We Built A Small Form Factor Sleeper Gaming PC That Crushes 1440P!

[@RyCryst]

My father works IT for his company. Every 2 years they refresh their desktop pc's. I got the same version of this except with a 9700 for free. It was awesome. I ended up throwing a bigger ssd some more ram and a RX 6400 low profile in it. It ran awesome! This was a couple years ago.

[@mixedup5858]

PSU wattage?

[@mike_t_007]

Still got it?! If no what are you running with now?

[@holeing]

yea i had a lenovo sff pc with a 10400, i added another 8gb (total 16gb) and rx6400 with 260w psu

[@yako9992]

@@holeing wow i never thought u could put on a gpu with a 260 watt psu

[@nodudelikeme]

@@yako9992 u got a lot to learn the low profile cards exist due to them

[@gazehound]

[4060 pegged at 100%] "what's holding us back is that CPU"

[@madmod]

Bottlenecking is very real. This same GPU on a more modern ryzen 5 would perform better despite it pegging out reaching 100% on this combo.

[@AnonymousAnonymous-zp6lu]

Sleeper PC with Ryzen 4070

[@V0yager689]

This meme is spreading fast

[@mtaufiqnmtn]

Just stop it

[@kspfan001]

zzzzzz

[@gogoman27]

7090

[@Ag3ra__]

@@mtaufiqnmtn deal with it u prob have a nvidia 7700 xt

[@nickfury1279]

You might also consider putting an 80 mm fan in the bottom intake vent to help improve airflow. I set up a 7060 SFF for my sister to use, and I installed a Noctua NF-A8 in the intake vent. I used a two-way PWM splitter to connect both it and the cpu cooler to the cpu fan header

[@JLPLay07]

Hello @nickfury1270, I would like to know if the modification you did is working fine. Just asking since I'm planning to do the same thing. Thanks!

[@Zulwise]

Can you make a video tutorial?

[@gorgarath]

There's a spot for a system fan on the board, it's just the pads and missing the headers. I've got a few of these at work and am debating trying to rig one up as I'm running on an old 4th gen. Debating if I want to try my hand at soldering a header to the board.

[@jgl2920]

My pc for the last 6 years was I5 8600k 3.6 16gb 3000mhz 1070ti, playing everything 1440p, from day ones, now is the same cpu but better coolers and OC to 4.8, same ram and a 4060 ti 16 gb, playing everything on high 1440p never under 60fps, I think that I'm good to go for the next 3 to 4 years. Thanks for your videos to tell people that not everything is buy new.

[@mako9673]

With the obscene costs of graphics cards, I definitely like seeing the options for putting together some low cost capable gaming systems.

[@zpodfjaoij4]

Went to Walmart the other day and they had a $1100 desktop with a 4060 in it, and a 14600kf. Pretty sure this build will give you something approaching 100% of the same performance at 1440p for 1/3 the cost

[@SwordfighterRed]

@@zpodfjaoij4 14600KF, oh dear. Probably not a good prebuilt value in the first place, and Intel's recent stability issues make that doubly so.

[@unacknowledged3537]

@@zpodfjaoij4 Should have went with AMD buddy, especially their newer AM5 chipset CPUs

[@rynervon]

​@@unacknowledged3537 can you give me budget amd cpu good for video editing? Can i combine it with radeon gpu

[@zpodfjaoij4]

@@unacknowledged3537 I’m good for a few years, went with a clearance 12600kf and a h610 32 gb ddr4 3200. With a cooler total platform cost was 225 usd Am5’s better for CPU’s but the platform cost is still too high for me just play games casually, upgrade whenever I stop being able to play the games I want to play.

[@geothornton]

Another note is that if you have an extra 50-100 dollars in your budget you can sometimes get up to 11th gen optiplexes. You can get optiplex 3000s for around $250-300.

