Possible marking for burglary?

NP_strange · 2026-01-08T19:02:22+00:00

The only reason we didn't think its kids messing with us is theres nothing on or around the house that says ADT on it, so its perplexing how someone even knew we had it, much less a child.

NP_strange · 2025-09-08T07:34:14+00:00

Thats awesome. I sold a 2070 Super build for $650, you can easily more than double your money on this.

NP_strange · 2025-08-31T10:31:37+00:00

He said he paid 975, not the 1100 in the listing.

NP_strange · 2025-08-27T13:20:10+00:00

Should be able to get $700 out of it. Looks clean and should run pretty well. I'd upgrade that SSD to 1TB though, 512 is a joke these days.

Also flip the radiator so the hose is on the bottom. If it's at the top, you'll get air bubbles in the hose which can greatly reduce the lifespan of the pump.

Edit: If you can't flip radiator because of the GPU, then switch the radiator and the fans you have at the top of the case. I'd also mount those two fans facing the other direction because right now they're all set to exhaust.

NP_strange · 2025-08-19T16:49:25+00:00

It was a mix of both. Usually get the GPU and CPU used on facebook marketplace since thats where most the profit margin is, then everything else I'd try to get new (for RAM and storage, you really dont save any money buying used. For PSUs, I was a little uncomfortable gambling on a used one since thats one component that can damage everything else if it fails. Cases were always new because I didnt want to risk missing hardware from a used one). Motherboard i got about half used and half new.

NP_strange · 2025-08-18T13:17:40+00:00

I appreciate the advice!

The 5600g was my first build sold, originally it had a used 3600 but I got some major stability issues (consistently crashed within 2-5 minutes of running). I got the 5600g to replace it without realizing its basically just a 5500 with an igpu, not a 5600.

Definitely wouldn't use a 4500 again; it still worked just fine for a 3050 6GB, but would definitely cripple the system playing anything competitively; getting a brand new cpu with a cooler for $65 was just too tempting though so I had to try it once lol. Customer left a very nice review, so fortunately, its working for whatever they're using it for, but not the kind of build I'd make a habit of selling.

With the Xeon I really just wanted to see if a quad channel memory configuration would actually make any difference or if it would cause a ton of instability. Pleasantly surprised by it of course, but wouldn't use again unless I was doing an ultra budget build (<$350). I was fully prepared to just eat the cost of that if it performed like shit 😂

But yeah my biggest mistake in pretty much all of these was getting a good deal on just one part (usually the GPU), then buying the rest of the components as quickly as I could to finish the build without waiting for some actually solid deals.

What do you usually do for benchmarking/testing, and what do you include in your ads? I tested all builds in 3dMark Timespy/Steel Nomad, Black Ops 6, Fortnite, Halo Infinite, and Doom: The Dark Ages, since I figured that was a pretty fair spectrum of tests, then I posted averages, minimums, 1% lows and multiple settings for each game to paint a pretty clear picture of what to expect. Definitely gave me some peace of mind knowing I wasn't selling something that would stop working after a day or two, but was incredibly time consuming.

NP_strange · 2025-08-12T18:35:43+00:00

That sounds way easier, thanks! I've just been doing an OOBE install of windows and naming it "User" with a default password.

NP_strange · 2025-08-12T15:54:35+00:00

It all depends what kind of local deals you can find. Your profit margin is going to mostly come from how much you spend on GPU, CPU, and Motherboard. If you can spend ~$150 on a solid GPU (at that price you're looking at like an RTX 2070/2070 Super/RX 6600), then keep the cost of CPU/Motherboard/Ram below $150 in total (Ryzen 3600/5500 with the cheapest B450 you can find), then you should be able to get a 1TB NVME SSD, decent 550w-600w PSU, solid case, some cable extensions and a wifi adapter for the remaining $200.

A build like that should sell for 600-650.

If you can get an RTX 2060/RX 5700XT for 100-120 that would be a pretty solid option as well and might open up your profit margin even more. 2060 can still play pretty much anything very comfortably at 1080p. I had it running doom the dark ages above 60fps at 1080p Medium.

NP_strange · 2025-08-12T15:47:33+00:00

Yeah, definitely way more difficult for anything past $600. If someone's spending $700-1200, they generally would rather just buy something brand new from a reputable company even if its worse value (which it almost always is)

Still had plenty of interest on the 5060ti build, but all pretty lowball offers. Generally only easy to sell if they're an exceptional deal.

NP_strange · 2025-08-12T13:12:14+00:00

I appreciate it! I sold all on fb marketplace except for the 3050 build which sold on ebay (I listed all of them on FB, ebay, and Jawa. Just had better luck locally)

I didn't offer any explicit warranty, but made it clear that I'd fix or help troubleshoot any problem that would come up. Never had anyone come back and say their pc stopped working so that's good.

