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By now most of you know that every year, one of our side projects is putting together bad ass computers and donating them to local schools to help get kids interested in computers. It is common knowledge that most computer science labs consist of a few antiquated old beige box PCs (at best) and a whole bunch of iMacs. We figure that a few tricked out, overclocked, water cooled, SLI - CrossFireX computers with all the bells and whistles will grab the attention of the kids and, with any luck, make a lasting impression. Think back to the first time you saw a kick ass water cooled, custom computer....you knew you had to have one the minute you saw it and you were hooked from then on.

Anyhow, here is the pile of stuff we've amassed so far with help from great companies like MSI, Intel, AMD, Corsair, Antec and Dave from OCC. I'll get cracking on the builds this weekend and I plan on doing a write up on the whole process (assembly, finished PCs, donation ceremony, etc) so keep your eyes peeled for that too. So, what are you doing this weekend? :D
 
I'm working extra hours. Please send pics. Which state do you do this in? My brother is in Highschool right now. He'll probably enjoy this!!
 
Going from Oregon Trail on the old Apple 2s to seeing Doom 2 running on a PC was all I needed to pick up PC mag from the local Kroger to figure out how to create and Autoexe.bat floppy so I could play the game. (my machine only had 4mb of RAM at the time)

I've been hooked ever since. Hopefully other kids will as well.
 
I can see their parents hating you for this when every kid in the school goes home and asks for $2000 to build a sweet new computer.
 
I am the asst. principal at an inner city grade school in Chicago. Our computer lab is full of Pentium 3 class PC's older than most of the kids in the school.
Wanna send some to us? I volunteer to assemble them myself.

Seriously, if any of you want to donate any old computers or parts, I will be glad to accept them for the school.
 
davidmi58 said:
I am the asst. principal at an inner city grade school in Chicago. Our computer lab is full of Pentium 3 class PC's older than most of the kids in the school.
Wanna send some to us? I volunteer to assemble them myself.

Seriously, if any of you want to donate any old computers or parts, I will be glad to accept them for the school.
Click to expand...

Geez its ridiculous that schools cant get new computers with Dell Outlet selling new pc's for $250 a pop. Someone needs to bitch slap who ever runs the budget. The price of a tank of gas for the bus is more then a new PC these days...
 
Awesome Steve. Our schools need help and you guys are the best at what you do.
 
It will grab their attention until a problem with it arises and then it becomes a giant paperweight.

Im all for giving kids new computers in school but giving watercooled SLI rigs is just pissing money down the drain. Especially when you consider the massive energy waste behind running a high end gaming machine to browse the web and play 2d learning games.
 
This is awesome! I went from an elementary school in Podunk eastern ky that had zero tech in the early 80s to one that had computers in every class room in ashville nc. I remember being so amazed at them and what they could do. I still distinctly remember my first experience on a computer with number crunchers! That first experience took me where I am today with my career! Good job!

I've been thinking of how to do this locally. My wife teaches at a very impoverished elementary school in Winchester ky. It was actually featured in a recent time magazine for being one of the top 5 run down facilties in th country. There computers are a joke and painful to use. I'm sure the hate anything to do with them. Everytime I'm there I've wondered how to change that so that the kids(most of them have NOTHING) might take a better interest in computing. I've got some older rigs to me sitting around and some fancy water cooling setups that might just get a second life now! Thanks for the idea....
 
Watch out, the linux and mac apologists will try to demonize you for charity just like they do Bill Gates!
 
My community college has C2D E6300 boxes with 2GB RAM and Radeon X1300 IGPs in the computer lab. My old high school had IIRC P4 HT boxes. Pretty good I'd say for a state that's billions in the hole (CA).
 
This weekend I'll be disassembling my Gateway P-171 FX and baking the mobo/GPU since it failed just 2 weeks out of the warranty.
 
Very good job there Steve. It's nice to see people in positions like yours that are willing and able to get hardware companies to help out with projects like this.

Major props to you and others and the companies helping out :).
 
Oh, I'm also watching www.speeddemosarchive.com do Japan Relief Done quick. They're speed running games all weekend for donations to Doctors Without Borders / Médecins Sans Frontières. They're having some bid wars on routes, a classic game raffle, and several other small prize raffles.
 
I currently teach high school math. I volunteered to teach a course that partially computer based called Carnegie Algebra. It's for students who haven't been successful in math in the past (you can take a guess at the kind of interesting "personalities" my classes are composed of).

My current lab is a bunch of Dell P2s with 512MB Ram running WinXP. I finally convinced the tech people at my school to install Ubuntu on the machines which runs much better on such weak hardware. We are in desperate need of a computer lab overhaul.
 
