u/WantsLivingCoffee

Yes, this is a long flex post. PC enthusiasts love to brag about their stuff, and I'm no exception. I have some spare time, so I sat down and did the math on this current tech-buying rabbit hole I’ve been living in, and somehow it worked out way better than it had any right to.

The main catalyst that started this journey was finding a complete PC for a good price because it had an RTX 5080 in it. My plan was to pull the 5080 for my personal rig, replace it with my RX 9070 XT, clean it, install drivers properly, test everything, then sell the rebuilt system. Even if I had to sell it pretty cheap, I figured I could still land a substantial GPU upgrade without paying anything close to retail.

That's because my effective cost on the 9070 XT was $611 all-in after some Amazon return/refund shenanigans (long story, but nothing illegal or even gray area - ask me in the comments if you must find out). So I figured if I could sell it for $200-300 less than I bought it, around $800-900 for a 5080 is still a favorable outcome. The rebuilt system sold for my asking price which was $100 more than what I paid. So that means, once everything settled, my effective cost to own a RTX 5080 was $511.

Already pretty damn good. $511 for a 5080.

But it doesn't stop there. It gets better.

My wife probably noticed that random computers started appearing and disappearing from the house, so I decided to see whether this recent operation actually had some financial sense to it, or whether I’d just been moving the same money around while telling myself I’m a businessman. Backtracking a little, I've decided to include some of my recent activity in my computer hobby over the past 3 months or so into this equation to figure where I landed now. And it's pretty bonkers.

Here’s the recent chaos:

• Scored a clean AF, barely used 3060 Ti desktop for $350 and sold it for $550.

• Sold my ROG Ally Z1 Extreme for $500. I had $466 into it altogether.

• Bought an Omen Transcend 14 with an RTX 4060 for $550.

• Bought a brand new 1000W Gold rated PSU for my main rig for around $80.

• Spent another $75 on a replacement PSU for the catalyst PC (cabling issue, not defective).

• Sold the two old PSUs for $100 combined.

• Sold a brand new UPS I received for free for $120.

• Refurbished and sold several laptops I also got for free, bringing in at least $1,350.

• Made around $90 selling some miscellaneous storage drives.

• Bought my wife a brand new Insta360 X5 camera and accessory bundle for $410. The Marketplace gods demand tribute.

After calculating everything - I ended up about $268 ahead while substantially upgrading my hardware. And before anyone asks: No, nothing was stolen, scammed or otherwise acquired through criminal or underhanded means. It was all legitimate - just good deals, normal returns, free equipment that was mine to keep, and an unhealthy amount of time spent browsing Marketplace.

So I somehow:

• Upgraded from a 9070 XT to a 5080

• Upgraded my main PC's PSU to a brand new 1000W

• Replaced my Ally with a premium RTX 4060 laptop

• Bought my wife the Insta360 camera package she's been wanting

• And still have at least $268 left over.

Obviously, this took work and time. I had to diagnose and refurbish laptops, clean systems, swap parts, update Windows (I always sell my systems with current Windows and firmware updates applied, it's part of my brand), test everything, physically prep, take good photos, write listings, and endure the Marketplace traditional ritual of:

“Is this available?” Followed by them disappearing into thin air. Or "What's your lowest?" before throwing a massive lowball.

But I enjoy the work. So it never really felt like a side hustle. It felt more like my computer hobby briefly developed survival instincts and learned how to pay for itself. Or, I somehow benefitted from a crippling addiction to the small dopamine injections that come with reviving computers, getting good deals, and upgrading my personal gear.

Now I just need to stop browsing Marketplace before the whole cycle begins again. Which probably won't happen

To preface, there will be some profanity here so if it gets deleted, I understand. No name calling or degrading others, just choice words to communicate the point more strongly. That and I've learned to not give a fuck so much. Delete if you will, just know my aim here is to educate and articulate, not to offend.

Straight to the fucking TLDR. On the topic of "people pleasing", sometimes it's more stressful to have to deal with other people's bullshit opinions when I don't want to put up with it. And less stressful to just go with whatever they want so they stfu about it.

Kinda "counter" to INFJ, you may think? Aren't we supposed to be some super empathetic daisies who allow everyone to smell them so they feel better? And isn't that what we just love, like 100% of the time? I mean, forget we're humans with limits, right? Forget that we have batteries like everyone else. Forget that, if we're in that role of being some sensitive ass, pushover ass "daisy" too much, we get drained as fuck. Like anyone else would be if stretched too thin. Sometimes it's just easier to just go with the flow rather than making a scene. And sometimes, "people pleasing" is a part of that.

From personal experience, that's not to say there are absolutely zero instances where I'll do the opposite -- there definitely is (I've got the physical scars to prove it). But sometimes, I'd rather just turn into a capybara and just chill -- sometimes the path to the most chill is simply going with whatever everyone / someone else wants. The speed bumps that come with a bit of self sacrifice are smaller than the speed bumps of some opinionated drama faucet voicing about shit, like vomit into the toilet to just get flushed down anyway. Like, I got enough on my plate. Sometimes, I don't even want to hear it, seriously. I work a full time job and run a side business to put food on the table and keep a roof over my family's head and help provide some financial breathing room to have fun from time to time. I got work which already makes me deal with people's problems (IT tech, but tech support is literally fixing people's problems). I already deal with enough bullshit.

