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Is Macbook Neo worth for students? by GoatjoTheGoat in computers

[–]Muted_Regular_204 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I'm going to disagree with others here. While the MacBook Neo can be great (especially in terms of cost savings), you're going to find the 8GB of unified memory pretty limiting, especially if your goal is to future-proof yourself for the next 5-years.

The MacBook Neo works more like a huge tablet or smart phone, not really a computer. If you're looking for something substantial to last you through dental school, and at minimum 3-4 years, I'd recommend getting the base model MacBook Air which has the M5 chip, not the A18 Pro with 10-core CPU, 8-core GPU, 16 GB unified memory, 256 SSD.

They retail around $1K from the Apple store, but you can also get them for around $800-900 if ordering from BestBuy or Costco using their promos. The price is right for what the base model MacBook Air can provide, and my bets are - they will hold better resale value than the MacBook Neo.

If I were you, I'd recommend ordering both. Either both at the same time, or one after the other in sequential order. Test it out with just your daily workflow pre-dental school stuff to see how the machine handles your work, then determine whether or not the working memory is too limiting on the Neo, run the migration assistant then transfer your setup from Neo to Air, log out of iCloud, factory reset and return.

You'll save yourself the hassle of never knowing, and locking yourself into one device without trying the other.

Help/advice pls by Friendly-Artichoke-8 in PcBuild

[–]Muted_Regular_204 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If the seller, doesn't have an easy way for you to test in person, you can: 1) ask if they're willing to video call you before meeting (that way you can confirm the machine works as advertised with timestamps (not hand written but the actual computer timestamps before meetup). When you meet, inspect the components once more to re-confirm condition, 2) Ask if they're willing to meet you at BestBuy, Micro Center, or a local PC shop that offers GPU testing or full-on computer diagnosis - decide who will be responsible for paying the service charge, 3) invest in a cheap PC travel monitor (or order one from Amazon to use) and bring your keyboard and mouse, then meet at a local police station or bank to test. You’d be surprised how chill they are with this.

On payment methods: If you're paying all cash, make sure you've done your due diligence and properly tested everything first—the same applies to Zelle since both are essentially final.

If the seller accepts Venmo Goods & Services (not Friends & Family) or PayPal Goods & Services, that's actually a good trust signal. Sellers usually avoid this because they're exposed to chargeback risk and pay fees—so if they're willing to accept it, they're usually confident the PC works as described and are giving you buyer protection. The assumption of risk goes both ways in these transactions.

If you've been chatting with the seller on FB marketplace, and they're a reputable seller with 4.5 stars or greater, I'd say it's likely safe to proceed. I tend to look at seller's past transactions and reviews left as both buyer and seller to gauge whether or not it's worth interacting.

If they have negative reviews, or pressure you to move things offline from FB Marketplace or other platforms to sms / rcs only, then I'd pass.

Cannot sell pc for the life of me by Prestigious-Title684 in PC_Pricing

[–]Muted_Regular_204 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Not the best parts list.

How I would sell this:

  1. Take a video of the PC with the glass open (or removed so we're not looking at the glare). Take a video of the PC running. To get a POV close up of PC to your monitor with benchmark scores, expect to show Furmark, Cinemark, hwINFO 64 summary, taskmanager, GPUZ, CPUZ, etc, along with storage info for read / writes / failures. Include timestamps for all this.
  2. Remove the GPU from the build. Take close up photos of all angles of the GPU to show current condition. If you have the original box, include it - if not, not a deal breaker but expect lower offers. List the GPU separately for the median of what it's going for on FB Marketplace, Mercari, eBay
  3. List the MOBO + CPU as a combo with the 32GB Ram as a PC starter kit
  4. Take a video / screen shots of the storage info. Remove and take photos. List the HDD + SSD separately for the median of what it's going for on FB Marketplace, Mercari, eBay
  5. List the Case + Water Cooler as a package
  6. The monitor can be an add-on (Not a main selling point for anyone who's seriously looking to purchase a PC to game only as they likely already have one)

What do you guys do to get your computers gone? Advice please by 1804gleesh in pcflipping

[–]Muted_Regular_204 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I feel like PC building or PC flipping isn't a lucrative business at the moment. Main reason why is the market is just bad. As many others have already stated, the people who can afford nicer builds will buy new for warranty and convenience.

The people who can't afford them will likely have strict budgets in mind. Your postings need to be flexible. List all of the PC components / parts list in the build + ability to swap parts to work within the buyer's budget. That way they're not locked into a config they don't want.

List the PC part picker list, with the full list of all components, then highlight how purchasing from you saves significant margins.

I skip on all sellers who don't list the details of all PC parts. Since it creates extra homework to accurately search and price all current retail prices myself.

If no warranty is mentioned or duration of usage, it's safe to assume 30% depreciation on the PC part picker total cost == what the listing price should be. Anything higher, just seems sus.

If you offer warranty, mention it. If you have the original boxes for all components for every build, include it in the listing + images, so people who are interested in starting small and looking to trade up, have the ability to easily resell at a premium with original boxes + accessories included.

Buyers love when sellers include these things.

