Showcase Lily's Roblox and Folding@home rig.

[Cleo]

(Lily is my 9yo my niece)
MSI MPG Z390 GAMING EDGE AC ATX LGA1151 Motherboard. (This is the only mid-tier part. Everything else is budget)
Not currently folding due to electricity costs. We have new solar panels. Yay - the environment!
The power company charges customers with solar panels double rates for electricity at night and doesn't offer any off-peak times. :-(
The Folding@home client doesn't seem to make it easy to schedule work units. Oh well. Roblox forever/.
So, yes we know the 2nd gpu is going to waste. Lily says Hi

 

[Ink]

8th-gen Intel, with WD Blue SSD is considered a Junk computer?

 

[Cleo]

8th-gen Intel, with WD Blue SSD is considered a Junk computer?

Heh. No, just a lack of other options in the menu. It's not my PC or my backup but I did make it and maintain it. It's a solid little compute box.

 

[plat]

2 x 2060 super. I would like to have just one of those.

Great for folding@home but also all-around really nice.

 

[Ink]

More options have been added.

 

[Cleo]

More options have been added.

Love your work. Edited original to reflect new option. Thank you.

 

[Cleo]

2 x 2060 super. I would like to have just one of those.

Great for folding@home but also all-around really nice.

They are performing well so far. Have not exploded or caused Lily to grow an extra head.
The prices on graphics cards really intrigue me. There is huge demand for big name brand cards here.
Such used cards resell for 80+% of their original retail price. A clean but used big name 1660ti would go for $600 on gumtree(au).
But if you are willing to give other after market builders a try you can do very well. I'm surprised so few do it.
I guess freight is a killer and there's some risk with incompatibility etc but still I got those cards for $490 each by sharing freight with friends for a small bulk order.
That's a risk I'll take. Even Galax sell their 2060S for $590 and you only need to order one. I'd try Yeston, Manli, Elsa, Inno3d or Maxsun
in a new build as they are retailing under the used prices of the bigger name comparable cards.
The next gen cards are due to drop in September iirc. That should drive used prices down a bit too.

 

[Stopspying]

The prices on graphics cards really intrigue me. There is huge demand for big name brand cards here.
Such used cards resell for 80+% of their original retail price. A clean but used big name 1660ti would go for $600 on gumtree(au).

I've noticed re-sale prices for quite a lot of components and better specced laptops are quite high here in the UK since Covid-19 caused more home working, I think that may be a reason for the higher costs, more people wanting more powerful set ups at home.

Good to see at least two other MTers name-checking Folding@Home.

 

[Cleo]

I've noticed re-sale prices for quite a lot of components and better specced laptops are quite high here in the UK since Covid-19 caused more home working, I think that may be a reason for the higher costs, more people wanting more powerful set ups at home.

Good to see at least two other MTers name-checking Folding@Home.

My bet is they are gaming too. My bro does all his work from home (office+zoom+email) on his Android with a little keyboard/mouse/video and audio dock. He should have told his work he'd need to convert 5GB image files and then requisitioned me a Nuc with a fat Xeon and a 2070. Hehe

 

[Stopspying]

Yes, more gaming for sure, no boss looking over the shoulder now while 'working from home', so its now safer to game during working hours. Domestic broadband speeds here slowed down when more people started working from home with kids being 'home-schooled'. If you wanted to concentrate on working from home it helped if you could distract the kids by providing them with better gaming rigs/machines for watching videos etc I read recently that productivity has apparently gone up in the UK among people working from home.

A New Study Reveals Why Working From Home Makes Employees More Productive

How do virtual and in-office workers differ? It might surprise you.

www.inc.com

Those who were always messing about at work are probably still doing so but they are not distracting the more 'productive' workers who are working elsewhere now.

Maybe there has been a revival in making machines with multiple high end graphics cards specifically for bitcoin mining that has passed me by.