- Joined
- Jul 5, 2015
- Messages
- 107 (0.03/day)
- Location
- Mackay QLD, Australia
System Name | Home Rig+part time cruncher/ Cruncher 1 / Cruncher 2 |
---|---|
Processor | Xeon E3 1231 v3 / Xeon X5670 / Xeon X5670 |
Motherboard | Asus H97 Pro / Asus X58 Sabertooth / Asus P6T |
Cooling | NZXT Kraken X61 / Corsair H75 / Corsair H75 |
Memory | 2 x 8GB Avexir DDR3 1600 / |
Video Card(s) | Sapphire Nitro R9 Fury / |
Storage | Crucial BX100 250gb - WD Blue 1tb / |
Display(s) | AOC FreeSYNC 24" 35-75hz / |
Case | NZXT Noctis 450 / |
Audio Device(s) | Onboard SupremeFX / |
Power Supply | Evga 750 G2 Super Nova / |
Mouse | Squeek |
Keyboard | Steelseries Cherry Blue |
Software | Win7 x64 |
Well today its raining and cold and no work.
That usually finds me tucked away playing around with the hardware I find at my local rubbish depot.
I have been conducting this sordid activity for around 18 months now, and man, has it been good for me and
others who have been in need of an upgrade.
Let me explain my modus operandi, its sneaky stuff, produces a little free adrenalin, and it has turned into one
of the strangest `hobbies` that I have ever had - although a little nefarious.
Here in Australia, at least the area where I live, E-waste (any electrical waste) must be disposed of under the
guidlines of the Environmental Protection Agency. Basically it can`t be used as land fill as of the heavy metals
and other nasty stuff it contains, so it is all collected, stripped, shredded / crushed and then I`m not sure what
goes on after that.
So yeah, I head down to my local rubbish depot, park my ute strategically between the office and the E-waste
pile, toss out some crap (earlier gutted PC case with probably only a PSU and old IDE HDD left in it) and quick
as a flash toss in a couple of `fresh` PC cases, always black ones, the older white generic cases never contain
much of interest usually being Windows 2000 or earlier.
Why not ask the office guy if I can have the trashed PC`s ? Hey, I`ve tried, believe me. I keep getting told
I would only electrucute myself playing with that `junk` or its illegal to have it...pffff
Apart from the Evga PSU all this stuff below came from the rubbish pile
I`ve pulled some great hardware at times including Core Quad cpu`s, a GTX-260 SC, lots of higher end
Core 2 duos, interesting Mobo`s with great OC abilities, network cards, monitors, some nice cases, fans, good
condition 7200rpm HDD`s, spare dvi and vga cables, usb modems, DDR2and DDR3 Ram.
An interesting Foxconn mobo below with a plethora of OC options in Bios from around 2007 - might have a lot of fun with this one today if I can find a better HSU for it
So what the hell do I do with all this `junk` ?
Apart from a great learning experience for me (and can OC stuff without worrying about damaging anything)
2 kids in my neighbour now have reasonably spec`d Windows 7 desktop machines that their parents would
never have been able to afford, and other family members and friends have some nice little upgrades done to
their desktops, such as cpu and ram upgrades for free.
But best of all my system specs on the left....thats about $1800 including 1080p monitor and modem was
60% funded from selling mobo and cpu / gpu combo`s on ebay. Simply mixed and matched parts, tested
them and bam....anywhere between $50-80...all happy customers...call it recycling with benefits
The cpu`s below on the two dark blue lids are super ancient - started collecting them for fun
I must admit, at least 70% of the PC`s I drag home end up back on the rubbish pile, the hardware is to old
to be of use, but its a small thrill to open a case and see a nice but old school GPU or some decent spec`d
Ram to put towards the current machine I`m playing around with.
Oddly enough 90% of the PC`s I grab still work. Just a matter of clearing the CMOS or swap out the
PSU or GPU, then a fresh install of Win7 and then I start adding better components that |I have lying around.
It`s a lot of fun, and nobody gets hurt.
That usually finds me tucked away playing around with the hardware I find at my local rubbish depot.
I have been conducting this sordid activity for around 18 months now, and man, has it been good for me and
others who have been in need of an upgrade.
Let me explain my modus operandi, its sneaky stuff, produces a little free adrenalin, and it has turned into one
of the strangest `hobbies` that I have ever had - although a little nefarious.
Here in Australia, at least the area where I live, E-waste (any electrical waste) must be disposed of under the
guidlines of the Environmental Protection Agency. Basically it can`t be used as land fill as of the heavy metals
and other nasty stuff it contains, so it is all collected, stripped, shredded / crushed and then I`m not sure what
goes on after that.
So yeah, I head down to my local rubbish depot, park my ute strategically between the office and the E-waste
pile, toss out some crap (earlier gutted PC case with probably only a PSU and old IDE HDD left in it) and quick
as a flash toss in a couple of `fresh` PC cases, always black ones, the older white generic cases never contain
much of interest usually being Windows 2000 or earlier.
Why not ask the office guy if I can have the trashed PC`s ? Hey, I`ve tried, believe me. I keep getting told
I would only electrucute myself playing with that `junk` or its illegal to have it...pffff
Apart from the Evga PSU all this stuff below came from the rubbish pile
I`ve pulled some great hardware at times including Core Quad cpu`s, a GTX-260 SC, lots of higher end
Core 2 duos, interesting Mobo`s with great OC abilities, network cards, monitors, some nice cases, fans, good
condition 7200rpm HDD`s, spare dvi and vga cables, usb modems, DDR2and DDR3 Ram.
An interesting Foxconn mobo below with a plethora of OC options in Bios from around 2007 - might have a lot of fun with this one today if I can find a better HSU for it
So what the hell do I do with all this `junk` ?
Apart from a great learning experience for me (and can OC stuff without worrying about damaging anything)
2 kids in my neighbour now have reasonably spec`d Windows 7 desktop machines that their parents would
never have been able to afford, and other family members and friends have some nice little upgrades done to
their desktops, such as cpu and ram upgrades for free.
But best of all my system specs on the left....thats about $1800 including 1080p monitor and modem was
60% funded from selling mobo and cpu / gpu combo`s on ebay. Simply mixed and matched parts, tested
them and bam....anywhere between $50-80...all happy customers...call it recycling with benefits
The cpu`s below on the two dark blue lids are super ancient - started collecting them for fun
I must admit, at least 70% of the PC`s I drag home end up back on the rubbish pile, the hardware is to old
to be of use, but its a small thrill to open a case and see a nice but old school GPU or some decent spec`d
Ram to put towards the current machine I`m playing around with.
Oddly enough 90% of the PC`s I grab still work. Just a matter of clearing the CMOS or swap out the
PSU or GPU, then a fresh install of Win7 and then I start adding better components that |I have lying around.
It`s a lot of fun, and nobody gets hurt.