Getting off the train... maybe.

[mackerel]

Not sure where I'm going with this, so it will be a random brain dump. My current resurgence in PC tech kicked off late Haswell cycle. Broadwell was long delayed and Skylake was almost upon us. I was using a 2600k but bought a cheap Haswell i5 system to play with, and what a difference! But for my main, I tended to go higher end so got the 6700k which I still use to this day as my main system. All was well.

Then accumulation started... what was Broadwell like? So I got one. I like Skylake so much I got a 6600k to increase my resource, but in testing I saw odd things with performance I couldn't explain. So I bought another 6700k system on same mobo as 6600k and eventually found it was limited by ram performance, not the cache which I suspected. Along the way I picked up some i3 systems as they provided best value before more multi-threading support kicked in, and they're looking rather dated now.

It didn't stop there... 7800X was going to be my next major step up but I never and still haven't "finished" that build. I got a 14 core Xeon to play with, as well as a dual 8 core system. While I skipped Kaby Lake, I did taste the Coffee with 8350k. And then there's Ryzen... with two systems there. I basically can't move at home now as I have PC parts literally on every available surface, often stacked.

It doesn't end there... I'm looking at the new Ryzen when it comes out, but if I can force myself just to swap the CPUs around I wont add yet another system. And therein lies part of the problem, I'm rubbish at getting rid of old hardware. I don't have the time to list parts individually, and selling as a system never gets as much as the sum of the parts. Great value for a buyer, not the seller, apart from the time saving.

I'm kinda in two minds about this. I think I'd like to do informational testing, but it is very time consuming and almost a full time job in itself to do it right. This doesn't work if you have a full time job elsewhere. I'm going to have to give up on one of them, and it's about 50/50 which way it could go. The thing is, without my day job, my income would obviously drop significantly, and keeping up with new tech to test will be difficult. I expect to have alternate income in the near future but it wouldn't go much beyond covering living expenses, and I have no delusions about the money side of going into tech media. It will be insignificant in short to medium term if it goes anywhere at all.

And I haven't even mentioned GPUs up to this point...

 

[Woomack]

... and all are wondering how can I have new stuff all the time with my monthly income ... ( I will only say that in UK I would earn 4x more for my full time job and some guys from the benching team know how much I earn and spend on hardware ).
I guess that if you are considering leaving current job then it's not that bad. I simply can't make that.
I just sold 2 ryzens ( CPU+mobo ) and some other stuff to cover TR rig ... which I don't really need but I wanted and I just can't afford anything new without selling something old.

I don't know if you need so many rigs. I guess you could invest in something with more cores or replace older generations with new.

 

[Johan45]

I'm as bad as or worse when it comes to getting rid of old HW Mack but there comes a time when things have to go before they're completely worthless. This was my start and I still have multiple boards in those sockets. Next I need to thin some CPUs and DDR3

 

[mackerel]

"need" is subject to change at any time. I don't need all my systems at once, but depending on what I'm doing I might deploy a different mix. I've been into distributed computing projects for a long time, which I guess isn't a need, but I've build mainly around that. The optimisation was performance per cost. Generally more systems of lower cost were more effective than fewer high end systems. Hence my system proliferation.

Selling isn't easy as touched on already. I think some parts are already past their best, so would go for little. Hardly worth the effort. I keep wondering about ditching DDR3 era kit as an arbitrary line, but they still work great.

My pile of product boxes (mobos and GPUs), starting from the ground, is about as tall as me...

One of my short term life goals is to clear the mortgage. There isn't much left, I could probably do it in a couple of years by overpaying more. That would take off some of the monthly pressure and may allow more flexibility. I just wish with my current job there was an option between no personal time, decent money, and unlimited personal time, no money.

 

[Johan45]

Ha, I think you still have room for more in your collection if that's all you have. This was an organization expedition a couple years ago for my CPUs

 

[Woomack]

I have about 200 processors at home from what most are barely worth anything. I try to sell quite new hardware as that old is not worth shipping costs but still can use it for some tests or benching competition. Should be worth something in 20-30 years
I remember when I had large stock of memory kits but sold most of them and I'm keeping only these on good IC. With DDR4 I try to do the same as price is high and without any sales I can't afford anything new. But there is always something left.

