Turning a $95 Dell into a Gaming PC

Today we're taking a look at a putting together a gaming PC at the floor budget of 150 dollars.
Check out the Spawncast Network: spawncastnetwor...
Twitter: @SpawnWaveMedia
Threads: www.threads.ne...
Spawncast Jerseys: bit.ly/3sZKrgj
Spawncast Spotify: open.spotify.c...
Second Channel: / @spawnwaveplus6991
Spawn Wave Merch: teespring.com/...
Follow Us On Twitch: / spawnwavemedia
Listen To Our Weekly Podcast: / spawn-wave
Like Comment and Subscribe!
Thanks for watching!
#PC #AMD #PCGaming

[@twistedimagev2]

you could turn this into like a small series. would love to see you do this with varying budgets. 300$, 500$, 700$, 900$. would be very interesting. and also would be nice to get a bit more info on part compatibility for those of us who dont already just know that kind of stuff

[@Cosmic_Charles]

I was about to to say he should make a whole series all the way to 1000.

[@webpoet73]

Watch the Toasty Bros. They do these kind of builds fairly often.

[@rabidrivas]

For part compatibility just go to pc part picker, that webpage automatically checks compatibility for parts you choose and has tons of already done parts list

[@asianime12]

I like this idea because I have 0 understanding of PC gaming 😅

[@StreetSharts]

Agreed ​@@asianime12

[@zkatt3238]

Yes, I'd love to see you squeezing the budget to see what you can get out of it. Fun concept that the big PC channels only cover once every few years

[@ArtisChronicles]

Random gaming in hd often throws a lot of lower end and mid range hardware at games. Especially hardware from a decade ago or so.

[@heyheyspaceman]

100% would love a video on low cost PC builds. I've been running consoles for size and easy gaming but also feel like it's might be time to build again.

[@roadrash2005]

Just buy a steamdeck and a dock. It’s the only pc that’s subsidized like a console.

[@owenharris2233]

Would love to see this as a series of what you could build for the cost of each console, switch, ps5, Xbox ss and xbox sx

[@terminator4995]

I’d love to see more of these, the $300 idea is great!

[@EthicalAllele]

This is awesome! I used to have one of those small form factor optiplexes and had no idea that an rx 550 would allow me to do so much more with it. I thought I’d need a low profile 1650 at the minimum. I completed more than half the GTA 5 campaign with the integrated graphics of an i5 2400 pushing 20 fps. It was a blast

[@robl3605]

I have this same exact optiplex. Use it for emulation and a questionable amazon 10,000 games in one hard drive I saw RGT85 recommended about a year ago. I put a powercolor Radeon RX6400 in it. It plays Elden Ring and other year oldish AAA games without a problem. I also doubled the ram to 32 (I think, I don’t remember and it was some spare sticks I had). Also swapped out the HD for a spare M.2 I had, and pulled out the CD drive ao it wouldn’t draw unnecessary power. It was causing boot up problems with the Radeon as well. Its a pretty good system I use to play around with for trying things….whenever I try to build stuff it usually blows up in my face. If it does with this, oh well, I am only out the computer and Radeon 6400.

[@chrishensley5384]

I picked up a Dell Optiplex 7040 SFF i5 & 16gb of RAM. I stuck an RX550 in it. This system works great with older games up to Witcher 3 on med-low settings. Not great but gets the job done and came in right around $150 total. It all depends on what you want to play.

[@user-vi4xy1jw7e]

Is it good for emulating up to PS2/GameCube?

[@Uzur9]

Been using a Optixplex 990 SFF i5, put in 16gb of RAM & GeForce GT 1030. Like you said, it gets the job done. I do have another 990 SFF i7 back in my shop that I'm mess around with getting Windows updated & all that jazz so I can maybe swap over to it.

[@wahtari2994]

the biggest issue i have with older hardware is. that very often theay have not much RAM. and installing old windows on it may lock you out of software. like steam launcher will not be supported for windows 7

[@chrishensley5384]

This is why I switched over to Linux Mint years ago. Proton has been a blessing for gaming on Linux.

[@chrishensley5384]

I hear ya. That's why I ditched Windows a while back. Linux Mint meets my needs.

[@ihaveallthecoins2785]

Great video, would love to see a $300 build's performance.

[@ashaman8567]

I agree, lets see it!

[@chrisrichards2350]

Yes this is somthing I have wanted you to talk about . Love your detail and simple explanation.

[@sundiata17]

Yeah this would definitely make a good series, amazing that this build was somewhat capable

[@Jarjarfunk]

Absolutely do the 300 build

[@TribalSpider13]

I'd like to see a $300 build from you.

[@ABD-pc3jf]

I liked this video. I hope you do one for the $300 range as proposed

[@dave4shmups]

Great build! I would definitely love to see a $300 PC build video your channel! The only drawback with the i7-6700 is that it’s not compatible with Windows 11, and Windows 10 will run out of security updates in October 2025. (Unless you pay for extended security updates from Microsoft, but only businesses and other organizations do that.)

[@jqwright28]

Yea man, would love to see a video about a $300 pc. Those video series where people take $200 and flip pcs until they can buy a $1500 one is something to think about, too.

