I did something in between - I kept the physically small systems (Landisk, VAXstation VLC, Mac LC III+, Mac Quadra 610, Cobalt Raq, EdgeRouter, various Pis, et cetera) and some of the more useful larger ones (Amiga 4000, VAXstation 4000/60 and 4000/90, AlphaServer DS25), and I put them to use building NetBSD pkgsrc packages so they're useful.
Considering the fact that I paid less than $100 for the VAXstation 4000/60, for instance, and they go for > $1000 on eBay these days, I'm glad I kept all my VAX hardware. While 286 systems don't cost quite as much, the prices are only going to go up.
Sounds like you live in a computer museum ;) How did you end up owning these?
I kept a handful of older computers, my ZX-81 still sitting somewhere, ZX-Spectrum, Apple Newton. My HP-48GX is used by my daughter. I have a dual CPU 486 machine... I doubt any of these is worth any $'s ...
I've always had an appreciation for odd hardware, and I've just tried to keep what I like of what I have.
Big fan of the Sinclairs - small, simple, yet filled with all sorts of neat tricks that made them inexpensive and simple. That cleverness makes for a great set of lessons to modern computer programmers and architects.
NCR had a couple of SMP 486 boxen (NCR 3450, 3550 & 3600) that were supported by SCO Unix, SVR4 and (early) NT. I think they had support for OS/2. ALR, Unisys and Compaq made somewhat similar 486s with roughly similar OS support (although I vaguely recall the Unisys stuff was OEMed elseware). The support problem was 486 predated standardized SMP hardware (APIC), so it was all custom hardware.
tbh not sure. I'd have to dig it out of the crawlspace and have a look. But yeah, seems like those indeed are rare. Had no idea and I guess some chance I'm misremembering and it's a Pentium or something.
Considering the fact that I paid less than $100 for the VAXstation 4000/60, for instance, and they go for > $1000 on eBay these days, I'm glad I kept all my VAX hardware. While 286 systems don't cost quite as much, the prices are only going to go up.