My $200 Xbox "killer" needs some work

[@AntlionAudio]

So happy to sponsor Oz and all his hardware shenanigans (Failures or otherwise). If anyone has any questions about the ModMic or any of our products, just reply here and we'll answer!

[@atvstudios.]

very cool company concept btw

[@AntlionAudio]

@@atvstudios. Thank you! ❤

[@Brodesimus]

Ah yes, the Ozbox 720.

[@Cl0udPvP]

We knew this day would come…

[@xanderkirkland3420]

The Xboz One

[@BREEZYM6015]

Good choice. 😂

[@adaligone]

​@@xanderkirkland3420by choice

[@tynewlin]

Capable of, at most, 720p

[@hazel-vf7on]

Being embarrassed that you were "unable" to build a $200 PC that directly competes with something that has a proprietary OS, optimized proprietary game settings, dedicated performance modes that is built by a multibillion dollar corporation is underselling yourself hugely. At that price point, had I built a PC I would never in my life assume that it would rival a console like Series X. It blows my mind that you can even achieve smooth 30fps on HL with just a memory upgrade at that price range. Keep in mind also, what somebody else in the comment section mentioned: Xbox does not natively have what PCs do. Modding. This "feature" alone ranks it from a "$200 Xbox killer" to a "$200 powerhouse" imo. Modding can do SO much for a game, down to doubling performance and adding entirely new quests or content for a game. Don't underestimate what modding can do to a PC for just 200 bucks. It's a whole industry. As a nerd, I would personally not attempt to compete with a console if I were to build a PC. For me, I would aim for if I can achieve the same results with a *reasonable* budget. Consoles are very proprietary and thus the price point isn't really fair towards PCs imo. They're an entirely different beasts where nobody optimized the total hardware for the specific purpose (unless it's a custom rig, at which point a comparison is out of the question). My two cents are that you did a very good job showcasing how low you can go for a complete build without sacrificing all too much. Keep 'em comin, Oz

[@BREEZYM6015]

Very nicely articulated Hazel. I bought a PC for $300 and a Series X for $400.

[@akilh340]

What they said

[@baronvonslambert]

Honestly, as someone who has regularly played and owned both PCs and consoles most of their lives, mods are way overrated by modders, as easy as modding has become with managers, installers, repositories, and the like, quite frankly they can still be a headache, especially total overhauls and what not that make everyone ooh and awe over the old game on PC experience, and a lot of those mods people ooh and awe over are years long projects that every step of the way have the potential to never be finished because mod teams fall apart all of the time. My advice is honestly that if you don't know your way around windows and windows programs beforehand then it's probably not the best idea to build yourself a pc just to hop straight into modding before you've even learned basic pc use and troubleshooting lol For most people, It's really the much lower prices and wider selection of vanilla games, and those vanilla games not being locked into specific graphical settings, resolutions, and framerates that's the big plus PC has over console.

[@rattiom]

I mean he was competing with the Series S not X, which is significantly less powerful

[@colbyboucher6391]

​@@baronvonslambert...weird rant tbh

[@frogslayer4849]

Just remember if you ever get sick of making videos, I'm sure you could make a living in audio books or even just reading the weather and traffic lol. People love your voice!

[@masterace9543]

Facts, he has voice you can fall asleep to

[@Budgetiers]

This man's resilience is something else

[@MeisterKleisterHeisstEr]

Ok, but can you install Photoshop and make memes on the Xbox? LibreOffice? Davinci Resolve? Mods? Emulators? Free online? I'd much prefer your Xbox killer over any console. Great video, Oz. I love form-factor and budget builds like this.

[@BREEZYM6015]

I got a PC for $300 and a Series X for $400. It's possible to have both a PC and a console for under $1,000.

[@TripleSho]

Free online is so real

[@dreamybull1509]

​@@BREEZYM6015beelink ser8

[@resneptacle]

Different use cases with different goals

[@madmanmadlad2876]

let's be real it's 2024 most people already own low end pc or laptop at home because of covid

[@nosg64]

The versatility of the PC is just too advantageous for me. Also Steam Sales.

[@weirded1948]

Yea i bought a pc for that reason as well. But if you're someone who buys new games on release very often, a console would be better value.