[@d.aardent9382]

@@geothornton geez thats still cheaper to go than what i was going to do trying to upgrade cpu in few yrs old pc that used to be my mom's and then i had mine which is like ten + yrs old. It needs entire new graphics card as its HP with a ryzen graphics that is obsolete now and the cpu is very outdated. Cost me way more to rehab the two old ones than to fix up this optiplex a little.

[@MisterDirge]

Just got a optioned 3080 sff with a 10th gen i5 16gb ram and 500gb ssd for $80

[@shadowsong1]

one of the most often cited limitations of these systems are the power supplies and this is a genius solution to that problem.

[@i.c.wiener2750]

The limitation is the CPU. It's pretty trash for modern standards.

[@kdarkholme]

I scored a new 7060 sff from a school auction for $123, i7 8700 for $75, rx 6400 $120, vengeance 4x16 64g ram $75, nortua NH-L9i $50, after watching your build I felt that I could have done something beefier if I had spent a little more. Its my first PC, if like it building and playing on pc, maybe my next build will be fitting a miniITX in an xbox 360e. Thank you for your content, it’s very inspirational.

[@mike_t_007]

Nice!😎 Can you post a video about it when it's all done? Should be a nice first computer for sure

[@kdarkholme]

@@mike_t_007 😂 sure, can’t say I know much about the subject to give any in-depth review, but I can try.

[@oJoaoPotter]

14:00 that GPU anti-sag support is divine

[@princekells2]

Sometimes pc building is simply but these other guys makes it so luxurious i asked myself see style of consoles so simply

[@TheGameBench]

You can easily swap the stock cooler with something like the ID Cooling IS-55, which is going to cool a lot better and be quieter. All you need are four m3x18 or m3x20 screws to mount it to the factory mounting. You just need to ditch the chassis intrusion switch as well as use a right angle SATA cable on the optical drive if you have one. Also, one thing to note with the 3060, 5060 and 7060 is that if you buy one planning to upgrade to a 9th Gen i7 or i9, they will NOT work in these systems. Dell never released the microcode to be able to run them. You can inject the microcode yourself by modifying the BIOS and flashing that modified BIOS, but it's risky. You're better off just buying the 5070 or 7070. However, the 9th Gen i5's do work on the latest BIOS, likely because they're pretty much identical to the 8th Gen with a slight bump to clock speeds.

[@physxme]

It won't be a guaranteed improvement in such an airflow deprived case. While the stock cooler is loud it does exhaust hot air out of the case with its flow guidance shroud. A downdraft cooler on the other hand is just going to circulate hot air inside the case without driving the heat out effectively.

[@TheGameBench]

@@physxme You're right... you really need to add airflow, but you really need to add airflow regardless and you're not accounting for all variables. Regardless, you should add a front fan to these for some added airflow and you can absolutely add a couple of 40mm fans pretty easily to the rear. However, that cooler is just a thin chunk of cast aluminum, which is a cheap solution that doesn't work very well as a heat sink. It's not a lot of thermal mass and is completely relying on the fan to just brute force the air out of the chassis. Problem is... it still doesn't work well and the CPU is running in the 80s while pushing around 57dBa. I know... I'm testing it right now. The IS-55 has more thermal mass, copper heat pipes and better heat dissipation. Could it hot box? Yes, but the CPU temps will still be better, and the cooler will still be quieter, regardless. However, you should absolutely add a front fan and maybe one or two rear exhaust 40mm fans. That would be optimal.

[@samuellopez-je9nw]

This was just like my first set up! INSANE Value!!! ran hot but does the job+++ even edited and streamed w it.

[@Southized]

What is considered hot temps?

[@samuellopez-je9nw]

@@Southized depends on the specs but its not enough to throttle the system. Can be a bit noisy if you have an i7 system. With just one case fan/cpu fan a warm gpu is going to get warm but its fine. Heat will dump out the back like a space heater nice in the winter. 🔥

[@Eyedunno]

ETA PRIME @ 10:14 : "What's holding us back is that CPU." That CPU: *barely goes above 70% utilization*

[@dragonfirerich]

There's some space for an 80 mm fan on the front. Between that and changing the stock cooler to something with a beefier heat sink, those CPU temps should become less scary.

