Possibility to make hardware donations/gifts to PG

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spider220075
Posts: 11
Joined: Tue Jun 21, 2011 1:09 am
Hardware configuration: #1: [email protected], 2xGTX570, 6GB CL9, windows 7 x64
#2: [email protected], 2xGTX580, 12GB CL8, windows 7 x64
#3: dual Xeon [email protected], 24GB CL9, linuxmint 14 x64
#4: quad Opteron [email protected], 32GB CL9, linuxmint 11 x64
#5: [email protected], no vga, 8GB CL9, windows 7 x64
Location: Greece

Possibility to make hardware donations/gifts to PG

Post by spider220075 »

Would it be possible for someone to send hardware to support the PG instead of money?
I'm sure we all have spare hardware items we can't/don't use anymore. So, why leave them inactive?
Ideally, the PG could issue, let's say, once a month a list with their needs in hardware and whoever sees in that list an item he owns that doesn't need anymore he may donate it.

Could we elaborate some more on this?
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7im
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Re: Possibility to make hardware donations/gifts to PG

Post by 7im »

Used hardware could be problematic to support. Reliability might be questioned. New or unused hardware might be necessary for such a program.

Sell the used hardware on eBay, and then donate the funds. ;)
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spider220075
Posts: 11
Joined: Tue Jun 21, 2011 1:09 am
Hardware configuration: #1: [email protected], 2xGTX570, 6GB CL9, windows 7 x64
#2: [email protected], 2xGTX580, 12GB CL8, windows 7 x64
#3: dual Xeon [email protected], 24GB CL9, linuxmint 14 x64
#4: quad Opteron [email protected], 32GB CL9, linuxmint 11 x64
#5: [email protected], no vga, 8GB CL9, windows 7 x64
Location: Greece

Re: Possibility to make hardware donations/gifts to PG

Post by spider220075 »

That is correct, but I'm not talking only about server class hardware or used items. Donors could send desktop hardware as well, to be used in ordinary machines that do every day's paperwork. Or the donated items could be stored by the PG as spare. There are a lot of circumstances. I personally bought some ECC memory i never used in the end and it's brand new in it's box (sealed). I tried to sell it but i couldn't (just to give an example :ewink: )
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#1: i7 950, 2x GTX570 | #2: i7 970, 2x GTX580 | #3: 2x Xeon E5649 | #4: 2x Xeon E5520 | #5: 4x Opteron 6128
VijayPande
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Location: Stanford

Re: Possibility to make hardware donations/gifts to PG

Post by VijayPande »

In order to have some systematic sysadmin of our servers, we try to keep things as uniform as possible. Also, old hardware has a way of breaking, and maintaining service contracts on them can be expensive. So, while donations of hardware is a very generous gesture, 7im's suggestion of selling the hardware and then donating the funds would be much, much more practical for us and in most cases, old servers aren't useful.
Prof. Vijay Pande, PhD
Departments of Chemistry, Structural Biology, and Computer Science
Chair, Biophysics
Director, Folding@home Distributed Computing Project
Stanford University
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