[@KetaFPV]

Love your videos man, such a good watch no matter what ya do!

[@Nobreakmedia]

As much as I enjoy the overkill OP pc that’s some KZbinr build, but me personally this is more enjoyable to watch. It not some copy and pasted video like some other channels, the quality of content this man puts out is amazing. Keep grinding 1 million subs is closer than u know it! (Subbed since 6.3k)

[@leerobinson8709]

Yep. We all know how a latest high end GPU and CPU are going to perform and it's nice to see, like a super car. What about lower budgets? This is more interesting to me...

[@masterace9543]

​@leerobinson8709 Especially when the money is tight, makes you want to replicate the same builds

[@Heavy_Chevy]

Definitely had a blast trying a 250 build last year. Had first gen ryzen 7, a 4gb quadro, 12 gb of ram stock, and zorin os/windows. Enjoyed playing older titles. Ended up sellin it to a kid for their first pc.

[@floppydisk4500]

Oz. I really love your aunt builds, seeing that you can even pull something like this off nowadays is still really impressive. Most people would just throw a mini 4060 in there and call it a day. I don't want to watch people play Hogswart Unenjoyability, but I really think thought this would make a very good first PC for someone's sibling/family member, with a small upgrade path, this is actually pretty decent, that 4060 could be an upgrade for this build later in the future.

[@floppydisk4500]

(Aunt) *Love you and your

[@sethedwards6048]

Dude you rock, fr these videos are super helpful for just getting into the world of building your own PC - and I might just grab a series S as a baseline for doing so! Great stuff!

[@snakeman567]

Always thrilled to see another OZ video posted! Keep going!

[@NemusDark]

For the next Xbox killer you could try an office Pc with an i7 8700 plus gtx 1660super or ti for $$200 or an hp z440 or dell Precision t5810 plus a rx 5700xt or rtx 2060

[@BREEZYM6015]

I have an i7 8700k. Would the 5700 non XT be a good pairing? I found one on Facebook Marketplace for $65. Currently I have a GTX 1060 6GB.

[@NemusDark]

@BREEZYM6015 for sure!

[@chedds]

Is the z440 X299? If yes, this may not be that great of a option

[@NemusDark]

@chedds it's a matter of GPU performance a broadwell Xeon will do just fine

[@chedds]

@@NemusDark I thought it was x299, X99 Xeons actually put some great performance to the table

[@ghosttheoremproductions5469]

Optiplex 7040 SFF with the i7 6700/7700 should be all-day findable with 16gb of ram and an ssd for

[@drewnewby]

@ghosttheoremproductions5469 I stick to 8th or higher for customers, due to Windows 11 support, and 10 coming to an end. The video build makes no sense for the price. I find off-lease systems for under $100 USD, and used RTX 3060 for under $150, sometimes even 3060 Ti.

[@ghosttheoremproductions5469]

@@drewnewby - There is no low profile 3060 and the price bump for 8/9th gen i7's is considerable. And no idea what "customers" has to do with anything. Pointless comment is pointless.

[@drewnewby]

@ghosttheoremproductions5469 Agreed, for SFF you're stuck with a much slower 3050 6GB LP. The 8th gen off-lease systems are under $100 USD, I wouldn't call that considerable. Customers, like kids watching this video for a "$200" build need Windows 11, to avoid hassle later.

[@ghosttheoremproductions5469]

@@drewnewby - I think you're missing the point

[@drewnewby]

@ghosttheoremproductions5469 That it has to be Low Profile, right? It doesn't, and like I said most kids that'll click due to that title will want as much performance as the can get for the price. There's plenty of small off-lease units that aren't LP, and that's what my customers in this price range ask for most. They're not fixated on it being LP, just small and cheap.

[@okaygoogle2847]

I love your enthusiasm. You got a new subscriber.

[@DanielCardei]

Awesome work on the $200 console killer! It’s impressive how close you got to the Xbox Series S performance with such a tight budget. Btw your audio sounds great! This project shows what’s possible on a budget, and it’s inspiring for low-cost PC builders. Excited to see where you take it next! Thanks for sharing!

