Advice on recent inheritance

[bobojr]

Well, this is a bit of a weird situation I've found myself in.

 

Basically, I have recently acquired 2 EVGA gtx 970 sc's (I think one is a bit older) and a EVGA gtx 970 ssc through some scavenging in my attic. Apparently they were my older brothers, and my dads. They don't want them anymore, so I asked if I could have them. They said yes.  I also have a 2 way sli bridge and a 3 way sli bridge.

 

I'm not entirely sure what to do with these. I would like to sell them but honestly they aren't worth selling anymore, even gently used they go for 80 dollars ish . On the flip side, I'm not exactly sure what use 3x gtx 970's are, sli or not. I already have a gaming computer much better than 970's and a workstation computer for servers and video editing.

 

Does anyone have some ideas for what I can use these for? Should I go ahead and sell?

 

[PlayStation 2]

If you have any ideas for a secondary PC, they wouldn't be bad to keep around so you could toss one in it.

[Dutch_Master]

You could build a "retro-rig", with hardware of the day to play the games of that era. Use video-streaming to expose the system to the wider world, then sell it.

[Spotty]

Folding@Home? Should be able to get over 1M points per day from 3 x GTX970's. LTT has a team if you're interested in joining #223518

 

Otherwise I would sell them if you don't have any use for them. See if any of your friends need a GPU who would be willing to buy it or just put them up on craigslist/gumtree.

[bobojr]

1 minute ago, handymanshandle said:

If you have any ideas for a secondary PC, they wouldn't be bad to keep around so you could toss one in it.

Is there any particular reason I would want to put a 970 in even if the already existing gpu is much newer?

[bobojr]

1 minute ago, NZgamer said:

Yeah you should sell them, there's still people who are in a similar boat to me looking for older higher end graphics cards for a good deal or getting a budget similarly performing card. If you sell them at a good price you'll definitely get some buyers. There's still a market for those cards if you price them right.

What price would you recommend? Like I said in the post on EBay they sell for less than 100, and all 3 were used ( the ssc was used quite heavily.)

[PlayStation 2]

2 minutes ago, bobojr said:

Is there any particular reason I would want to put a 970 in even if the already existing gpu is much newer?

 

3 minutes ago, handymanshandle said:

If you have any ideas for a secondary PC

My implication was less of using it in your current secondary PC, moreso as a card just to keep around if the need arose for it.

[bobojr]

2 minutes ago, Spotty said:

Folding@Home? Should be able to get over 1M points per day from 3 x GTX970's. LTT has a team if you're interested in joining #223518

 

Otherwise I would sell them if you don't have any use for them. See if any of your friends need a GPU who would be willing to buy it or just put them up on craigslist/gumtree.

Hmm. I could make a decent computer and do folding at home, and maybe after the Corona virus is over I could sell it? I kind of like this the best idea so far lol. I have lots of parts hanging around, all I would need to buy is a new motherboard (with 3x ports for the graphics cards) and probably a new psu because the highest voltage one I have right now is 750 volts I think..

[bobojr]

3 minutes ago, handymanshandle said:

 

My implication was less of using it in your current secondary PC, moreso as a card just to keep around if the need arose for it.

Ohhh, gotcha gotcha. Yeah I'm thinking of making a computer for folding@home and then selling it after corona is over. It seems to be the best idea rn since I have many parts lying around here somewhere to build a computer.

[Spotty]

2 minutes ago, bobojr said:

Hmm. I could make a decent computer and do folding at home, and maybe after the Corona virus is over I could sell it? I kind of like this the best idea so far lol. I have lots of parts hanging around, all I would need to buy is a new motherboard (with 3x ports for the graphics cards) and probably a new psu because the highest voltage one I have right now is 750 volts I think..

Maybe see if you can trade one card for a motherboard and then you can use 2 for folding? Will also be easier finding motherboards that only have 2 PCIe x16 slots rather than 3 full length slots, and then you probably won't need to replace your PSU with only 2 cards.

 

You could possibly run 3 GTX970s on a 750W power supply, as long as it's decent quality and has the right PCIe connectors needed for the cards. I think those cards are around 175W power draw mark, give or take a bit. Assuming 200W each that's only 600W for the 3 cards which should in theory leave enough for the CPU+mobo+etc. That's assuming it's a good power supply though. If it's a bit older, junk, or doesn't have the right connectors then I wouldn't do it.

 

I think by now the GTX970 has lost most of its value and it probably won't depreciate that much more over the next few months if you wanted to sell later, but the new gen of Nvidia cards is coming out soon and that usually causes a drop in prices on older gen cards and the 900 series will be a few generations old by then.

