card for scrap purposes.

It might be possible to list them on ebay as untested and see if you get any offers. It's hard to imagine that there are all that many people who are into buying and collecting vintage electronics but you never know. A thing is worth what somebody is willing to pay for it.

Personally ... i prefer to do the expedient thing and send the vintage stuff straight to scrap. It's a known value.

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Please do not listen to this advice....in the past month have sold vintage circuit boards up to $1000 on ebay.....look up as much as you can and test as much as you can

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Originally Posted by mikeinreco

Please do not listen to this advice....in the past month have sold vintage circuit boards up to $1000 on ebay.....look up as much as you can and test as much as you can

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Ive scrapped thousands of vintage circuit boards.... any examples or general things to look out for as valuable, or is it really just dependant on each board. I dont usually have time to search every board I come across but if something looks particularly old or unique I usually try to search it. Never found any that were selling for a bunch though

This is also dependent on the type of clients you have.......Medical clients and government institutions are usually where you will find high priced items.........These particular boards that I have been going thru came from an engineering firm that dealt with simulators for nuclear control panels (Never exposed to radiation these were training simulators).......If you are getting someone's computer from their closet I doubt you will find this type of boards..........What makes the first board in this thread looking up is the processor on it..........The other board in my opinion probably is scrap..........There should be some type of #'s or model #'s on this board but I can't see it to fully identify

https://www.ebay.com/itm/334093452960

Notice how this board in the link above had a processor.........Usually with time and experience you will be able to spot odd or valuable things...........I'm sure I have scrapped 1000's of dollars worth of vintage parts myself.............They say that the lower GB hard drives are becoming valuable just need a way to test and wipe them (Limited space and knowledge of some of this older stuff)...........There is a huge market for this stuff.........Check ebay and youtube for vintage parts huge following

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fro...&LH_Complete=1

This is sold listings for the words ambios 486

https://www.ebay.com/itm/15427100093...sAAOSw-Upf7ibO

this is getting closer to what the OP has...........I spent 5 minutes looking it up with different keywords and #'s.........Time to move onto something else

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fro...s+486&_sacat=0

I spelled it wrong on first search AMIBIOS 486 search results listed above

Great thread with lots of info. Thanks to all who added to it. 73, Mike

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Originally Posted by mikeinreco

Please do not listen to this advice....in the past month have sold vintage circuit boards up to $1000 on ebay.....look up as much as you can and test as much as you can

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It's just common sense. " A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush."

Most of general scrapping is production work. It's turn n burn. Ya know ... bang it out and don't get too fussy with the details. Time is money.

That's probably the best overall advise for the general scrapper. The occasional score with MTSV is great but that's more the frosting on the cake. I don't think you can rely on that to be your bread and butter unless you are really into it.

Most of us aren't .... you see ?

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Originally Posted by hills

It's just common sense. " A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush."

Most of general scrapping is production work. It's turn n burn. Ya know ... bang it out and don't get too fussy with the details. Time is money.

That's probably the best overall advise for the general scrapper. The occasional score with MTSV is great but that's more the frosting on the cake. I don't think you can rely on that to be your bread and butter unless you are really into it.

Most of us aren't .... you see ?

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Your posts always amaze me.......Let's do the lazy most easy thing we can do to get a few bucks so we don't have to take a chance and perhaps learn something new

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Originally Posted by mikeinreco

Your posts always amaze me.......Let's do the lazy most easy thing we can do to get a few bucks so we don't have to take a chance and perhaps learn something new

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Not lazy Mike ... just expedient. There's only so much that anyone can do in a day so you have to pick and choose how you spend your time. You'll come to understand once you begin to realize that there are far more days behind you than there are ahead of you.

Some of the most expedient people i've ever met are folks in their 80's. They don't even waste words. Their days are REALLY numbered and they know it.

That's the difference see ? You're a young guy in your 40's. You still think you're gonna live forever. ;)

Lol...please continue to be expedient but please don't give that advice to other forum members when you know scrap is the least valuable way to dispose of old equipment....and no I don't feel I will live forever but doing Ebay/reselling parts instead of hard labor scrapping might actually prolong my life

It's all good Mike. To be honest ... i'm into MTSV as well but it involves specialized knowledge that you have to work for. Gaining that knowledge was driven by a curiosity about how it all works and not with any particular profit motive. It was playtime and not work. Love what you are doing and you will never work a day in your life.

Here's the thing: What was right for me wasn't right for just about everyone else i know. They have straight up told me on a few occasions that they have no idea of what i'm talking about when i try to talk shop with em'.

I saw one of the scrapper guys that i''ve known for a long time yesterday. He's in his 80's now and mostly retired from the trade. I can't go into details, but it became readily apparent that he can't even read. He can read numbers but he can't read words. Imagine that ... going through your whole life and never learning how to read simple words.

That's where we make our mistake see. We assume that because it's right for us ... it's right for everyone else. (I think it's a guy thing.)

Lets hope everyone here can at least read....Also i am sure I scrap 1000's of dollars of appliance parts every year....whenever I pick up an appliance people always ask if I refurbish them.....I just kinda laugh and tell them all old appliances are crushed.....I dabbled in selling appliance parts it was alot more work than computer parts

Those are early ISA boards ;)