This Budget PC is INCREDIBLE! We Built The Best Low-Cost AAA Gaming, 4K EMU PC!

[@ninjason57]

It's crazy how new AAA gaming is still possible on such old hardware, if you play at 1080p that is.

[@mystechry]

There is no sane reason yo force 4k or 120hz. Go 1080p/60 and you are fine with quite inexpensive hardware.

[@fajaradi1223]

@@mystechry Depends on the game tho. From what I've noticed. Unreal Engine based games is VRAM thirsty. Even on 1080p low setting, they'll eat up all the available video memories. Yet still suffering from texture load issues.

[@mystechry]

​@@fajaradi1223 Sure, there are always special cases where you might need more power. I am simply happy, that I can play almost any game now on a low power handheld device at 800p 30/60fps. It's great times for those who don't need too much quality. Actually it's also great times for those, who want max quality ;)

[@hassosigbjoernson5738]

even 1440p should be possible in some games and with not "ultra" settings.

[@DFX2KX]

@@mystechry only genre I can think of that almost requires 4k is simulators and mainly then to see instrument/gauge clusters (lookin at you, ETS/ATS and DCS). otherwise? yeah.

[@GunmetalSnail]

For a few months back in 2020 I did this exact thing with several Optiplexes and then flipped them. I made a little money on each one, too. I couldn't get a 1080 for cheap at that time, but RX 480s and a couple 1060s found their way into the systems. Wish I could start doing that again.

[@DigitalNegative]

tk bro. i use a opti w/4770 and 1060. never let me down, still satisfies.

[@Angel_02jdl]

Where did you sell it?

[@limemason]

Why can't you?

[@GunmetalSnail]

@@limemason money

[@PieStudios]

@@GunmetalSnail get ya money up, not ya funny up

[@juanrubio6132]

Love you videos. I follow at lot of "tech deals" channels that constantly keep telling people that they need to upgrade every two years to have a decent gaming experience. it's annoying especially for people that don't have the money to buy expensive parts for a PC.

[@MrDrewseph]

Two years? Whoever says that deserves a little Unsubscribe I reckon

[@juanrubio6132]

@@MrDrewseph yeah. He used to give a lot of good budget builds. But now he's just like " An 8 core cpu is not worth it". A 10900k is obsolete you need to change." So annoying. I did unsubscribed.

[@flameshana9]

Imagine upgrading more often than every 5 years 😢

[@trcs3079]

@@juanrubio6132 whis the channel?

[@100Bucks]

@@flameshana9 I'm never upgrading. I'm already playing in 4k. 1440p and 2160p is the limit. Buy a new GPU it will be the same thing, upgrade for nothing. Anything higher you have no choice but to upscale.

[@mpkny]

I'm lucky enough to have a pretty powerful and modern PC, but like a lot of folks I very much prefer watching builds that have a smaller budget, are a bit lower spec and often have used parts. I think it's partly because my very first PC build was done on a budget with used parts, and I have fond memories of that machine because of what it taught me and the joy that came with it. But also it's just much more interesting - you have to use your head a bit more putting together a system on a budget, and there's generally more problem-solving to be done especially with modifying things like an Optiplex, but it can be so much more satisfying in the end. A few years ago I upgraded an SFF Optiplex with a GTX 1050 and SSD for my friend to use 'temporarily' after their gaming PC died. Worked so well they were using it right up until they upgraded this year 😅

[@rickygarbaj]

I just have to say how much I love the new intro music. It's so soothing and satisfying

[@chromerims]

"Keeping cost as low as possible" 👍 Thank you, Prime. PCs for the proletariat.

[@tsubasacruz]

the moment of feeling old when you see 1080 is a budget PC component

[@danielmadden6831]

You can perform a fairly simple bios modification to this system that will allow you to boot from NVME storage. The 4x PCIe slot is an older generation than the 16x slot, and the 4x slot will bottleneck the NVME to about 1500 mb/s. It is still a fantastic upgrade that makes the system really snappy and improves load times. Do a web search to find the instructions.

[@aztracker1]

Did run an nvme in my 4790k and it was a big boost, had to use an adapter,. Since the onboard was 2x and didn't work with the pci3 x4 drives. Jumped to Ryzen about 4 years ago now.

[@stephenxs8354]

If its just for games then no point. Standard Sata SSD will provide all that is needed response wise.

[@ozmobozo]

There is no real life difference between a good sata ssd and NVME. Well other than copying files all day of course.

[@aztracker1]

@@ozmobozo start compiling modern programs... When you're touching thousands of files... It makes a huge difference. I mean it's a few seconds vs code to a minute most of the time, but when you're waiting it's huge. And when hard drives take a fraction of an hour, those days were painful.

