If you are looking for a cheap hobby, try retro-puting. People give me old computers all the time. Sometimes I can use the parts, often not though. I feel better because I recycle those properly and they do not go into a landfill. The ones that are young enough for using parts, I rebuild and re-purpose them to others that do not have computers, or want one to keep the kids off of their primary/work machine. As Klaus said in another section of this thread, it's about keeping them running.
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Optimist - half full, Pessimist - half empty, Engineer - The capacity is twice what it needs to be.