[@jeffjohnson2731]

noctua coolers for Optiplex are really the best you can do in small form factor... they are spendy, but will decrease temps 10-15 degrees Celcius overall, letting that boost TDP kick in a lot more with max boost up to 4.6 GHz.

[@ochitokes]

I have an i7 8700. Do not sleep on it. It even performs amazing in RPCS3 1620P

[@remix3434]

I also brought 2 friends with such setups to play on the PC but still with i7 6700 non k and 10 or 20 series nvidia gpus. and haven't had any complaints to date

[@famousfighter2310]

Man that little psu is a savior because I have a dell inspiron 3650 that has the stupid 240w psu. I would love to upgrade the gpu from the 1050 ti to that 4060 you got.

[@remixedcat]

yeah 200w aint gonna cut it for any gpu

[@TSOLYRICS]

@@remixedcat i am buying 1050ti now, crazy how much gap we both have !😔

[@ZlySzelestLisci]

Funnily enough, older models of these SFF machines, Optiplex 7010 for example, had PCI-e ports in correct position, so you could put 2-slot card with original PSU in place. Well, looks like someone in Dell was designing new models on Friday afternoon...

[@Soravia]

HP Elite 800 G3 had on 16x then two 4x, then one 8x. Spaced perfectly

[@rdbrown58]

I had a similar system with an i7 on LGA 1151 that I replaced with a compatible Xeon processor. I was really pleased with the result.

[@ihendrawijaya]

I have Optiplex 5060 sff, which is the same as yours except without some legacy ports. Throw A2000 on that little PCI rather than longer one. Works well, but need 1 extra intake 80mm fan for better cooling when the lid is closed, pretty solid and stable

[@adey88splace]

"Picking it up and shaking it over your head..." I've done that more than a few times just to make sure there are no stray screws in there.

[@calebwhite6173]

Bought two of these recently at a garage sale for $5 each i5 8th gen. Thanks for the tips!! I’ll try it out!

[@fahvm4362]

Love Sleeper PC. It's a new hope.

[@SaltyOldBaldurian]

Just FYI, I didn't just "like", and I didn't just "subscribe", ......but I liked, subscribed and then "full-screened" the video for all that juicy full screen goodness. I don't even give Russ that kind of treatment. ;D

[@SaltyOldBaldurian]

Huge KUDOS on your "validation" of the Apevia PSU.... I always hesitate on that brand. It looks capable, but it's still not an EVGA or even Gigabyte (even with their bad models), it's just unknown.

[@missing_score2]

@@SaltyOldBaldurian keep up the good work boss 👍

[@connorpurdy6103]

Dad gave me one of these tiny office pcs for Christmas, I just stuck a gtx 1030 in the thing and called it a day

[@geoffs23]

did similar with a no name psu, i5 7600 optiplex and a 1030 sff gpu way back. Had 512 nvme + 4tb hdd was great for many games years ago

[@SaltyOldBaldurian]

Honestly though, for a lot of games that are GPU dependent, that 8th gen Intel CPU is still pretty solid. If anything, I'd see about swapping that stock Dell CPU cooler for something like a low profile Noctua cooler and then modding the side panel to give it more airflow. Or just run it without the side panel at all. I looked at a very similar build back in the "COVID days" and somehow happened upon an Origin prebuilt PC with the same form factor size, but with more "agreeable" SFX/ITX components and a 2-slot vertical mount GPU setup. With any ITX setup, it always comes back to thermals, no way around it. Great vid! Catch you next time!

[@Voidsworn]

Oh, good. I was thinking of doing something like this (measured dims of PSUs, interior of case, etc) but never got to doing it. Nice to know it works

[@javiersilva2884]

would that power supply work with the HP prebuilt with the Ryzen 7 4700g and 180w power supply?

