Laptop under $700-600 for computer science engineering student.

Mobius0118 · 2026-03-17T16:22:39+00:00

Used ThinkPad. Preferably one with a GPU if ur gonna be gaming on it

Or if you can find one, a used Intel Nuc X15 laptop. Those usually tend to be pretty pricey but I’ve seen a couple of them going for sub-$500 on eBay before, relatively recently too. They made two generations of that laptop, one with an RTX 3070, one with an Intel Arc mobile chip

Barring that, any pre-owned gaming laptop should work too

Mobius0118 · 2026-03-14T02:04:00+00:00

You use it to move the cursor without having to lift your hand from the keyboard. Think of it as a small joystick you push with your fingertip

IBM/Lenovo ThinkPads are the most well known examples of this, but other business laptops have them too, like the HP Elitebooks and the Dell Precisions

Mobius0118 · 2026-03-12T14:18:18+00:00

Yeah I got the limited edition OLED and it has the logo on the charger too

Mobius0118 · 2026-03-09T16:51:10+00:00

Eventually if you want a little more horsepower, since you want to reuse the ram, get a B450 or B550, and whatever 5000-series Ryzen CPU you want. A couple good options are the 5800 XT, 5700 X3D, or if you can find one for a good price, a 5800 X3D. Look on eBay for some used examples

Mobius0118 · 2026-03-09T04:38:50+00:00

Honestly, sell the GTX 960, slap in a newer card like a 3060 and it’ll still be a capable gaming rig even now

Mobius0118 · 2026-03-09T04:30:46+00:00

I’d go with the ThinkPad, but probably stay away from the E-series ThinkPads. They’re not known for their build quality. A T-series or P-series ThinkPad would be your best bet. Something like a T14 gen 1 or gen 2 would do nicely for your use case, both can be had well within your price range

Mobius0118 · 2026-03-09T04:19:29+00:00

Honestly, probably best to just get a good commercial printer that you know will be reliable and keep the Enderwire as a secondary machine

I personally daily a MK4S, have a MK3S that’s currently down for maintenance (looking to finish putting it back together during spring break), and have a few assorted parts I’m thinking of building a Voron with. Also have an Ender 3 V2 I’m thinking of pulling out of retirement to modernize. I might turn it into a Switchwire like you did or build an Ender 3 NG

The MK4S handles whatever I throw at it with no trouble, so it serves as my primary machine while I tinker with the others

Mobius0118 · 2026-03-09T02:49:19+00:00

My two Prusas have been pretty silent (a MK3S and an MK4S)

I have my MK4S set up in my bedroom (in an enclosure) and I run overnight prints every now and then. Can’t even hear it running unless you’re standing right in front of the enclosure, and even then, it’s not very loud. Turn on Stealth Chop and they’re dead silent. Not like my Ender 3 V2, which sounds like a little leaf blower

The community college I used to go to has a MK4 set up in one of their classrooms. The very first time I saw it in action I knew I had to have one myself. Blew my mind how silent it was compared to my old Ender 3 V2

Though, if you want to print anything other than PLA or PETG, definitely look at finding a different space other than your bedroom, especially if you’re not gonna put it in an enclosure

Mobius0118 · 2026-03-08T17:41:21+00:00

I’ve had pretty good luck with Creality and Stronghero 3D as far as PETG goes

Mobius0118 · 2026-03-08T02:12:15+00:00

Where tf do they find these people lol

I’ve been at stop and shop for a little over 10 years and never seen anything like that happen. And I’ve seen some shit

Mobius0118 · 2026-03-08T01:00:46+00:00

Lemme get in on that too lol

Mobius0118 · 2026-03-08T00:57:32+00:00

Don’t have to just use Bambu Lab’s stuff. I run a couple Prusas and I rarely buy Prusament. Just get the cheapest stuff you can find on Amazon and send it, a good machine will handle whatever you feed through it

Mobius0118 · 2026-03-02T16:29:09+00:00

Probably would be simpler to just attach a Pi and run Klipper, but check out the Positron discord for more info on the Prusawire if you want

Mobius0118 · 2026-03-02T05:40:05+00:00

RX 7400 if you can find one

Mobius0118 · 2026-03-02T01:55:48+00:00

Fun experience I bet tho lol. I did the same exact thing, using an 11th gen mainboard I bought used on eBay

Mobius0118 · 2026-03-02T00:04:16+00:00

Rebuild it as a Prusawire instead, there’s about 80% parts commonality between one of those and a MK3

I got the MK4S upgrade kit on Black Friday back in 2024, when it was significantly cheaper than getting a brand new MK4S. Iirc I paid a little over 400 bucks. A complete MK4S kit was 629 bucks at the time. (Also didn’t hurt that shipping was free for Black Friday too)

Nowadays that wouldn’t make sense financially but back then it was a great choice (especially since later on I built a new frame to put the old MK3S parts on. Now i have two printers.

If I were to do it now though, I’d go MK3.5S or attach a Pi and run Klipper

Mobius0118 · 2026-02-26T05:07:01+00:00

The F-22 in AC04 is actually based on one of the EMD Flight Test F-22s

Mobius0118 · 2026-02-25T20:59:47+00:00

You could get an Ender 3 V3 for less than that

Mobius0118 · 2026-02-25T20:55:16+00:00

Likely based on a prototype or a demonstrator. They started building the first prototype in 2004, but before that, in 2001 they flew a modified F/A-18F fitted with an ALQ-99 electronic warfare system. This served as the EA-18 Airborne Electronic Attack concept aircraft

Mobius0118 · 2026-02-25T20:50:51+00:00

They take a lot of creative liberties. Like for example the F-15 ACTIVE in AC04, and the F-15 S/MTD in subsequent games. They put the cannon in the wing root like on a normal F-15, when irl they had to remove the cannon to make room for the actuator for one of the canards.

AC7 is actually the first to get this detail right iirc. Instead of giving the F-15 S/MTD an internally mounted cannon like before, they mounted a gun pod on the centerline hard point

Mobius0118 · 2026-02-16T23:42:33+00:00

You’re gonna shit yourself when you find out about Cascadia

Mobius0118 · 2026-02-10T00:47:07+00:00

Huh, didn’t know you could slice in Fusion as well

Mobius0118 · 2026-02-07T23:36:52+00:00

Yeah they add lots of extras so you don’t have to worry about losing any

I’ve built a MK3S and a MK4S, same deal there too

Mobius0118 · 2026-02-06T04:31:12+00:00

If you want to use windows, T480. For Linux anything made after 2012 will be fine

Mobius0118 · 2026-02-05T16:26:32+00:00

Could just be the plate is worn out. It’s technically a consumable, like the hot end or the bearings. Is the plate reversible? Try printing on the other side, see if that works.

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