{
 "schema_version": "1.0",
 "page_kind": "article",
 "pack_kind": "generate",
 "slug": "the-3080-rig-priced",
 "title": "The 3080 Rig, Priced",
 "dek": "A desktop built around a used RTX 3080 with 10 GB of video memory costs $1,357.61 in seven parts plus the card, or $1,500.57 with the parts a reader would actually want, before tax and before a screen, from one US retailer and one used-card marketplace, priced 8 October 2026. The 32 GB of RAM beside the card cost more than the card that day, as it has on each of the four days this workshop has priced the build since 10 September.",
 "published": "2026-10-14",
 "series": [
  "bench"
 ],
 "licence": "CC BY 4.0",
 "status": "pending-judge",
 "pack_note": "no judge is seated, so every chip is held",
 "notice": "items with published:false are held and are not this page's published words",
 "source": {
  "url": "https://research.strata2signal.com/the-3080-rig-priced/",
  "md_url": "https://research.strata2signal.com/the-3080-rig-priced/index.md",
  "md_sha": "0315960428cf779cb0e6857db474908ea44ce5813aaed49dd7deed42a636a48c",
  "html_sha": "a238b934a1b91105bc5878fe5c5d192973ed67492f33ddd2d000fde444c2d2aa",
  "anchors_sha": "94fa572fe33ff65f5a0fc50681fd95e0218110346ea771032e034a6a4d4bb523"
 },
 "short": {
  "paragraph": "A desktop around a used 10 GB RTX 3080 costs about $1,360 in parts, or about $1,500 built the way you would want it, before tax, on 8 October 2026. The card is $358 on one marketplace's printed twelve-month average of completed sales, and $376.67 in the latest month of that window; the 32 GB of RAM beside it is $439.99. The speeds on this page come from an older desktop the card was benched in, not the one priced here: on the two models that fit inside the card it writes seventy to eighty-five tokens a second, twelve to fifteen times that desktop's processor alone; on the four that don't, just under two to five and a half times. The full bench has not had its own page yet; this one is the bill.",
  "from_dek": false,
  "counts": {
   "words": 4317,
   "minutes": 20,
   "tables": 6,
   "kit": false
  },
  "bullets": []
 },
 "sections": [
  {
   "id": "a-few-words-this-page-leans-on",
   "heading": "A few words this page leans on",
   "level": 2,
   "span": [
    2108,
    4030
   ],
   "chunks": [
    [
     2108,
     4030
    ]
   ],
   "chars": 1922,
   "digest": "this section defines technical terms used throughout the article, including token, VRAM, RAM, GiB, split, mixture of experts, completed sale, marketplace seller, modular, and pre-tax.",
   "digest_skipped": null
  },
  {
   "id": "what-this-page-prices-and-what-it-does-not",
   "heading": "What this page prices, and what it does not",
   "level": 2,
   "span": [
    4030,
    4945
   ],
   "chunks": [
    [
     4030,
     4945
    ]
   ],
   "chars": 915,
   "digest": "the article prices a new desktop around a used graphics card and a card in three ways, but it does not price a monitor, keyboard, mouse, operating system, or shipping beyond one line.",
   "digest_skipped": null
  },
  {
   "id": "the-computer-as-this-workshop-ran-it",
   "heading": "The computer, as this workshop ran it",
   "level": 2,
   "span": [
    4945,
    6411
   ],
   "chunks": [
    [
     4945,
     6411
    ]
   ],
   "chars": 1466,
   "digest": "the bench used an EVGA RTX 3080 FTW3 with 10 GB at a 380 W factory power limit. the desktop used for speeds was an older machine with 48 GB of DDR4-3200.",
   "digest_skipped": null
  },
  {
   "id": "build-a-the-cheapest-honest-desktop",
   "heading": "Build A: the cheapest honest desktop",
   "level": 2,
   "span": [
    6411,
    10258
   ],
   "chunks": [
    [
     6411,
     10258
    ]
   ],
   "chars": 3847,
   "digest": null,
   "digest_skipped": null
  },
  {
   "id": "build-b-the-step-up-a-reader-would-actually-want",
   "heading": "Build B: the step up a reader would actually want",
   "level": 2,
   "span": [
    10258,
    12291
   ],
   "chunks": [
    [
     10258,
     12291
    ]
   ],
   "chars": 2033,