Excellent program! I remember seeing my first custom computer as a kid and I've been in love ever since.
 
For all the wonderful things technology is.

Public education is not. Most teachers only know enough to know that Windows XP is what they use. So, teachers unions fuck things up by not allowing forward progress with the kids, because the teachers are stalled bags of fecal matter when it comes to technology.

Our entire public school system had an overhaul of its machines over the previous 2 summers, it was a fun, awesome project, but its a shame the teachers will hold back the students, and not the technology.
 
Steve said:
By now most of you know that every year, one of our side projects is putting together bad ass computers and donating them to local schools to help get kids interested in computers. It is common knowledge that most computer science labs consist of a few antiquated old beige box PCs (at best) and a whole bunch of iMacs. We figure that a few tricked out, overclocked, water cooled, SLI - CrossFireX computers with all the bells and whistles will grab the attention of the kids and, with any luck, make a lasting impression. Think back to the first time you saw a kick ass water cooled, custom computer....you knew you had to have one the minute you saw it and you were hooked from then on.

Anyhow, here is the pile of stuff we've amassed so far with help from great companies like MSI, Intel, AMD, Corsair, Antec and Dave from OCC. I'll get cracking on the builds this weekend and I plan on doing a write up on the whole process (assembly, finished PCs, donation ceremony, etc) so keep your eyes peeled for that too. So, what are you doing this weekend? :D
Click to expand...

I recall the charity drives in hypothermia, have you thought of doing them again?
 
Damn Steve, you guys are doing some awesome shiznit! Keep it up! Man, where the hell were you guys when I was in grade school. Geezus, the computers you guys are building are better than any of the PCs my colleges have ever had (Univ. of MD College Park, University of Baltimore), let alone my elementary, middle and high schools.

Looking forward to seeing the write up on the whole process, as well as checking out pics of the kickass PCs themselves.

Just gonna be catching up on sleep, recovering from the work week, and hopefully playing some games this weekend.
 
I respect and admire the noble deed you guys are doing, but you do know that most schools have a "nanny" software that blocks just about anything fun one could do on a computer, especially the kind you guys are building. It's going to look good, but if it gets put on the school network, that's all it's going to be good for... looking at.
 
Dear Steve,

I am currently not interested in computers, I think you really need to ship me a few of those components so I can become interested.

Thanks,

CptMorgan
 
I'm doing something sort of similar. Still not sure yet if we're going to be able to get the parts donated from a local computer supplier or if we're going to be purchasing it ourselves, but I volunteer as the lead CAD mentor for the FIRST Robotics team I joined back in high school. And since I've done a build and am fairly good with computer hardware knowledge one of the teachers asked me if I could put together a proper workstation with which to render videos for 3DS Max on since all of the computers they have now are pathetically slow Pentium 4's.

I'm not sure when exactly I'll have to start building the workstation, but I'm quite excited about it. I've never worked with sever hardware before and a dual-socket motherboard should be fun as balls to work with. We even managed to score a free GTX 480 that nVidia was giving away to all the participating teams at the Pittsburgh Regional (and probably others as well - good way to clear stock and get some positive PR) so that saved about 400 dollars right there.

I've already told the one girl on the robotics team who does the 3DS max videos for the award submissions and she nearly flipped when I showed her the specs of the workstation she would have access to next year.

It does fill your heart with joy Steve, I have to agree.
 
My highlight of the weekend was going to build a new i5 2500-based at work. That sure beats it! Good work guys.
 
You guys should start a Web Show like American Chopper where you feature custom built to order PCs on each episode. I'd watch just to see Kyle, Brent and Steve duke it out arguing as to which components to use. :D
I can picture it now:

Kyle: Today on [H]ard Computing we will be building a rig using this sweet dual rad water cooler...
Steve: ...erm excuse me. I planned on using this all copper cooler with 6 heatpipes with a near silent 200mm low profile fan and...
Brent: Forget that! I want to build a custom vapor cooling chamber...
 
Nice work guys! Reminds me that I need to do more in the giving department, doing something like this is something that would definitely make it more for fun for a person like me.

Radical said:
I can see their parents hating you for this when every kid in the school goes home and asks for $2000 to build a sweet new computer.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it is kind of a shame in the age of phones, iPads and craptops that most people I don't think really have any idea just how powerful hardware at this level is. Every time I have a guest over and show them the 3D Vision Surround setup it's like they just saw a computer for the first time. I know that people say desktops are dying but the good stuff, high-end desktops, will always be in demand as when you see one it's just hard to resist for even a lot of non-techies.
 
Haha, American Chopper, I was actually thinking about a TV show like Kitchen's Nightmare or Hell's Kitchen. Just replace Kitchen with School...