[@ozmobozo]

@@aztracker1 Ah yes lacking the m.2 slot is the biggest bottleneck for "compiling a program" or something like "rendering a 4k video" on this kind of computers sorry my bad. I'll definitely use a PCI-e adapter to slap a Gen4 NVME drive next time before compiling modern programs on my decade old Dell optiplex.

[@LuaCynthia]

Fax if I like a game playing at 720 isn’t a problem

[@zacharyberridge7239]

I largely agree. My steam deck has been great for replaying some favorites. But I don't think I'd like 720 on a 27" screen. Works like a charm on the Deck's screen, though

[@iSamYTBackup]

the 4790 has been the goat of affordable gaming PCs

[@abdullaal-naimi9075]

I had a similar build with an i5 4670 and an inno3d 1080. Worked flawlessly for years, but my trusty quad core really showed its age with Elden Ring. It hovered around 45fps at any resolution and setting combo I threw at it. 9 year old i5 quad cores won't cut it anymore, and by the looks of it, even higher end i7s. Luckily, I swapped over to a Ryzen 5 2600, and my performance went up to a decent level for a gtx 1080.

[@psttech4290]

nothing wrong with the haswell i7's, they are still decent. got a 4770k in a budget system paired with a gtx1080 and cpu is only just the limit

[@pczfragkiller]

4790 was released in 2014,end of life in 2017.But still its a great pc build.

[@SeeJayPlayGames]

and that was 5 years ago. So does this mean it's an undead processor? Happy Halloween ;)

[@horacegentleman3296]

Dude thinks EOL means anything😂

[@JonathanHolt1988]

Love these budget builds!

[@kushy_TV]

11:38 Actually, the 4790 was released in 2014. It was discontinued in 2017. Still extremely competitive and impressive.

[@superboss7403]

It's trash bro much better CPUs today also you won't find this cpu anywhere

[@TheRealAlpha2]

Picked up a 4790k off ebay for under 100 bucks for my current machine. If you're looking to stay inexpensive (which is the key word here) you can do a LOT worse.

[@GwnMichael]

Yep , he should have went for a 7700K as minimum or a i3 13100F

[@topg2820]

@@GwnMichael not come yet, 12100F you mean

[@Crushonius]

@@TheRealAlpha2 yeah you got robbed you can get an r5 5500 for under a 100 bucks

[@TheRedstoneArchive]

I just did this build!! I had a left over OptiPlex from the office with same CPU and slapped my 2070 Super in it! Works great! Very tight fit for the GPU!!!

[@Ogk10]

Never use sata to pci power unless you want a campfire.

[@Blueberrysquad0901]

Love when you do these budget builds! Great work as always, keep it up!

[@miktheveg]

DO NOT BUY SUCH POWER SUPPLIES. They're fine for low-power systems, but for a high-end system like this one, a quality PSU is the most important component. Not only is it going to run more efficiently and be quieter, but because of the design of these units, you will run into constant shut-downs or even worse, damage your CPU, motherboard or graphics card. Spending $30-40 more for a quality, reputable unit, which will last longer and run better is a no-brainer.

[@denkrblx437]

Aresgame is a legit company, tho later in time it 100% makes sense to upgrade

[@miktheveg]

@@denkrblx437 No, they're not. They lie about their efficiency ratings and generally use low quality components. The most important thing when picking out a PSU for a high power graphics card is transient response and it's terrible on pretty much all lower price power supplies, so you HAVE to get a good one from the get-go.

[@denkrblx437]

@@miktheveg well i mean they cant have super high quality components for the price. a cheap psu like aresgame is okay if you use it for a few months maybe a 1-2 years.

[@miktheveg]

​@@denkrblx437 Which is why you shouldn't even buy it in the first place. A Super Flower Legion costs $57 and a Phanteks AMP is 70, it makes absolutely no sense to buy a unit which you know will at best, fail and at worst, become a risk for your PC components just to penny pinch 20-30 bucks

[@arshnewstvusa]

I have this type of build. A refurbished Dell and a new graphics card. I suspected the stock psu was the reason for my frequent shutdowns. I didn't know it could damage my components tho. Time to upgrade.

[@hababacon]

I got a used PC recently as well for $575. GTX 1080 TI, I7 8700, Crucial 1 TB drive, 630 watt PSU, and water cooled.

[@hababacon]

The GTX 1080 TI nice with rasterization performance slightly better than the RTX 2070 in some games.