[@1sparkyj]

Love the video! I did a similar project this summer, bought a Optiplex MT i7 8700 for £125, then threw a SFX PSU and RTX 4060 inside. After realising that CPU temps above 85C were going to be the norm for this setup, I then did a case swap into a Lian Li A3 case with better cooling. The proprietary connectors were a bit of a spanner, but I got through it and had some fun in the process. I now have a living room machine that has replaced my PS5

[@Dracossaint]

Nothing to add, you pretty much nailed it. Your power constraint and size restraint killed the possibility of it being truly a viable option. Closest suggestion I have is, see if you can find a used mini PC with an oculink port. You might be able to find one close to the 200 Mark. It won't perform quite as well, but it'll have future expansion as a possibility while keeping the profile Small as possible

[@ItzYell0w33]

love your videos man! keep on the good work oz!

[@ToysForTheGods]

$200 is just such a hard price to hold onto. I am impressed you were able to squeeze this much out of $200 though seriously. I love your videos, keep on doing what you do.

[@Mazendrak]

The GOAT is back

[@bluezhift]

All in all, a pretty cool project! While it did not reach your original goal, I really like your clear analysis and suggestions to viewers! This will help a lot of people building their own low budget gaming PCs!😊

[@ElOsoMarino]

As a simple console peasant I love this series of videos because you show how PC gaming is both accessible but complicated

[@srinivasprasad837]

We need more videos as this ❤❤❤

[@Oliver_Dao]

When are you bringing back those on-camera budget PC builds?

[@OzTalksHW]

The calming ones? I have one lined up :)

[@Oliver_Dao]

@OzTalksHW yubii!

[@Paulie8K]

Good effort! It's crazy how much jumping up just another $100 in budget would do. Could get a used 5700XT (I owned this card before upgrading to a 3080) which can crush 1080P and even play a lot of games at 1440P high settings. 16gb of ram is also a must. Those two upgrades and you are cooking for a cheap budget.

[@Eldonpereira77]

Thumbnail so good that i thought that this was MKBHD's video

[@mohdsafwat8472]

Swap for a i7-8700T, A2000 GPU with a 32GB RAM does make it a better long term low powered PC or a RX6400 swap also sounds viable for this PC

[@FabioSantos-xo5wz]

I have the same pc with i7 8th gen, 32gb ram and rtx 3050lp and works very well. Can do emulation of almost everything. Great video!

[@arturgomes]

Every Oz video is as banger😌

[@llpoolman1212]

great video. great series. keep it up

[@kombearholes]

Oz continues to be the best thank you Oz

[@lecobra418]

You look like Randy from the show The Wire, except you're a grown man. Nice project!

[@DocRobotnik]

Honestly, that you got a $200 PC to run Cyberpunk and Alan Wake 2 with 8gn RAM is an unbelievable achievement

[@narwhal4304]

Oz video to watch as I recover from getting my wisdom teeth out? Great timing!

[@Vipex_134]

yay new oztalks vid

[@victordehaciendas]

nice, I myself have an rx550 sff on my hp pro desk haha with 16gb ram and i7 7700

[@NathBeLive]

I don't know if you have any familiarization with Linux. But for budget gaming, it can be a huge improvement to a lot of games. So on low-end PC's such as your Xbox killer, having a lighter weight Operating System could help close the gap a bit. Now Linux has its own pros and cons but performance wise it should be an improvement. All the games you tested run on Linux, except for New World (kinda). Great Video!

[@Brodesimus]

If he used a minimal arch + hyprland install, it could probably perform better. The series S (and series X) run FreeBSD, which is lighter, thus the comparison would be way closer than windows.

[@NathBeLive]

@@Brodesimus I think any setup on Linux would be better, and I agree with you, but I don't think Arch would be good for anyone that isn't a hobbyist. Let alone Hyprland. I was thinking a Debian (Almost as lightweight as Arch) or Mint setup with XFCE or something like that. SteamOS, even if they wanted a console setup. But honestly, anything would perform better on that machine.

[@Brodesimus]

@@NathBeLive You have a good point. HoloISO would be pretty console-like, and works fine with arc cards. SteamOS is based on arch btw, part of the reason the gap is very close between the Rog Ally and SD besides a large hardware improvement. Good comment, it would be way closer with any distro.

