Restoring a $200 Gaming PC to Play BG3 at 1080p

[@Toma-621]

I enjoyed this video a lot more than regular PC build videos. Something about seeing old dusty hardware having new life breathed into it is so satisfying

[@ImWateringPSUs]

Oh man, the classic Tech Yes Content. I absolutely love it Bryan, keep it coming and great build :)

[@nb1843]

i needed it soo badly tnx for the fixxxxx

[@Aperturex1337]

This brings me flashbacks to the old 2016 era of Tech Yes City. used to watch all those budget build episodes on rerun back in the day while I worked on PC's. You definitely were my inspiration for building and flipping PC's and I still use these exact methods on every used build. Thank you for everything Bryan.

[@techyescity]

TBH i am getting a bit down not being able to do much of it, especially in Japan, I will be back in aus soon however, and I feel like I need to build a lot more used budget bangers.

[@DonaldMolter]

@@techyescity yessssssss the budget bangers are where its

[@Ankka5]

Yes please!@@techyescity

[@MarcoLoves360gamer]

same here, just like the good old days. no other channel like the tech yes loving :)

[@suiken3149]

@@techyescity How is the PC flipping business in Japan?

[@MarcoGPUtuber]

Tech YES City with another budget build! The right way to start the day!

[@joaoc_PT]

Your dedication for PC building is amazing. Always good to watch your videos.

[@wertywerrtyson5529]

The music during the cleaning part really gave me energy while doing some cleaning on my own. Felt like I was getting energy directly through my body. Very good choice of music.

[@AssassinKID]

The remix song he used for cleaning GPU - Heart of Courage is originally a motivational orchestra song, so no surprise really :)

[@Kelekona_808]

Based on your Japan used parts hunts I was surprised you found a used PC with that much dust and grime on it. Nice to see the Tech Yes Lovin again.

[@baccusx13]

Such a delight to see the love and dedication to restore this pc in this video. Too much people thinks that superglue stays forever but you are right: the cyanoacrylate component in the superglue unfortunately contracts over time. It's okay for quick fixes but silicon or even contact cement stays longer. :)

[@losingmyfavoritegame8752]

What a steal! I haven't see you do a TechYesCanClean in so long! These are some of my favorite videos of TechYesCity!

[@simian3455]

you still make the best restore/mod PC vids... sorry to hear about the EX-GF experience *ouch* but yeah keep up the good vids

[@krusty6381]

I'm a big fan of these kind of builds I personally keep my pc's for 20 years I keep sending my retired gaming rigs down the line. (yes I'm Old LOL) My server has 27 TB in it, my gaming rig has 10 TB, office PC just 1TB, laptop 500 GB ... I've been told I have a data hording issue LOL. I say I have a hard drive capacity issue LOL It's not my fault Epic keeps giving away games? Cheers Krusty keep up the great work!!!

[@EBMproductions1]

I feel you cause if the pc runs the games you like then why sell or chuck it in the bin? So yeah i say just upgradem like you have and only thriw away if their fully unusable.

[@dianaalyssa8726]

I'm also running about 27-30tb of storage, 1 is a 20 TB. Proud member of r/datahoarder Games and media are a huge chunk of my storage.

[@czbrat]

You need to fiddle with the render resolution % manually in order for FSR upscaler to kick in.

[@Gravel-79]

Thanks for adding the song title in video, I love the music you use .

[@rodhester2166]

I have had some cheap cases ground out the mobo before. Great advice on building and testing outside of the case .

[@WayStedYou]

16:58 you already had fsr2 and dynamic res set to 100% render scale

[@BuckyKat9999]

Tech YES back to form!! great to see Bry!

[@ArizonaVideo99]

Nice job on the re build. I might have upgraded to a I7 just to get 8 threads. I think the box and 1060 would be worth it. Love the save the old PC vibe. I have done many.

[@STRET24]

Love your channel and what you do... Need Before/After benchmarks on these types of vids!!

[@techyescity]

Thanks that's something I will try see if everyone likes it.