[@christopherrego8301]

Still using my 9020 with GTX 1660 super in 2023. Perfect for people getting into pc gaming or on a budget. Don’t let the low specs fool you. I can stream whiling playing foreskin. FPS around 120 to 144.

[@AllieRX]

The 4790 was released in 2014, not 2017. It's a 4th gen i7 CPU.

[@addyyang5691]

11:34 Wow He doesn't know about CPU and he needs to do more research. "Facepalm🤦‍♂🤦‍♂🤦‍♂"

[@josedeleon1923]

I have the same optiplex, minus the 16gb and the gpu. Wanted to buy a new gpu but anything above rtx 2060 bottlenecks so i'm planing on building a new system first.

[@takehirolol5962]

Yep, that's right.

[@cheesefries7436]

I saw a completed listing for a GTX 1080 for $80, someone got one heck of a deal. I just got a GTX 1080 for $175(which seems to be what they sell for on average lately this last week or so).

[@arico7923]

1080p gaming is as fun as 4k gaming, budget friendly, gives more fps and still looks crisp on a 24 inch screen or below.

[@kevinbbadd]

you can use much bigger than 24 inch lol

[@arico7923]

@@kevinbbadd you may start noticing blurry edges and pixels when the screen is bigger than 24 inches

[@flameshana9]

@@arico7923 my 55 inch tv says otherwise. I also have a 32 inch monitor at 1080p and yeah, if you sit right up to it it's not the best. But sit back a bit and it's perfect.

[@arico7923]

@@flameshana9 I agree. I sit back a bit from my 50 inch TV when I play at 1080p to avoid noticing the pixels. Sadly I have a 3060 laptop which is only powerful enough for 1080p gameplay. I only play at 1440p when the game isn't demanding Edit: My 3060 laptop has a 16 inch 240Hz display which is perfect for 1080p gaming without noticing any pixels even when you are up close. Most times, I prefer playing on the laptop's display.

[@spitfire20122000]

I have a 10400F/3070 but I love seeing these types of builds! Awesome video!

[@Seanbo88]

Hey ETA, could you put a frametiming graph in your gaming benchmarks too? Always helpful.

[@Fernando-Rodriguez]

yeah I wished he would include a frametime graph.

[@F22C1]

I've been rocking my GTX 1080 since the release of Battlefield 1. Hasn't treated me bad so far.

[@greenprotag]

I have noticed that some engines don't like to go above a certain FPS. The combination of something like a 1660 or a 1070 with this Haswell processor probably would have put it at its limit. The gtx 1080 really needs something like coffee lake six core or R5 3600 to really stretch its legs. Occasionally you see outliers like cyberpunk in this case really taking advantage of the GPU and not necessarily giving you a ton of FPS but definitely giving you good fidelity.

[@greenprotag]

You will really notice CPU limitation when no matter what quality you set the system at the FPS is very similar

[@casey_sux]

i would strongly advise against using power supplies from brands you've never heard of for literally every system. that shit could actually blow up someday.

[@Fernando-Rodriguez]

the 4th gen Intel CPUs and Ddr3 ram aren't going anywhere, they're good for playing older PC games and emulation as well as running servers on these chips. At some point I'll buy a few of these OEMs to use them in my dream LAN gaming room to play Call of Duty and Counter Strike with family and friends and by that time they'll be even cheaper.

[@repinsvizios]

I currently have a PC with a 1080 and a 6700K, but for the past few months several of the other components, such as motherboard and RAM have started exhibiting issues, so I will be sticking with my Steam Deck and XBox Series X for the bigger titles. I will definitely keep my 1080 though, since if I find a cheap PC at some point, without a graphics card, it will come in really handy. I have never had any issues pushing games up to 1440p60, at around medium settings, or going 1080p60 on high, and ever since getting the Steam Deck, where I play most everything on low at 540p40 for the best battery life, I don't actually see the reason to upgrade to a new PC.

[@Clos93]

540p at 40hz?! Oof... Goddamn, you want your battery to last several days or what? 😂😂😂

[@main_tak_becus6689]

@@Clos93 that's PS Vita resolution and some Nintendo Switch games on handheld mode. I bet it is more blurry on SD than on Vita or Switch because of screen size and screen res.

[@repinsvizios]

@@main_tak_becus6689Due to FSR, it isn't actually blurry. I also only run it at that res when using it as a handheld, and on games that are not too visually busy. The vegetation in Horizon Zero Dawn looked horrible at 540p, so I ran that at 720p. but something like Metro Exodus looks amazing at 540p with FSR. It even creates a bigger sense of dread, due to not always being able to see what things in the distance are, not unlike horror titles from the PS2 era.

