[jinyuan]

Due to the overwhelming respond. we'll temporary stop asking for more donations.
the thread will be temporary locked.




Computers have become part an important part of our lives, but there are low-income families out there who cannot afford a computer for their children.

Hence, the VR community will be starting a PC donation drive. Tenatively, we'll be building 10 computers and donating them to Kampong Kapor Family Service Centre. From there the computers will be donated to low-income families.

You can help us by donating your old working parts or systems!
Anyone who is interested and has parts that meet the requirements below, please indicate your interest and list the items available in this thread. We will contact you as soon as possible about the parts. (For additional discussion or queries,use this thread) so that we can keep this thread neat and relevant.

Minimum Hardware Requirements:

• Processors: Original release date should be less than 6 years ago.
• Motherboards: Original release date should be less than 4 years ago. ATX form factor or smaller derivatives (e.g. micro-ATX, mini-ATX)
• Memory: DDR or newer. Each module should be 256MB or larger. No notebook modules (SO-DIMM) please.
• Hard Disk Drive: Minimum size 40GB, IDE or SATA.
• Graphics Card: AGP or PCIe bus
• Network/Sound Card: PCI or PCIe bus
• Optical Drive: At least CD-ROM, read speed 24x and above. CD-RW, DVD-ROM, DVD-RW drives also welcome.
• Monitor: At least 15", able to display 24/32-bit (true) color. DVI/VGA interface. Please also provide power and DVI/VGA cables.
• Speakers: In pairs please. Nobody wants to receive just a subwoofer or one satellite.
• Power Supply: Minimum 350w. Preferably with power cable.
• Keyboard/Mouse: PS/2 or USB connector.
• Casing: ATX form factor or smaller derivatives (e.g. micro-ATX, mini-ATX)
• Software: We would greatly appreciate it if anyone is kind enough to donate Operating Systems, Productivity (office) or any other original software whose license is still valid for installation on another PC. Software should not have been released more than 4 years ago. See additional notes below.

Additional notes:

• Please donate only items that you are sure are in working condition. We really don't have the time to test everything that comes our way.
• You can donate individual parts, partial systems, or even a full working system!
• We will attempt to piece together a working system from individual parts.
• We will perform a clean software install on completed systems and install patches and important utilities such as productivity suites and anti virus software.
• We will come up with a software installation/setup checklist to standardize this process.
• Note that an OEM copy of Windows is only licensed for installation on one system so please donate only brand new unopened copies. A retail copy of Windows may only be reused on a new system if previous installations have been destroyed, so donate it only if you are not using it or intend to never use it again.

We have established requirements not because we want to be picky, but because we want to ensure that the needy families receive a decent system that can perform work and internet functions. What's the point of giving them an ancient system that cannot even surf the internet or run office software? We also want to avoid being used as a free dumping ground for ancient/obsolete/broken parts.

Please note also that this project is meant to be a VR forums community effort, and not an official VR-Zone project. Hence, please contact me (jinyuan) via PM for any queries related to this project, and not VR-Zone staff/administrators. For those of you who do not know us personally and would like to have some sort of proof that your donated parts are going to charity, we will try to make things as transparent as possible without making the whole thing too troublesome.

Note: Please do not bring down the hardware parts! Please hold on to the parts and indicate in this thread that you have this part.

[jinyuan]

"Hi, please do not bring down the hardware parts to VR. Simply list down the working parts that you are willing to donate. We will get back to you. Check back for updates."


Software check list

1. Open office suite
2. Adobe Reader
3. Free AVG anti virus
4. Free evaluation Winzip or 7Zip
5. CCleaner

[jinyuan]

We Need volunteers! Please indicate in this thread if you're keen in volunteer yourself in helping in this drive.
Including collecting, assembling, testing and delivering the hardware and PCs.

[aikamai]

I got a keyboard and a 2.1 speakers lying around.

Can contribute if you guys need, just let me know where to pass to you guys.

[sabe]

I have some stuff to give, but some of the items are quite big... Where is the collection location?

[goondu86]

I got a Shuttle SS51G, if my friend isn't using that anymore i'll probably cough it up for donation. Where to leave it?

p.s: Also got a Pentium 3 450mhz, if it's even wanted. With motherboard and all, but not known to be working cause it is last turned on when i was in Sec 4, 7-8years ago.

