November 28, 2020

Today I finished my part of the donor computer project - a friend put out 
a call about a week ago looking for a stick of DDR3 and a modernish 
smartphone to be shipped abroad for another mutual friend who is 
not in a great position in terms of finances, health or communicative 
ability - apparently their long time desktop PC had finally bit it and 
they were relying on a busted Note 3 for basically all contact with the 
outside world. The problem with the PC was traced down to the SDRAM so it 
was thought it could be replaced and it could limp along for a bit longer.

I may be all about disaster computing and bringing tired old machines out 
of retirement, but to expect someone in their position to have to rely on 
something like that as, again, *their only means of communication* doesn't 
sound like a very good outcome. Well, some months back when I was working 
on a cheap, entry-level, modernesque build, I picked up a damaged Z270 
chipset mobo for free, and grabbed a used Kaby Lake Pentium and a couple 
sticks of DDR4 to see if I could get an LGA1151 up and going for less than 
a hundred bucks. The mobo, a Gigabyte Z270XP-SLI, was basically the same 
as the one I use in my modern PC (built in '17) except with a different 
color scheme, so getting it going would have been a pretty huge coup - but 
of course I stuck it in a drawer, and forgot about the entire kit until 
this DDR3 thing came up. I offered to try my best to repair the board, and 
send the entire kit instead of just a stick of DDR3, since they really 
needed an entire computer not just for reliability but for compatibility's 
sake.

Yeah well it was too damaged for someone with my skills and resources to 
repair - the socket is actually full blown missing a pin, bent to the 
point of breaking off before it came into my hands. Feeling pretty 
defeated, I got ready to pack up a spare stick of DDR3 and ship it off 
when, as if on cue, one of the recycling centers with which I do business 
sent me a message that they had recently come into possession of a variety 
of ex-mining rigs that they were piecing out, and asked if I would be 
interested in a Gigabyte Z270P-D3 in well-used but good condition. After 
some going back and forth on the price we settled up and I ordered one. 
The unit I ordered showed up yesterday morning, just in time to miss the 
holiday USPS crunch. I opened up the box and couldn't have been happier - 
many of the units I'd seen pictured were coated in mineral oil, or had 
obvious signs of overheating, but besides a little bit of dust, this one 
was in as good of shape as anyone could have hoped for from a second-hand 
motherboard. I finished testing it, as well as the RAM and CPU, this 
morning, everything working out wonderfully. The kit should be ready to 
ship out Monday morning, hopefully arriving in its new home overseas 
safely and in short order.

Build List - Partial
Gigabyte GA-Z270P-D3 (rev 1.0) LGA1151 Mobo
LGA1151 Kaby Lake Pentium G4560
2x4GB Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4


Recepient will be providing their own storage, PSU, and other accessories.