[@dest1239]

$500-$600 build could be very respectable if due diligence looking for deals. Would be a good series of videos from getting components to them build and testing. Always entertaining to watch those type of videos, IMO. Could break it up into a three parter or something, like a documentary on the entire process. Good video, although I may have gone a few generations newer on a few components.

[@seebarry4068]

I’m still running a 4790k at 4.8. I have a 1080p monitor and a 4K tv. It’s had a 970, 1080 and now 3070ti. Had it for about 7 years now in various guises. Still good enough for vr etc. plays everything well. Not so much in 4K but that’s no surprise. The 3070ti is almost certainly the last gpu upgrade.

[@Seanbo88]

Ive got an Aresgame PSU in my custom PC too. Never had an issue and very cheap, great brand thus far.

[@darthwiizius]

As long as you don't stress it it'll probably be fine for years. The trick with cheap PSUs is to ignore the claimed power rating and just calculate the total from the 12V rail (the main brands use this as their power rating where the cheaper brands add all the rail outputs and use the total) then make sure you've got a 10% or more on top as an overhead. Most of the horror stories come from people either mistaking the power ratings due to the manufacturing rating difference or pushing their supplies expecting a 40 quid unit to be as robust as a main brand 80 quid unit. I myself have been using a boggo standard 600W Corsair bronze non-modular (so really basic) PSU for 9 years which has never been run to it's full 600W rated output over 2 platforms, 5 CPUs and 3 GPUs and when I open it to clean it (do not do this if you don't know about the dangers, the capacitors can hold a hell of a charge for a long time after it's been switched off and they need to be drained fully before servicing) it's still like new inside.

[@hristiqndimitrov5249]

I BASICALLY HAVE THIS PC I chose the 4790 after a week of looking for the best price to performance And I settled for a 1070 because there wasn't a 1080 near me I love the performance I get with this

[@darthwiizius]

Sounds pretty balanced mate.

[@GuyManley]

This is actually the PC that I upgraded away from. The 1% lows were terrible in some games, competitive FPS games. Cost me so many matches. But I going all these parts new in 2016. At 300 this would be excellent. I will say it's good but not good enough to say, run a AAA game and discord voice call while watching a discord stream from a friend. This particular use case is common for my group of friends and it fill the physical memory.

[@DFX2KX]

Yeahhhh, competitive FPS (of the twitch-shooter variety, anyway) titles are a unique form of masochism. The kind of hardware you need, the superhuman reflexes, and the fact you'll still run CS:GO with PS1 settings to squeeze those last few frames out, lol. my reflexes are too crap to notice personally.

[@bluestreak711]

If you, or anybody else, is ever in this situation again, you could always go with a dual PC setup. You could use a build like this for your gaming and get a separate i3 or i5 for $30 to do everything else. If you wanted to stream your own gaming, you could use an HDMI splitter on the Optiplex 9020 and use a cheap $13 hdmti to usb capture on the cheaper PC. Linus Tech Tips demonstrated some paid software that allows you to use your mouse and keyboard across different computers of multi platform as if it were extended displays of the same computer. Before I could afford a computer that didn't tap out at 4G ram on the motherboard in the WinXP / Win8.1 era, I used at least two computers at one time for different tasks, but I did not have the luxury of that software. I had to use two sets of peripherals too.

[@pierregrobbelaar9116]

I actually parked my ryzen 2600 for upgrades. Giving my CPU to my brother and taking his 2400g in this PC to make it a emulation PC. I am actually rocking a I5 2400 with a 1070 ti. I don't do heavy gaming so it's perfect only thing that I will change next year is get a 2699k or 3770k(they are still a bit pricey) and a new mobo for some reason this pc's 1 memory slot stopped working. I did try to see if there is a problem with the slot but there's no physical damage. Only thing I still need to test is to see if one of my CPU pins are bent. I am gonna run this PC for close to a year and it doesn't bother me as I don't play heavy games.

[@johncnorris]

I helped a buddy setup up a similar Dell 9020 but we found a i7-4790K for a good price (~$100) and talked him into getting big CPU cooler. He's still using it and has no plans to upgrade.

[@argowinter2871]

Sorry for the question, but aren't these cheap Windows keys technically illegal?

[@flameshana9]

I wonder as well. From what I've heard they CAN stop working if MS cares enough. But they usually don't. Many people use an actual pirated version of Windows. I dunno how that's even possible with updates constantly checking your system.

[@gmasterdude]

I bought a i5 elitedesk g2 for $200 aud and it's a great computer. I recently installed a NVME drive with a PCIE adapter and was surprised to find HP had a 2022 firmware update on their site that enabled this to work properly.

