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First, a story: Some friends of mine who play in my D&D group were hanging out at home when smoke started to fill their apartment. In moments, fire burned through the walls. They made it out with only one phone, no shoes, and one friend only in his boxer shorts. The most heartbreaking detail is that they couldn't even get their cat out in time. The fire was started by a negligent neighbor who'd left their portable AC unit plugged into a power strip and left the apartment. I've been in a position where I lost everything before, and I know what a difference even a little bit of help would have made for me, so I racked my brain thinking of a way I could help. There's no replacing a furry friend, and while they had insurance, I know how long that process could take and most of their receipts would have been lost in the fire, too but I remembered my buddy had a gaming rig that was also destroyed by the fire, so I sprang into action. I had a Ryzen 3400G, Corsair Vengeance LPX 2666Mhz RAM, and a Cooler Master Master Air CPU cooler on-hand after upgrading my system, so my roommate and I went halves on a motherboard, psu, and case to build our friend a little starter rig to upgrade on over time. We went with an Aorus x570-I and a Fractal Ion 650W SFX in a Cooler Master NR200P. When I broke the news to my friends, they were taken aback and very thankful. Then, they sent me a pic of the PC that was in the fire. It honestly didn't look as bad as I would have expected, so I told them to bring it when they come to pick up the new one and we'd see what we can salvage. We spent four hours yesterday cleaning and testing parts. My main hope was to salvage the AMD model Radeon RX 6800 that he had in there, as those cards are still almost double MSRP right now. First, we brushed his Ryzen 5800x with isopropyl alcohol and threw it into my own system to see if it would work. No post. It powered on for a split second, then right back off. My Asus x570-I doesn't have code readouts, so I have no idea what was wrong, but given that CPU is finally back to MSRP, my buddy wasn't too broken up about it. Next we cleaned his 32GB Trident Z Neo RAM and tried those. No post. His m.2 drives were corroded onto his motherboard from the fire hose water, so we just called those a wash. His AIO pump had begun to melt from the fire, so we chucked it, too. Now it was time for the big one, the sleek AMD direct Radeon RX 6800. We cleaned it as best we could without fully disassembling it, then threw it into his new little build. No post. Three of the four outputs were clearly damaged from the fire. The only good one was the DP port that he'd had plugged into his monitor. My friend left my home happy for his new little starter NR200P rig, but disheartened that we couldn't at least save the GPU. Hours go by and I was feeling bored, disappointed, and more than a little stubborn. I had watched a video where Der8auer managed to salvage a burned GPU that looked way worse than my friend's 6800, so I went back to work on it. I removed the top plate, unscrewed the card itself, and brushed the entire thing clean with isopropyl. I took the brush to the outputs, too, focusing on the port that had been blocked by the cord to his monitor during the fire. I blew out the massive heatsink with compressed air to try and rid it of soot and carbon buildup, as well. I'm no expert and I only knew about half of what I was doing, so I didn't want to remove the thermal pads or paste and fully submerge the heatsink or fans in water. I figured maybe, just maybe the amount of cleaning I did was enough. I was half-right. I pulled out my RX 5500xt from my own system and threw in the 6800. To my shock and utter excitement, it POSTED! I was able to boot into Windows with no problems. I immediately FaceTimed my friend to show him my bit of successful necromancy. We had a few laughs and it warmed my heart to hear the relief in his voice. He told me to enjoy the card for a bit before he came to get it, so when I ended the call I loaded Dragon Age Inquisition on Ultra, knowing that everything in my system accept my little 5500xt would handle that game. To my horror, the game ran fine until it reached the character creation screen and everything simply went black. I shut my system down and restarted, but the 6800 would not post an image again. With my spirit broken, I pulled it out and put my 5500xt back in. Sure enough, Radeon software picked up the black screen error, so I sent in the bug report and messaged a screenshot of the error to my friend with heartfelt apologies. By then, it was close to midnight and my resolve had run out, so I went to bed. Now, I've awoken this morning with no more energy left to give this 6800, but hoping at least this online community knows of a place my friend can send his card to be restored. Since it was a fire, we highly doubt AMD would RMA the card, and I think he got it cash from a friend at Microsoft who had the hookup, so he wouldn't have a receipt for the purchase, anyway. If he even DID have a receipt, it would have burned with everything else. PLEASE do not give me any more tips on how I can clean or troubleshoot any of the parts I've mentioned myself, I'd prefer a service or business my friend can send it to possibly restore the card. I gave an entire day off to this effort while sore from the second COVID vaccine, and I have to go back to work. I simply don't have any more time or energy to devote to trying to clean or fix this thing. I'm just hoping for a more affordable option for my friend to salvage it than simply paying twice MSRP for a new one whenever his insurance money comes through. Any suggestions to that end would be greatly appreciated. Thank you and I hope everyone has a fantastic week!

