The postman said he might need a hand getting the box from the van. It rattled, it was falling apart and it was heavy. Upon opening I was dismayed at the computer parts loose. An envelope for the ram not sealed, the CPU with the bent pins and so on. It was punt on eBay though. Would it be worth it? The test systems had arrived.
My girlfriend and I identified the parts and cleaned the computer cases.
One of the case before…
After the cleaning with a motherboard fitted…
What I still find surprising in this day and age is the lack of security precautions people take. A hard drive had not been wiped, luckily for them we are not devious. I will run it through dban, which is is ‘Darik’s Boot and Nuke’, to wipe it. Not a simple delete or format, but a DoD standard low level wipe. The ram we will run through memtest to check for integrity.
After testing the motherboards and CPU’s, unfortunately one motherboard and CPU were both dead, but not surprising for the way they were packaged. I built one computer and my girlfriend built another using another working motherboard we have.
So was it worth it? Yes it was as we now have our test bed systems and the unrequired items we will sell.
Shake, rattle and roll!