[@ccricers]

One thing that stood out to me is the 1080 you have looks just like my RX 480 that was also from HP except with one fan. I first thought that was a Radeon card by the looks of it. Interesting how they reuse the same designs for both AMD and Nvidia.

[@16driver16]

Hp coolers are gonna look like hp coolers...

[@retroclipso]

Wow es impresionante el rendimiento con tan poco presupuesto

[@Josue31627]

Dell Optiplexes are still great on a budget, at least the older ones. I'm more surprised you found a GTX 1080 that actually fit in there.

[@lestersd]

I have a setup similar to that one, with a 4790 processor and a 6GB 1060 graphics card. Recently, I purchased a 1080. While I don't anticipate a significant performance leap due to the processor, I'm still hopeful for improved performance.

[@Cave_Monster]

How was it?

[@Jakiyyyyy]

Do more budget options when building a PC.

[@takehirolol5962]

No budget PC can compare up to the Xbox Series S at the moment.

[@takehirolol5962]

@Silas2556 Of course, no doubt about it. There are Budget KZbin channels that are in a cave slumbering and will wake up when you can build a gaming PC that is the same as the Xbox One S for less than $300.

[@bryanbrewer4272]

that powersupply is a dumpster fire.....

[@madson-web]

That graphics card looks stunning! Kinda Sega Genesis/Mega Drive style

[@JamesSmith-sw3nk]

I would NEVER buy a refurbished PSU especially to only save $7. 🤔

[@adrenalinex4]

Fr

[@Moe_Lester_fromUptwn]

When a handheld plays better than some big ol juggernaut. That concept still fs me up. Quite a time to be Alive!

[@samuelswenson1505]

Yea but remember that even a 10100 i3 or ryzen 5300g will significantly outperform a i7 4970k and they usually can be found with a 1650 super or rx 5500 for about 500$ these days.

[@phychmasher]

3:16 I wouldn't. Those are dangerous and can lead to fires.

[@Unwanted.A7X]

i had this processor since 2018 till few days ago... its quite capable of playing anything at decent framerate... i had to upgrade because it lacks horsepower and cores to run AAA games in rpcs3... as a gran turismo 5 lover... that game would become a powerpoint presentation if there are a lot of premium cars to render at once during races... otherwise if you just enjoy doing time trial it works quite nicely but certain tracks tanks your fps a lot and gets annoying to play like that.

[@Knoah321]

That power consumption (70~100W) on GPU bring tears to my eyes. 😭 I miss good old days when GPU power consumption wasn't 400W.

[@luisgoncalves2864]

Its a shame you can ONLY do this in the US...

[@ShineyUnderpant]

Do what??

[@skitzobunitostudios7427]

On Your Power Supply Issue. I had a project a while back running multiple multiple monitors.... So I had 3 GPUs installed.. 'Power Supply Issue'... So I just added another 450w Power Supply (40$). Case was big enough ... just ran additional power right to card. Had No Issues. Ran for Years.

[@DigitalIP]

Cant say i like how much that live wallpaper is utilizing the GPU

[@ThankYou_AV]

Perfect theme of the video.

[@jessragan6714]

14:28 Damn, you got a death wish for Maneki-Nekos. What did Maneki-Nekos ever do to you, man? They're just ceramic cats!

[@BigBeef]

I7 4790 release date was actually 2nd quarter 2014 not 2017

[@martyw]

The downside of builds with old CPU's like these is the EOL date of Windows 10 ( October 14, 2025), Windows 11 requires more recent CPU's (or registry hacks - which may disappear if Microsoft gets grumpy)

[@TheGameBench]

Yeah, the 4790 is going to bottleneck a 1080 in most anything newer at 1080 just due to IPC limitations. Still, it's a going to give a decent uplift over a 1070 despite the bottleneck, unlike a 1080 Ti where the perf difference is mostly pretty marginal. But at 1440p, it would be an option.

[@TheRealAlpha2]

Despite it being a bottle neck I have to admit he still seems to be getting higher frame rates on Cyberpunk with a 4790 than I do with a 4790k and low profile gtx1650 (A much newer card than his 1080.) I mostly manage in the 50s on medium @ 1080p, so there does seem to be room to improve with set ups like these, and I thought I'd gone as powerful as I could with my machine, although I don't know if the fps increase is worth my buying the older GPU and adding a new octopus of wires with a new power supply to support it when AAA games are starting to demand more CPU now.

