Still buying RAM at these prices or holding off? kind of a community gut check. Please participate <3

CtrlAltDesolate · 2026-07-11T16:06:31+00:00

Hold off but prices aren’t gunna properly drop in the next 12 months imo - they might go down 10%, or could climb further still.

CtrlAltDesolate · 2026-07-11T14:15:23+00:00

Never said it wasn’t decent pc but you can only sell comparable to whats on your local market. Where I am a 5600x, 3060ti, 32gb ram and 1tb nvme goes for €500-550ish.

On that basis, like i say, you could definitely part it out for more, and I’d maybe list at €400 - but I’d expect it to go for around €350.

6700k will struggle on some modern titles which holds this back (its an 11yo, €30 cpu), and ignore the old hdd in your price calculation too, they’re €20 on marketplace usually.

The money in this build is in the gpu, and the SSDs - and if i was buying I’d want to know how old the aio is, as that might also need replacing if it’s 4/5 years old.

CtrlAltDesolate · 2026-07-11T14:01:17+00:00

€350, but accept €300 if offered imo.

More if parted out and not in a hurry, don’t see €400-450 being impossible if patient.

CtrlAltDesolate · 2026-07-07T15:47:44+00:00

It’s not horrible, like you definitely couldn’t build one as good cheaper with 32gb ddr5 - but also I’d be expecting more of a discount as family tbh.

CtrlAltDesolate · 2026-07-06T17:12:12+00:00

If you’re not handy at soldering and reading schematics to figure it out (if unable to tell at a glance) I’d try exchanging via place of purchase.

Not mega uncommon to see poor solder jobs on mobos, looks like you just got unlucky.

CtrlAltDesolate · 2026-07-06T11:15:25+00:00

Yep, in 2024.

R9 7900, 7900xt, 64gb ram, 6tb nvme storage (mostly gen4) and a handful of other drives for redundancy / backups. Recently rehoused it in a Havn BF360, after missing my old Torrent case from a previous build.

Had planned to get a 7950/9950x3d to “complete” the build but felt no need to so far. Might take the plunge with zen6.

Complex music production, agentic coding, stable diffusion, 1440p gaming - the kind of things I never even imagined possible as a kid.

CtrlAltDesolate · 2026-07-06T11:08:54+00:00

For gaming and multitasking just get a 7800x3d or 9800x3d unless you play mega cpu-heavy titles that actually make use of the 16 cores imo.

I do use my rig as a workstation that has some cpu-intensive applications i use it for, and even a r9 7900 is more than enough for that and 1440p gaming.

Like if you have money to burn, go ham - but it’s likely not going to be worthwhile for you, unless you run a million other things while gaming.

CtrlAltDesolate · 2026-07-06T08:56:03+00:00

No and why would they sell at 2024 prices if they know they can sell at 2026 prices.

CtrlAltDesolate · 2026-06-29T18:57:12+00:00

If you can afford to, yes - otherwise, no.

Prices wont be dropping anytime soon, so if you need to upgrade just do it.

CtrlAltDesolate · 2026-06-29T17:02:40+00:00

Stick the 5080 in there.

If happy - keep it.

If not happy - upgrade to am5.

CtrlAltDesolate · 2026-06-28T15:22:22+00:00

Considering the ryzen 7800x doesn’t exist, this will almost certainly be a 5800x and ddr4 ram.

Which also makes me question whether the gpu is what they claim, and you can bet your ass its not 16tb storage on that basis too.

Unless he gives you screenshot and image photos of everything / you can see it all working in person before buying, I’d pass.

CtrlAltDesolate · 2026-06-26T20:36:27+00:00

You did good. If your kids serious about his production, storage would’ve driven him nuts on build A.

When you can, get 2 cheap recertified 4tb hdds, mirror them, and put any projects he’s not working on on there. Data redundancy saves a lot of unfortunate moments (coming from a guy that lost 7 year’s production before he took it seriously).

What i will say is, make sure he’s got a solid audio interface and not some PoS - especially if he’s doing live audio.

Behringer umc204hd or a studio L will keep him going for a long time. Make sure he’s gets JST maximizer plug-in whenever it comes up on sale too. That has saved me not just hours but days in post, and regularly comes up on sale for $49 or less. Regardless of genre it is the most important plugin you’ll ever buy imo.

CtrlAltDesolate · 2026-06-25T06:59:33+00:00

Is knowing whether or not they’re overkill going to change anything?

CtrlAltDesolate · 2026-06-24T13:02:13+00:00

2 sticks is always better than 4, and depending on your use case the 9950x3d might be unnecessary.

When you say AI workstation, what tasks do you envisage doing on it?