[@ghebeadaniel6659]

finally one classic video.....jeez so longt time has passed sinced you have done it

[@softbread4975]

That was refreshing. Missed these types of videos

[@Marty_NZ]

Always a good time with some Tech Yes Lovin with the brake cleaner.

[@MisterTonyG]

I really enjoy these types of videos. Keep up the good work.

[@NYC-Potatoes]

Damn $200 for a 8th gen that's crazy cheap no wonder I'm having issues selling my builds locally but alot dont understand the time that goes into it just because some are old doesn't mean its garbage especially after your TYL I always check out older videos to see if I missed anything I really appreciate all the replies thanks for helping us and teaching me basic stuff

[@gottahavitvt]

the i5 8400 and gtx 1060 isn't even close to worth 200 dollars. Think about this. You spent 200 on the system used, he's going to sell it for 300-400(or try) and it is unplayable in starfield, which you can run on a $250 series S

[@suiken3149]

I sold an i5 4th gen with a P106 for 200 bucks.

[@renogunzddragon1900]

​@@gottahavitvta pc can do diff work other than gaming if compared to series S tho.multiple function vs 1 or 2 usage function.

[@ibbobud]

Back to the flip grind….. love it

[@Lucatoni22]

back to OG TYC content, i listen to this when i shower bro - keep them coming - you need a podcast =(

[@losingmyfavoritegame8752]

Mr. TechYes, you had my dying laughing at the forever solution part, ahahaha! Awesome video!

[@minunat9]

Yeah, that joke was funny as hell! :))

[@losingmyfavoritegame8752]

@@minunat9 😄

[@clem9808]

I almost have all the parts to build my second pc for e-sport ,and indie games. Been saving them as spare parts for troubleshooting. R3 3100, rtx 3050/RX 570 4gb,Corsair cv450 bronze, gigabyte a320m s2h/biostar a320mh. I only need OS storage,and rams, and a case.

[@ZuckerbergDaReptilian]

You're the only youtuber I know of, that cleans and makes old hardware look brand new. I think using Wd40 would be great for those of us that live in humid environments. I mean for rust/corrosion prevention ofc. The break cleaner seems a bit sketchy though...I'd be afraid to use that.

[@minus3dbintheteens60]

You should be affraid, it's dumb as hell. Circuit boards have a coating on them to protect them and keep them from shorting, that spray would eat the hell out of not only that. I mean it's not even the most stupid thing I've seen on this channel, have you ever watched someone delid their CPU with a vice, a hammer and a chisel?

[@LatitudeSky]

For old thermal paste, I use ISS Pro-Care industrial citrus solvent or a Goo Gone, followed by film remover 99% IPA for any residue. The worst thermal crud stands no chance against that.

[@dionelr]

Nice pickup Bryan. This felt like such a classic TechYesCity video. Can’t go through a video without mentioning X58 😅.

[@michaelthompson9798]

I’m fortunate enough to have a newer and higher end pc, but I’m glad to see these old bangers getting a new lease of life for e-sports & older more demanding titles / student / home office use and not just ending up landfill …… at least not for a while anyhow…. Or donate them to a Salvo’s / Vinnies or help organisation for someone to get a free / cheap basic pc.

[@Phyxsius_85]

Back to the roots !!! Awsome !!

[@chadrick6960]

love to see this kind of videos helps a lot.

[@monham5041]

Nice work Bryan. Looks like a new pc now. Starfield looks like a demanding game made for almost the latest hardware. I wonder if it will be optimised so gamers with older systems can run it in the future. Stay safe. Mon

[@AeiKei]

I couldn't believe when I saw that case. I have one aswell. It's called Sharkoon TG5. They released the TG6 meanwhile and it also has a mesh version wich I used for my new build recently

[@DonaldMolter]

Just put a pc together for my brother that I had laying around that matches these specs. He's been pretty happy with them and for light gaming and productivity the 8400 and 1060 still does a decent job.