[@TheGameBench]

@@TheRealAlpha2 The 1650 isn't much newer than a 1080, it's only one generation newer. Regardless, the 1080 is a substantially better card than a 1650. You're comparing an upper tier card from the previous generation to an entry level card from the next. Even the 1060 6GB is about 25% faster. The 1080 is roughly twice as fast, so you have a lot more room to upgrade the GPU. A 1660 Super or Ti would be about on par with a 1070 and would be a nice pairing for a 4th Gen i7, and you make it sound like you have an OptiPlex, if so... you wouldn't really need to upgrade the power supply for either of those. You just need a dual SATA to PCIe adapter like he showed in the video. You'll still be well under the 290 watt rating of the power supply that comes in these.

[@DFX2KX]

@@TheGameBench indeed, and it's worth noting (optiplex and Thinkcenter owner here) that low-profile cards are slower than their full-size counterparts of the exact same chip. You do pay a price for small size.

[@NoSpamForYou]

1440p w/ FSR

[@YoungMinistry351]

@@TheGameBench So would you reccomend the 1660 over the 1080 for this build?

[@mtcoiner7994]

The 1333 is a bummer for sure. I personally don't mess around with off brand PSU's after nearly burning my house down once. I always go with a budget EVGA for optiplex upgrades. These old optiplex builds really do offer some great price to performance. Unfortunately these will eventually just get to old to run future games. Hopefully we can find some cool modern budget optiplex class machines to play with in the coming years.

[@jonforget]

I'm currently building this exact pc, have to use my 1660 TI until I can buy a better card. Love the videos!

[@testosteroneinc.3800]

Perfect timing! I was shopping gpu's for a new to me Optiplex. I have the sff, so I'll have to go with an LP 1650 or rx6400.

[@getbluespheres3k]

its more incredible how he could find a GTX 1080 for cheap or use a 1080

[@nathanbarrington3210]

It’s not bad out there. 3 months ago I found a GTX 1080 for $100. Working great. I paired it with a PC I found for $50 that had an I7 6700 and 16GB ram. Just had to transfer it to a $40 mobo and a free case I found. $200 later a had a nice rig too.

[@Prodbytocile]

@@nathanbarrington3210 amd cards are cheaper

[@windows9556]

I built similar, granted less powerful but still great budget gaming rigs for my brother and I and they work great for all the games that both him and I play.

[@pambaboy]

@ETA PRIME The i7 4790 was released in 2014, not 2017.

[@frostwind8617]

This ended up being a pretty cheap build for what it offers. Stil, for anyone one wanting to build something similar I would advice you to never cheap out on the PSU. Now don't get me wrong, I am not saying that you need some 1000w platinum certified Seasonic PSU for a low budget system like this. However you rather spend 15 or 20 more on 500w psu from a known brand than some generic stuff from Ali/Amazon that may end up destroying your entire system or even worse. To be fair with ETAPRIME tho: That particular PSU, even tho is unknown brand, it still seems to be ok after searching its tech specs if they are real of course. But in the case of many generic cheap PSUs from Ali, Amazon and other online shops even if the PSU is rated 500W, those 500W may be fake, but even if are real, most of the time are useless since most it goes to the rails that give energy to low wattage components like the fans or the sata drives, also most of the time the caps on those generic psus are low quality and may end up malfunction pretty fast. On the other hand: a good PSU will put most of those 500W on the +12V line and not in the 3V or the 5V ones like the generic psus, since it is the 12V line the one that feeds stuff like your graphic card.

[@ukrainer95]

A CPU overclock could probably help a lot with the performance in the open world games and emulation. You'd need a different cooler for that

[@Inb4ify]

its a dell bro, it would need a new motherboard which won't fit in the proprietary case, at least without a dremel XD

[@paalpet]

I believe you also need the K variant of the CPU and the Dell mainboard is probably not overclockable.

[@TheRealAlpha2]

A lot of these machines don't really allow for overclocking.

[@kanesmith8271]

@@TheRealAlpha2 you can do a dirty overclock by allowing the temps to go up to like 100c in thermal setting in the BIOs while proving adequate cooling along with disabling any power saving feature and enabling it to start at a C7 state so it’s on max at start up, also getting 120 SSD and using that for virtual memory or ready boost to help things a bit more

[@Dragonborn-dc4uj]

Surprised to see hardware that we would have only seen in our wildest dreams, cost less than a console. Things can really change within a couple of years.

[@TastyTrees916]

haha dude this is cool, I was going to take one of these we got from my wife's work to make a server computer but why not make it a gaming pc for the living room at the same time? Super cool, thank you ser.

