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Not to be rude, but what on Earth -- no pun intended -- are you trying to tell or show us? I just don't get it.
Let me get this straight -- you just got two more 2GB memory modules for your system to add to the 4GB of RAM you already had, and now you have 8GB of RAM? And furthermore, you got the RAM for a measly one British pound per 2GB module?
OK, that's a bit impressive, I suppose. But are you saying this for promotional purposes, or to tell us how cheap you got the RAM?
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Oh, I get it now. I just realized that this is an Intel Core 2-based system that you expanded! OK, that is a pretty old system by modern standards -- that's something you couldn't do with certain proprietary operating systems... Ubuntu MATE certainly rocks for that purpose! 
And you titled this "Eco worriers are we" because that's yet another perfectly good computer system that isn't winding up as e-waste yet. Well done! 
But one question remains. Is it really true that you got 4GB of (I'm guessing) DDR2 RAM for 2 British pounds, effectively? Wow. Were they low-quality RAM modules, or were they just super-discounted since nobody else wants them anymore and dropping the price to miniscule levels is an alternative to throwing them out?
I'm guessing the latter for now.
Well, thanks for sharing that with us, even if what you wrote took a lot of head-scratching on my part!
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Seems so! CeX in the UK is a second hand shop (with stores and online)
I'd definitely consider running the RAM through a memory test (memtest86+, from the CD/USB) just to be sure they're in good condition.
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I was passing a local charity shop a few months ago and in the window was the small acer desktop tower, keyboard and a dell monitor for £40 total. I kindly asked the assistant if he could show me it working. The assistant promptly connected it up and it booted to a Windows 10 login screen. (clean install). I took a quick look at the system info and said I would take it and call back to collect it within 2 hours. When I called back it was packed in a large plastic box which I managed to carry to the taxi rank 100 yards up the street. Paid £2.50 to get to my house nearby.
Total so far £42.50
The computer had a 500GB hard drive and a DVD drive with 3GB of DDR3 ram.
Connected to internet and Windows 10 was activated.
I then removed the DVD drive and connected a 250 GB ssd which just sits in the vacated bay and did a fresh install of Windows 10 and upgraded the RAM to 4GB replacing the single 1GB stick with a 2GB stick i had in my spares.
Next I installed Ubuntu Mate on the SSD repartitioning the drive to leave Windows 10 80GB for C: Drive.
I installed a PCI express card giving me 2 X USB3 ports on the rear @approx £20 taking my expenditure to £62.50 so far.
Next I purchased a quad core processor upgrade used from China @ approx £22 taking my tally to £84.50
I wiped the original 500GB hard drive and allocated 2 partitions of 250GB each formatted as NTFS and EXT4 respectively.
Found out a way to install Windows 11 fresh over the Win 10 without using the insider programme. (no secure boot and no TPM of any kind)
Then I got 2 X 2GB DDR3 sticks of RAM from my local Cex last week to give me 8GB total.
I don't really do anything much on the Windows 11 install. Mainly keep stripping out the bloat and updating to see how long it will continue defying Microsoft's imposed restrictions.
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Good work @colinux! Nothing makes me laugh more than a sanctimonious "eco-warrior" on their brand new iphone or throwing out a perfectly functional 4 year old system & buying a new one so that they can run Win11! You have shown these people up in more ways than one & people like yourself are actually making a real difference to the e-waste problem! Keep up the good work! 
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Sending this from another machine which has Windows 11 pro on a completely separate ssd. No tpm or secure boot either. Similar situation with installing a pcie x1 card to facilitate USB3 capability.
Both pcs have an external dock that supports 2 sata drives of either large or small and 2x usb3 ports and a card reader incorporated.
Well I just went ahead and done it. Upgraded to Impish without any restrictions being imposed on me. Not a single issue so far.
Great job saving the old PC from landfill. I expect that the upgrades you have made will last for several years. I did somewhat the same thing with my HPEnvy23 Touchsmart AIO. (Yes the touch screen works with Ubuntu MATE). I didn't change the processor as is a i5, I doubled the RAM to 16GB for $80. I swapped the original Hard disk for a 4TB, and then used the old disk as a nackup USB drive. Original price of PC under $200. Perhaps I overpaid, but i don't think so. Its running Ubuntu MATE 22.04 LTS and is a very quick computer. I am thinking of installing a SSD to replace the 4TB hard disk, to improve access times and reduce start up time. Waste not/want not, that old drive will be put into a case and used USB.
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I have one of those too that I also salvaged!
It is the ENVY 23 TOUCHSMART with "beats audio"
This is a bit of a saga.
It originally belonged to my old neighbour and it had stopped booting up. The fan would come on for a few seconds and it would just power cycle with the screen never getting initialised.
The power supply as you would know is like an oversized laptop brick type and the cable was badly damaged where it comes out. I tested it with an electronic tester and it wasn't giving good readings. A replacement HP branded power brick was extortionately expensive and she didn't really want to spend that much and it maybe not still going to working. Months went by and then one day I found a decent quality compatible for £35 delivered. I bought it and when it arrived i tried it but no difference to the power cycling behaviour. I took it home to open it up and inspect inside. Tested the ram and hard drive and then on a very close visual inspection of the motherboard I spotted a blown out component.
I ended up leaving it in my junk room for over a year while periodically researching and searching eBay for that model. I even moved house and brought it with me and then not long after i moved in I found this one on eBay!
I bought it just to get the motherboard to swap over. When i opened it up I immediately closely inspected the motherboard and everything looked pristine. Swapped the motherboards inserted 2X2GB RAM and connected mouse, keyboard and power supply. Pressed the power button and it seemed to start but blank screen. Powered off and removed one stick of ram and pressed power button and it booted to bios. Did a load defaults and rebooted again to bios OK. I tried with various combinations of 2GB ram sticks and it would only boot with no more than 2GB installed at any one time in either of the two slots. It would boot up of a live USB and I had an SSD with Mate already installed knocking around that worked after running recovery mode from grub.
This was showing signs of a corrupt bios to me and during my previous research I had gathered all the latest info and bios file but the installer could only run in windows 8 or 8.1. The original hard drive which had windows 8.x on it was now half full of media files in my dock. There is a generic version of win 8.1 which works temporarily I think but with my 2GB ram limit Ventoy would memory error message. Took the USB and SSD to my Acer (previous post) and ran the windows 8installer up until it had completed the first stage and wanted to reboot to complete. Powered the Acer down at the wall, removed the SSD and connected it back to the HP ENVY and it booted and launched the complete the set up stuff.
So I had windows 8 and a USB stick with the BIOS update exe copied onto the desktop and it ran perfectly and rebooted and not long after I was able to have 6GB of ram working.
And not long after that i had my windows 8 upgraded to windows 10 and activated.
Purchased a used quad core CPU for £25 and upped the RAM to 8GB, acquired a second 250GB SSD which runs from one of those DVD drive caddy replacements dual booting Mate and Unity Remix.
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