Budget (including currency): Depends Country: Canada Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Next Gen Gaming Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): My Current system is a Lenovo SFF M92 that my father gave to me a few years back that I've boosted to it's max capacity. Specs: WINDOWS 10 64BIT- 16GB DDR3 - MSI GEFORCE GTX 1050 TI 4GB GPU - i7 3770 @ 3.4 GHz - LENOVO 03T7083 MB - SSD QVO 1T - SFF TOWER - MSI 144Hz 1m/s Monitor (surprisingly it's plays a lot of games on ultra settings)*. I've been out of the pc world for a while now since I was using the PS4 as my main entertainment system. I'd like to return to full pc and I'd like some advise if anything is even salvageable other then the SSD Drive in my current system or I need to buy everything new? My goal is to have a Pc capable of playing next gen games on max settings for another 3 - 4 years!! Thanks

Went to start FILSS today and she decided to season 10 herself. I think I've tracked the failure to my EVGA GTX 980 Ti SC, so I'm seeing what can be salvaged. I (fortunately) saw it happen and cut power at the PSU switch fast enough it didn't spread beyond here. But being the motherboard and me being officially laid off a few days ago... I'm worried. I know it's a long shot, but can anything be done here? With the GPU gone, losing the MB (and losing ram/CPU support to age) is gonna put me waaaay in the whole.

hello i would like to make custom loop using CPU block with pump build in like Linus did However as i'm using Corsair iCUE 220T Case i'd like to put in something little more fancier I'm interested in blocks with display Can any of these two be salvaged for their blocks and used for custom loop? GIGABYTE Aorus Liquid Cooler ASUS ROG RYUJIN

I have a Hp Compaq 8200 elite AiO and its display is dead and replacement costs around 300 euros wich wouldn't payoff so i want to salvage core i5 cpu and i want to know is it compatible with other motherboards or just HP motherboard?

I left school today with no obligations to return for another 3 months, and so now I'm faced with the problem of finding things to do over summer! I have a few things planned, like work, recording some new music, hitting the gym, and playing tennis with my team. Those alone though won't keep me busy enough, and I want to do some serious DIY stuff that I didn't have time to during school. I've collected a bunch of computer junk over the past year and I hope to really come up with some unique projects made of these parts. So my question is what are some cool ideas to try involving computers, old smart phones, networking, and electronics? ideas, videos, DIY websites, etc are super welcome and I appreciate the feedback. Will definitely share my products afterward!