[@gregoryberrycone]

my one and only pc is an optiplex with an old 4th gen i5 and a 1060 6gb, it obviously can't run most new games very well but its honestly an absolute workhorse for how little money it cost me, and ive had it since late 2018 so id say its got pretty solid longevity

[@felipe71arg]

Love the Opti builds, good job

[@cmptar]

lol, this basically matches the specs of the rig I've been using for the last seven years. 4790k + 980ti. Still does everything I need it to.

[@cmatista1]

i have this with a 1650 4gb! works beautifully for me on most recent games

[@colorous2373]

I had this build, but it was the g20aj rog and I grabbed the xfx 4gb speedster faster 4gb out there and I was able to go as far as Crysis remastered at 4k can u run it settings and got 35fps now unfortunately the problem was the power supply was limited to around 375 watts and because its a hybrid I wasn't able to change the power supply unless I did the power supply mod and dual 2 bricks into 1 splitter my power supply died one night because I pushed the graphic card setting all the way maxed to see what it could do and I was honestly blown away I managed to hit 175fps on forza horizon 5 at 1080p low settings it only lasted about 1 year because the power supply went out. I really think the graphic card is way underrated and more people should know about it!!

[@bamboobelly4052]

ive been wanting to do something similar to this but ive found a Mecer Proficient SFF packing a GBYTE Q87m motherboard with the i7 4790 on my local used market for under $90... will definitely be purchasing it. my plan is to do a case swap into a more modern micro atx tower... this will be my first 'gaming pc' ever. wish me luck, i hope all this goes well

[@YoungMinistry351]

How'd it go?

[@freddyhung]

A lot of 1000 Series and some 2000 Series Nvidia GPU´s on sale since the Ethereum GPU mining era ended on Sept 15th!. Things to watch: check if the VBIOS was reflashed to stock, since most mining rigs configs used custom BIOSes to improve mining and keep temps on check, and also check all thermal paste since most of these "cheap" cards were kept 24-36 or even 48 months mining 24/7 !.

[@ishaqhalimi5296]

watching this at 3 am with XM5, at 6:02 you hear what sounds like another man speak, scare the hell outta me

[@todadude9539]

Thats why hes called the GOAT

[@cyberreks]

using a dell optiplex 390MT with amd radeon r5 240 6gb ram 120gb wd green ssd and 160gb wd yellow hdd also i customized it.The experience is still nice with a i5 2400s

[@jaggsta]

can get i7 6700 ones with DDR4 for low $100 now.

[@cyberreks]

@@jaggsta yeah

[@sneekeruk]

Ive got a similar era precision t1650, only difference is the front of the case, and its got a xeon, but, it will take a standard 24 pin psu, so no adapters needed, I popped my old corsair tx650 in and currently have a 1060 in it, but when I first got it it had my old r9 285 in it.

[@aliettienne2907]

Great budget build gaming PC. My plan is to get a PC system that support the newer DDR 4 memory because anything older will be a hold back on experiencing decent performance.

[@surferbrg]

After watching so many youtuber videos. I was lucky to snag a Dell Optiplex few units with a few i5-2500 Quad Core picked up both Slim build and MT. Beside 16GB Memory, SSD and 7200 RPM Hard Drive the slim build highest card I was able to get for it was AMD RX 550 Low Profile since the GTX 1650 Low Profile ones were hard to snag, but for the MT was able to upgrade power supply to EVGA 450 Watt and GTX 1650 Super. Only downside is since I'm using a standard flat monitor I'm capped at Medium to High Settings, but might get better with a better monitor.

[@johntipeti4597]

best budget cheap: ex lease hp g1 800 tower pc. has a 320watt power supply. pair it with a gtx 1650. board takes the i7 4790 ddr3 1600mhz - pc12800 cl 11 ram to match the processor & has 3.1usb. you can 1080p easy with this cheap setup. biggest warning with proprietary pc's - do not buy single form factor (so you can fit your cheaper full sized gpu card - i find low profiles are expensive). get the tower versions which have higher watt psu's. consider also you will have to get a psu mod done for the board & your video card (if using a non proprietary psu) if you require more than the stock wattage or go with the psu 3rd party as in this video. also all proprietary psu's are high efficiency but the higher the generation i've found the lower the psu wattage unless you buy something like a hp z2 g4 tower for eg: which comes with stock 500w psu).

[@blairlohnes8103]

Just built a system with a used 5600 xt, 3600x Asus Prime B450, 16 GB PC3200, 1 TB no name SSD, and an old beige case I had laying around. Came out to $50 more than your build and it's not a Dell. I guess my point is, if you're willing to go used, now is the time. People are upgrading to the newest, and miners are trying to dump cards as quick as they can.