[@YouzY666]

I hope you do some burn in after putting the protective oil layer on. I've had new parts that just stink for a week in normal use until the concentration of volatiles goes down

[@falcon6329]

7:00 song name?

[@TechHead12_]

Great video, always enjoy the cleaning process and keeping a used PC going. I do feel attacked though. As I'm traveling for work I only have my laptop with a 8750h & GTX1060maxQ and have been enjoying my Starfield at a cinematic 20-30fps lol (Eager to get back to my 12700k & 3070 at home).

[@yan3066]

Hey Bryan, FSR2 wasn't working properly in Starfield because you have to enable it and then reduce the "render resolution scale" in the graphical settings. (It is under the dynamic resolution settings). Usually, 66-67% render resolution will mimic the "quality" option with FSR. 50% is "performance" mode. Hope it helps ! 👍

[@techyescity]

I haven't tested it up until that point, usually it has its own sub menu in games? Thanks for that I will check it out.

[@GrunkaLunka]

also fsr was already enabled when he decided to turn it on

[@ProYamYamPC]

This caught me out too. It's a bit stupid that you have to manually change the res, where most games will automatically do it when you enable FSR.

[@corneliusantonius3108]

I have that same Seagate 2TB Barracuda HDD for a build here. Somebody left it in a case I bought fpr 10 Euro. It was a bit hidden sitting inthere behind an internal panel I do not know how it will behave with it's 256 mb cash

[@christophermullins7163]

Every single GPU I have purchased in the last 20 years has been used. Among the 10 or 15 GPUs I've owned, I've found deals like $70 GTX 970 in 2017 and $175 GTX 1080 in 2020. I have never had a single gpu, CPU or ram stick die. The bathtub curve is real people. A component that is 2 years old with no issues is more likely to give you another 5 years than a product that is brand new out of the box. The 2 years filters our the manufacturer defect part. 😊 buy used... be happy.. game on.

[@kevlarandchrome]

Hey Bryan, I've found after extensive testing cleaning used parts that nothing breaks up hardened thermal paste as well as pure acetone, even brake clean doesn't work as well. You can use the stuff you can get in the nail care section of a pharmacy or the one that comes by the gallon in a hardware store, either works.

[@techyescity]

Great tip! yeah acetone is some really hard stuff, forgot about that, it has a very strong odour though yes?

[@kevlarandchrome]

@@techyescity Yes, it's fairly volatile, it evaporates extremely fast so use with good ventilation, just like any of the spray can stuff. But yeah, I use CRC for everything except thermal paste because it just softens it up so well and then evaporates completely clean once you're done.

[@welcometoronsworld6589]

Great Build Brian, If it was Me Retro Gaming all day long. Keep It coming I love it and to get that PC for $200.00 is a Steal.

[@isaquepinto8079]

Hey Bryan, whats this 5:52 are isopropilic alcohol or something like wd-40 from japan?

[@Hawlkeye-e9p]

My god in heaven, someone finnaly listened and used actual electronics spray for what it was designed for. However you didn't use enough. All that hardware should have used up two cans completely.

[@iyoub6931]

Banger video as always

[@techwandoUS]

Solid video Bryan 🤙

[@Monarchias]

Do not forget grease techni-folks, whenever you short the power pins, do it in a fairly quick way, just as you would push a button. You can avoid a quick shut down appearance of your action. It can happen whenever you're lazy on a touch. It also could derail you from your analytics steps.

[@DasLooney]

Brian: loved seeing you restore this PC. I've pulled a ton of pcs from the trash and restored them, there nothing like giving an old PC new life! QUESTION of the day, I have an i7 5820k @4ghz with 32gb ddr4 ram and a Rtx 3070. I know the CPU isn't using the 3070 to the max what CPU mobo combo would be the cheapest way to upgrade to utilize all the 3070 had to offer?

[@EBMproductions1]

I5 12400/i5 13400/ ryzen 5 7600/ Ryzen 5 5600x look for those cpu if you want to upgrade.