[@TheWarmotor]

@PiergrulliSfracelletti I was thinking the same thing, no matter what kind of compatibility layer you use, it's going to eat resources. There are plenty of games that run native now, but then you have the issue of community drivers lagging behind commercial ones, to say nothing for spotty support for anti-cheat in multiplayer games. I LOVE Linux, I use it on all of my PCs except my gaming/PCVR rig. I'm hoping the day comes where I can toss little Billy's bloated spyware in the dumpster completely, but that day is not today.

[@6Meliora]

@PiergrulliSfracelletti How Come? Considering That For The Short While That I Was On Linux The Performance Was The Same And Sometimes Better.

[@kennybruhbruh]

Don’t forget about handy features of Xbox like Quick Resume

[@sandman9820]

Lets go!!!!! Ozi's back 🎉

[@dmedford5]

If you throw out the form factor I think you could def build a system that compairable. Thats a video I would like to see!

[@itsdeonlol]

Ozi always know how to find the best bang for your buck PC hardware ever!!!

[@Lee88-q5q]

At least u r honest oz !!

[@kimbroslic3]

Something to consider... Since the MSRP of a base Series S is $299, you should feel empowered to increase your budget to squeeze more performance out of this system with a GPU upgrade. Being that you want it to be an SFF system though, your choices are still limited... Like you mentioned, the RTX 3050 would be a good option at around the $170 range BNIB and you could still work in an additional RAM stick to get the PC up to 16GB. If you did this, the system would be a much more compelling alternative that would out-perform the Series S in pretty much every scenario. I have a similar Optiplex SFF system to yours here (i5-8500, 16GB DDR4 2666mhz, Nvidia GT 730 GDDR5) that I paid roughly $70 for... even with a $15 NVME upgrade I could spend the $170 on the RTX 3050 and be in this system for roughly $250. You could even use the remaining $50 to source an i5-8600k or an i7-8700 off eBay to further the system's performance. Great video as always! As someone with a decently powerful main rig (i9-9900k, RTX 3080) I find myself enjoying these smaller and lower power/performance machines more and more for the games I typically enjoy. Keep up the good work!

[@phil_matic]

I guess the lesson here is that this PC is more of a jack-of-all trades type of machines. Yeah it can do what the Xbox can, just not as well, but that aside, it can do way more.

[@kushy_TV]

i’d bump the budget up to $250 and start over. used lenovo xeon w workstation and an rx 5700xt should squeeze just into that budget. these lenovo workstations can have beefy enough psus for a 5700xt

[@jayprosser7349]

50mm Gpu riser, 90 degree pcie riser, 8 pin sata adapters, HP GTX 1660ti, dremel tool, your brains or HP RX 5500

[@Steve-go6oq]

I love my PC but the Series S is a really great console. My eldest son is autistic and while he can type he absolutely loves the series s. I get to see him playing games on it on a 4K TV and it really looks great. I have a 5700X 3D and RX 7700 XT which is a great 1440p experience but I can't get away from how well the series s performs for less than I paid for just my GPU. 🙂

[@Sannecitaa]

Bestie, what you think about the rx 6750 xt? Is it nice or should i go with 6650 xt? 😊😊

[@DeadHawk23]

Maybe you should look into the Sparkle Intel Arc A580

[@Bouipi]

upgrade: i7 or i9 since its has a 1151 socket, with rtx 3050 low profile and silverstone tfx700 PSU or SFX

[@ElijahEnguerra-r6g]

Yay! A new Video :D

[@DankyMankey]

I feel that time will only make your Xbox killer better.

[@evanbarlow5534]

If you are on an ultra budget the Nova Lite by GameSir is really solid for $22 per controller. Kinda light in the hands but otherwise great for a PC controller

[@notaulgoodman9732]

I just bought a new mic and only now do I know abt modmic

[@EuroJex]

Was the A380 used in 65w custom settings that would give you better results and I thin adding 8gb of ram wouldn’t make a big difference in price!

[@double00gigolo]

Have you tried Bazzite but you will need an AMD GPU and PS5 & Xbox are using custom AMD hardware. The only tricky thing trying to go dollar to dollar with consoles.