   "digest": "build B uses the same processor, cooler, and memory as build A but upgrades the motherboard, drive, case, and power supply to an 850 W modular unit. the parts total $1,142.57.",
   "digest_skipped": null
  },
  {
   "id": "the-card",
   "heading": "The card",
   "level": 2,
   "span": [
    12291,
    15876
   ],
   "chunks": [
    [
     12291,
     15876
    ]
   ],
   "chars": 3585,
   "digest": null,
   "digest_skipped": null
  },
  {
   "id": "the-bill-priced-8-october-2026",
   "heading": "The bill, priced 8 October 2026",
   "level": 2,
   "span": [
    15876,
    18980
   ],
   "chunks": [
    [
     15876,
     18980
    ]
   ],
   "chars": 3104,
   "digest": null,
   "digest_skipped": null
  },
  {
   "id": "what-the-computer-runs",
   "heading": "What the computer runs",
   "level": 2,
   "span": [
    18980,
    22636
   ],
   "chunks": [
    [
     18980,
     22636
    ]
   ],
   "chars": 3656,
   "digest": "the section provides a table of model speeds, showing how different models like Gemma 4 and Mistral Small 3.2 perform on the card or via a split between the card and RAM.",
   "digest_skipped": null
  },
  {
   "id": "against-a-subscription",
   "heading": "Against a subscription",
   "level": 2,
   "span": [
    22636,
    24045
   ],
   "chunks": [
    [
     22636,
     24045
    ]
   ],
   "chars": 1409,
   "digest": null,
   "digest_skipped": null
  },
  {
   "id": "what-this-page-does-not-say",
   "heading": "What this page does not say",
   "level": 2,
   "span": [
    24045,
    25663
   ],
   "chunks": [
    [
     24045,
     25663
    ]
   ],
   "chars": 1618,
   "digest": null,
   "digest_skipped": null
  },
  {
   "id": "who-ran-this-and-thanks",
   "heading": "Who ran this, and thanks",
   "level": 2,
   "span": [
    25663,
    26671
   ],
   "chunks": [
    [
     25663,
     26671
    ]
   ],
   "chars": 1008,
   "digest": null,
   "digest_skipped": "credits"
  }
 ],
 "chips": [
  {
   "id": "c-2612b5e5",
   "q": "how does the text define a token?",
   "a": "A token is the chunk a model reads and writes in, which is a little under a word. Twelve tokens a second is approximately one line of text every second; ten tokens a second reads as fluent, while four to six tokens a second reads as comfortable.",
   "cites": [
    "a-few-words-this-page-leans-on"
   ],
   "published": false,
   "publish_state": "held",
   "quote": "",
   "quote_cite": ""
  },
  {
   "id": "c-7c86828a",
   "q": "what specific items are excluded from the pricing?",
   "a": "The pricing does not include a monitor, keyboard, mouse, or operating system, nor does it include shipping beyond the single line that charged it.",
   "cites": [
    "what-this-page-prices-and-what-it-does-not"
   ],
   "published": false,
   "publish_state": "held",
   "quote": "",
   "quote_cite": ""
  },
  {
   "id": "c-d976f3fa",
   "q": "how is the power supply sized for build a?",
   "a": "The power supply is sized by adding the card's rating, 105 W for the processor, and about 100 W for the board, drives, and fans. For a 320 W reference card, this is about 525 W, and the rule takes forty per cent on top, resulting in about 735 W.",
   "cites": [
    "build-a-the-cheapest-honest-desktop"
   ],
   "published": false,
   "publish_state": "held",
   "quote": "",
   "quote_cite": ""
  },
  {
   "id": "c-6c34fb0b",
   "q": "how is the used card price calculated?",
   "a": "The used price is based on a marketplace's printed twelve-month average of completed sales. This average combines twelve monthly figures for used cards with twelve for new-condition ones.",
   "cites": [
    "the-card"
   ],
   "published": false,
   "publish_state": "held",
   "quote": "",
   "quote_cite": ""
  },
  {
   "id": "c-710d0e25",
   "q": "how much does the memory cost relative to the card?",
   "a": "In build A, the 32 GB of RAM costs $439.99, which is $81.99 more than the card at the printed average of $358, and $63.32 more at the September 2026 average of $376.67.",
   "cites": [
    "the-bill-priced-8-october-2026"
   ],
   "published": false,
