As I have said many times before, I hang out on Marketplace far too much for my own good, but it is an essential source of stuff that I have used over the years for my zero cost computer hobby, I have not kept an exact spreadsheet of my accounts, but I can confidently say that this obsession of mine is mostly "net zero" when it comes to what is a most enjoyable hobby.
Yesterday I bought a computer case at a price of $50 and it is a nice case, a Corsair Carbide 270R with a single rear fan, very good black case for a future build. There was a motherboard in the case with some bent CPU pins and an 8GB stick of DDR4 RAM, which in todays prices is worth $35 alone.
I will attempt to fix the motherboard, although the CPU pins are very tiny and I am not sure my hands are steady enough to not do more damage, however, nothing to lose.
<time passes>
In the afternoon I spent a (sort of) relaxing hour with the motherboard, a jewelers loupe and my best soldering tweezers, there were eight bent pins, but no broken ones, I aligned them to the best of my ability and then installed a 9th Generation Intel G4930T CPU and stock cooler (which had cost me $5 a year ago) and quite surprisingly, everything seemed to be working. This morning I put the motherboard up on marketplace for $40 (they sell on eBay for $110 without CPU) and it was bought in half an hour, the purchaser was very happy and that meant so was I as the case now cost me only $15, not forgetting that free stick of DDR4.
Shortly after that I saw another case for sale in town, just around the corner, it was only $20 and I could not resist, I have not built a computer in a white case for a long time, in fact probably never as they used to be beige or cream coloured back when I started. The case is a Fractal Design Pop Air and the seller said that the power button was temperamental and the case audio jacks did not work, so instead of recycling it he wanted to sell on marketplace.
This is the "some things make no sense whatsoever" moment as the case appears to be pristine and new ones are listed on Amazon for $150, plus there are two extra 120mm fans installed in the "used" one. I brought it home, took the back off the case and the HD Audio plug looks like it has never been plugged into the motherboard socket, and I sprayed the power button with contact cleaner and it appears to be fine, I will get my multimeter out at some point and waste more time on it.
Unlike us old farts, young people nowadays do not seem to try and troubleshoot anything, as soon as something is not working it is classified as e-waste and banished to the dump or sold for pennies on the dollar on marketplace. I don't get it, but in a way, I am glad that it happens.
As for the motherboard buyer, who is a locel, repeat customer, an older chap, we messaged back and forth today while he straightened the pins more to his satisfaction and installed a more powerful i5-8500 CPU. It was fun but by the end of it, we both agreed that we deserved a beer; our eyes were so strained that we decided if we ever do this again, we’re definitely investing in a digital microscope.
Future builds in both of the above cases will be discussed here on the blog, along with fresh beers.
Happy Hunting!!
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