 

[mackerel]

I've generally managed to keep my CPU:mobo balance pretty close. Don't see point in keeping a load of CPUs around not in use. I'm kinda itching at the moment as I got the 5820k for benching use, but it means I have a spare Xeon lying around and mobos are ever harder to find for it. Don't want to sell it either, it is a nice performer.

 

[Johan45]

Many of those are older CPUs I got in bulk buys cheap and are still waiting to be benched.

 

[Woomack]

The same ... I have about 20 1366 Xeons that I wanted to bench but never found time ... also maybe 50 other processors, 939 or something else that I couldn't bench because of problems with motherboards. Some of them are so cheap now that is better to keep them "just in case" than sell for $1 each.

 

[habbajabba]

Balancing one's needs with one's possessions is a job in and of itself (read that first part somewhere). But is also highly rewarding as it is like cleaning out the cobwebs in your 'attic'. Here in the US one can 'donate' to the Goodwill and/or Salvation Army and claim a tax refund. I've seen people drop off a box of old clothes and claim $450 for their next tax season lol (I did not work there). Either give it away so it can be used or try to sell it cheap either by piece or as a complete working setup of some sort. There has to be a computer club or something near you. I tend to throw most all old stuff away simply because it's rather not worth either my time nor does anyone else generally want old stuff, they want the new stuff. Good luck. I'll only go backwards in tech if it breaks and I have no other choice. God knows how long my current build will last but I'm already looking at the cutting edge ryzen's and have 0$ lol.

 

[Alaric]

And I'm trying to figure out how to afford more stuff I absolutely don't need. Retired, fixed income, etc.. But my daughter is 18 and these computer parts are toys for me now. I'm doing my best to help out Johan45, so it's a good deed as well. 2 1/2 weeks from relieving the poor guy of his M5A99FX Pro burden if I'm lucky.

 

[NiHaoMike]

I originally planned to upgrade the CPU/motherboard at 5 year intervals. It's now about 6 years since the time I got the Sandy Bridge E and still don't see much reason to upgrade. Recently, my best friend was in need for help and I looked at building a Ryzen machine to mine earnhoney for her (because a Sandy Bridge E would use too much power doing that), then I calculated the break even point and found it was way too far out to be a good idea.

And I'm trying to figure out how to afford more stuff I absolutely don't need. Retired, fixed income, etc.. But my daughter is 18 and these computer parts are toys for me now.

Build a dual purpose mining/general use PC for her to take to the dorm when she goes to college. Good way to make use of last generation GPUs that normally would not be profitable.

 

[mackerel]

I skipped Kaby Lake

Erm, cross that off my list. I now have an i5 7300HQ, in my "new" laptop. Didn't write about it here, but in short, my MSI GE62 6QF is no more. Sudden shut down one day, and the more I try to "fix" it, the worse it gets and I can't even boot it at all now. I've now tried everything except: mobo replacement ($550 US ebay), washing it, baking it. Anyway, as that was a gaming laptop, which I rarely used for gaming, I went cheaper this time at under half the cost with an Asus FX503VD (1050 2GB GPU). Been setting up software, and of course, benching it since I got it... many subs to hwbot already. I might knock out a personal review tomorrow if I can be bothered to take some nice photos. Already upgraded and now back to benching... I think they're selling these things off cheap to make way for the impending coffee lake refresh. It'll do.

 

[Alaric]

Build a dual purpose mining/general use PC for her to take to the dorm when she goes to college. Good way to make use of last generation GPUs that normally would not be profitable.

That won't be happening. Even if I were the sort to encourage that (I'm not), she has her own views on mining and they aren't particularly flattering.

 

[NiHaoMike]

That won't be happening. Even if I were the sort to encourage that (I'm not), she has her own views on mining and they aren't particularly flattering.

Her views will probably change once she realizes what college is really like and how even a little bit of income that does not require doing much actual work can be very helpful. One of my friends actually made some great profit with Bitcoin when she was in medical school.

Or what about Folding, with or without Curecoin/Foldingcoin? When I lived in the dorms, I had 3 PCs Folding 24/7 (that was before cryptocurrency existed) pretty much just for the fun of it.

 

[Alaric]

Nah, she has little regard for the mining craze.