I bought the used DVD just for the green bracket and bezel. Only way to get them.



And the bluray works!

Got this sealed on ebay. And a 2 TB coming soon. All I need to complete the builds is a second monitor, also still debating if I want to try an Arc A380 GPU instead of the builtin intel I'm using in one... but I'm still debating if I want to buy that.

The PC with Intel graphics (and I want to keep one with Intel) is running Windows with no SSD, so it's not ideal for gaming anyway so putting an A380 in it may be a waste. I was wanting to try Cyberpunk 2077 but it requires an SSD.

Just had an idea though. I don't know if Windows will activate if I reinstall it on an SSD, but I could unplug the HDD and try it and see if it works. If I had an SSD then the Arc A380 would be useful, I could play more games like Cyberpunk since the A380 is more powerful than any of my other GPUs.

This is about what I spent on everything. I have more RAM than I'll probably ever need though but it's better to have too much than not enough.

G1
--
Used system (with CPU, SSD, DVD) - $100
RX 6400 - $225
32 GB DDR3 - $50
4 TB HDD - $115

G2
--
Refurb system (with CPU, HDD, DVD, Windows 10 Pro) - $120
64 GB DDR4 - $150

G3
--
Barebones system - $60
Bluray - $225
GT 1030 - $110
64 GB DDR4 - $150
2 TB HDD - $80
256 GB SSD - $30
CPU - $100

Plus I bought some HP blue screws ($20), an HDD mounting bracket ($10) and some thermal paste ($15). The GT 1030 was supposed to go into the G2 but I can't get audio though builtin graphics on the G3 without the GT 1030... so they are way more lopsided than they would be.

Since my PC has a power connector with a broken end in it attached to the motherboard, I had to order a new one before I boot it again.



A electronics repair shop just opened a block from me so I might take the bluray to them in July and see if they can put a new connector on it.

I'd call it either a manufacturing defect or something because with all my strength I couldn't get it off for about 3 minutes and must've broken it. It's just a little tiny SATA power, much smaller than an HDD/SSD SATA power specifically for a slim optical drive that broke.

I did get my second monitor today though. Seems to work so far. I checked it for dead pixels with this BooBoo program:

number c
= c 0
number old
= old 0

function draw
{
	clear c c c
}

function run
{
	number k
	key_get k KEY_RETURN
	if (&& (== k 1) (== old 0)) change
		if (== c 0) white black
			= c 255
		:white
			= c 0
		:black
	:change
	= old k
}

It toggles between black/white screen with the return key.

I started paying back my loan because my Mom loaned me $600 to buy some of this stuff.

The primary monitor, speakers, keyboard and mouse all travel to whichever computer I'm using via HDMI/USB switches. The beauty of these machines is they all have builtin speakers, so I can keep a bluray playing on the Windows machine while using Linux on the primary screen and the bluray audio plays through the builtin speaker.

Here's a pic of the final setup!

I got a bluray drive I use so I need to put it out of the G2 and into the G6, only I can't put it into the G6 because I can't find a bezel, so instead I'm getting a enclosure for the bluray drive. And putting a dvd into the empty slot.