Your stories about how you got "x" computer part

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fatheroffourpcenthusiast

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For those of us who must "salvage" to stay in the hobby, I was curious as to your stories:

My Core i5 3330s was in a dead HP all-in-one that I traded for a working office PC.

My case and power supply are from an old AMD A4 "Llano" APU first-gen HTPC.

My SSD is from my previous (now dead) laptop.

Your stories?
 
Back in the early 2000's I was a hardware junkie. I worked for Dell but used my money to buy the newest and greatest (p3-1ghz when it came out, first geforce, the tnt2, ATI All in wonders). But in 2007~2008 I kinda got lazy and just bought a core 2 duo e5400 machine from dell and for 4 years had a great time with it. I did purchase new a i5-2500k system and it was great for 4 years...

where my story is was the fact that I always had that urge to get an i7 system....and my first one actually was a bargain sale at newegg. $350 for a i7-4820k...and it's been system pull after system pull now. The latest was a craigslist purchase of a 5960x for only $600 after I sold what else came with it.

My last big victory is thanks to the forum guys here where I got 4 almost complete i5-2500 systems for $56 each...all they need are hard drives. Even windows 10 pro keys on them.
 
I used to get my primary hardware from friends when I upgraded their machines, so for several years I was always 1 or 2 generations behind since I couldn't afford the current gen at the time.

The last decent setup I got was when I upgraded my friends Q9550 system to an i7 4770k, so I got his Asus board, Q9550, and 8GB ram. I already had an i7 3770k so I used the Q9550 settup to upgrade my HTPC which was an E6750 dual core.
 
I'm actually still chugging along with a 2600k I scored on the forums here for cheap. Scavenging enough parts for a new Ryzen rig, after buying one of Kyle's 1700's...
 
mu current i3770 was in a trashed gamming rig, the machine would boot but the motherboard had sever damage from what apepar to be removel fof grahics card. if it was dead before owner decided to drop i i have no idea.
but it was a nice upgrade for my 2700k that is now imy wifes PC

which actually is also a salved parts from a thrown out computer... this one replaced my old 2500k that i bort in retail when SB was the newest you could get.

my curren corsiar TX850M is from the same computer that hard the I7 3770k in it. which was anice upgrade for my TX620w that was bought in retail way back.
I also mannaged to find a Corsiar AX1200i PSU but without any cables.

i have tried to Modificy another modult ATX 24 pin cable to fit it but its harder than anticipated . I got that cable from a Good [H] guy in the Free stuff thread on this forum.
i might jsut ned up buying a cable on ebay for donations money from Project Mercury
 
The only two component I'm running on my main system that I didn't buy are my case and PSU. The case was a gift from my old lady two Christmas' ago - a ThermalTake x9. The PSU is I think a Coolermaster(or something like that) 1250w that I had won in an online contest.

My household servers or HTPC's are all cobbled together. Some have just a part or two from other machines, others complete piece-togethers.


Back in the day I had a buddy that worked in an area where corporations would dump computer goods into regular dumpsters. He dived the hell out of them, pulling anything that would work. He'd ship some of his overflow to me, from FL to PA. And on a couple of my trips back to FL to visit family he'd hook me up with a trunk load of stuff.

Then, nearly every family member and friend would give me their old computers. Some dead, some still working. I'd piece together working systems, then either use them as storage machines or redistribute them to folks in need of a PC. One year alone I built from no cost of my own about a dozen computers that I gave away to families in need in the area. Now granted, most weren't anything we'd use - but they were smooth running machines that had no problem with online content or doing school work from.

On one build I got word through the grapevine of a family in need. So pieced together a decent system and delivered in person. ...I doubt they had 2 pennies to rub together. Normally I'd just set the stuff on the porch and bail as fast as I can before anyone would see me, but this time the father came out to see what was going on. As I was sitting down the monitor he asked what was going on. I just pointed at the system and said "this is for you guys." ....dude started to cry, then he he really started to bawl when his kindergarten to 2nd grade aged daughter came out and screamed in joy. I still see that family around when they come to town for groceries. That guy still works 2-3 jobs to feed/house his wife and a couple kids, drives a crappy car, etc - but from what I hear, his oldest daughter is in college now(the one that cheered at getting a computer years ago).

I still get PIII/Athlon/P4 systems given to me from time to time. Most of which still work, just needing a refreshing. Lately though most of what I get are 64bit AMD rigs from the mid-late 2000's - which handle a lot more than the stuff from early 2000's.
 