[@ajingolk7716]

The new 7090 mt case is just a piece of art 😍😍😍

[@noah39353]

The 8700k and 4060 looks like an amzing fit for me for 1440p gaming

[@Sykxezn]

bro took the newer version of my first desktop pc and upgraded it like crazy

[@the_13east]

for the PSU you can also put a huge double sided tape under it and it wont go nowhere no more 😂

[@alexanderzubchenko8623]

that was my first thought, man ;)

[@manuelhernandez2017]

Achievement unlocked: engineering- level innovation!

[@scififan68]

Not a proprietary psu just the ATX12VO standard. Those adapters just allow you to only use the 12V rail on the standard psu.

[@owenhill5668]

It would make an absolute killer of an emulation box to sit under your TV!

[@oussemafarhat4]

love the content

[@EVANDROSAMPAIO]

Is it possible that the 7060 case can house a 7080 i7 10th mobo? Is there a big difference between 8th and 10th Intel gen for 1080p games? Watching this video I'm thinking of building something small as this build for a full HD games on my living room.

[@Soravia]

SFF with 240w power supplies can put more power to GPU if you swap in 65w TDP CPU

[@dinnerbon111]

im gonna mirror this exact build

[@spiderrman2099]

I have a PC from the 80s I'm considering making into a sleeper build

[@therealwhite]

The Apple II... wenty sixty TI

[@always_trust_all_scientists]

@@therealwhite do a TI994A

[@ryanjlucas]

Until now, I had never heard anyone say, "Let's buy everything."🤑

[@gnauenburg2018]

What other models of Optiolex sff will this psu fit in to allow the use of a dual slot GPU?

[@age-opebhai3712]

Whats The Full Price For This PC Graphics Card Setup 😮

[@JayDubster]

Impressive build man, lovin your work :)

[@Steveebruh]

you saved my life with this video. i was struggling to find a way to not change out the mobo for a normal powersupply

[@kennethmason8677]

is the psu loud while gaming?

[@coolunusual]

How does the mounting work in the scenario where you use the riser? How do you fit it to where it stays in place and how do you work with getting a display cable plugged into it

[@chromerims]

Jolly delightful 👍 Kindest regards, friends and neighbours.

[@alucarddamed]

great video as always, dude, the current Tekken, and KoF, would be great to see in this

[@FoxhoundOSP]

could this perform better if you replaced the cpu?

[@newstodayyt1]

I got this power supply do I need both 4 pin CPU connectors cause only the one fits in my motherboard 😊

[@DrJ3RK8]

Nice build!

[@MrThereal1]

I have a few of these my work has decommissioned, honestly I like the Tesla P4 option. my kids have these same machines all 3 have a Tesla p4 and it works out really well. Great job on the video!

[@reneavila9601]

Awesome job Prime

[@Dinga96]

You should look at doing a build with a Lenovo P330/340 with an A2000 or RTX4000 SFF Card. You can get them cheep and they come with 9th gen Intels with six+ cores, Dual NVME, 64GB RAM.

[@Daffamalik143]

how to put the gpu on that pci slot? coz i think you skipped that part, and i am really new at this

[@milago53]

I build the same Console Killer atm. i7 8700, 16GB Ram, RTX A2000, 500GB SSD, 8TB HDD and thousands of console games :-)))

[@TechBrewGamer]

Are you able to try something like this but with the SteamOS?

[@Sombd]

So where can I see the link for the cables?

[@rometherevenant8749]

Seen this video so many times with other tech channels

[@bullymaguire243]

ETA prime can you do a review on the ryzen 4070

[@easycom65ify]

did you see the new egpu from minsforum ?

[@bombjack1984]

As the PSU is modular, is there not a cable you can buy that connects the PSU directly to the 8-pin motherboard connector, rather than using the 24-pin cable connected to the 8-pin adapter?

[@watersbluff]

Link to power supply? And will this work with a 3020 sff?

