It's hard to believe you can't find something usable for free. I end up paying to dispose of computer equipment for the school campus I work for because I can't find enough people to take free equipment.
Right now I have about fifty 17" crt monitors stacked up and will have more than a few 1 ghz towers to dispose of by the summer.
If there are any schools or gov't agencies nearby that cycle out old equipment, check with them. They may have perfectly good equipment just for the asking.
-JM