[sabe]

Originally Posted by goondu86

I got a Shuttle SS51G, if my friend isn't using that anymore i'll probably cough it up for donation. Where to leave it?

p.s: Also got a Pentium 3 450mhz, if it's even wanted. With motherboard and all, but not known to be working cause it is last turned on when i was in Sec 4, 7-8years ago.

I think the original post says they not interested in parts older than 4 years old unfortunately.

[jinyuan]

Updated Minimum Hardware Requirements

changes
- Processors: Original release date should be less than 6 years ago.

[pgross]

i gt 1 medium atx case....beige colour..can pm for details

[jinyuan]

Post #2 updated.

[cyberdog]

Hi guys! The charity we're working with is Kampong Kapor Family Service Centre. They have requested for ten PCs for needy families at the moment.

However, we do not have the space to store or work on ten PCs at the same time so we may try two methods of doing this:
A. Cluster approach
- we will find a place to store parts for up to three or four PCs at a time
- when we have enough parts, we will gather a small group of 3-4 volunteers to test and assemble the PCs
B. "Torrent" approach (booest's suggestion)
- we will maintain a pool of volunteers who can each assemble and test one PC at home
- collect enough parts for one PC and pass to one volunteer to work on at home
- collect PCs from volunteers
I think both approaches have pros and cons. We will try both methods depending on factors like the talent pool of volunteers we have, what parts we have at any time, the space we have to store/work on the PCs etc.

What do YOU need to do now???
So now we need you guys to post to register both their interest to help assemble and test parts, as well as what parts you have to donate. Those who want to be part of this project to either donate usable, working parts to help others in need, or who want to put your great skills to work on a worthy cause, register now!!!

I. Volunteers for testing/assembly of hw/installation of sw (can do from home, fly solo? - Yes/No)
1. cyberdog (Yes)
2. Philip (Yes)
3. swiftwing (Yes)
4. 79336951 (Yes)
5.

II. Donors (parts for contribution)
1. cyberdog (1 x ATX casing, 1 x GeForce 6600GT, 2 x GeForce4 MX, 2 x 512MB DDR-333, 1 x KB/Mouse)
2. Philip (PS2 K/B + PS/2 Mouse + IDE CDRW)
3. pgross (ATX casing)
4. aikamai (keyboard, speakers(2.1))
5.

Finally, a friendly reminder guys.. WORKING parts only hor. Pls check the parts are ok BEFORE you pass them to us. It'll be very troublesome if we have to collect and store like 5 PCs worth of parts, then have to test all the parts and troubleshoot just to find enough working components for a single PC So pls tolong tolong ... zidong a bit hor

[Philip]

I can volunteer to assemble + test up to a PC at my place, but my schedule is quite unpredictable so if you need the PC urgently, may be a problem for me.

Can offer a PS2 K/B + PS/2 Mouse + IDE CDRW.

Phil

[DragonFire]

OpenOffice can be used for word proc on these machines. No need for expensive MS stuff.

DF

Edit: You could also try approaching MS in an official VRZ capacity to see if they might be interested in sponsoring a few licenses.

[ColdFusion]

Originally Posted by goondu86

p.s: Also got a Pentium 3 450mhz, if it's even wanted. With motherboard and all, but not known to be working cause it is last turned on when i was in Sec 4, 7-8years ago.

We are glad for the offer. But in order to have a more engaging experience for the less fortunate, we hope to have hardware that is more recent.

[slowmover]

i assemble the parts i can find for this donation today can boot in the first time but when i go power off the computer when the pc is saving the bios now cannot start up liao anyone can help?the rest should be all working but i can't test due to cannot boot-in.should be complete set(short of os) if the bios is fixed

atx casing beige
abit nf7-s ver 2.0
amd 2800+ xp barton socket A
1x patriot 512mb ddr 400 2x geil 256mb ddr 400
nvidia fx5500 agp
tagan 450w psu
1x cdrw
1x dvdrw
40 gig maxtor hdd
1x patriot 512mb ddr 400 2x geil 256mb ddr 400