I work at a small computer shop, You'd be amazed at what people want to get rid of. My daily driver is a 2011 15" macbook pro in MINT condition. It had a dead HDD and the person didn't want to spend 250 to repair it... This is my 3rd or 4th Macbook at this point that Ive had through recycling. I also have a lenovo y50-70 laptop with a broken screen get recycled. I took off the screen and now the computer itself works flawlessly hooked up to my TV and G27 wheel.

My gaming rig's 3570k was recycled here, I bought my z77 EVGA classified from here for like 50 bucks. All my ram is recycled... The only thing I bought new was my case, 1 SSD and my PSU.
 
Dan said:
I work at a small computer shop, You'd be amazed at what people want to get rid of. My daily driver is a 2011 15" macbook pro in MINT condition. It had a dead HDD and the person didn't want to spend 250 to repair it... This is my 3rd or 4th Macbook at this point that Ive had through recycling. I also have a lenovo y50-70 laptop with a broken screen get recycled. I took off the screen and now the computer itself works flawlessly hooked up to my TV and G27 wheel.

My gaming rig's 3570k was recycled here, I bought my z77 EVGA classified from here for like 50 bucks. All my ram is recycled... The only thing I bought new was my case, 1 SSD and my PSU.
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I totally believe that. For 13 years, most of my home PCs were frankensteins from what others had thrown away and not known what they had. Glad you are still enjoying it!
 
4330thgink said:
The only two component I'm running on my main system that I didn't buy are my case and PSU. The case was a gift from my old lady two Christmas' ago - a ThermalTake x9. The PSU is I think a Coolermaster(or something like that) 1250w that I had won in an online contest.

My household servers or HTPC's are all cobbled together. Some have just a part or two from other machines, others complete piece-togethers.


Back in the day I had a buddy that worked in an area where corporations would dump computer goods into regular dumpsters. He dived the hell out of them, pulling anything that would work. He'd ship some of his overflow to me, from FL to PA. And on a couple of my trips back to FL to visit family he'd hook me up with a trunk load of stuff.

Then, nearly every family member and friend would give me their old computers. Some dead, some still working. I'd piece together working systems, then either use them as storage machines or redistribute them to folks in need of a PC. One year alone I built from no cost of my own about a dozen computers that I gave away to families in need in the area. Now granted, most weren't anything we'd use - but they were smooth running machines that had no problem with online content or doing school work from.

On one build I got word through the grapevine of a family in need. So pieced together a decent system and delivered in person. ...I doubt they had 2 pennies to rub together. Normally I'd just set the stuff on the porch and bail as fast as I can before anyone would see me, but this time the father came out to see what was going on. As I was sitting down the monitor he asked what was going on. I just pointed at the system and said "this is for you guys." ....dude started to cry, then he he really started to bawl when his kindergarten to 2nd grade aged daughter came out and screamed in joy. I still see that family around when they come to town for groceries. That guy still works 2-3 jobs to feed/house his wife and a couple kids, drives a crappy car, etc - but from what I hear, his oldest daughter is in college now(the one that cheered at getting a computer years ago).

I still get PIII/Athlon/P4 systems given to me from time to time. Most of which still work, just needing a refreshing. Lately though most of what I get are 64bit AMD rigs from the mid-late 2000's - which handle a lot more than the stuff from early 2000's.
Click to expand...
Agree that there are still a lot of older machines that do the basics just fine. The A6-5400b ($10 on eBay) might be a super low-end CPU for anything but the basics, but it's just fine for the basics! I recently just put one in my daughter's machine. Thanks for sharing.
 
SvenBent said:
mu current i3770 was in a trashed gamming rig, the machine would boot but the motherboard had sever damage from what apepar to be removel fof grahics card. if it was dead before owner decided to drop i i have no idea.
but it was a nice upgrade for my 2700k that is now imy wifes PC

which actually is also a salved parts from a thrown out computer... this one replaced my old 2500k that i bort in retail when SB was the newest you could get.

my curren corsiar TX850M is from the same computer that hard the I7 3770k in it. which was anice upgrade for my TX620w that was bought in retail way back.
I also mannaged to find a Corsiar AX1200i PSU but without any cables.

i have tried to Modificy another modult ATX 24 pin cable to fit it but its harder than anticipated . I got that cable from a Good [H] guy in the Free stuff thread on this forum.
i might jsut ned up buying a cable on ebay for donations money from Project Mercury
Click to expand...
That's some nice hardware!
 