   "publish_state": "held",
   "quote": "",
   "quote_cite": ""
  },
  {
   "id": "c-6bb3d86b",
   "q": "what are the advantages of a desktop over a subscription?",
   "a": "A desktop provides the model on the user's own words and in their own house without sending data anywhere, and it functions when a connection or vendor is unavailable. Additionally, the hardware retains some resale value.",
   "cites": [
    "against-a-subscription"
   ],
   "published": false,
   "publish_state": "held",
   "quote": "",
   "quote_cite": ""
  }
 ],
 "related": [
  {
   "slug": "the-two-hour-machine-priced",
   "why": "shares ground with § Build B: the step up a reader would actually want · § Build A: the same box, bought today"
  },
  {
   "slug": "flash-next-on-three-cards",
   "why": "shares ground with § What the computer runs · § The three cards, and how they were run"
  },
  {
   "slug": "two-used-3080s-priced",
   "why": "shares ground with § What this page prices, and what it does not · § What it costs, priced 17 September 2026"
  }
 ],
 "thanks": "## Who ran this, and thanks {#who-ran-this-and-thanks}\n\nThe listings were read from Newegg and the completed sales from Jawa by an agent in one window, every figure re-derived from the saved pages, and checked against those pages again by a second agent before this page went up; the speeds are the bench's own, unchanged, and the correction to the used price was found by reading the same page twice. The saved pages, their digests and the script that totals them are kept beside this page's sources, the way [every page here keeps its receipts](/how-we-work/). The speeds stand on Ollama and, beneath it, llama.cpp and NVIDIA's CUDA, and on six models their makers publish for anyone to run: Qwen 3.5 from Alibaba Cloud, Google's Gemma 4 at two sizes, Microsoft's Phi-4, Mistral Small 3.2 from Mistral AI and NVIDIA's Nemotron 3.5 Lightning; none of them owed us anything. Thanks to Jawa for printing its completed sales, which is the only reason a used price on this page has a number a reader can check.",
 "kit": null,
 "seat_class": {
  "writer": "gemma-class",
  "judge": null,
  "writer_runtime": "vllm"
 },
 "bench": {
  "bullets_written": 3,
  "bullets_kept": 0,
  "digests_written": 10,
  "digests_kept": 5,
  "chips_written": 8,
  "chips_kept": 6,
  "chips_grounded": 0,
  "chips_published": 0,
  "dropped_by": {
   "new_noun": 0,
   "figure": 0,
   "length": 0,
   "cite": 0,
   "judge": 0,
   "quote": 0,
   "directive": 0,
   "redaction": 0,
   "profanity": 0,
   "identifier": 0,
   "bare_figure": 0,
   "house_voice": 0,
   "editorial": 0,
   "hand-edit": 10
  },
  "new_noun_tokens_checked": [
   "1",
   "10",
   "100",
   "105",
   "12",
   "142.57",
   "18.0",
   "2026",
   "24",
   "3.2",
   "304",
   "3080",
   "3090",
   "32",
   "320",
   "358",
   "376.67",
   "380",
   "382.61",
   "4",
   "439.99",
   "48",
   "499.94",
   "525",
   "63.32",
   "679.99",
   "720",
   "735",
   "750",
   "81.99",
   "850",
   "999.61",
   "B",
   "DDR4-3200",
   "DDR5-5600",
   "EVGA",
   "FTW3",
   "GB",
   "Gemma",
   "GiB",
   "Mistral",
   "RAM",
   "RTX",
   "September",
   "Small",
   "VRAM",
   "W"
  ],
  "new_noun_tokens_withheld": 0,
  "figure_definition": "v3",
  "figure_boundary": "guarded",
  "drops": [
   {
    "kind": "bullet",
    "reason": "hand-edit",
    "item": null,
    "item_chars": 42,
    "text_sha": "35a0cea9a0c9",
    "figure": "304",
    "withheld": "one bullet removed from this pack by hand",
    "removed_utc": "2026-10-13",
    "why": "drops its condition: 304 W is the card's own draw while writing on one row only, Qwen 3.5 9 billion; the same column reads 114 to 338 W across the six models",
    "detail": "removed from this pack by hand on 2026-10-13 (UTC), after the writer ran and after the gates had counted: drops its condition: 304 W is the card's own draw while writing on one row only, Qwen 3.5 9 billion; the same column reads 114 to 338 W across the six models. Not a gate drop, and recorded here so the ledger adds up."