Hey there! I was rummaging around my attic and found some old PCs my family had stored there. I'm not too knowledgeable but I was wondering if someone with more expertise would be able to help me appraise them and see if there is anything worth Salvaging. There are three systems and they're pretty old so I don't expect to be able to salvage much out of them. After a quick glance, what I could see might be potentially worth saving are some HDDs, and maaaybe an i3? Could someone help me figure out what's worth saving and some potential uses for the salvaged pieces? System 1: Dell OptiPlex 790 Windows 7 Pro OA Intel core i3 500GB HDD Western Digital (pictured) System 2: Dell XPS 420 Windows Vista Intel core 2 Duo x2 Western Digital 320GB HDD There was a 3rd pc but I just grabbed the HDD out of that, it was the oldest of the three and didn't look promising but i'll attach a picture. Also found an old Nvidia GPU (can't tell what model, picture attached) TLDR: Found some old PCs, wondering if any of the parts are worth saving/selling? Need help appraising. Any help at all would be greatly appreciated, I'm excited to learn something from you guys about this. Regarding possible reuses, any suggestions are welcome! If we do figure out what I can save, I can then separate/repurpose those, but i'm wondering how best to dispose of the left over scrap? Cheers! - Maze

I'm having a dilemma with a bunch of ideas for a build using parts lying around the house after upgrading my main rig. I've ran through 3 build scenarios, though my current X99 board had a 00 error and am not 100% sure whether the motherboard or CPU is fried. I'm basing this on assuming the board needs RMA'd and fixed. They are going for around $250 used on Ebay right now. However, selling these and buying some new core components seems like a good idea. The 2200G build I have is the most enticing financially, but I'm concerned it will be a giant bottleneck with a dedicated GPU pairing like a GTX 1070. I also understand that Computex 2019 is soon, and there could be some stellar new APU's and CPU's coming out for a great price, but I'm basing all this on what is available now. I'm curious to get feedback if any of these builds or paths make sense. I'm trying to do it on the cheap, but not corner myself with no upgrade path or bad bottlenecks. What I have to use 5820K 6-core CPU (assumed working) 32GB Ripjaws 4 G.Skill DDR4 2400 RAM Seasonic X-650W Gold PSU 250GB Intel 520 SSD What needs repaired ASUS X99 Pro 3.1 Motherboard (assume $130 RMA quote) :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: BUILD 1 What must be purchased Video Card ($220) - Nvidia EVGA 1660 XC Heatsink ($35) - Coolermaster Hyper 212 Black RGB Case ($60) - Phanteks P300 TOTAL ESTIMATE: $95 + $130 Mobo Repair + Video Card ($220) GRAND TOTAL Out of Pocket: $445 (before tax) ———————— ———————————————————————— BUILD 2 What I can sell (ebay pricing) 5820K ($150) Fixed Motherboard (-$130 + $250 sale) $120 profit —— Total Profit: $270 Must Purchase Processor ($99) - 2200G Motherboard ($105) - MSI B450 Gaming Plus Case ($60) - Phanteks P300 TOTAL ESTIMATE: $265 subtract $270 in sales GRAND TOTAL Out of Pocket: -$5 (omg I made money... maybe) ———————————————————————————————— BUILD 3 What I can sell (ebay pricing) 5820K ($150) Fixed Motherboard (-$130 + $250 ebay sale) $120 profit —— Total Profit: $270 Must Purchase Processor ($165) - Ryzen 2600 Video Card ($220) - Nvidia EVGA 1660 XC Motherboard ($105) - MSI B450 Gaming Plus Case ($60) - Phanteks P300 TOTAL ESTIMATE: $550 subtract $270 in sales GRAND TOTAL Out of Pocket: $280 (before tax) ———————————————————————————————— or buy dank ass new RTX GPU for my main rig? 2080 or 2080 Ti ($700-$1200) 2-3 year old GTX 1070 would go to all builds (concerned for the 2200G pairing though)

I don’t know if this is the right place to ask this but here we go anyway... I was just given an old computer, a Dell Dimension 3000, and am wondering if there is anything about that is worth salvaging. I’m going to be building two gaming computers soon, for my spouse and myself, and one of them will be used sometimes for streaming. We going to be spending $800-900 on each of them but that is a post for another day. Anyway, is the Dell worth anything more than recycling? I know lots of streamers use a dual pc setup, but I don’t think this Dell would be worth it for that. If I added a few cheap parts could it be used for the secondary streaming pc? If I put some other hard drives in it, could it be a workable NAS replacement? Is there anything that I can do with it that would be worth it? Right now I don’t have a monitor to hook it up to to see how it runs but I was told it boots and runs properly (Windows XP, I think). When I opened it up, I saw that it has an Intel Pentium 4, 2 Gigs of ram, a smallish hard drive, and 250W power supply. I’m prepared for this to just be basically e-waste, but I would love if there is something cool I can do with it.