[@DasLooney]

Thanks@@EBMproductions1! Also hoping Brian accepts my question for a Question of the Day segment in a future video, looking forward to seeing his mobo CPU upgrade suggestion

[@EBMproductions1]

@@DasLooney no stress man.

[@DasLooney]

@@EBMproductions1 thx love Brian and this community!

[@exsinner]

Is board cleaner similar to contact cleaner? I've been using contact cleaner(sometimes known as electronic contact cleaner) to clean off harden thermal paste and it do the job just fine and evaporated quickly.

[@minus3dbintheteens60]

PCB cleaner and contact cleaner are typically different, contact cleaner will have a lubricant for protecting components like potentiometers

[@JackyYBT]

Tech Yes loving in the action with budget PC? Hell yeah!

[@JacobVanStraten]

It's about time you got back to building or rebuilding systems.🍻

[@BuzzTec]

Another great price performance used build. 👏🏼

[@XxDeViLBrInGeRxX]

Finally the type of video it truly gave TYC its roots, the I5 8400 is still a kicker for gaming, mine could handle the RTX 2070 back in the day with no hiccups, so even pairing it nowadays with a 4060 will do the trick just fine, specially if you want a nice sleeper, low power usage PC.

[@bonedawgstudio5649]

Agreed. I actually used to run the same setup w/ 8400 and 2070. When I moved on from that PC I paired the 8400 w/ a 1660 Super and built my cousin a nice PC that she still uses as daily driver. 👍

[@AbbasDalal1000]

i have 8x2 and 4x1 ram kit but i see no performance difference, yet sometimes with only two sticks there is BSOD so i keep 3 sticks only

[@sheratedis]

Excellent, I did chair dancing the hole video, nice backround music

[@DuneRunnerEnterprises]

Ok, Bryan. It's the Creation engine thingy. You HAVE to enable "full screen",in order to squeeze evry bit of performance of it(F76 sends "Hi")!

[@reviewbillusa9556]

Enjoyed this!

[@bennyhill4228]

You reminded me of my Late Mother with a tin of spray, when ever she saw a fly she would use half a tin of Fly Spray, I used to have to walk in with a Hazmat suit on to avoid the fumes lol

[@Keyaerts]

I'm using the exact case (Shakoon TG5) from this video. Got to says my temps are great, MSI B450 Carbon Gaming with an R7 5700X and XFX 6700 XT. Never do I see temperatures past 64 degrees celsius while gaming, running the stock fans. CPU had the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Black in Push-Pull config 😊. Case looks great I think plus it has great room for cable management 👍😄

[@ClassyCat06]

Hey Brian, loved the video but I have a question. Could you post what the ingredients are on your parts cleaner specifically? I did some research and saw that some brake cleaners and parts cleaners are too aggressive and can be harmful so I was wondering what chemicals are in yours so that I can get something similar. Thanks again for the classic style tech yes content!

[@AmaedoSensei]

holy shit didnt expect that ex-girlfriend metaphor.. love you bryan

[@MarcoGPUtuber]

5:29 Is that Japanese Export Multipurpose Spray? :P

[@Marty_NZ]

Australian Import spray lol

[@fince2006]

相変わらずえげつない掃除っぷりが、たまりません。

[@dianaalyssa8726]

BG3 is a great game. Couldn't get into Starfield. Nice to know one of my old rigs could run these at 1080P still.

[@daviddivincent5049]

How can you take the front cover off to clean your fans if you need to clean them?

[@chadzero]

Miss this types of vids

[@ShinGoukiSan]

I have that exact cleaner, even the same green

[@dipxy8776]

Back to the Tech YES roots!

[@rathstar]

Great vid. Were you not tempted to upgrade the GPU to something more powerful, and leave the 1060 for a more budget build ?

[@alertol]

Where I live, both 1060 and 1070 Ti cost same, about 100EUR. Anything faster (even 1080 with almost same performance but more TDP) starts at 200 so I don't see the reason to pay double for 1% gain, or getting 1060 when you can get 1070 Ti. So it all depends on your local market.

