Donate HARDWARE

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Help us make research computing accessible for all

Proudly Canadian — supporting research across the country.

Donate Hardware

Turn surplus gear into Canadian research. myresearchcloud.ca is a nonprofit, sovereign research cloud operated by Computing for Humanity. We give under‑served researchers and citizen scientists access to CPU/GPU compute and storage entirely in Canada. Your hardware donations directly expand free and low‑cost capacity.

What We Accept

  • If it takes DDR4 ECC, we can usually use it

  • Rack‑mount servers (HPE, Dell, Lenovo, Supermicro)

  • GPUs: NVIDIA A/H‑series, L40/L40S, V100, T4; AMD MI‑series

  • Enterprise storage (SAS/NVMe SSDs, 8–22 TB HDDs)

  • Networking: 10/25/40/100 GbE, InfiniBand

  • Power & rack gear (PDUs, rails, UPS, cables)

How It Works

  1. Submit Form – list models, specs, photos

  2. Engineering Review – 3–5 business days

  3. Logistics – pickup, drop‑off, or shipping labels

  4. Intake & Testing – sanitize, rack, deploy

  5. Acknowledgement – letter, impact report, optional recognition

Submit Donation Form ↓

Why It Matters

  • Expand Free Instances for students & early‑career researchers

  • Keep Research Sovereign – Canadian data stays in Canada

  • Sustainability – extend hardware life, reduce e‑waste

  • Training Impact – GPUs support AI/ROCm workshops

Tax Receipts (Canada)

Computing for Humanity does not issue CRA tax receipts for hardware donations. Instead, donors receive:

  • Acknowledgement Letter

  • Impact Report

  • Optional public recognition

Minimum Condition & Packaging

  • Boots to BIOS, no critical faults

  • Rails/bezels included if possible

  • Pack servers with rails or foam end‑caps; drives in caddies or anti‑static sleeves

  • Include non‑standard power cords (C19/C20, locking)

Detailed List

Servers (High Priority)

  • Minimum standard: If it takes DDR4 ECC memory, we can usually accept it

  • Form factors: Rack‑mount 1U/2U/4U (HPE, Dell, Lenovo, Supermicro, Tyan, or similar)

  • CPU: Intel Xeon Scalable (Skylake, Ice Lake, or newer), or AMD EPYC (Naples and newer)

  • Memory: DDR4/DDR5 ECC (≥128 GB per node preferred)

  • Storage bays: 2.5"/3.5" SAS/SATA/NVMe; RAID or HBA supported

  • NICs: 10 GbE+ (SFP+ preferred). 25/40/100 GbE and InfiniBand (FDR/EDR/HDR) welcome

  • Management: Remote management (iLO/iDRAC/XCC/IPMI) with licenses transferable

GPUs & Accelerators (Urgent Need)

  • NVIDIA: A/H‑series, L40/L40S, L4, 3080 and above (teaching)

  • AMD: MI‑series, Radeon Instinct, ROCm‑capable GPUs

  • Others: Intel Data Center GPUs, FPGA cards (Xilinx/Intel)

Storage (Urgent Need)

  • Drive types: Enterprise SAS/SATA/NVMe (1.2 TB+ SAS 10K/15K; 1.6 TB+ SSDs; 8–22 TB HDDs)

  • Arrays/Appliances: JBOD/JBOF, Ceph‑capable nodes, NVMe enclosures, ZFS shelves

  • Controllers: HBAs (IT mode), 12 Gb/s SAS expanders, NVMe switch cards

Networking & Fabric

  • Switches: 10/25/40/100 GbE, InfiniBand FDR/EDR/HDR

  • Optics/cabling: SFP+/QSFP(+/28/56/112), DAC/AOC, patch panels

Power & Rack Infrastructure

  • PDUs (metered/switched), UPS modules, rails, bezels, blanking panels, cable kits

Note: We can accept partial lots (RAM kits, CPUs, NICs) if they match our platforms. Consumer/desktop gear is out of scope unless part of a teaching lab.

What We Cannot Use

  • Laptops, tablets, printers, monitors (except GPU workstations with approval)

  • Consumer NAS (non‑ECC, single‑disk)

  • Damaged, missing‑parts, or password‑locked equipment

  • Spinning disks with SMART failures or >60,000 power‑on hours

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Can you take partial lots? Yes — send inventory, we’ll optimize deployment.

  • Can you de‑install our lab? For ≥10 servers or heavy gear, we can schedule on‑site teams.

  • Will you recycle unusable items? Yes, via R2/EPRA‑certified partners.

  • Do you accept long‑term loans? Generally no, but we can discuss sponsored capacity.

  • Can donations be recognized publicly? Yes — logo placement, case studies, LinkedIn posts.

Donation Form