Hi guys, I recently built a low-end PC (B450, Ryzen 2200G, 16GB DDR4 3200, 450 watts bronze, NVMe) and just as I was setting up, my laptop blacked out and cannot come on again. Are there some things I can salvage from the laptop and add to my build because I am planning on buying a new laptop anyway. The laptop is a 3rd gen Thinkpad x1 carbon with a 1440p touch display

Is there anything that could be repurposed, reused, or have any worth salvaging from an old laptop roughly 8-12 years old?

My fathers gaming laptop's motherboard died, its been sent in for fixing and confirmed that motherboard is dead and nothing can be done. Since I like to tinker and take things apart, I have done a bit of surgery and removed the CPU,GPU's,RAM and wifi module out of the dead laptop, along with other giblets. I would like to repurpose these parts for a desktop for my little brother if possible. I have already took the SSD and SSHD to use for my own desktop, the ssd was the same as my main C drive and I combined their forces for that sweet & speedy raid 0 . Salvaged parts Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-2860QM (2.50GHz) 8MB 12GB SAMSUNG 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (3 x 4GB) 2 x 1.5GB nVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 560M - DirectX® 11 (SLI) GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® N130 802.11N (150Mbps) + BLUETOOTH 18.4" Glossy Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080) 8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW) A 2.0 Megapixel webcam 5 speakers 1 subwoofer Is there any tech guru's wisdom you guys could impart on me that could help me make use of the parts I got, It would be pretty nice to use these parts for a neat little pc. I also got a raspberry pi and an arduino, any ideas for cool projects?

Rememeber, it's not a laptop and its a really old PC. Old enough to have a floppy drive.

As the topic says, about 10 minutes ago a pipe for our dishwasher upstairs broke and got to my PC. My guess is that the GPU is definitely fried, but I was wondering if it's even worth trying to salvage anything else

I have a 2.5" hard drive from an HP Laptop. The Laptop died beyond repair (pinched, frayed wires and smoke), but the hard drive and all my data is safe. I've bought a sata to usb cord to salvage my data and all of that. My question is: is there any way to salvage the copy of Windows 7 that is on it. I know that it is basically assigned to that laptop; but, is there a way to legally change that and save that copy of Windows and make it work on another computer as if nothing happened? I would hate to re-format the drive and lose that install of Windows that is on it if there is any way to actually utilize it and let it not go to waste even though the laptop is a lost cause. --Rainbow I now have 2 people saying it will work, 1 saying it won't. I have thus marked it as unsolved until I can get more input on it...