[@MustafaKhan-hz5mr]

damn 8700 is the new 4700 now. I feel old

[@SonicMayhem3787]

I picked up an Optiplex 3070 with a i5-9500 for free from work. I was going to put the RX 6400 in it, but after seeing this video it has changed my mind. Mainly building for emulation, but possibly more modern gaming too.

[@Southized]

Please try batocera linux man. You will not regret it.

[@SonicMayhem3787]

@Southized I have an Anbernic RG35XX Plus which I installed Batocera on due to the stock OS being very limited. I do like it very much. Even after finding a theme I liked and setting it to the recommended settings for the Anbernic, it was still a little off. But I had started tweaking the xml code for certain menus to fix the display discrepancies. I'm sure I won't have issues on the PC, but I've been wanting to do a Windows build with LaunchBox for several years now. I will definitely consider a Batocera build for a future build.

[@Southized]

@@SonicMayhem3787 i prefer batocera over launchbox. Once you get batocera all configured man it just works. All i have to do is turn on the pc and my ps3 controller auto syncs. No keybord and mouse to launch emulators or select roms just controller its like a dream

[@greenprotag]

NICE! I love these little modded office PCs. I'll have to see if I can sell off some old stock and maybe snag a few used coffeelake (8th/9th) gen optiplexes. I am still REALLY disappointed in dell for putting the x16 so dang close to the PSU. It wasn't always like that.

[@Jwalker76]

This is a really good idea. The low profile rtx 4060 is a great gpu for sff gaming. Same with the rtx 3050 6gb, not a fast card, but with the right sff pc can get you gaming on a low cost pc.

[@jazbelmejor]

Hi! great video, do you think this would work with a rx6600?

[@andrewosei328]

Lovely. I have got an Hp 10th gen i7 10700 and would love to do this too.

[@Davidchhoun]

Looks at those CPU temps. Horizon hit 99C. Yikes!

[@zeroturn7091]

That’s a better GPU max temp than I expected. My RTX 3060 hit 79 degrees in AW2 just walking in the forest. It’s inside of an Inspiron 620 MT LGA 1200 build. As a matter of fact adding a flex unit as a supplemental PSU might be a way forward for those using modern prebuilt MTs.

[@RoninTekk]

PlayStation 5 Pro level of performance, I would say.

[@mukelamone]

What about that person left side 4 pin?? Was an adapter needed for that or is the 24 pin to the 6 pin more than enough??

[@chilldudie242]

I wonder what the OEM power supply resells for 🤔

[@freemanbam]

Hey I know this isn’t related to the video but could you tell me what your back screen in the ad is called I really like it

[@freemanbam]

Ignore this is only so this doesn’t get deleted randomly by youtube

[@ZARuslan]

I would be gratefull to see how much performance drop would be, when gpu installed into x4 slot.

[@JLPLay07]

Here a beginner, how did u connect the psu to the cpu? I believe u use the 14 pin from the psu to 24 pin the used the 24 pin to 6 pin to connect it the motherboard. Just dont understand how u connect the cpu to the psu. Did u use any extra cables cause I was thinking about using the 4 red pin from the psu to connect it the cpu but I'll beed to buy a extra cable for that.

[@jasonmitchell1262]

Can I do something like this to an hp sff the power supply and add a gpu that takes a pin

[@djmegax13]

my Frankenstein pc optiplex 5060 Same processor with RX580, (External with a additional PSU) some i get 60fps at 1440 in some games, l have 4k monitor , l dont wanna make a new built yet. do you think should l get a gtx 3080 or a AMD Equivalent? thanks

[@Blank-zi3hf]

amd equivalent i did that and i dont regret it even a little bit rx 6800xt user

[@chigirisaki3062]

Can you change the motherboard with itx motherboard? I wanna build with sff case but could not find one in my country.

[@DanielCardei]

Insane PC!

[@princess_daphie]

Something you could also do that's even less expensive, at least to begin with, with this build, is shave off the right slot edge of the 4X slot so that you can slot in the graphics card in it, and it could work. It'll be limited to 4X, but in a pinch, it's even cheaper than modifying the case and buying another PSU.

