Hi guys! So here is the TLDR, I am currently super broke, not working (with no prospects in sight) However, I do have a huge box of used PC parts, some simple hand tools, thermal paste, and an amateur’s enthusiasm. What can I build to flip for a profit? I want to leverage cheap old hardware to turn into emulation boxes perhaps, or something similar. here is a semi-exhaustive list of hardware I have on hand:
1 Ifixit style screwdriver and repair toolset
2 tubes of thermal paste
wedges and pry tools
my main PC: a ryzen 7 3800x CPU 32gb DDR4, and a 3060TI all run off a ROG Strix b 550 F Gaming main board
1 broken Dell Inspiron laptop (idk where the bottom plastic plate is so no model number, but it’s a 1st gen I5)
1 broken Toshiba satellite laptop (A505-S6017)
1 broken HP mid tower (FM2 socket)
1 super broken tablet (Unknown origin)
1 working dell core2duo system
2 broken CRT monitors (both power on but flicker or pop picture, so I can probably repair both, but I have no idea about repairing stuff involving high voltage.)
2 broken AM4 prebuilds of unknown origin but with bottom end parts from 2019ish
1 broken ryzen 1600 CPU (bent pins)
1AMD A8-3600 CPU (pulled working)
1 socket 473 Celeron (pulled working)
1 expresscard based Egpu
1 Nvidia 1650 (MSI non super, non OC variant, working)
1 Nvidia 1660 Super (DOA)
1 mixed lot of 3200mhz DDR4 2x8gb (pulled working)
2x 2gb LPSODIMM 1066 RAM (Pulled working)
2x 4gb LPSODIMM 1066 RAM (pulled working)
3x optical media drives, various manufactory (pulled working)
5x PSUs various capacities, various manufactory (pulled working)
6x HDDs various capacities, various manufactory (pulled working)
1 SNES top loader, console only (status unknown, not tested)
1 AM4 Thermaltake Tt cooler
1 “second HDD caddy” designed to fit a 2.5 inch Hdd in place of a laptop optical drive
1 Diamond multimedia card (not tested)
1 radeon HD 6770 (not tested)
1 Nvidia GTX 460 (not tested)
3x NIC cards various manufactory, various capacities (not tested)
1 GeForce 9500GT 512mg (not tested)
1 BFGR 256mb OC card (not tested)
1 Soundblaster X-Fi card (not tested)
1 Nvidia GTX 560TI (not tested)
3x broken A series mainboards, all AM4
anyways, I’m sure I’m missing something, but that’s the best list I can do for now. Keep in mind, I don’t have the tools to do board level repair, or any real diagnostics other than “plug it in and see if it works” approach. Any thoughts? Ideas? I’m treating this forum post like a transmission from a NASA space station problem. Imagine me in extreme isolation. This is what I have. Can anything be made with 50 dollars worth of capital that I can flip for profit?
Ok, cool, what do you want to pay for it? I’m open to reasonable offers. A quick Ebay search and the only two units I saw were 168.99 and 249.99 so 100 bucks seems fair, given it’s untested. And I’ll have 150.00 to then dump into PC parts! growing bit by bit!
100$ is a little much for untested SNES for me but I am willing to buy other stuff if you’re willing to go lower on the price of the snes
I’m interested in
2.5 hdd laptop caddy
SNES
AM4 thermaltake cooler
Express card vga
Please post pictures of at least those items with your user name written in marker next to the item in photo to make forum BST legal, and any other item that is sold on forum
As far as making something
Get one of those prebuilts working, preferably the fastest CPU, may be ram, or power supply that is the problem which sounds like you have spares of
Then toss in that working 1650 in, you can sell that locally for probably 400$
I taught my friend how to build PCs about a year ago and he regularly sells them on Facebook marketplace, you can usually get them to come pick it up at your house
Try to fix the pins on the 1600, that will cost you nothing but your time. Then try to get one of the AM4 prebuilts up and running using the 1650 and the best parts from both.
List it on Marketplace, get disappointed when it doesn’t sell after a week, then discount it gradually until it does. It will eventually sell, but the used market can be more temperamental than your crazy ex.
I speak from experience. The market stuff not the ex.
Edit: Price point matters more to buyers than anything else. Being tech savvy only gives you an advantage when buying, but I have discovered that it doesn’t give you any advantage when selling unfortunately. Also there is little to no profit to be made when buying new parts, so only buy what you absolutely must and shop used first when feasible.
Once you are able to move the most valuable parts, then you can tinker around with old and super low-end builds, but you’ll generally only be able to sell those for pocket change at best.
Ok how about $80 for the SNES and 40 bucks for the EGPU? It’s expresscard 34 I think. I paid over a hundred bucks for it and never used it. I forget why not. The cooler and HDD caddy I’ll take 10 bucks. So $130 total?
So some problems I have with this idea, well only one, actually, is I have no working mainboards. And none to be had for 50 usd new, and thus more than likely working. I will try an fix the pins on the CPU, but I’d need some sort of magnification (the bent pins are in the interior portion on the chip) Judging by your screen name, I thank you for your valuable insight.
That does make it more difficult, you’ll have to either shop the used market or try to get a cheap B350 off ebay. At least you can test the 1600 in your Gaming PC if you can get the pins as straight as possibly without breaking any, although sometimes you can get away with up to several broken pins (if you stick a horseshoe up your rear).
Edit: I just checked ebay, there isn’t much under $50 (sort by “buy it now” and “lowest +ship”), but they all have “make an offer”, so you could try to lowball a few vendors. I would start as low as possible without being offensive, say $30 or $35 shipped and the seller will either accept or counter.
Most of that stuff on Amazon is resold stuff from AliExpress, so if you’re going that route I would cut out the middle man. (However I’m personally 0:1 with AliX so YMMV.)
I would still recommend ebay, they have a 30-day return window and generally side with the buyer (which is why I won’t sell on there).
I have personally sold about $400 with them. All pretty painless and no issues whatsoever. However, there are literally no options for vintage tech, and tends away from it, which makes me sad.
What do you mean “what chips I have” I’ve got them listed. Basically I have an old Celeron from 20 years ago and an FM2 A series chip. Pretty much anything for free would be ideal, if that’s what you’re saying? Why would I turn down something for nothing?
OOOOH they are all AM4 cpus. Actually, if you’ve got that kind of pull, Ask Wendell how he got started, and if he would be willing to help me get started doing what he does. I’d love to add tech into my youtube channel, but the actual parts are far,far too expensive. I’d love to do a review of even old tech, provided it’s cool or unique. Something I’ve been dying to get my hands on are all the new old emulation boards, which I why I was holding onto the SNES, and cool projects like David Murray’s X16.