Heya guys, i would like to know if some of you could help me. I didn't want to set a budget (worst case scenario 500 euros) since im looking for the gear that will allow me to play my games with no restrictions at 1 1080p screen with the possibility to eventually add a second one for utilities, but I'm tight for cash especially for something that isn't work related. Currently i have the following setup: Mobo: Gygabite 970A - D3 CPU: AMD FX 6100, 3.3 GHz GPU: Sapphire HD 6790, 1GB DDR5 RAM: 8GB (2x4GB) 1600 MHz CAS9 Corsair Vengeance Storage: Green Caviar, 5200 rpm 2TB PSU: NOX Uranos 630W I was thinking of playing: The Witcher 3 (Geforce), Star Citizen (AMD), Mass Effect 4 (AMD), Dying Light (AMD), The Division (?), Mad Max (?), Cyberpunk 2077 (?, prob Geforce) and No Man's Sky (?) I also want to stream Star Citizen so I'm wondering about how many parts would be feasible to keep from my old setup. I was considering keeping the CPU, Mobo, RAM and HDD, adding to the storage a 256GB SSD. Regarding the GPU, I've been looking for the past month at GPU's, namely the GTX 960's and R9 280's and both do roughly the same on benchmarks, the problems i see are: The R9 280's - Consume almost double the power, are about to be replaced by the new 3XX series (is the 380 for soon and will it be at a max 250 euro mark?), heat to a point i would have to buy extra cooling The GTX 960's - Have small bandwidth and small memory which i reckon would be terrible for a dual screen setup of streaming and doesn't support mantle (for the epic Star Citizen) Another thing that also makes me tend towards the R9 is that the APU on the PS4 is from AMD so I'm assuming all games made for PS4 will be optimized for AMD technology. I'm also assuming the developers will come to choose developing on AMD's architecture for their PC releases rather than Geforce ( is this fair to say?). Regarding my CPU, will it be enough for all those titles to run at max settings and would it bottleneck the GPU (i have no idea how to check to see if it does)? Reggarding my RAM, will the 8GB be enough or should i start looking for another 8GB (and would it run optimal if i bought from a different brand with the same tension and CAS?) Regarding a SSD, I've had some ppl telling me the EVO from smasung burns out 2 quick. I've watched the WAM where Luke and Linus refer the 18 moth test on SSD's and i get a bit conflicted because on one hand I'm looking for a SSD that will last me at least 6 years but i also want one with a high writing/reading speed (above 400 MB/s). Any advises on which brand/model i should look into? For the PSU I need a new one, since my last one died. I was thinking between Cooler Master and Corsair but i didn't want to go over 70 Euros (btw in Europe/Portugal 70 Euros is like roughly buying anything at 60 USD over at the US or Canada) Sorry for the long post but i hope some of you may point me me towards decision rather than the indecision i'm at right now. Best reggards

I have been wondering if i can salvage Windows 8 on my laptop's HDD and Use the hdd as as the primary drive on a new desktop, so i can use my laptop's windows 8.

Long story short / tl;dr :- *************************** I have spare ddr3 sodimms and 2.5 hdd from my dead laptop, and I am planning to build a low cost itx mini pc to salvage them. The motherboard / soc I am eyeing is Biostar j1900nh2, which comes with sodimm ddr3l slots... and I wanna know if I can use the salvaged ddr3 instead of buying a new set? ************************** Long story long / additional info :- ************************************ So what can I expect the risk to be The board is okay with the ram but ram is running quite quite hot, so all's well? or The board isn't okay with the ram, the system runs but cannot deliver the 6G performance, so not bad, I can hold out on buying till later. or The ram actually fails and becomes unusable, so its back to square one on the buying front, bad outcome. or I end up frying a brand new motherboard and thereby incurring a loss of ₹5k+, worst outcome to ever imagine. HELP!!! PS: if you are wondering why I am so reluctant to buy a new set of ram, it's because 2x 4GB ram modules costs around ₹7k while I am able to round up a mini case, the mb, PSU and a brand new wireless kb+m set in around ₹8k. So if I really need a new set of ram then it'll throw a serious monkeywrench in my budget. PPS: If you are wondering why I am over analysing this its because I believe in calculated risks rather than leap of faiths. PPPS: For reference ₹6k~$100