[bobojr]

The power supply I'm talking about is the Corsair CX750m (I think that's what It's called). It's pretty new, I think I got it about 2014. I like the idea of trading one for a motherboard though because it seems like 3 pci-e motherboards are absurdly expensive. I also think 2x 970's is much more sellable than 3x 970's lol.

 

If I were to trade which one should I trade? I am still not really familiar with how sli works other than it's basic function so I'm not sure which combination is better to have. (I have two SC's, which one is older, but I'm not sure by how much, and one SSC)

 

Also thank you for your advice. It is much appreciated!

[Spotty]

1 hour ago, bobojr said:

The power supply I'm talking about is the Corsair CX750m (I think that's what It's called). It's pretty new, I think I got it about 2014. I like the idea of trading one for a motherboard though because it seems like 3 pci-e motherboards are absurdly expensive. I also think 2x 970's is much more sellable than 3x 970's lol.

 

If I were to trade which one should I trade? I am still not really familiar with how sli works other than it's basic function so I'm not sure which combination is better to have. (I have two SC's, which one is older, but I'm not sure by how much, and one SSC)

 

Also thank you for your advice. It is much appreciated!

Does the Corsair CX750M have the green lettering ont he label or is it a grey label? The grey one is the newer one, from 2015 I believe. Shouldn't really matter. They should both come with 4 PCIe connectors (2 cables with 2 connectors on each cable), so running two cards will be easy.

 

The SSC is the better of the two... Marginally. Slightly higher base clocks from factory. Nothing a slight tweak in overclocking can't adjust for. I'd run all 3 cards to test to make sure they're still working, run a 3DMark or heaven on a loop for a while make sure they don't crash or artifact. Make sure the fans still work properly and don't have any bad bearings or sound like a jet engine. Keep the best two for yourself and sell the 3rd.

Or if you're OCD sell the SSC and keep the two SC as a matching pair.

 

What CPU are you planning on using? What chipset motherboard? Depending on the motherboard you're trying to get the card might be worth more than a motherboard, so it might be worthwhile selling the card for cash and then using that cash to buy the board, pocketing the leftover change... But really depends on how much you can get the card, how easily you can sell it, and what sort of board you're chasing. Should be easier to find someone selling a board than someone willing to trade for it though.

Keep in mind you don't necessarily have to sell all 3 cards to the one person. Can just put them up for sale and sell them individually, or if someone wants to buy them all then great.

[bobojr]

10 hours ago, NZgamer said:

What country are you in?

U.S

[bobojr]

9 hours ago, Spotty said:

Does the Corsair CX750M have the green lettering ont he label or is it a grey label? The grey one is the newer one, from 2015 I believe. Shouldn't really matter. They should both come with 4 PCIe connectors (2 cables with 2 connectors on each cable), so running two cards will be easy.

 

The SSC is the better of the two... Marginally. Slightly higher base clocks from factory. Nothing a slight tweak in overclocking can't adjust for. I'd run all 3 cards to test to make sure they're still working, run a 3DMark or heaven on a loop for a while make sure they don't crash or artifact. Make sure the fans still work properly and don't have any bad bearings or sound like a jet engine. Keep the best two for yourself and sell the 3rd.

Or if you're OCD sell the SSC and keep the two SC as a matching pair.

 

What CPU are you planning on using? What chipset motherboard? Depending on the motherboard you're trying to get the card might be worth more than a motherboard, so it might be worthwhile selling the card for cash and then using that cash to buy the board, pocketing the leftover change... But really depends on how much you can get the card, how easily you can sell it, and what sort of board you're chasing. Should be easier to find someone selling a board than someone willing to trade for it though.

Keep in mind you don't necessarily have to sell all 3 cards to the one person. Can just put them up for sale and sell them individually, or if someone wants to buy them all then great.

Yeah it's the newer PSU. I believe we got it around 2015 so that makes sense.

 

I was actually thinking of getting a decent CPU and Motherboard, so I'll probably have to sell one and use that to take some of the price off a motherboard. I've heard that 3rd gen Ryzen 3 and 5's are competitively priced especially with the ones that include the CPU cooler. I would wait until ryzen 4th gen comes, because I've heard that's incompatible with current Ryzen boards, but I have no idea when that releases and if it will release during Corona. 

 

It seems I can get a Asus TUF board that is compatible with Ryzen for about $100 right now, which if I sold 1 graphics card could save me 60-80 dollars, so I would only be paying 20 out of pocket. I don't really have a budget, but I wasn't thinking anything too crazy (more than 1k out of pocket). 

 

Do you think I can get more profit out of selling a whole computer that's good for gaming using 2x of the 970's or should I just sell them separately?