SvenBent said:
mu current i3770 was in a trashed gamming rig, the machine would boot but the motherboard had sever damage from what apepar to be removel fof grahics card. if it was dead before owner decided to drop i i have no idea.
but it was a nice upgrade for my 2700k that is now imy wifes PC

which actually is also a salved parts from a thrown out computer... this one replaced my old 2500k that i bort in retail when SB was the newest you could get.

my curren corsiar TX850M is from the same computer that hard the I7 3770k in it. which was anice upgrade for my TX620w that was bought in retail way back.
I also mannaged to find a Corsiar AX1200i PSU but without any cables.

i have tried to Modificy another modult ATX 24 pin cable to fit it but its harder than anticipated . I got that cable from a Good [H] guy in the Free stuff thread on this forum.
i might jsut ned up buying a cable on ebay for donations money from Project Mercury
Click to expand...

your crazy, Tell corsair you lost the cables and they sell you a whole set for like 25-30 bucks.
 
My best deal was a guy that had a monster rig, fully water cooled. It had started to overheat and he knew I worked on computers, so he gave it to me to try and fix. Well in the week I had it and didn't get a chance to work on it, he bought a brand new rig and told me he didn't care what I did with the old one, he already had the hard drives out of it.

So I got an i7 3930k, Rampage IV micro ATX board, a first gen Titan and 32GB of DDR3 for free along with the water cooling gear, case, and fans etc. The only thing wrong with the machine was that he used some coolant with metallic flake look for about a year and it congealed in the blocks. At the time it was all top of the line gear.
 
I think one of the best scores I've had was my monitor, followed by the SSD I'm using now.

Monitor - saw it on the local CL for a crazy price that I couldn't pass up, went to look at it and verified there weren't any dead pixels, walked out with a 14-month old Dell U3014 for $150

NVMe SSD - I've got a great friend that works somewhere that a couple of them were being tossed for no reason he could ever find. Booted them both up, verified working, dropped one in my hands one day at lunch. I had to do a little BIOS modding to get my motherboard to play nice with it, but it's been amazing ever since.
 
fatheroffourpcenthusiast said:
That's some nice hardware!
Click to expand...
yeah I had nice access to a lot of thrown out computer stuff

my dell printer C3760DN is also a salvaged one. its not the best since it only does 600x600 DPI. buts its a nice workhouse with network and dupleplex print. and has 2 drawers.
I added in256mb notebook memory for a total of 384mb. there was 2 units so ihad 2 sets of used toners. probalby gonna last me lot longer than the samsung printer i had that dies during a thunderstorm...

My bedroom tv is a salvaged 40inch LED tv of soem wierd brandname ive never heard before (Start with a W. i wanna say Wessington) it had a dark spot the side of a thumbprint on it. but for bedroom tv it was a huge upgrade compared the old 28 crt tv.
I did have to pay 30 bucks for it though but still im not complaining :D
 
The good old days when Universities and Businesses just pulled hard drives and tossed otherwise complete systems.. My buddy and I used to dumpster dive once Summer started. Most of them were p3, p4 machines but not too far behind current stuff at the time. Very usable still with some tlc. I made a giant MP3 player out of one placed in an old AM radio cabinet , you know the big furniture sized ones, and had it boot straight to Dos Amp and play random tracks.We actually bought the speakers but the rest of the setup was all salvage.

Last year I had a person give me their old Dell Dimension 4200 that wouldn't boot. It turns out it was just a bad optical drive. The cases for those will take mAtx and regular Atx psus so I sold the board , cpu (p4) and ram on ebay. I then took a Phenom 2 965 , board and ram that I was given as payment for upgrading a friend and placed it in the case with an new evga 500w psu and 1tb WD blue. I scored a gtx 750 for, non ti, for 40 bux and sold the whole rig for 300.

I live close to a microcenter which is both a blessing and a curse since my local craigslist is full of builders and everyone wants top dollar even for used gear. Obviously the new stuff right up the road is terrific and I love buying open box to save on new stuff.
 
SvenBent said:
yeah I had nice access to a lot of thrown out computer stuff

my dell printer C3760DN is also a salvaged one. its not the best since it only does 600x600 DPI. buts its a nice workhouse with network and dupleplex print. and has 2 drawers.
I added in256mb notebook memory for a total of 384mb. there was 2 units so ihad 2 sets of used toners. probalby gonna last me lot longer than the samsung printer i had that dies during a thunderstorm...

My bedroom tv is a salvaged 40inch LED tv of soem wierd brandname ive never heard before (Start with a W. i wanna say Wessington) it had a dark spot the side of a thumbprint on it. but for bedroom tv it was a huge upgrade compared the old 28 crt tv.
I did have to pay 30 bucks for it though but still im not complaining :D
Click to expand...

Probably a Westinghouse, I have a 5year old 32" one in my basement.
 
CAD4466HK said:
Probably a Westinghouse, I have a 5year old 32" one in my basement.
Click to expand...
YES thats the name. i didn have the remote though but it worekd with a universal remote i salvede as well. at least for most stuff. the button names are not all correct but hey.. i can live with that :D
 
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