This is an awesome project, Steve, bringing both superb hardware and igniting the computer passion to kids who might consider it as just some kind of super-TV appliance otherwise.
 
Make sure to load up some fun educational material such as Mafia II.
 
dajet24 said:
Geez its ridiculous that schools cant get new computers with Dell Outlet selling new pc's for $250 a pop. Someone needs to bitch slap who ever runs the budget. The price of a tank of gas for the bus is more then a new PC these days...
Click to expand...
Here in California they're talking about shortening the school year next year due to lack of funding. In today's economy, I'm not surprised.
 
We give away as much hardware here as we can, hell...Kyle just gave away a whole storage unit full of hardware to forum members.

I started doing this over ten years ago and I can honestly say it is extremely rewarding. I take my car a lot of times when I go to school so the kids that are into cars can check it out too.

http://www.stevenlynch.net/teach.html

If you've never read this before (5 minutes) it kinda gives you an idea on our thought process.

This article was originally written in 1999. We have made this a permanent part of Hypothermia by spending as much time as possible every year to bring computers to the classroom in a way that children can relate to. We have a blast interacting with the kids and showing them the latest in technology whether it be game making tools or the latest in water cooling your computer. This is something that we would like to see everyone do in their own community. It is easier than you would think, just pick up the phone, call the school district and offer your services. Are you a good mechanic? Take your HotRod to school and talk to the kids. Are you a fantastic musician, offer your services. No matter what you can do, even if it is volunteering a couple days a week in the cafeteria, the best thing you can do for our kids today is lead by example, and show them that you can be whatever you want in life...and still be cool.
Click to expand...

Alright, I gotta get back to building ;)
 
Very nice Steve, I didn't know you were this philanthropic, I just know you other than [H] News, for your . . . . interesting collection :eek:

It's good to see you doing some good out there.

Have you considered donating some equipment to outreach centers for our veterans as well?
 
Steve said:
By now most of you know that every year, one of our side projects is putting together bad ass computers and donating them to local schools to help get kids interested in computers. It is common knowledge that most computer science labs consist of a few antiquated old beige box PCs (at best) and a whole bunch of iMacs. We figure that a few tricked out, overclocked, water cooled, SLI - CrossFireX computers with all the bells and whistles will grab the attention of the kids and, with any luck, make a lasting impression. Think back to the first time you saw a kick ass water cooled, custom computer....you knew you had to have one the minute you saw it and you were hooked from then on.

Anyhow, here is the pile of stuff we've amassed so far with help from great companies like MSI, Intel, AMD, Corsair, Antec and Dave from OCC. I'll get cracking on the builds this weekend and I plan on doing a write up on the whole process (assembly, finished PCs, donation ceremony, etc) so keep your eyes peeled for that too. So, what are you doing this weekend? :D
Click to expand...

I actually had no idea that you guys did this on a regular basis. I think this is absolutely noble as you are leading the good fight against the indoctrination of our kids by those school administrators who are nothing more than Apple fanboys who would buy Steve Jobs' poo if they could.
 
Seriously that is awesome Steve, I REALLY wish I had something like that at the highschool that I went to!
 
This is such a fantastic thing to do and tax benefits out the ass (yes/no?)

I'll be (hopefully) expanding my business this weekend.
 
Radical said:
I can see their parents hating you for this when every kid in the school goes home and asks for $2000 to build a sweet new computer.
Click to expand...

It doesn't really cost $2000 to build a decent machine anymore. (thankfully)
 
I love this quote from Steve's link

You can make games... if you're good at math

You can make games... if you're good at geometry

You can make games... if you like art

You can make games... if you play music

You can make games... if you're a great team player

.....but you can't make games if you don't finish school. An education is what gives you a fantastic head start into making the best games in the world. Without an education, you'll be stuck PLAYING games, because you won't have the knowledge to MAKE games.
Click to expand...

Thanks for sharing. I might use it for some kids still in school;)
 
Yay product placement and advertising for kiddies! Lets show them how to spend their money!
 
Rudager said:
Yay product placement and advertising for kiddies! Lets show them how to spend their money!
Click to expand...

Yeah..........I'm sure that's the subliminal message we are all hoping for.:rolleyes:

Steve, that is some awesome shit there....and a great idea to get children intereted in what really drives the current technologies. My kids have such shitty computers they can't even run a powerpoint presentation. I asked to donate some of my stuff over a year ago and am still "under consideration" by the school for my donation.....hell my youngest daughter will graduate before they make up their collective minds.

It took my wife three years to get a cash donation of $1500 accepted to buy books for the elementary school library.......sheesch.

You are doing a really nice thing for whomever is the recipient.:D
 
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