A man reports on Reddit about a friend’s brilliant wall decoration. He buys old motherboards and hangs them in his gaming room.
In our world, there is a lot of waste. With various recycling measures, humanity tries to make the consumption of electronic items more sustainable.
What is the problem with electronic devices? Mobile phones, tablets, laptops, and computers are often disposed of long before the end of their normal life cycle. Although they can be efficiently recycled, they too often end up in drawers and are forgotten there. A user on Reddit now shows how he extends the lifespan of hardware by reusing it as decoration.
This gamer proves that you can be lucky buying old hardware.
Discontinued motherboards as wall decoration
In a post on Reddit, the user “whatHappensImIn” shares a photo of a very special wall decoration with the community.
What is in the picture? In the comments, he explains that this is the gaming setup of a friend. In several arrangements, his buddy currently has 14 old motherboards of different models hung directly above his desk. Right next to it, he also has his gaming PC mounted on the wall.
Where do all the old components come from? As his friend further reports, this was a spontaneous idea. He suddenly went on an online shopping spree and looked for motherboards that he aesthetically liked. Apparently, he found what he was looking for and eventually ordered the discontinued hardware. Not every purchase of old hardware is a good investment, however.
How were the motherboards attached to the wall? The exact procedure is not discussed in the post. However, the photo shows white plates/frames on which all the motherboards were attached. The creative user has again mounted these plates/frames on the room wall.
In further comments, the creator of the post mentions that his friend is not yet finished with his project and is already looking out for more motherboards.
Upcycling instead of recycling
What is upcycling? The idea of giving old objects a new life has been around for a long time. Defective and no longer needed items are not simply disposed of and put back into the raw material cycle.
Instead of selling or scrapping them, many people become very creative and give discarded things in the household a new purpose. This often results in decorative works that are worth seeing. This is then called upcycling instead of recycling. Some people also give away old gaming PCs that no one really wants.
Would recycling be the better alternative? Yes, because the loss of reusable materials within the value chain speaks against it. Especially in electronic waste, there are various rare earths, ores, and metals that can be reused almost without any loss of quality.
This also applies to all electronic devices that languish in any drawers or musty basements. If the user no longer likes his wall decoration at some point, he can still dispose of the motherboards properly.
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