   },
   {
    "kind": "bullet",
    "reason": "hand-edit",
    "item": null,
    "item_chars": 50,
    "text_sha": "fe58670d0820",
    "figure": "18.0",
    "withheld": "one bullet removed from this pack by hand",
    "removed_utc": "2026-10-13",
    "why": "not a sentence, and it drops its condition: the 18.0 GB is RAM on the bench desktop, held by the 30-billion mixture, the largest of the four split models; 'puts this much RAM there' names neither",
    "detail": "removed from this pack by hand on 2026-10-13 (UTC), after the writer ran and after the gates had counted: not a sentence, and it drops its condition: the 18.0 GB is RAM on the bench desktop, held by the 30-billion mixture, the largest of the four split models; 'puts this much RAM there' names neither. Not a gate drop, and recorded here so the ledger adds up."
   },
   {
    "kind": "bullet",
    "reason": "hand-edit",
    "item": null,
    "item_chars": 39,
    "text_sha": "bbeede6114d9",
    "figure": "380",
    "withheld": "one bullet removed from this pack by hand",
    "removed_utc": "2026-10-13",
    "why": "drops its condition: 380 W is the benched EVGA RTX 3080 FTW3's board-maker factory limit; the page prices a 10 GB RTX 3080 of any make and gives the reference card's rating as 320 W, so 'the card's factory power limit' reads as every card's",
    "detail": "removed from this pack by hand on 2026-10-13 (UTC), after the writer ran and after the gates had counted: drops its condition: 380 W is the benched EVGA RTX 3080 FTW3's board-maker factory limit; the page prices a 10 GB RTX 3080 of any make and gives the reference card's rating as 320 W, so 'the card's factory power limit' reads as every card's. Not a gate drop, and recorded here so the ledger adds up."
   },
   {
    "kind": "digest",
    "reason": "hand-edit",
    "item": null,
    "item_chars": 156,
    "text_sha": "5311f906070c",
    "section": "build-a-the-cheapest-honest-desktop",
    "withheld": "one section digest removed from this pack by hand",
    "removed_utc": "2026-10-13",
    "why": "wrong as written: $1,382.61 is build A with build B's 850 W supply plus the card; with the 750 W supply this digest names, build A with the card is $1,357.61",
    "detail": "removed from this pack by hand on 2026-10-13 (UTC), after the writer ran and after the gates had counted: wrong as written: $1,382.61 is build A with build B's 850 W supply plus the card; with the 750 W supply this digest names, build A with the card is $1,357.61. Not a gate drop, and recorded here so the ledger adds up."
   },
   {
    "kind": "digest",
    "reason": "hand-edit",
    "item": null,
    "item_chars": 188,
    "text_sha": "7e78d8088940",
    "section": "the-card",
    "withheld": "one section digest removed from this pack by hand",
    "removed_utc": "2026-10-13",
    "why": "drops the $358's condition: the page prices it as one marketplace's printed twelve-month average of completed sales, sets it against a $404 asking average and carries a dated correction about mixing the two; 'a used average' does not say which",
    "detail": "removed from this pack by hand on 2026-10-13 (UTC), after the writer ran and after the gates had counted: drops the $358's condition: the page prices it as one marketplace's printed twelve-month average of completed sales, sets it against a $404 asking average and carries a dated correction about mixing the two; 'a used average' does not say which. Not a gate drop, and recorded here so the ledger adds up."
