purpuraRana's recent activity

  1. Comment on Cheap options(?) to run local AI models in ~comp

    purpuraRana
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    I've played around a bit with Stable Diffusion through Automatic1111 with a Ryzen 7600X, Nvidia 3070, 32GB RAM, and 2TB SSD. Adding in mobo and PC case/cooler, I think it was around $1.3k. Since...

    I've played around a bit with Stable Diffusion through Automatic1111 with a Ryzen 7600X, Nvidia 3070, 32GB RAM, and 2TB SSD. Adding in mobo and PC case/cooler, I think it was around $1.3k.
    Since this build was intended to be a general college student workstation for CAD and light gaming, it's not the best you can get for AI image generation at this price. You can get away with getting a cheaper and earlier gen CPU, which also saves cost in the RAM (7600X needs DDR5 RAM, which is 1.5-2x more expensive than DDR4). As far as I can tell, the CPU doesn't do much; it's all GPU and RAM. The 8GB of VRAM in the 3070 is also a limiting factor, so you'd probably be better off getting a 12GB 3060 instead. It's a bit slower (less CUDA), but it's cheaper, you can upscale to higher resolutions, and won't get out of memory errors as much.
    Throwing together the cheapest stuff I could find on pcpartpicker, I got this for $607: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/x2726D
    I do NOT suggest actually buying these parts- I just looked for the cheapest stuff I could find. It would probably work, but it's more of a proof of concept. Prepare to spend $100-200 more, and do your own research.

    With SD1.5 models, I can generate 512x512 images pretty quickly. Been a while since I ran it, so I don't have an exact number, but I'm pretty sure it was under 20 seconds/image. I can upscale to somewhere around 3000x3000 before running out of VRAM.
    With SDXL models, it takes a minute or two to generate a 1024x1024. Upscaling is possible to around 3000x3000 as well, but it is much slower- I think it took around 1.5 hours on the final upscale.
    RAM was never a limiting factor on SD1.5, but I've been 20MB away from maxing out my 32GB on SDXL.

    Hope this helps!

    2 votes

  2. Comment on Do you think you'd use a hardware-based file sharing solution? in ~tech

    purpuraRana
    Link Parent
    Wuju made a lot of good points. Sending links/copy pastes between devices is a big thing that can't be done in a cloud drive. I often find myself sending a link to a website that would be a pain...

    Wuju made a lot of good points. Sending links/copy pastes between devices is a big thing that can't be done in a cloud drive. I often find myself sending a link to a website that would be a pain to navigate on my phone so I can open it on desktop. Also good for short notes/reminders.

    About file search: for 99% of the stuff that I send myself in Discord, it's only a one-time thing. I rarely need to open a homework assignment 2 weeks after I submitted it, for example. If I do, I can pin it in the channel but I haven't yet needed to for anything.
    As for sync: all my devices have Discord, so it's essentially synced. If I don't have an internet connection, a cloud service wouldn't work either.

    I did a quick speed test comparing uploading a pic from my phone to my GDrive root and downloading it onto my PC to uploading that same pic from my phone to Discord and Discord download to PC. Note that I use the browser version of GDrive, not the desktop. To keep things fair, I started with Discord closed and no GDrive tab open (for my typical use case though, Discord is open all the time but not GDrive).
    Results: 25.5s for Discord, 28.6s for GDrive. Probably would have saved 3-5s if Discord was already open.
    So, it's around the same time with Discord a bit faster. Probably wouldn't beat Airdrop between 2 Apple devices, but I think this is the fastest way I can transfer files between my devices.

    The only issue is with >25MB files since that's Discord's limit. But in my use case, those are very very rare and I can just resort to GDrive.

  3. Comment on Do you think you'd use a hardware-based file sharing solution? in ~tech

    purpuraRana
    Link Parent
    My file sharing solution is a Discord private message channel with just myself and an alt account. As a college student, I do homework on my iPad, and then submit it on my desktop or laptop since...

    My file sharing solution is a Discord private message channel with just myself and an alt account. As a college student, I do homework on my iPad, and then submit it on my desktop or laptop since Gradescope is a pain on mobile. It's essentially instant file transmission that only needs an internet connection, and since all my devices have Discord, I can access it from anywhere. This comes in handy if I need to quickly show a friend a homework problem on my phone, for example. As a bonus, everything is stored in reverse chronological order, with the newest files at the bottom.
    This also works well for sharing stuff with friends, because they all have Discord accounts.
    I prefer this over something like Google Drive because organizing stuff into a folder when uploading and then finding that folder to download from is much more time-consuming. Don't want to be spamming my email inbox with random homework files either.

    2 votes

  4. Comment on Is an iPad enough for college students these days? in ~tech

    purpuraRana
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    Sophomore mechanical engineering student here. IMO, it depends on the major. My current setup is a Dell XPS 15 and iPad Pro 12.9" with Apple Pencil. I also have a monitor in my dorm room for my...

    Sophomore mechanical engineering student here. IMO, it depends on the major. My current setup is a Dell XPS 15 and iPad Pro 12.9" with Apple Pencil. I also have a monitor in my dorm room for my laptop so I have 2 screens. The laptop is a must-have for my use case, while the iPad is nonessential but very convenient. Basically, I do anything that needs heavy processing power or typing on the laptop, and anything handwritten on the iPad. However, anything I use the iPad for could be replaced with pen and paper; it's just the convenience of having all my note and homework files stored in a single app, instead of spread out over many notebooks and loose papers.