[@Svetoslav85]

Recently won an auction of fully working desktop PC near brand new condition with just 20 hrs use of the SSD as per CrystalDisk. The build is as follows: R7 5700G, ASRock A520M, 16GB Patriot DDR4, 1TB Kingston m.2 SSD, 600W PS. All in a small ATX case just for EUR117. Is it a good deal?

[@dustinschings7042]

Nice restoration. Why didnt you put the front fans in FRONT of the fan mount/radiator mounting panel, instead of behind it? Throws off the look of the front IMO.

[@akafede4351]

On starfield, if you have the render res at 100% and you put fsr2 on top of it, it will make the game actually run slower, you need to drop render res to 85%/66/50 in order for it to actually do it's thing. Also isn't brake cleaner kinda harsh on plastics bc it makes them dry to much? There is contact cleaner that isn't as harsh, but also isn't that good for plastics. Love your vids

[@SDRIFTERAbdlmounaim]

love your explanation of how long 'forever' can be ! quite *Relative* really 😂

[@kuyache2]

Problems that may come from the "Case" are - Improperly placed motherboard stand-offs (Shorting the Motherboard) - Faulty Front Panel USB (Short Circuit Wires or USB Port) - Faulty Front Panel Audio Ports (Shorted/Grounded) - Faulty Power Button (Short Circuit) - Faulty Reset Button (Short Circuit) - Faulty Lights Controller (If case has it and is connected to motherboard that can cause a short circuit) - Faulty Power/Drive Lights (again short circuit) This is why it is always recommended to build outside first (mobo on top of its box) and test if fully working before installing unto a case 😉

[@aleksazunjic9672]

When you have 3 sticks of RAM, dual channel will work with biggest common denominator. This means that in this case, placing one 8GB stick in lets say position 1, and other two 4 GB sticks in positions 3 and 4, would yield proper dual channel for the whole RAM. If you place one 4 GB stick in position 1, and 8 and 4 in positions 3 and 4, you will get dual channel up to 8 GB.

[@alexlynch4473]

I've got a 5900x/6900xt, popping those things at 1440p ultra brings me down to about 15 fps haha

[@kodakle66]

just bought a very similar system for 200$ and a rx 6600 for 100$, pc had a i5-9600k, water cooler, msi 390 motherboard, 32gb g.skill ram, and a 850 evga psu was a steal of a flip setup

[@Jwalker76]

I do find it interesting that you're gaming on starfield with a GTX 1060 6gb as minimum specs are like a GTX 1070ti. Hardware unboxed said there's more intense areas of the game. I want to play starfield but only have a Rx 480 4gb, thinking 4gb vram is asking too much of the game. I'm planning on upgrading my GPU to a Rx 7600 before I get starfield. My CPU is a i5 11400f so that should be ok I think. In the meantime I can get bg3 and that should keep me busy while I save up enough money for the Rx 7600.

[@pixelbyte09]

Hello sir, I am still on 2 core i3- 7100 😅 paired with GTX 1050Ti Thinking of building a new one with a Ryzen 7600 with a AM5 motherboard paired with DDR5 RAMs. Should I wait or buy now cause the prices are still high on DDR5 motherboards & RAMs ? A620 or B650?

[@JadeIsler]

@question of the day-- the case being a problem is extremely rare, but what's way less rare is one of the CASE FANS being bad / having a short. Absolute nightmare to diagnose but I've had that happen with a few of those bargain Newegg cases with cheap RGB fans. Or even more common, the cheap RGB fan hub that's included.

[@flygger6250]

This is balm for the soul. But bryan m8, silicone is made for sealing and not keeping things together. With time it will also just fall off. You should use turbo tack, or a cheaper equivalent, as its an assembly adhesive 😅

[@Bot-on-Tapwater]

Hello, I really like these cleaning videos, sad that Greg Salazaar stopped doing the series, kindly do more of this type of content if you can and include in the title "cleaning", helps for people like me who have a preference for this type of content.