*Disclaimer* : No, providing for my family is not "bullshit", that's the prize. When it comes to work, I, too, am very thankful to be able to work. I'm so very thankful for everything I have and able to do, I'm just calling it "bullshit" to paint a picture to my main point which is...

I don't need to add someone complaining or arguing with me -- or even stating a counter opinion -- piling on the amount of bullshit I've already got. So I just go with whatever they want so they will shut the fuck up, bite their lollipop or bite their ice cream, be happy, and I can just chill. Hope that makes sense. Of course, this doesn't apply 100% of the time. But it happens.

To those who may see seemingly selfless acts, I know it feels great knowing someone cares about your opinion and shit. And I do. Truly, live your best life. Just sometimes, when it comes to certain situations, that amount of care really isn't as much as you might think. And I think maybe some other INFJ might be able to relate.

Anyone know how to get this game to run? I ran the .exe file in the bin folder, gives an error. Forgot the exact error, something like something isn't installed. I did run the EAC file in the main extracted folder already.

Just got a new 9070XT from Amazon. Runs beautifully. But I paid $753 for it all in. I stumbled on a 7900XTX on FB marketplace for $820. Threw out a long shot offer of $750, seller said he'd sell it for $780. $27 price difference. But no warranty and no Amazon return policy safety net. I asked the seller if I could test it or get a video of it running a benchmark and have yet to get a reply back. Of course it's off the table if he won't let me verify it works, but let's just assume it does.

Would you get the stronger, but not as "safe", GPU? Or would you stick with the brand new, safer, yet slightly weaker new GPU?

Bonus question: I also stumbled on a 6900 XT for $420. Seller said he'd sell it for $380. As an absolute value play, this price seems so good. Would you consider this one? As someone who is both value + enthusiast + optimizing focused, this is quite the dilemma. I'm not super hurting for money, nor am I super hurting for a rocket of a GPU. Trying to find a good balance, I guess. Which would you go for and why?

Started with a pretty normal AM4 setup. Upgraded her over the years and eventually settled into:

• Ryzen 5700X3D

• RTX 3060 12GB

• DDR4

• CM Scout Advanced 2 case (yes, the case itself is like 12 years old lol)

Over the last few months I accidentally fell into the PC flipping rabbit hole.

It started when I sold my old GTX 1080 and began buying/selling parts whenever I found good deals and just kept rolling the money back into the hobby. I started realizing that the dopamine hit of squeezing value and performance out of every dollar, then somehow turning a profit, was pretty addictive.

Some of the journey:

• Flipped random hardware and made around +$495 total

• Legion Go Z1E flip for around +$100

• Built a secondary office rig almost entirely from deals and ended around +$200 profit

• Bought a 5070 Ti for $700 near launch and sold it for $825

• Played around with a 5070 and somehow made a small profit on that too

Eventually I started feeling the urge to jump to AM5.

Didn't really need to. I could've just upgraded the GPU. The 5700X3D is still a beast and AM4 is still ridiculously good value. But I went down the rabbit hole anyway.

Sold off the old rig parts:

• 5700X3D

• DDR4

• Motherboard

• RTX 3060

• Misc CPU swap shenanigans

Fast forward to now:

Current setup:

• Ryzen 7 7800X3D

• Gigabyte RX 9070 XT Gaming OC

• B650 AORUS Elite AX

• 32GB DDR5

• MP44 NVMe + old drives

• New modern mATX desk build

Also ended up with:

• ROG Ally Z1 Extreme

• 2TB upgrade + accessories

After redoing the math multiple times, I think I ended around ~$500 net out of pocket for the AM5 + Ally transition.

That obviously doesn't include my time, testing hardware, negotiations, some shipping headaches, and calculated risks. But honestly I think I had more fun hunting deals, building rigs, and squeezing value than I did actually gaming.

Question:

Am I doing legitimate value optimization here?

Am I using advanced hobby math to justify upgrades?

Or am I just addicted to flipping hardware?

Because now I'm over here looking for deals on a 5080 and how to optimize purchasing it instead of actually gaming and I think I may have a problem.

Just got an EVGA (rip) 3080 for my office rig. Apparently, it was made before Resizable Bar came out and it doesn't have the right VBIOS -- I need to update the firmware on the card for ReBar to work. Thing is, I can't find the driver anywhere and I'm not comfortable installing random stuff. Need to know it's the CORRECT driver for my card, or else it'll brick.

I've tried downloading EVGA Precision X1 software, but when I try updating the VBIOS from there, it says EVGA servers can't be reached. I'm assuming because EVGA is dead (sad). My motherboard's bios is on the latest version. I didn't do any bridge flashes, but I'm pretty sure it's not needed for this -- it's the GPU's firmware holding ReBar activation back. And yes, CSM is disabled, 4G encoding and enable rebar are enabled in bios settings. There's a Nvidia article on this, but the EVGA link is dead and I can't find the driver on EVGA's site. I'll take another look there, though, maybe I didn't look enough. But it surely isn't easy to find (unless I'm dumb, which I am, so yeah).

Does anyone know where I can get the VBIOS for an EVGA RTX 3080 FTW3 Ultra Gaming (10G-P5-3897-KR)? I know ReBar isn't some miracle thing. Would just be nice to fully dial in my stuff if possible. If not, whatever. As much as I love EVGA, maybe it's just time I come to grips of their demise and move on.