Uploaded October 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Sponsor: Montech HS01 Pro on Amazon geni.us/UYLeZn and HS02 Pro geni.us/ABM9fEB
Earlier this year, we worked with a local computer refurbishing and e-waste recycling organization to part-out computers that were discarded by everyone from end users to corporations. These laptops and desktops can be saved, or in the very least, the valuables (like aluminum and copper) can be removed and smelted down into reusable materials. Parts like CPUs can be repurposed into computers with broken CPUs or used in education, good batteries can be taken from laptops with dead motherboards and installed into laptops with dead batteries, and so forth. Kramden organizes these "Geek-a-Thon" events and Steve attended one nearly 20 years ago, but this time, he got to see how they actually arrange them.
This event was super fun! Not everything in here is because of Windows 10 support ending; Kramden does this all the time, for any computer or reason. That's also why you see some Macs in here. Some more background if you're curious: Kramden gets a mix of e-waste and donated / retired machines from local individuals and from companies. Sometimes, these have perfectly good hardware, sometimes they have one or two broken things. They then work with volunteers (like in this episode) to reclaim anything valuable that could be used for education or cobbled-together into a new machine. A good example is the 12700K: This was in there because some company or person got rid of the computer, but obviously that's still a great part. The next step is to identify whatever was broken in the system, save the good parts, and repurpose them (or sell them to fund the classroom program). Anything unusable, such as just broken hardware or obsolete hardware, is broken down into recyclables and trash, sorted, and sent to the right groups to smelt down or dispose of. They are awesome.
Buy our Honey Pot charity T-shirt! Profits get split between Kramden, Archive.org, and PIRG: store.gamersnexus.net/products/honey-pot-foil-tshirt-100pct-cotton-limited
Find Kramden here! kramden.org (they do local sales also of donated items, sometimes including things we drop off!)
Find Canonical and Ubuntu here: ubuntu.com
Watch our RAM installation competition at Kramden previously: youtube.com/watch?v=9x8FeaX71tg
The best way to support our work is through our store: store.gamersnexus.net
Like our content? Please consider becoming our Patron to support us: patreon.com/gamersnexus
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - Saving Computers
03:32 - The Goal Today
06:24 - No More Optical Drives or IDE Drives
08:00 - Laptop and Desktop Test Procedure
08:30 - GN Tears Desktops Apart
11:59 - Ubuntu OS Load and GPU Testing
13:12 - Viewers Saving Laptops from the Garbage
15:25 - Finding the GN Crew
15:57 - Viewers Salvaging Desktop Parts
17:28 - What Happens to the Metal
19:37 - A Teaching Moment
20:39 - Getting Ubuntu onto Laptops
24:39 - Garage Sale
** Please like, comment, and subscribe for more! **
Links to Amazon and Newegg are typically monetized on our channel (affiliate links) and may return a commission of sales to us from the retailer. This is unrelated to the product manufacturer. Any advertisements or sponsorships are disclosed within the video ("this video is brought to you by") and above the fold in the description. We do not ever produce paid content or "sponsored content" (meaning that the content is our idea and is not funded externally aside from whatever ad placement is in the beginning) and we do not ever charge manufacturers for coverage.
Follow us in these locations for more gaming and hardware updates:
t: twitter.com/gamersnexus
f: facebook.com/gamersnexus
w: gamersnexus.net
Our policies, processes, and ethics statements relating to review samples, advertising, travel, errors, and more are transparently and publicly available on this page: https://gamers.nexus/ethics-statements
Steve Burke: Host, Editing
Patrick Lathan: Desktop Tear-Down
Jeremy Clayton: Laptop Rework
Vitalii Makhnovets: Camera, Editing
Tim Phetdara: Laptop Rework
Jimmy Thang: Laptop Rework
Andrew Coleman: Camera
Patrick Stone: Desktop Tear-Down
Kramden Team: Hosting, leading, and organizing!
