The “Scrounger’s Manifesto” & Wishlist
“I built this system on mostly scrounged gear. There’s always gaps, and parts needed for upgrades. I believe in Data Sovereignty and the Right to Repair—keeping capable hardware out of the landfill and putting it to work for our community. Below is my current ‘Wanted’ list for ongoing builds.”
Phase 1: The Workstation (Dell Precision M4800)
This is my daily driver and the heart of the project. I’m looking for:
- Graphics: Nvidia Quadro M2000M (Dell version) with the “X” bracket/carrier.
- Storage: mSATA Drives (64GB minimum) & Standard SSDs/M.2 drives.
- Memory: 2x 8GB DDR3L 1600MHz Laptop RAM (to hit 32GB total).
- Hardware: Internal HDD Carrier/Caddy for the M4800.
Phase 2: The “Big Iron” Node (128GB RAM Dream)
I am hunting for these specific Workstation towers. If you have one sitting in a closet, even if it’s ‘dead,’ I want it for the chassis and 8-slot motherboard:
- Dell Precision: T5810, T7810, or 5820.
- HP Z-Series: Z440, Z640, or Z840.
- Lenovo ThinkStation: P500, P510, or P520.
Phase 3: Tiny Nodes (Micro/SFF Servers)
Small but mighty. I use these for distributed AI tasks and dedicated hosting:
- Dell OptiPlex Micro: 7040, 7050, or 7060.
- HP EliteDesk Mini: G2, G3, or G4.
- Lenovo Tiny: M900 or M910q.