[@bowzert]

The 4x slot is already indented on his model. Mine isn't though so I don't think I'll make it a gaming PC, I'll just sell it as is.

[@ivanguthrie]

3 months ago I got this very pc free from my job because they were going to throw it away. I thought about turning it into a cheap gaming pc but couldn't because of the dell specific PSU plugs. So I gave up and started piecing together a gaming pc and over the span of THREE months I completed that build YESTURDAY.....and the very next day you post this video showing exactly how I could of saved $400 and THREE MONTHS!!!!!! ETA I love your content but right now I hate you lol. great vid and build. Guess ill get started on my second one thanks for the content.

[@edwincorreajr]

Question do we ignore that second connector in the top left corner, the 4 pin one labeled atx cpu?

[@ivanguthrie]

@@edwincorreajr that is the CPU connector and you will need it. If you look at the CPU connector on the power supply cable it may look like a 8 pin on most after market PSU but its actually 2 four pin connectors clipped together. Only one of the 4 pins will work. Lucky the PSU in the video here (and the one I bought) has a 4 pin only connector and its red colored so its super easy to pick the right one.

[@ionamygdalon2263]

Such builds have some serious caveats. I would love to see a PC built from scratch. And most importantly a PC built with new and not used parts. A gaming PC with a 12400F paired with an RTX 3050 would be a great emulation machine. The 12400F is a great CPU for emulation and RTX GPUs are perhaps the best for emulation and some casual game streaming (thanks to NVENC technology).

[@Budder99]

Aerospace manufacturing IT here, lol we have loads of these at work , they're good little machines for running programs 24/7 in industrial environments. We always joke about modding one up like this

[@iGamer77z7]

Also if you can go to the BIOS version right before the plundervolt exploit came out and then factory reset it you can undervote these with throttle stop and bring that temperature down quite a bit

[@shinho]

Currently upgrading an old Optiplex 5060 SFF, and cannot find anywhere in the UK selling the Apevia ITX-PFC500W. Any good tried and tested alternatives 500W sold in the UK?

[@darrelltaylorjr.5775]

dumb question, do you sell the computers you build?

[@Zaxbox]

I have a 7050 and 9020. Both i7's. I put 32bg or RAM in them and the 7050 has a 1tb M.2 drive and running Win11. I might fix it up for one of the scouts in my stepson's troop since he plays Minecraft on a laptop. I figure that this should be a bit better. But they both have some weird little 1gb GPU's that I would want to get rid of but the PSU's are the problem. This video has given my some options to look into for upgrades. Thanks for the video and keep up the great work.

[@implastictech]

I am using a 3060 lp on this same optiplex it is amazing. Will recomend for a first time pc

[@johncheng8677]

Tried this build with a 5090 10th gen i7. Had an issue where the psu fan would not turn off after shutting down. Hoping to get some guidance with this.

[@1986Hikaru]

Turn the PSU off, that its. Unplug it if you need.

[@juland99]

can this project fit in 5040 optiplex?

[@watchlover7750]

I love the idea of a small desktop pc, I also build a gaming pc for my son with a second hand i7 8th gen office pc with a used Nvidia 1080 (naturally with a miditower case).. however in this case surely the CPU hold down the gpu

[@Vegatablez]

I hadnt looked at flex atx units in a while, that 500watt probably would have been like 120$ a few years ago. That really opens up a lot of options for 40-50$

[@adamgaming5693]

great combination, I didn't expect such results, definitely a good alternative to a mini pc, tell me which model you would choose better, Optiplex 10th gen Intel, thx

[@dekion261]

have you thought of velcro taping down the power supply?

[@notthesnail]

The i9-9900 is supposed to be compatible. Might be nice to see if that upgrade is worth it, especially if your starting point is an i5 machine.

[@piwiee]

Mom i really need this for school