    On the laptop, I do typed assignments, Zoom calls, Solidworks (Windows-exclusive computer-aided design software), entertainment, coding, and display homework problems. On the iPad, I take notes in class, store digital textbooks, do homework, and store my sheet music library (I play the violin). If I had to get rid of one, it would be the iPad, since all of the stuff I do on there can either be done on paper or my laptop instead.

    In the CS intro class I took last semester, having a personal laptop was required. Judging by what I've seen and heard from other students, this is the same in higher level CS classes as well- so keep this in mind if they are planning on doing any CS at all.

    In the end, ask what their main use cases will be. Without knowing a major, I can't recommend one over the other, but overall I'd say having a laptop is more versatile than an iPad due to the software limitations of iPadOS. If they are in a more technical/STEM major, having the software compatibility and processing power of a laptop would be better, while an iPad + keyboard case would be enough for humanities.

    Also, a bit of advice on software and operating systems. Going into my freshman year, I actually had a Macbook from my high school days, but I quickly found out that it wouldn't work with Solidworks. I tried running a VM (M1 doesn't have native Windows support unfortunately), which worked but was very laggy. Within a few weeks, I was asking my dad to buy a Windows laptop and bring it when he visited over fall break. I recognize that many families can't afford this kind of mid-semester tech purchase, so please, take your time and do plenty of research into required software for the major before leaving. Fortunately for my old Macbook, my younger brother is now using it for high school :)

    Don't get a Chromebook for college. My school explicitly recommends against ChromeOS due to its limitations, so your options are basically just Windows or MacOS. (My school also supports Linux, but don't go that route unless you really know what you're doing.) If you're fine with MacOS (personally I hated it) and it supports the software needed for your major, a M1 or M2 Macbook Air is a good choice for college. While my Dell XPS has enough battery for a day of use, my old Macbook certainly beats it in terms of battery life. Otherwise, you're swimming through the sea of Windows laptops. Personally, I'm a fan of what Framework is doing and if my laptop were to die, they would be my first choice. Whatever you do, go for at least 16GB of ram and 512GB SSD.

    4 votes

  5. Comment on Homework tunes in ~music

  6. Comment on Anyone with DIY motorized bike experience? Considering building one! in ~hobbies

    purpuraRana
    Link Parent
    From the ones I watched, they were relatively quieter, but yeah I guess it would still be pretty loud overall. For hills, I'm not expecting it to be able to provide all the power by itself; more...

    From the ones I watched, they were relatively quieter, but yeah I guess it would still be pretty loud overall.
    For hills, I'm not expecting it to be able to provide all the power by itself; more of a pedal assist kind of thing.
    Was your ebike setup a front hub, rear hub, or center mount? I might reconsider doing an ebike conversion instead if I can find a cheap battery that won't explode while charging...

  7. Comment on Anyone with DIY motorized bike experience? Considering building one! in ~hobbies

    purpuraRana
    Link Parent
    Thanks for the reply! I'm looking at something like this:...

    Thanks for the reply!
    I'm looking at something like this: https://www.ebay.com/itm/183413224196?hash=item2ab447b304:g:-oYAAOSw5Sdi338B&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA8GCssw3%2FvXipDoLtx3XxUiWtYY2KX88G4AGayXhnWnSUB%2BXzgAuGrVAFkgQu2FtXFvIN5fmZ0OC2bdAaM4SPy%2BGIxCJ9YjcEEh5Dvhz6OwEOsy6WEFZ16VrtPJdJlxfhevt7Ad3iw9ALGJ2faWICSsctOfEIzi6LzVKerYUgRVpbt321iFQxHFwCiT8CuHrUKgphGRtTj9Q3lXg76llXI79qJn8giH03V0pu2IuuQDEAi3DCOmI%2BLSdXsrcwk8yGMtoFrdzQZ%2BsYwmOPBcpHJdhaXbzhntRB9pIhUllMx9VPfxqshCXkN%2FeCF%2FgdnU6mVw%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABFBMrPSZ8qZi
    (though it seems like all the 49cc kits with that red engine cover are essentially the same thing)

    I'm aware that there's likely gonna be some tinkering involved with getting it to fit my bike, but I should have access to a lot of tools at my college's makerspace. I can buy some loctite and better bolts at a nearby Home Depot.

    How loud would you say your build was? One reason I want 4 stroke over 2 stroke is that they are supposedly quieter, and I don't want to be too annoying riding around the city. (I'm definitely not gonna be riding it on campus, don't want security confiscating it lol)

  8. Anyone with DIY motorized bike experience? Considering building one!

    ~hobbies Ask (recommendations)
    Hi Tildes! I'm a college student considering adding a gas motor onto my existing bike. I'm in a pretty hilly city, so biking around for groceries is kinda annoying... plus I wanna just zoom around...

    Hi Tildes!
    I'm a college student considering adding a gas motor onto my existing bike. I'm in a pretty hilly city, so biking around for groceries is kinda annoying... plus I wanna just zoom around some trails in my free time.
    Currently, I'm looking at one of the 49cc 4 stroke engine kits all over Amazon/Ebay, since I heard that 4 stroke motors are supposedly quieter and more reliable than 2 strokes. I don't care about speed... in fact, I don't want to be going over 30mph on a bike. 49cc also makes this thing street legal in my state.
    I did consider doing an e-bike conversion as well, but those are much more expensive... a 4 stroke kit is ~$160, while any reputable e-bike battery alone is more than that. These things don't burn much gasoline either, getting 100-150 mpg! I'd have to ride thousands of miles before the fuel cost exceeds an e-bike battery.
    So, any advice would be appreciated! Also, I'd be willing to spend ~300 on this if there is a compelling reason to get a better motor than the generic Ebay one. If you have motor suggestions, please link them!
    Thanks,
    purpuraRana

    13 votes