Sponsor: Montech HS01 Pro on Amazon geni.us/UYLeZn and HS02 Pro geni.us/ABM9fEB
Earlier this year, we worked with a local computer refurbishing and e-waste recycling organization to part-out computers that were discarded by everyone from end users to corporations. These laptops and desktops can be saved, or in the very least, the valuables (like aluminum and copper) can be removed and smelted down into reusable materials. Parts like CPUs can be repurposed into computers with broken CPUs or used in education, good batteries can be taken from laptops with dead motherboards and installed into laptops with dead batteries, and so forth. Kramden organizes these "Geek-a-Thon" events and Steve attended one nearly 20 years ago, but this time, he got to see how they actually arrange them.
This event was super fun! Not everything in here is because of Windows 10 support ending; Kramden does this all the time, for any computer or reason. That's also why you see some Macs in here. Some more background if you're curious: Kramden gets a mix of e-waste and donated / retired machines from local individuals and from companies. Sometimes, these have perfectly good hardware, sometimes they have one or two broken things. They then work with volunteers (like in this episode) to reclaim anything valuable that could be used for education or cobbled-together into a new machine. A good example is the 12700K: This was in there because some company or person got rid of the computer, but obviously that's still a great part. The next step is to identify whatever was broken in the system, save the good parts, and repurpose them (or sell them to fund the classroom program). Anything unusable, such as just broken hardware or obsolete hardware, is broken down into recyclables and trash, sorted, and sent to the right groups to smelt down or dispose of. They are awesome.
Buy our Honey Pot charity T-shirt! Profits get split between Kramden, Archive.org, and PIRG: store.gamersnexus.net/products/honey-pot-foil-tshirt-100pct-cotton-limited
Find Kramden here! kramden.org (they do local sales also of donated items, sometimes including things we drop off!)
Find Canonical and Ubuntu here: ubuntu.com
Watch our RAM installation competition at Kramden previously: youtube.com/watch?v=9x8FeaX71tg
The best way to support our work is through our store: store.gamersnexus.net
Like our content? Please consider becoming our Patron to support us: patreon.com/gamersnexus
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - Saving Computers
03:32 - The Goal Today
06:24 - No More Optical Drives or IDE Drives
08:00 - Laptop and Desktop Test Procedure
08:30 - GN Tears Desktops Apart
11:59 - Ubuntu OS Load and GPU Testing
13:12 - Viewers Saving Laptops from the Garbage
15:25 - Finding the GN Crew
15:57 - Viewers Salvaging Desktop Parts
17:28 - What Happens to the Metal
19:37 - A Teaching Moment
20:39 - Getting Ubuntu onto Laptops
24:39 - Garage Sale
** Please like, comment, and subscribe for more! **
Links to Amazon and Newegg are typically monetized on our channel (affiliate links) and may return a commission of sales to us from the retailer. This is unrelated to the product manufacturer. Any advertisements or sponsorships are disclosed within the video ("this video is brought to you by") and above the fold in the description. We do not ever produce paid content or "sponsored content" (meaning that the content is our idea and is not funded externally aside from whatever ad placement is in the beginning) and we do not ever charge manufacturers for coverage.
Follow us in these locations for more gaming and hardware updates:
t: twitter.com/gamersnexus
f: facebook.com/gamersnexus
w: gamersnexus.net
Our policies, processes, and ethics statements relating to review samples, advertising, travel, errors, and more are transparently and publicly available on this page: https://gamers.nexus/ethics-statements
Steve Burke: Host, Editing
Patrick Lathan: Desktop Tear-Down
Jeremy Clayton: Laptop Rework
Vitalii Makhnovets: Camera, Editing
Tim Phetdara: Laptop Rework
Jimmy Thang: Laptop Rework
Andrew Coleman: Camera
Patrick Stone: Desktop Tear-Down
Kramden Team: Hosting, leading, and organizing!
