[hattmall]

>So if a student comes to me wishing to start building computers what advice do I give them? Farm something?

Buy used stuff? 99.9% of consumers have no need for anywhere near the cutting edge tech. I do far more than most people and get by just fine with a workstation I bought used in 2014. My newest Laptop is ~2018 and that was only because I wanted something with 4K that I could flip to tablet.

Raspberry PI's, SOCS, Microcontrollers, there's a million things today that are awesome. Are hobbyist students needing to build datacenters!?

[carefree-bob]

Most of the computers I buy are refurbished or used models, I've never had a bad experience. Especially now, when computers are not getting much better whereas prices are increasing faster than performance.