Comment by PorciiVorbesc
2 hours ago
>a Core Ultra 7 that I got from work (e-waste recycling)
How the hell does a high end CPU that's barely 2 years old end up in e-waste recycling? Was Richie Rich using them or something?
2 hours ago
>a Core Ultra 7 that I got from work (e-waste recycling)
How the hell does a high end CPU that's barely 2 years old end up in e-waste recycling? Was Richie Rich using them or something?
> Was Richie Rich using them or something?
Sort of: there were about half a dozen in micro PCs in a load picked up from a hospital. I was kinda bummed that they were BIOS password locked (as were the other PCs from there). The model didn't have a password reset jumper (or any reset mechanism outside of contact Dell support with proof of purchase), so I couldn't sell them as whole systems, and stripped them for parts.
We get DDR5-based systems from time to time, but they're understandably rare. Most of the time, they still work. My rule: any day I come across DDR5 is a good day.
But why was the hospital throwing away what was essentially new high end systems that can run all the latest SW and operating systems? For what reason? It just makes no sense to me. Or am I too poor of a peasant to understand?
Are you by any chance in some super-rich part of the US? Because then no wonder your healthcare is so expensive when hospitals treat high end PCs as single use disposables. Here in Europe I sometimes see hospitals and doctors practices using 10+ year old PCs and still rocking the old 17-19 inch 1280x1024 CCFL LCD monitors from like the mid-2000s.
Regardless, I'd love to just run into high end PCs being thrown away here and pick them up for free, but where I live I see people barely throwing away their value-line Dell/HP Core 2 Duo towers with audacity to ask for 25+ Euros for their e-waste with the classic "no lowballs, I know what I got" attitude.
> For what reason? It just makes no sense to me. Or am I too poor of a peasant to understand?
I don't understand it either. Two scenarios make sense to me:
Somewhat probable: everyone in a department got upgraded, no exceptions. 'This is a really nice PC, but the boss says it has to go.' (There were about 100 i5 9th gen mini PCs (still OK), and 500 t640 thin clients in that same load.)
Less probable: some department got closed and cleaned out.
> Are you in some rich part of the US?
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Not particularly rich (rust belt), but healthcare is a significant part of the local economy. About 90% of healthcare here seems to run on HP, but Dells can appear.
> Here in Europe I sometimes see hospitals and doctors practices using 10+ year old PCs and still rocking the old 17-19 inch 1280x1024 CCFL LCD monitors from like the mid 2000s.
My stomach turns seeing the dozens of 24" probably 1080p monitors we scrap every day. Pretty much all are significantly scratched when they come off the truck, otherwise reselling them might be good business.
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