[@FlexLex]

Are you guys using...brake cleaner to clean PC parts?? You know they have Contact Cleaner for that right? It doesn't leave a residue and is probably safer for the parts.

[@techyescity]

Usually costs 5x more vs brake or parts cleaner.

[@minus3dbintheteens60]

It's cheaper, till it eats through the PCBs coating and the fibreglass layers start to bubble and crumble

[@atomicfrijole7542]

@@techyescity Sorry, I commented this separately but you can use rubbing alcohol -- 70% is ok, 91% is even better -- and Q-Tips. It will clean up all electronics with no residue and it just evaporates off. Used it back in the day to clean up old tape decks and just kept using it as I repurposed electronics and computer components -- very simple, doesn't damage them at all, super inexpensive. :)

[@FlexLex]

Here in the US it's about twice as much, but considering what parts cleaner can do to plastics and such, I would would hesitate to use it on any expensive parts. If you're doing a cheap test build, I suppose it's ok. Made me flinch seeing that part in the video though! 🫡

[@bryonssmith]

How long do you wait for the components to dry after using the contactless cleaner?

[@tamw]

So with the WD-40/5-56, doesn't it stink up the room for quite a while after from the residue on the components?

[@techyescity]

Not even if you airblow it hard after you finish, it really looks nice after that imo.

[@jasonhowe1697]

you can game on anything however what is the age of the games that you are playing ?? as for 1080 p gaming we have only had that feasible output on vga for 7-10 years

[@NoNamenoonehere]

I say Starfield has replaced Cyberpunk for the Title of the saying "CAN IT RUN STARFIELD!!" it most definingly is

[@DraftySatyr]

10:16 OzTalksHW would like to talk to you about appropriating his theme tune. 😂 All joking aside, I thoroughly enjoyed a bit of old-skule TYC cleaning action, although still not sure I'd want to be anywhere near those brake clean and WD40 clones without a decent filtered facemask.

[@DuneRunnerEnterprises]

Btw, Bryan,did you try to rig them fans with a 3-way splitter,and setting them fans to 100/full/whatever???

[@Adamsgotgame]

It's such an amazing job 😊

[@ghostv86]

what is that spray you used on the parts?

[@FuzzyKaos]

The YES in Tech YES City is in response to "Do you want your PC smelling like turps?"

[@rokero171]

About the last question. Last week it happened to me something that I would never believe. I was having performance issues on OBS Studio and on games, changed GPU, reinstalled Windows, changed driver to Studio drivers, everything except replacing my motherboard. The issue at the end was a Displayport to HDMI adapter I was using as my chat monitor. I replaced it and everything got back to normal. So, if you are having issues, make sure to test everything. USB devices, monitors, everything that is connected to the PC.

[@Dictatortot-n3d]

Recently I built a PC, and it wouldnt get past the bios screen, I removed a wifi adapter from the mobo and it posted. Went into the bios and saw windows boot manager was option one for boot and it was trying to detect to USB wifi adapter as a USB drive with windows, switched the option just to the ssd with windows and then it booted fine with the WiFi adapter plugged in

[@Dictatortot-n3d]

Most of the time when I encounter issues building PC it's software like BIOS settings rather then hardware giving me issues

[@imanazman1525]

until today im still using my itx build, ddr3 system i7 3770k gtx 1070. Still usable until today thanks to tyc

[@mr.chaidir4766]

Bryan, do we have to replace GPU's thermal pads every time we open it? What if the thermal pads are little bit torn should we replace them?

[@LatitudeSky]

New pads are cheap.

[@lazermike89]

I don't know what you're on about but in Queensland the second-hand marker is equal to more expensive than brand new

[@nicekeyboardalan6972]

How did you raise the clocks on that i5 8400??

[@jasonescudero3185]

I don't know if this could help with Starfield... Did you install it in the ssd or the hdd?... I saw a test done here in youtube where installing it in a hdd really caused some problems like stuttering...

[@techyescity]

installed with an SSD, GPU is pegged at 100%, so it's definitely gpu bound.