   },
   {
    "kind": "digest",
    "reason": "hand-edit",
    "item": null,
    "item_chars": 168,
    "text_sha": "7251a56d986e",
    "section": "the-bill-priced-8-october-2026",
    "withheld": "one section digest removed from this pack by hand",
    "removed_utc": "2026-10-13",
    "why": "says more than its section: the page has the memory as the largest single line in both builds on 8 October, and dearer than the card on every read; 'the most expensive single line in every read' is neither",
    "detail": "removed from this pack by hand on 2026-10-13 (UTC), after the writer ran and after the gates had counted: says more than its section: the page has the memory as the largest single line in both builds on 8 October, and dearer than the card on every read; 'the most expensive single line in every read' is neither. Not a gate drop, and recorded here so the ledger adds up."
   },
   {
    "kind": "digest",
    "reason": "hand-edit",
    "item": null,
    "item_chars": 171,
    "text_sha": "32847d033780",
    "section": "against-a-subscription",
    "withheld": "one section digest removed from this pack by hand",
    "removed_utc": "2026-10-13",
    "why": "drops the $720's condition: it is a twenty-dollar-a-month subscription to a chat assistant's paid tier over three years; 'a three-year subscription' names no price or service",
    "detail": "removed from this pack by hand on 2026-10-13 (UTC), after the writer ran and after the gates had counted: drops the $720's condition: it is a twenty-dollar-a-month subscription to a chat assistant's paid tier over three years; 'a three-year subscription' names no price or service. Not a gate drop, and recorded here so the ledger adds up."
   },
   {
    "kind": "digest",
    "reason": "hand-edit",
    "item": null,
    "item_chars": 148,
    "text_sha": "7a1859e4448a",
    "section": "what-this-page-does-not-say",
    "withheld": "one section digest removed from this pack by hand",
    "removed_utc": "2026-10-13",
    "why": "misstates its section: the page says it does not say what a 12 GB RTX 3080 does, not that it does not price one, and its card section quotes an asking index that counts 12 GB cards",
    "detail": "removed from this pack by hand on 2026-10-13 (UTC), after the writer ran and after the gates had counted: misstates its section: the page says it does not say what a 12 GB RTX 3080 does, not that it does not price one, and its card section quotes an asking index that counts 12 GB cards. Not a gate drop, and recorded here so the ledger adds up."
   },
   {
    "kind": "chip",
    "reason": "hand-edit",
    "item": null,
    "item_chars": 252,
    "text_sha": "f8488f4896e4",
    "chip_id": "c-f50b13ef",
    "withheld": "one chip removed from this pack by hand",
    "removed_utc": "2026-10-13",
    "why": "says more than its section: the page gives build B's drive speed as its listing's rating, up to 7,300 MB/s against 5,000, and calls the step up one in make rather than in anything it measured; 'a faster drive' states it as fact",
    "detail": "removed from this pack by hand on 2026-10-13 (UTC), after the writer ran and after the gates had counted: says more than its section: the page gives build B's drive speed as its listing's rating, up to 7,300 MB/s against 5,000, and calls the step up one in make rather than in anything it measured; 'a faster drive' states it as fact. Not a gate drop, and recorded here so the ledger adds up."
   },
   {
    "kind": "chip",
    "reason": "hand-edit",
    "item": null,
    "item_chars": 212,
    "text_sha": "ab3ea5257311",
    "chip_id": "c-aa67b3ad",
    "withheld": "one chip removed from this pack by hand",
    "removed_utc": "2026-10-13",
    "why": "its cite does not hold the claim: 'every word waits on the slower half' is the glossary's sentence, not this section's, which says part of the model lives in RAM and the processor helps",
    "detail": "removed from this pack by hand on 2026-10-13 (UTC), after the writer ran and after the gates had counted: its cite does not hold the claim: 'every word waits on the slower half' is the glossary's sentence, not this section's, which says part of the model lives in RAM and the processor helps. Not a gate drop, and recorded here so the ledger adds up."
   }
  ]
 },
 "generated_utc": "2026-10-13T19:28:27Z"
}