The joys of skip diving

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My son was bored last night, so decided to do a bit of skip diving.
Result. An older PC with a 6 core 12 thread 3960X processor on a workstation class motherboard (X79), with 8 memory slots populated with 16GB of memory and an Nvidia GTX 970 GPU. In a decent case able to hold 9 hard disks.
Best thing is it all works, My server has been upgraded now populated with 40GB memory, And can now stream 4K video from Plex without buffering.
And my son will have a bit of extra pocket money selling the GTX in these times if GPU shortages. The whole thing scored 10,500 in Firestrike benchmark.

A high-end motherboard can certainly improve disk and network performance, as on paper it should have only been a minor upgrade (original server had an i7 4770S

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Comments

  • McTootMcToot Frets: 2041
    I literally didn't understand a single word of that. But it sounds very impressive.

    The only time I ever did any skip diving I was very drunk and got a broken nose and dislocated finger. 

    Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder


    My trading feedback  - I'm a good egg  ;) 

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  • EricTheWearyEricTheWeary Frets: 16253
    One of those things that I thought was technically illegal but a quick google says not ( unless it involves trespass onto private property). 
    We had a skip at the front of our house which unfortunately overhung the pavement slightly, big skip and slopping garden means the offending corner was roughly head height. Our next door neighbour expressed his concerns to us 'that could have a blind man's eye out.'
    So, if we see a skip now we often have a little family chorus of 'that could have a blind man's eye out.'   

    Well done to your son, although I'm with @McToot in not understanding the detail. 
    Tipton is a small fishing village in the borough of Sandwell. 
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  • Switch625Switch625 Frets: 576
    So he goes out looking for skips to rummage through? That's a thing? I've heard of dumpster diving in the US but I didn't know it was a thing here.
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  • Axe_meisterAxe_meister Frets: 4612
    Essentially a 10 year old workstation, that would have cost 1000s, but can still hold it's own today.
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  • Switch625 said:
    So he goes out looking for skips to rummage through? That's a thing? I've heard of dumpster diving in the US but I didn't know it was a thing here.
    It’s more of a,find someone else’s skip and Chuck all your crap in it when it’s dark, thing over here!
    www.maltingsaudio.co.uk
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  • Axe_meisterAxe_meister Frets: 4612
    Switch625 said:
    So he goes out looking for skips to rummage through? That's a thing? I've heard of dumpster diving in the US but I didn't know it was a thing here.
    It's amazing what you can find, especially when you wander around the weathier areas, we have found quite a few antique tables and cabinets in the past that were completely serviceable. Just goes to show what a throw away society we have become.
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  • GizmoGizmo Frets: 1072
    @Axe_meister ;Nice find :) i really can't beliver the stuff ppl throw away! i picked up a 2tb HDD from a sky box the other day just left on the street....anywoes How much does your son want for that Nvidia GTX 970 btw? might be interested for a budget 1080p build for a mate?
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  • lovestrat74lovestrat74 Frets: 2489
    I've had old stock bricks and victorian doors out of skips before, but never anything with an X in it
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  • SassafrasSassafras Frets: 30273
    edited March 2021
    Been doing it for years.
    It really is amazing what people throw away.
    I reckon half the 58 Les Paul Bursts have been scavenged from skips.
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  • RandallFlaggRandallFlagg Frets: 13929
    edited March 2021
    Bunch of skip sniffers. "I bet he's from North Lynn" is what you would hear 'round my town.

    Don't fall asleep in a skip. Sage advice that.


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  • JohnS37JohnS37 Frets: 345
    About 50 years ago I was driving through Wimbledon and saw a Vox T60 cabinet poking out of a big skip.  Naturally I jumped out and grabbed it while nobody was looking.  No speakers, but a complete cab.  Strange.
    It sat, unused, in my Dad’s garage for about five years until I got my own house.  Then I sawed it in half and made it into a cooker hood.  Boom boom!
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  • RolandRoland Frets: 8590
    The wood for this came from a skip


    Tree recycler, and guitarist with  https://www.undercoversband.com/.
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  • Axe_meisterAxe_meister Frets: 4612
    Gizmo said:
    @Axe_meister ;Nice find :) i really can't beliver the stuff ppl throw away! i picked up a 2tb HDD from a sky box the other day just left on the street....anywoes How much does your son want for that Nvidia GTX 970 btw? might be interested for a budget 1080p build for a mate?
    He's sticking it on eBay for $180 buy it now. Given the current shortages, bidding can take them much higher.
    He sold an AMD 470 during the first mining craze for £300.

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  • boogiemanboogieman Frets: 12314
    My cousin fished an old amp out of a skip in the 90s, which turned out to be a working 1960s Vox AC30. He tried using it at home but it was far too loud so he took it into Macaris in Charing Cross Road. The guy looked at it, pronounced it “a bit tatty. So I can only give you £300 for it.” 
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  • Danny1969Danny1969 Frets: 10356
    My first real job when I was still at school was working on Havant tip. Back in those days there was no special bin for anything other than metal. So myself and a few other lads were paid £12 a 12 hour day to jump in the huge containers and fish out anything which could be resold. We even split open all the black bins bags and when through those. We collected TV's and record players before the could be chucked in the containers, push bikes, air rifles, huge collections of porn, tools, clothes. We weren't allowed to have any of this stuff, we had to buy it out of our wages so we used to slide the best stuff under the containers and go back at night to steal it. 
    When you work somewhere like that you can literally make anything for nothing as eventually all the parts you need will be thrown away. We all rode amazing bikes for the time and had expensive Hi Fi's and Sony Trinitron TV's ... which were considered the best available for many years.  A TV was quite easy to fix back then, most faults being bad joints on the flyback transformer and blown bridge rects. Once I was decked out myself I still repaired the stuff but sold it on. I still miss that job. 
    These days I can't walk past a skip without having a good look in it. 
    www.2020studios.co.uk 
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  • KeikoKeiko Frets: 962
    When I first read your post I thought 'skip diving' was an IT term. Now it makes more sense knowing that you took something out of an actual skip.
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  • Jimbro66Jimbro66 Frets: 2418
    edited March 2021
    A fairly battered mid-sixties Fender blackface amp chassis spotted in a skip provided several serviceable original components to suit my Tremolux. 
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  • BahHumbugBahHumbug Frets: 349
    boogieman said:
    My cousin fished an old amp out of a skip in the 90s, which turned out to be a working 1960s Vox AC30. He tried using it at home but it was far too loud so he took it into Macaris in Charing Cross Road. The guy looked at it, pronounced it “a bit tatty. So I can only give you £300 for it.” 
    Point of order your honour.  Surely an AC30 would have to be craned out of a skip, not fished......
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  • Last autumn we were having some building work done at home and had a skip on our drive. I woke up one morning to find that two large flat screen TVs had been dumped in there. One looked ok ( a slightly older JVC) so I fished it out and it was working absolutely fine. I’ve got it in my man cave now. The only thing is it doesn’t have the remote. I might get an Amazon fire stick for it when they’re cheap to get some streaming services on there.
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  • SassafrasSassafras Frets: 30273
    Bunch of skip sniffers. "I bet he's from North Lynn" is what you would hear 'round my town.

    Don't fall asleep in a skip. Sage advice that.
    Why not? 
    There's Always a mattress in every skip.
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