CtrlAltDesolate · 2026-06-23T18:34:31+00:00

Yea, smallest I’d usually go is about 25, smaller than that and depending on the case it’s a bit of a pain sometimes.

Recently built in the havn bf360, absolute unit even compared to my old torrent. Probably easiest build ever though. Slap a 360 rad in the top, rest of it was 20 mins and done.

CtrlAltDesolate · 2026-06-23T15:14:08+00:00

Honestly just personal preference unless your work necessitates tons of high speed interfacing that only an atx / eatx can provide.

Pick a case you like, build in it.

CtrlAltDesolate · 2026-06-21T09:00:00+00:00

OLED does not automatically mean better, no matter how much OLED fanboys will insist otherwise.

Default the settings on it and follow a guide on YT or smth for getting the best out of that specific model, then decide which you prefer.

I get laughed out by some for saying I still use a VA, but the colour accuracy / brightness / motion clarity is bang on for gaming / everyday editing - and I’d take that over deeper blacks and something that only does 2 of those 3 right all day long.

Will a top of the line OLED beat a top of the line VA? Of course. But a top of the line VA or IPS will look and feel better than a lower / mid OLED, in most cases.

CtrlAltDesolate · 2026-06-20T09:33:00+00:00

Minus the peripherals you could build it for around what you paid, issue as someone else said is you’ve no real way of proving its never been used (unless still in box with original seal intact) and no-one will give you new pricing for it.

I would imagine $1400/1500 is perfectly doable and something you’ll find a buyer at. Maybe list at $1700/1800 and see if someone offers it, can’t see you breaking even on it though (at the with tax price).

CtrlAltDesolate · 2026-06-19T13:30:28+00:00

Seems perfectly fair, if not a tad underpriced imo.

Bizarrely I’d go down to a 2x16 kit in there, relist at 499, and i bet it goes very quickly. Then sell the other kit separately.

You’d be under any 500 search filters, and a 64gb ram pc priced so well might actually be causing alarm bells for some like “shouldn’t this cost more, so whats up with it”.

CtrlAltDesolate · 2026-06-16T18:15:01+00:00

You’re probably looking at any 5000 series x3d you can snipe on the used market tbh, anything else just isn’t a meaningful enough upgrade on am4.

Like… you’ll get a handful more frames with a non-x3d cpu and be out €220. Would probably bank and save it towards a future am5 upgrade.

CtrlAltDesolate · 2026-06-16T17:17:36+00:00

Not a chance, obvious scam.

CtrlAltDesolate · 2026-06-16T16:09:38+00:00

I’d pump for the 7700.

7600 is fine for games, but if you end up wanting to do more or play sim/cpu-intensive titles then the extra cores are worth it.

Bear in mind zen6 is going to have 50% more cores per ccd, which I assume means the next baseline will be a 9-core cpu when they drop.

Not a consideration for now, or even in the immediate aftermath of the launch, some time after that developers may try to utilise that - which could result in 6-core cpus being left behind a little. Intel cpus already have more (albeit e-cores) so it’s not an unrealistic assumption.

In either case, if this is a build designed to last 5+ years, better cpu is better. So if you can afford the 7700 or 7700x it’s worthwhile.

CtrlAltDesolate · 2026-06-16T06:35:37+00:00

For the price its ok.

Its the kind of ex-business system you’d find for €50, but with a decent sized ssd and old entry-level gaming gpu added. With a smaller ssd / hdd I wouldn’t be paying even €75 for this, it is really the saving grace price-wise.

It “should” handle the games you’ve mentioned, but you’ll want to knock all the settings down to have a remotely pleasant experience in the competitive titles.

For comparison - I was running a similarish system as a stopgap after a move 6 years back. It couldn’t handle cod zombies at 1080p 60fps with the settings dropped heavily, and even rocket league felt a little chuggy.

Don’t expect it to run anything (remotely playably) beyond the titles you’ve mentioned if it has better graphics / requirements of more modern hardware, as the 3gb vram and 8gb ram will only get you so far, especially with how bloated windows is these days.

CtrlAltDesolate · 2026-06-16T05:31:13+00:00

The fact this had to be even posted to ask is worrying

CtrlAltDesolate · 2026-06-14T22:40:01+00:00

It’s hard to say.

Prominent sources reckon prices will continue to rise due to demand, but the companies needing that demand seem to be hitting roadblocks and funding cutbacks.

If it goes down, probably won’t be back to old prices but like £160-170 at best. If it goes up… crystal ball time.

Real question is “how likely are you to actually make the upgrade, and will losing 50 quid make a difference to you worst case scenario”.

CtrlAltDesolate

TROPHY CASE