[@dracobunnyred]

you can make it more powerful and keep it under budget change out psu for a low profile apevia 450 watt with 10 pin adaptor then your choice of graphic cards go up , made a similar under budget

[@davidsalvador8989]

Yeah, especially buying a used gaming system. Very cheap. Games can be occasionally found at garage sale…

[@zeris3134]

the 200 pc is worth the build butt of course gonna hit more the extra ram really is a must and would wrap it for aesthetics that is what i would do to it letting is hit around 200+ should be fine

[@vinceventresca6719]

Would love to see this with an 8 core cpu (perhaps the CC150 from aliexpress), plus the aforementioned ram and gpu upgrades

[@robertcortez1109]

I do like that you used a Lenovo pc to try and match the Xbox series s I never thought about doing something like this. A friend of mine gave me a pc that had a Lenovo motherboard for gaming it was a i5 4570 CPU and 16gb of memory and gt 1030 GPU ranned better than what I thought I did play some Xbox games was surprised how well it performed

[@Sykxezn]

the cash saved by not buying subscriptions and catching steam sales, is plain a better deal

[@Zer01neBDTDev]

You should use DF video has an information for the settings, because here you guess the Series S settings too much higher.

[@PulpVision]

I bought the RTX 3050 lp for my elitedesk sff but the cpu is not up to task. Great for Batocera though.😅

[@PlayingItWrong]

The series S+ gamepass is incredible, as long as you don't mind being a prisoner to one specific storefront,because yeah, no disk drive, you can't even buy one.

[@kirishimatheredriot8002]

Windows byy itself consumes more than 50% of RAM. Why dont you try with PopOS os Bazzite ?

[@drjekelmrhyde]

Oz and SJvoiceovers 2028

[@MarkHyde]

Great video - I'm sad this is the reality .

[@chrishensley5384]

I think it depends on if you are a mouse and keyboard or controller player.

[@JJose13]

Some games on Xbox have support to mouse + keyboard set up. It is really "some" not many unfortunately.

[@itsregs9110]

i just a new mic then i get this fire ass ad for one 😂

[@MurphyFeargal81]

AMD Radeon RX 6400 low profile & try Bazzite OS or Chimera OS

[@krishankant5289]

Why your Screen recording of games looks so bad? Please fix it other than that I love your videos ❤

[@SegaSaturn4Life]

How well does that pc work with GeForce Now and other similar services?

[@doplank4421]

Hey. if you want to improve game performance in that PC, consider installing AtlasOS, a mod of Windows 10 or 11, and see if there's any significant performance.

[@xeomatrixx]

$200 and playing Cyberpunk at 60fps is crazy as it is, regardless of how bad the quality is. (which it isnt even that bad)

[@Coentjeeee]

If you want to try this yourself (or another time) maybe you could look at a tower Desktop with a better (used GPU) with about the same specs and if you are a bit lucky and patient you could end up with er better system

[@sainic1803]

wow good one

[@mukelamone]

well theres a new budget on the sries s right? $350?????

[@societl]

the main problem is xbox and playstation both mass manufacture their consoles meaning they get a HUGE price cut when purchasing components. If you are forced to pay 100$ for a gpu, they get it for 60$ or less. That being said all the components you buy are made for the public to purchase meaning the prices are greatly increased.

[@omarguerrero6417]

A game i would test between my pc and my xbox is modern warefare 2019

[@ranymatar1078]

hey bro am planning to make a build should i go with i513400f 4060 or 3070 used and its less 120$ then 4060 new in my country and am planning to play 1080 low settings 140+fps bo6 warzone bf2024 no dlss just raw performance

[@yeetus59]

Consider that the Series S has an RDNA 2 based AMD GPU. Its specs are between a 6500 XT and RX 6600. A 3050 6GB LP is likely best option rn if you want to keep this form factor and stay as cheap as possible. Or the 4060 LP would be faster than a Series S. But, you’ll have to use sata or molex pcie adapters on the PSU. 16gb of RAM should be the bare minimum for ANY gaming PC. But tbh, it’s probably still better to just build a custom sff mini itx system for $350-$450 that can accommodate a full size GPU like an RX 6600. It might cost more than buying a Series S at that point. But I would still justify spending a bit more building a sff PC over a Series S if you have the aptitude.