[@DndAJ4x]

Im 15 I jus made me a build with a dell precision t1700/i7-4770/16gb ram/no hdd for $100 (they have some for that price RIGHT NOW on ebay), a gtx 1070 8gb mini for $105 by doing a bid, and a 700 watt psu, also some thermal paste, controller, etc... This is my first pc EVER but i got all this for just $266 and it runs games at high/ultra 1080p almost all at 60fps at first i was gonna get a series s since my ps4 overheated and broke but came out cheaper and better.

[@DndAJ4x]

btw i already had a ssd and hdd from my auntie old computer but you can get a 2tb hdd for fairly cheap and a 128gb ssd

[@rawteeb]

Ths looks amazing. Hopefully prices stay like the same for a month or so and I will definitely be following this step by step. Been wanting a decent gaming desktop that wont break my bank

[@Fernando-Rodriguez]

go for 8th gen i5 and above or second gen ryzen and above they offer better performance.

[@thatboipaipai1890]

Will it be compatible with the build ETA did ? Or do i have to change something, and which one of the two you recommended is the best out of two.

[@Fernando-Rodriguez]

@@thatboipaipai1890 it's not compatible with ETA build. the second gen Ryzen CPUs perform better than Intel equivalent, a second or third gen Ryzen 5 processor is a solid choice for which you need to buy a B series socket AM4 motherboard, the intel 10th gen I5 10400 is also a solid choice for which you'll need a socket LGA 1200 motherborad preferably a b560. these parts are now cheaper and you can buy them new for cheap specially from local stores. these CPUs will not even bottleneck an RTX 3080 and a GTX 1080 will be perfectly utilized to 100% in all games with these CPUs, 16GB ddr4 3200MHz ram is now the minimum required for a smooth gaming experience.

[@Fernando-Rodriguez]

@@thatboipaipai1890 soon enough a lot of OEM machines with 8th and 9th gen intel processors or Ryzen processors will flood the market as companies renew their equipments it'll be a heaven for budget gamers because these old dell/hp machine will become even cheaper.

[@thatboipaipai1890]

@@Fernando-Rodriguez so should i wait for that or just buy what you told me ?

[@Ventrue533]

This "budget build" has the exact specs I've been rocking for the last 5 years for 1440p gaming 🤣

[@jeffreyreed3365]

The i7 8700 pre-builts for under 200 might be a better bet. Just did one myself but either a rx 5700

[@zyrothmusic]

300$ for a GTX 1080 build? Time flies.

[@Jason_Voorhees.]

I'm gonna end up doing this I believe,will be my first pc build

[@crisnmaryfam7344]

Should have tossed WoW "benchmark" in. A lot of people in the wow world slack off on the updating their PC side of things and play on much older hardware.

[@oso2k]

I got a bunch of Optiplex 5040 w/Core i3-6100 and HP ProDesk 600 G3 w/Core i5-6500 on eBay for sale. I might need to try this with one of them before I let them go.

[@Neoceres-pi6zd]

Have one of those with a 980TI, no issues in 5 years of continuos usage

[@galenlaconis]

This kind of build would really be ideal for building arcade cabinets running mame. I've always wanted to build one.

[@ran2wild370]

Wow! Haswell 4790. Quite a fast machine. But it is the bare minimum for actual software today. Mind that Win10 support expires in 3 years and then it will be Linux only PC. But config is still very relevant and actual. Just max memory to 32GB

[@ran2wild370]

One side note: Linux support from intel for haswell iGPU was dropped recently and the driver was leased into a standalone project. So there are 2 iGPU drivers currently: one from the community and another from Intel.

[@hadoukevl1143]

Thank you for the video, amazing what can run RPCS3! gotta start keeping an eye out for a cheap 1080!

[@TheRealAlpha2]

Why is it always Dell Optiplex? I went with the HP Elitedesk G1 800 small form factor back in 2018 Upgraded to a 4790k with GTX1650 and I'm still using it today. Funny thing is I bought a larger barebones tower case from ebay for more space for my harddrives, which came with a 320 watt power supply, and swapped the old SFF motherboard into it. The seller messed up and sent a SFF case at first so when they refunded me they told me to keep the mistakenly sent case and then even sent a second one as well. I guess the seller was so eager to get rid of the HPs that they sent me an extra tower case on top of that. So now I have 2 extra cases of both sizes for free!

[@k0rnflake69]

4790 was released in 2014 just a heads up

[@ibobeko4309]

The CPU will survive this but not the mb or psu.