I don't know about your specific area, but there are charities and nonprofits that take old hardware, refurb it and give or sell for cheap to disadvantaged folks. I guess there's less need for them these days now that everyone has a phone, but there might be say, students that need one for typing stuff up, unemployed that need to write job applications, etc.
this post was submitted on 19 Feb 2026
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Sustainable Tech
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Thanks, I'll see if I can find anything.
People are keeping hardware a lot longer, an 8th gen i7 might not be as worthless as you think it is. Back on topic though, Best Buy typically offers free e-waste recycling. Could probably do a little better from an ethical standpoint, but could do a lot worse and we can almost guarantee you have one reasonably nearby.
For the hard drive though, I would never give anyone any hard drive you've owned ever unless you're absolutely 100% sure it has never processed any data you wouldn't want to be public. Remove the HDD and take it apart, the platters make fun mirrors.
Btw, shiny platter lol.
Don't post that, people can read your data! Obviously I'm kidding.
If you've never taken one apart before, the disk head can make an excellent ray gun for the right action figures and the magnets are a lot of fun but can be deceptively strong. Don't let two hard drive magnets touch, you might never get them apart again.
I have opened some before, but every single time, I'm just kind of awestruck that this thing actually works. It's such a delicate dance of these rapidly moving components, it's hard to even comprehend. SSDs are much much simpler in comparison.
Thanks. Yeah, I would take the HDD of course. I don't know if I'll take it apart, but definitely not giving it away lol.
Also, in case someone wants the rest of the machine for any reason, I'm happy to send it over if they just pay for shipping.
Got any local makerspaces? Someone there would probably be interested in it.
I guess I can try facebook marketplace. But then I'll have to reactivate my account. The local food pantry does keep some hardware. (I once found a VGA cable there lol.) I'll talk to them to see if they'll accept it in this condition.
Without ram it's almost cruel to donate it to places that have no clue wtf to do with it. Many will just chuck it because "it doesn't work"
But an 8th gen i7 is good enough that plenty of people would be interested for the right place. List it for cheap on something like FB Marketplace. Don't offer it for free on there.