Eight-year-old gaming PC with Nvidia GTX 1080 found in the trash room gets a second life — offered a substantial upgrade to the finder despite age

a gaming PC rescued from the trash
(Image credit: u/Triggerhappy62 / Reddit)

A Reddit user found a discarded gaming PC while taking out the trash at their upscale apartment building and decided to give it a second life. According to u/Triggerhappy62, the computer appeared to be from around 2017 and contained almost everything needed to make it run, except for storage.

It featured an Intel Core i7-7700 CPU, a Zotac GeForce GTX 1080 GPU, and 16GB (2x 8GB) of DDR4-3000 RAM, all installed on an MSI B250M Gaming Pro motherboard. The entire system is powered by a Corsair CX750 PSU and features an optical drive with a driver disc still inside, as well as a network card. The case itself is branded with Enermax, a custom PC builder known for its high-end builds.

Found a gaming pc from 2017ish while I was taking the trash out at my upscale apartment building. It was in our trash room just sitting there. from r/pcmasterrace

The Core i5-4670K was released in 2013, which means the finder’s current PC is now around 12 years old. So, the find is definitely an upgrade for them. And aside from the missing storage and the extensive dust in the system, the computer was otherwise in good working condition. They just put their 250GB SSD from their old PC into the “new” one, and it’s already running. Although it’s pretty old, the OP is considering some upgrades to make it more useful, such as transferring some of their old fans to their new computer and adding more storage.

u/Triggerhappy62 was concerned that the PC they saved didn’t have another SSD slot, as the MSI B250M only has a single M.2 slot. However, the spec sheet says that it has six SATA ports, allowing them to buy one of the best SSDs to expand the storage on their new system. It also has two additional RAM slots, and users can easily find some of the best RAM kits at a low cost on Amazon to give the system more oomph. Sure, it won’t be able to play the latest AAA games at maximum quality, but that system is still good enough to play a considerable number of modern titles nonetheless.

Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button!

Jowi Morales
Contributing Writer

Jowi Morales is a tech enthusiast with years of experience working in the industry. He’s been writing with several tech publications since 2021, where he’s been interested in tech hardware and consumer electronics.

  • Alvar "Miles" Udell
    Quite literally what is predicted to happen to all PCs like that that were and still are quite capable gaming machines, yet they're not Windows 11 capable (TPM 2.0) in short order.
    Reply
  • USAFRet
    Alvar Miles Udell said:
    Quite literally what is predicted to happen to all PCs like that that were and still are quite capable gaming machines, yet they're not Windows 11 capable (TPM 2.0) in short order.
    This is not "new" nor simply a result of the Win 10-11 change.

    Finds like this have been seen for decades.
    Reply
  • FunSurfer
    Too bad for the finder that Microsoft is soon ending support for Windows 10 and Nvidia is soon ending support for the GTX 1000 series...
    Reply
  • Alvar "Miles" Udell
    USAFRet said:
    This is not "new" nor simply a result of the Win 10-11 change.

    Finds like this have been seen for decades.

    Shh! Can't let people know that this happens all the time and not just because of Windows 11! Then who would they and innumerable publications blame for needing to upgrade?
    Reply
  • CelicaGT
    The amount of semi recent crap that makes its way into my local recycle bin is staggering. One of my relatives recently resurrected a GTX1080Ti GPU they found in the bin, ended up giving it to their kid. This story is cool but by no means unique. I often peak in the bin while I drop of my recycling (small town supported by large industry, you sort your own crap at the local dump) and often find some stuff that could be "valuable". Fortunately I'm not much of a collector and mostly walk away. I do grab some knick knacks if I see some sentimental value or I want it. Recently gripped a wired USB Mac KB that was in decent shape that the waifu was going to spend actual money for online, circa 2010 or so. Cleaned up nice and just had to sort the cable with a soldering iron..
    Reply
  • Notton
    Can confirm. One man's trash is another's gold.
    It's also a hassle to take old electronics to the local electronic waste collection center, which may incur additional fees.
    Which means it's cheaper to drop it off at the curb and hope someone picks it up before it starts to rain.
    Reply
  • Puce Moose
    That's still a solid system - that 1080 was/is a great card. I hung on to my 1060 6GB until just a couple of years ago, since it was such a good card. If you're a 1080p gamer (which I am) that system would likely do what you needed it to for a while longer (Windows / driver limitations might be an issue, of course.)

    Which means it's cheaper to drop it off at the curb and hope someone picks it up before it starts to rain.

    Ha, that brought me back to my last job - I worked in technical services for a rural, rather underfunded school system. The school system didn't budget to build a storage pavilion for hardware we recycled, so it all sat out in the weather until the recycling company picked up each palette of computer hardware. It always pained me to see often functional, but older, hardware just sit out in the rain until the next recycling pick up was scheduled. I still remember seeing mosquito larva squirming around in a laser printer paper tray a few days after a rainstorm.
    Reply
  • ezst036
    Discarded computers were never unheard of over the years but it is happening these days at an accelerated rate.

    Some people want to feign as if nothing has changed and TPM is having no influence whatsoever. Stop pretending, please, this is not drama class.

    The speed is clearly faster and the e-waste is obviously happening faster right now.
    Reply
  • mike.stavola
    I recently bought an 8700k/1080ti system for $20 at goodwill. Came with a 240mm AIO, 32GB of 3600MT/s RAM, and a 1TB SSD. Apparently nobody wanted it and it ended up going to the outlet.
    It powered up and ran, but the video card just needed some new thermal paste.
    Reply
  • uplink-svk
    That computer will go great with new owners' phone/camera 👌🏻
    Reply