[@Shoddragon]

I'm not surprised the Xbox performs better. Another interesting project might be to take into account the base price of the console, tax, the cost of several years of PS+ or Gamepass Ultimate and the fact a lot of games on PC have better sales more often (so assume an average savings of 20% on each game purchased on PC vs the console perhaps?). Then after you do all the math, make a PC build with that budget. Let's say a PS5 is $500, after tax is around $550, 3 years of the most basic PS+ package is $240 so now the console is around $800. If you assume the average person spends about $250 on games per year, that means $750 over 3 years. Assuming a PC owner would save around 20% average over console gamers due to things like steam sales, that means the console gamer would spend about an extra $150 on console games vs pc. Which means the total "real price" of ownership for the console over 3 years is about $950. Then go from there and make a PC build with that budget to show what people would get when factoring in that whole total cost of ownership.

[@MrSamadolfo]

🤠 Broh, you probably get this all the time but your natural voice is super low in the bass tones, i have to actually raise the Treble so that I can hear you clearly 🔊😊 thanks for the video

[@Trick-Framed]

I knew from the beginning the form factor was going to be an issue. The A2000 was too expensive and the obvious choice for any LP console killer. When I saw the tests with the RAM 1x8, I remembered it wasn't in dual channel and that is huge and the last thing, last gen of consoles had 8 full cores. This one has 8 cores and 16 threads (Zen 2, mind you) so it occured to me an i7 9700 or i9 9900 would have been the best CPUs for this build. No matter what one does the LP GPU was going to be the pain. Better off in a smaller mATX case with a medium size GPU based purely on price of LP GPUs.

[@frederikmoeller88]

What was the ch341 for???

[@manurz1]

We had to admit that AMD is doing magic with ps5 and xbox series s with so low tdp

[@FuZZbaLLbee]

I have a similar PC, but the stutter killed Forza Horizon

[@mattparker9726]

Oz, I have 2 1650s I c9ould use the cash, what would you take for them both?

[@BREEZYM6015]

I need a GPU to upgrade from a GTX 1060 6GB.

[@AdamPatrickMurray]

I see Ozi, I click

[@isaacwakefield5915]

How much does a year of Xbox live cost. You should at least be able to add that price to your budget.

[@ChanceIll]

Hey, what mousepad is that?

[@NYC-Potatoes]

lets go

[@mddappoor3422]

Like for the way you appear in 1:07😅

[@vadnegru]

ITX tax is real. I dreamed about small system and found out that i need to pay like 30-40% extra. So i got Gamemax H605 BL and its almost as small as some ITX cases. Definitely smaller than cubes.

[@donoteatmikezila]

It does decent, but I agree with your conclusion that it's just touching the Xbox at that price. There's also just kind of an impression that the Xbox is getting the experience as intended, while the PC is having to make compromises and run games at an obviously lower and second class level to get similar performance. Maybe the overall FPS numbers can be hit, but it'll be at the cost of the games looking and playing terribly. These kind of ultra-constrained budget builds can be fun exercises, but I'd never really recommend one to anyone. Adding even just another $100, or better yet $200 will get you something so much more capable. The $200 budget puts the result well before the point that diminishing returns on investment start happening. Just a little more cash would give huge returns. That said, while the Xbox games you tried didn't measure up, there still so much more you can do with PC gaming over console gaming that it may still be worth it. Mods, emulation, fan games, older PC games, sales on Steam and elsewhere. Those are things that console just can't do at all, at any price.

[@Sliminmin315]

Guys pls help me should i buy Gigabyte Eagle Rx 6600 or ASUS Dual GeForce RTX 3050 OC 6.14 GB for 20€ Cheaper what should i buy

[@LoriMGUI]

Heyy new subscriber here, so you and me have a same System Unit right now the m720s ThinkCentre... and im wondering if you could make a video about how to remove an administrator password in BIOS using the CH341A... like a tutorial of hard resetting the BIOS.. i just need help, I can find at online until I saw your previous video and realize we have the same lenovo thinkcentre..