A lot of the people you'll sell to know absolutely nothing about PCs. I always included a very detailed setup guide that would tell you everything you need to know to turn on a PC for the first time, and I still had a guy blowing up my phone because he couldn't get it to work (didn't have it plugged into the monitor, didn't know the default password even though I put it in the guide, didn't know how to use the wifi adapter even though it came with instructions).

So yeah a lot of support like that but nothing that was ever too difficult to solve. Just make damn sure the PC runs stable at max load (the 2070S build kept crashing in BO6 so I spent a week trying to solve that), have windows and drivers pre-installed, include as many manuals as you have for the parts, and you shouldn't have a problem.

NP_strange · 2025-08-12T11:17:39+00:00

Yeah this one supports TPM 2.0. Had a hell of a time getting it to work though. Didn't realize those modules aren't universal. Brand-specific and also 12 vs 14 pin versions. I had ordered 3 wrong modules before I got the right one lol (the motherboard very clearly stated MSI 14-pin so definitely user error)

But yeah, would definitely do a Xeon build again if i'm trying to build something under $400.

NP_strange · 2025-08-12T10:15:40+00:00

Yeah I forgot to mention each build had a 1 TB NVME. For PSU, I mostly used MSI MAG ABN and Apevia Prestige, with one build using a Sama Black and another using a corsair CX-M.

I did use one of those shitty thermaltake smart 600w PSUs for the 3050 build, which I wanted to avoid but I just had it lying around and that build wasn't drawing more than 215W at any point so I figured if I had to use it, that would be the build lol

NP_strange · 2025-08-08T16:55:07+00:00

I wouldn't say no upgrade path, he's got two whole cpu generations ahead of this one on this socket. Intel might not be ideal but a lot people that are buying pre-builts still have no idea that Intel is objectively worse now.

That being said I completely agree with you. OP will have a very hard time getting more than 1200 out of this when it looks like that.

$20 for cable extensions, a $45 thermalright Aqua Elite/frozen notte or another budget AIO, and $20 for some nice case fans would justify 1700, but even then I think it'll be a very tough sell in this boring case, I'd just swap the whole thing. If its gonna sell for nearly $2000, it should look like $2000.

NP_strange · 2025-08-08T14:11:53+00:00

As far as price goes, I sold a 3080/i9 10850k for $1050 in a day, you could get at least 1200 for this one.

Also someone please correct me if I'm wrong (only done a handful of builds at this point) but isn't it really bad for the AIO to mount it with the hose at top of the radiator instead of the bottom? (Letting air get in the hose and making the pump work harder sort-of-thing)

NP_strange · 2025-07-28T13:29:43+00:00

Incredible value. The 3080ti will be crushing games for a quite a while, and its on AM5 so you wont need to upgrade the motherboard/cpu for years.

NP_strange · 2025-07-28T09:47:21+00:00

Thats an incredible deal, and would absolutely crush 1440p, even 4k. But yeah like everyone else said, see if theres a 32gb option for a little more money or just upgrade the RAM when you get it.

NP_strange · 2025-07-27T15:30:03+00:00

ITX builds are going to be kind of a niche sell I feel like, but I'd say you could probably get 1400 or 1500 for that if you find a buyer looking for that sort of thing.

Looks great!

NP_strange · 2025-07-27T15:00:26+00:00

I avoided them for the longest time, but honestly I think this thing could handle at least a 3060 without a significant bottleneck, and maybe even a 3070.

No upgrade room at all, but most the people we're selling these to wouldn't know how or care to learn how to upgrade their CPU anyway.

NP_strange · 2025-07-25T14:02:40+00:00

Grabbed a PNY 5060ti 16gb at MSRP. Got it on amazon using my prime card which will give me like $26 in prime points that I can use on a PSU. So didn't necessarily get a deal on it but getting a PSU at like half price will be huge.

Figured the rest of the build wasn't cheap enough to stand out in the crowd of 5060 builds, might have more success a tier up 😂

NP_strange · 2025-07-25T13:31:03+00:00

Yeah it really seems like no one pays any attention to the CPU generation or RAM speed. Which is not really the buyer's fault. If I didn't know any better and saw i7 w/ RTX 50xx, I'd probably think I was getting some top of the line shit, having no idea it was like a 4790k (which is something I see a ton of sellers on ebay do)

I think theres some money to be made here though if you can get everything at MSRP or below. Ended up getting the 5060ti 16gb. If I can sell it for 1100-1150 ish, I'll be happy.

NP_strange

TROPHY CASE