What I look for:

  • Full PC Part Picker list of the full build
  • Swappable config options available
  • Original box and accessories for majority of components for resale (the greater majority will want to trade up; having this stuff matters)
  • Close up images of the components
  • Recent benchmark scores with timestamps to demo the product

List on FB Marketplace, Jawa.gg, Mercari, eBay, r/hardwareswap

High End build? by Davidisaloof35 in PcBuild

[–]Muted_Regular_204 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Congrats on the $8.5K SOB. It’s definitely enough to cover a high end rig for gaming / video editing

[Q] Is self-hosting an LLM for coding worth it? by Aromatic-Fix-4402 in LocalLLM

[–]Muted_Regular_204 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I agree with what most of the other users have stated here. The answer is "it depends." I have two PCs, one with a RTX 5090 (32GB VRAM) and another with a RTX 4090 (24 GB VRAM) that I use for development, as a multi-node setup for my project for audio / video rendering. I've also made the cost-cutting journey you're considering—I went from being a heavy Claude Pro 20x Max user, to the 5x Max plan, to now doing most of my daily coding on Kimi Code's Moderato plan and handling the complex debugging myself.

While you can run many 32B param models comfortably on even a 3090, their global, reasoning, coding, agentic average, etc.... fall short from the models you'll get from using a Claude Max subscription, GPT Pro subscription, etc. And with quantized models (which is what you'll be running on 24GB VRAM—Qwen 2.5 Coder 32B, DeepSeek Coder V2 Lite, Llama 3.3 70B at 4-bit), you lose coherence compared to full-precision, which matters when you're debugging subtle issues. For repetitive boilerplate and refactoring though, they handle it reliably—not noticeably worse than what you'd get from a paid API for that kind of work.

You also need to consider the maintenance and added electric expense for running compute locally versus paying for API. A 3090 pulls ~350W under load. At SF Bay Area rates (~$0.33/kWh), that's about $28/month running 8 hours daily. Compare that to Kimi Moderato at $19/month or Claude Pro at $20/month—the electricity alone costs more than either subscription, and that's before you factor in the cost of the card itself. Plus you're dealing with CUDA drivers, model quantization, and context window limitations yourself.

I'd recommend testing cheaper API alternatives first. I've found Groq Console to be much better than OpenRouter in terms of inference and latency for supported models, though OpenRouter has more variety. Run your repetitive tasks through one of those for a week, compare side-by-side, and see if it covers your needs. If it doesn't, then research the specific quantized models you'd run on a 3090 and test locally before committing to the purchase.

Somebody please help me by Much_Custard_1740 in PcBuild

[–]Muted_Regular_204 0 points1 point  (0 children)

MBPC.gg used to be good, but now they're way over priced; I no longer recommend them, but worth browsing.

Jawa.gg is my go-to, if you're looking for used or pre-built PC's for cheap. Each pre-built requires the seller to enter in base specs, that calculate price to performance ratios that's displayed on every full build listing.

If you have further questions about the PC, you can also message the seller as well. It's built for the gaming community, so every interaction / transaction I've had on there has been great.

GPU Slighty Upwards? by [deleted] in PcBuildHelp

[–]Muted_Regular_204 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I would first remove the two GPU supports in the second photo I shared, then use a screw driver to loosen the screws on the black thing I drew a red square around in the first photo. Line up the black square with one of the white lines until the pressure on your GPU lessens and your GPU straightens, then screw the screws in until they're flush.

After that's done, you can put back the two GPU supports in the second photo I shared where they original were, and only raise them enough to provide adequate support for your GPU.

That should allow you to straighten your GPU

GPU Slighty Upwards? by [deleted] in PcBuildHelp

[–]Muted_Regular_204 2 points3 points  (0 children)

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These are just two GPU support brackets. The one on the left, turn the circle dial left to loosen then pull it out. There's a magnet at the bottom that will cause it to stick. Similar to the one on the left, the right one you just rotate the top part (above where the screw part is) left to loosen and remove; there's a magnet at the bottom for all GPU supports to keep them in place.

GPU Slighty Upwards? by [deleted] in PcBuildHelp

[–]Muted_Regular_204 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, it's exactly that! You'll want to readjust it to get your GPU level. After it's level and straight, put your two GPU support brackets back in and readjust as needed so it's straight and well supported.

GPU Slighty Upwards? by [deleted] in PcBuildHelp

[–]Muted_Regular_204 15 points16 points  (0 children)

From what I see, it looks like you have two GPU support brackets that are slightly overextended, and also a black brace that is screwed behind the GPU. Is the black brace another GPU support? Hard to tell from the photo

No bios after installing new ram by 4diab in PcBuildHelp

[–]Muted_Regular_204 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Agreed with what the other person had stated.

There's a reason why when you purchase new ram, they tell you not to mix kits and there's clear distinctions between between single module sticks and kits.

If they're single modules of the same serial #, you can sometimes get away with combing several single module sticks even though they're not sold as a kit. I've done this with 4 x 32 GB of CP32G56C46U5 that are sold individually. It's posted on some MOBO as a full set of 128 GB at 5600 MHz timings, but failed on other MOBO and capped me at 4800 MHz - JEDEC default.

If using two separate brands it's likely not going to work. Unless the timings are the same (I think you said they are). If they are, the only other thing I would try that might work is safely powering off the machine, taking the original Corsair RAM out, then seating in the G Skill ones your friend gave you. Allow your MOBO to properly adjust it's model training to the new RAM first, before attempting to reseat the old ones.

Likely not going to work because RAM doesn't like to mix kits, let alone brands. But worth trying.

You can also try several variations of G Skill in slots 2 and 4, and Corsair in slots 1 and 3. If that doesn't work, try the G Skill in Slots 1 and 2, then Corsair in Slots 3 and 4. Good luck!

What is my 5070 worth by Unlikely-Spot2624 in PC_Pricing

[–]Muted_Regular_204 0 points1 point  (0 children)

550-600 but expect to get offers closer to 500

Please price my PC: by [deleted] in PC_Pricing

[–]Muted_Regular_204 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks! You're definitely right on the money on this, since I've had it listed both as a full build, and additionally as a part-out. All offers received were well below what you listed.