So I have had this PC for around 4-5 years now... Long story short, I live In Sydney, NSW Australia. I had a Asus GTX 560 Ti As my GPU till it went Boom (Me pushing it past it's limits with OCing for the last 3 years...) And with SWBF (Star wars battlefront) around the corner I really want a decent gaming PC again... I'm currently playing on my Asus N56D Laptop which just barely does what I need... And with a computer expo coming in Early October I want to buy the parts there... So I was hoping for your advice... I have my old desktop computer specs down below, Wanted you guys to talk a look and see where to spend the $$ on upgrading to get the best FPS/Speed for my $. Things I need it to do. -Game for the next 2 years Farly well. (Don't want to Need to upgrade just to play a game on medium settings.) -Watch Youtube/Play Music and Video Well... -Multitask on many internet tabs with ease. -Play Games like World Of Tanks, TF2, Overwatch, SWBF, on High settings (if possible) List of spec's/Pictures Below : AMD Phenom II X4 840 processor 3.2ghz X2 4gb rendition DDR3 Ram Sticks = 8gb Ram. ASRock N68-S3 UCC Motherboard 1TB Hitachi HD 5400RPM Creative Sound Blaster VX SB1070 5.1-Channel PCI Sound Card Logitech Z506 5.1 Surround Sound Speakers LG DVD Burner/Writer Drive Palsonic tftv6042fHD WideTECH "The Max 550" 550Wat Power-supply. World Of Tanks Edition 2014 DeathAdder Razer Mouse. And Mouse Pad. Logitech G930 Headset. Pic's In URL Gallery Located here: http://imgur.com/a/HBed6 Ok with all that said.. I have a few extra bits and pieces I have around the house which I can use to beef Up the new PC: Connectland 3.5" Card Reader 3.5" Internal Card Rear, USB3.0 A 7200RPM 500Gb Hd (Can't remember the Brand atm) BELKIN USB 2.0 3-Port Low Profile PCI Card Model F5U219-LP I will have around $400 AUD to add to the build by the time of my buying. What I was thinking about getting was this: Tell me what You think and what I can And Can not use with my Old PC or tell me what you would do... Thank you so much for your time and input. Have a good day. Edit: Forgot to add speakers and Sound card, Added now.

I'm just a few days from ordering the parts for my build, and I thought I would take any last minute suggestions from you guys before I order. The CPU, RAM, HDD and ODD are all being "salvaged" from my old build, so I won't have to pay for those. Uses will be for moderate gaming at 5760x1080p, and for video editing. I'm a bit concerned that the cooler may not fit in the case, I thought I would have a second look at it from you guys, just to be sure. (Note To use Canadian Retailers please!) PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks CPU: Intel Core i7-3770 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (Purchased For $0.00) CPU Cooler: Enermax ETS-T40-BK 76.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($70.85 @ Newegg Canada) Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($107.84 @ Newegg Canada) Memory: Corsair Vengeance 12GB (3 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (Purchased For $0.00) Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($109.99 @ Canada Computers) Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (Purchased For $0.00) Video Card: PNY GeForce GTX 780 3GB Video Card ($564.98 @ Newegg Canada) Case: Zalman Z11 Plus ATX Mid Tower Case ($95.00) Power Supply: Corsair Enthusiast 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($124.98 @ Newegg Canada) Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($145.00) Case Fan: BitFenix BFF-SCF-12025KK-RP 43.5 CFM 120mm Fan ($6.99) Case Fan: BitFenix BFF-SCF-12025KK-RP 43.5 CFM 120mm Fan ($6.99) Case Fan: BitFenix BFF-SCF-12025KK-RP 43.5 CFM 120mm Fan ($6.99) Case Fan: BitFenix BFF-SCF-12025KK-RP 43.5 CFM 120mm Fan ($6.99) Other: NZXT Sentry Mix 2 ($40.00) Other: NZXT Hue ($48.00) Total: $1334.60 (Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.) (Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-26 19:18 EDT-0400) Reason I'm choosing my own retailers is because it is cheaper without shipping (The Parts from Canada Computers I won't be ordering online) Whatever I'm not getting from CC will be bought from Newegg.ca. The four Bitfenix fans are to replace the blue LED ones pre-installed in the case, as the Hue will be lighting up the whole system. So any final suggestions? Thanks =) EDIT: Changed from a Dark Rock 3 to something of a lesser caliber - I don't need such high performance cooling if I'm not going to overclock.