You may remember that I recently posted about purchasing a new Tesla K80 computing GPU to go alongside my RSA project for factoring RSA with Python
OK…. wellllllllll. Plans changed.
I bought a new PC instead.. Oops!
To be fair. I’d been looking to buy something around Xmas time, it was either going to be a new PC or a new toolbox. As luck would have it. I came across a Threadripper PC on eBay that I was watching, I thought the price was good, so decided to watch it. Bidding wasn’t going too high (it never does in the last few mins). However the PC was a really good build compared to my current PC.
Well. A potato would be better spec compared to my current PC. Speaking of potatoes, there used to be a website which was hosted on a potato
EDIT :
- No – turns out it was a Myth of 2000’s, although apparently someone did make one run a CPU for a website
- Another edit, I remember a website when I was younger called Cat Scan. People were literally scanning their cats inside flat bed scanners, did I dream that, or was it actually a thing?
Anyway. I’m going off on a tangent here. My existing computer was a low spec. If you’d like to know the exact spec, it was the following
- Phase 1 : (Base PC – I had this build about 10 years) : AMD Athlon X4 640 CPU, 4GB DDR3 RAM, 128GB SSD, Nvidia GT240 GPU
- Phase 2 : (Motherboard Upgrade) : AMD Phenom 1090T, 12GB RAM (same HDD, same GPU)
- Phase 3 : (Card Upgrade) : Same all else, replaced the GPU with Sapphire Nitro RX580 I bought on ebay
This in the end was the final upgrade. It was time to call it a day. I’d done video editing, built website with Dreamweaver, Blender Edits, Video Encoding, Solidworks CAD modelling. My PC couldn’t even handle 1080P 60FPS videos on Youtube. Upgrading the Computing to phase 2, and phase 3 helped more. As some of the work was being offloaded, but still got the odd stutter every now and then. It just had to go. The new toolbox could wait, as the PC was beginning to irritate me.
Plus I sniped the PC I was obligated to pay for it. I was trying pot luck, I was going to buy the toolbox if I didn’t win the PC. Anyway. I won the auction, so paid for the PC. It cost me around £1300. When you factor in the cost of the components 2nd hand (before the RAM prices shot up due to the AI/Micron issues). It’s still a steal so I purchased just at the right time I feel.
I’ve put the estimated prices of each item second hand against each component.
This is the spec of my new computer
- Gigabyte Auros TRX40 Motherboard ~ £200
- Corsair RM-1000 PSU ~ £80
- Corsair H100 AIO Cooler ~£80
- Fractal Define XL 7 Case ~£100
- 128GB DDR4 RAM (4 x 32GB Sticks) ~ £300
- 2TB Corsair MP600 NVME ~ £100
- Nvidia GTX3080 10GB GPU ~ £150
- AMD 3970X 32-core/64-thread “Threadripper CPU”. ~ £400
Even second hand it’s still around £1400 worth of computer supplies so a fair price and that’s me being generous at underpricing it. Realistically the components are closer to £2000. Especially the memory with prices now. As you can see, compared to my old computer. It’s a powerhouse. So should handle everything with ease. I was a bit nervous when I paid for it, because the seller relisted the item for sale. Cue a nervous wait, I could have been shipped bricks for all I know. Then the next challenge was making sure it was delivered without being obliterated through the couriers. Both arrived well thankfully. I was confident it wasn’t a fake anyway because the seller had good feedback with a high score on eBay. I still had to cover my arse though. eBay are quite sucky when it comes to getting refunds. It was still a tense moment until I received the PC about 36 hours later from Parcelforce. I’m happy to report all was well however.
OFFTOPIC :
I can’t link to the seller using affiliate stuff on storefront page that I can see yet, but this is the persons eBay page (https://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/smallsupport). Feel free to use them and help them out. They sell some bloody good items. Thanks for the care Asher. If this page helps you get some free sales. All the best to you.
As the computer itself is a full tower case, it has copious amounts of room to fit another GPU. I’ll be fitting the Tesla K80 I mentioned in another post and then doing the recommended BIOS settings. After this the computing will be setup for gaming on games like Frostpunk (compared to the RX580. I can do 4K on Frostpunk 1 and Frostpunk 2) – although FP2 is a lower frames. I couldn’t do either on the RX580 based on specs. Plus my computer can now also play 4K videos on Youtube without a single stutter. So now my PC matches my internet through Youfibre.
It’s blazingly fast. I can download fast, game fast and do intensive tasks with a 32-core CPU and 128gb of RAM that barely gets touched. I shouldn’t need to upgrade for a while.
I did also see the Raspberry PI 5 come back up on auction that I was watching. Guessing they were returned, or the original bidder never coughed up. I tried sniping those too, but lost out. in the last 10 secs, as someone went over my maximum bid by £30. Plus to be fair. I couldn’t cought up much this time due to the above payout I made. As I’m also expecting car insurance next month, so my bank is being hammered currently. Still 3rd time lucky maybe?
Doubt I’ll be spending anymore money shortly since I’ve blitzed almost £2000 from my bank this month, I need to behave. Don’t regret it though.
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