[@johnhiggins2696]

If you live near a college, they might have some sort of surplus program. I picked one of these with a 9th gen Core i5 up for $40 (although it had the hard drive ripped out so I had to buy a new one; a cheap PCI 3.0 NVME drive will do just fine) and slotted in an RX 6400 and it plays 8th gen games very nicely. I mostly use it for my entertainment center. If I wanna play a game there that doesn't run well, I can stream it from my desktop upstairs via Steam.

[@robert_roland63]

As for someone who loves building PCs for fun, I would very much like to see how small of a budget you can make a gaming PC that could handle today’s games. I used to play PC games a lot until a game I got couldn’t play on my PC which ended up being so choppy that it was unplayable. I know the graphics card usually is the key, but back then I was just frustrated that I had to upgrade again. Although that PC I was on isn’t even close to todays standards.

[@BallsofSamus]

Yes, I love the idea and I’m already at looking at doing one myself. Thanks for inspiration, keep up John.

[@rabidrivas]

I would love to see this being a recurring series. You cpuld totaply expand on it installing ChimeraOS for a console replacement

[@ethnol3842]

Even though I already own a decent pc, this was still a really interesting video. Would be really cool to see what types of games and performance are available at different price points. Keep up the great work!

[@clebbington]

optiplex pro tip: you can splice in a 6 or 8 pin PCIe power plug to an existing 12V rail (yellow wires are 12v and black are ground) - just check the rail's current rating on the side of the power supply. I don't recommend using SATA- or molex-to-PCIe power adapters as peripherals are usually wired to a weaker 12v rail

[@claudiobizama5603]

Also, obviously, keep an eye on the power draw and the power supply wattage if you are going to do that.

[@juancalcetin]

Yess! I'd love to enter PC Gaming, but budget is a big issue, specially here in Latin America where prices for electronics are far greater than in USA/Canada/Europe. So learning how to save as much as possible is something that could help me.

[@Gatitasecsii]

Speaks to the optimization on palworld and against the optimization on Starfield. I know palworld isn't the most graphically impressive game, but for an early access game, all the kids in my family can run it on their laptops really well...

[@ArtisChronicles]

Honestly yes, you should do a double the budget video. The more people that see lower budget builds running games the more likely it'll be that people won't shy away from PC gaming since they'll know there is another option besides Sony, Nintendo, or Microsoft's Xbox.

[@giancarlolugo7048]

You are right! I had no idea what “3D Dot Game Heroes” was until you mentioned it.

[@DopenessFORlife]

I am 100% NOT a PC gamer and never will be, but this video was awesome and very interesting. Keep them coming with different budget ranges!

[@9aracna.]

I really enjoyed 3D Dot Game Heroes, glad to see it here

[@1Obearz]

Do a budget build next. But also try and get this build performance better with an over clock and better cooling. And a better card. Love these cheap builds.

[@theunreal_TOEBEANS]

I'd love to see a $300 PC build!! I think that's a far better price point, especially if you stay with the office PC thing. Also, fun fact, I used... That exact pre-built PC base as my gaming PC for many years! I put a low profile Nvidia 1040 in there and about 16 gigs of RAM, as well as a SSD. The whole thing was about $250 total. It played just about everything I threw at it in 1080p 60fps, from GTA 5 to heavily modded Minecraft (which isn't trivial work shaders!) I have upgraded since then, but if I had to go back to that old PC I wouldn't be terribly unhappy. 1080p gaming is not bad!

[@lpjunior999]

I got one like this for $50 off Facebook, now it runs Linux, Home Assistant and Plex for me. Pretty handy.

[@HondoJarrus]

My first "gaming PC" was a SFF Lenovo M93P with a Gigabyte GTX1650 LP. Added an SSD and more DDR3 RAM😄, that little machine punched waaaay above it's weight.😁

[@christiangutierrez4569]

Oh my gosh, I have repurposed around 2-3 of these and they are great budget gaming systems. I knew the look as soon as I saw the thumbnail lol

[@sonoftheredfox]

I really appreciate vids like this. Not having really much of a discretionary fund at all in my budget, I still would like to upgrade from the 2010 HP Pavilion All-in-One I'm using right now. It works great for many games in my catalog, but I also have many newer (2015 and beyond) games that just won't run on the AMD APU (especially Resident Evil games).

[@caseycuster7388]

Got a Nvidia A2000 in a SFF build I did not long ago for the sole purpose of playing Diablo 4 at work lol. Pleased to say it runs it on high settlings, 1080p, 60fps like a champ. Also play Robocop on high settings with DLSS turned on balanced and again works great for my sneaky work PC.

[@shawns6128]

My PC gaming days ended when I caught a virus while being addicted to AoE. This renewed my hope that maybe one day I will return...

[@djcrimsonsunbird3607]

Are you still feeling ill from the virus?

[@offspringfan89]

​@@djcrimsonsunbird3607 🤣

[@Zaxbox]

I have one of those and a 9020. I put 32gb of RAM in both and a M.2 into the 7050. They both have some kind of 1tb of RAM video cards that I want to replace. The PSU wattage is one of the bottlenecks for using a better card but I could get the one that you installed.

[@NeilWatchesYT]

Wait a few years when Alder Lake Dells hit the “Regularly Scheduled Upgrade” bin. Those things will be beasts.

[@nubatman]

I'm all for reducing e-waste. Just because a PC is a few years behind doesn't mean it still can't rock. I have 2 desktop systems that are gonna get some needed upgrades when I can find the space.

[@gpturismo]

A decent low end machine is $450-750. Maybe $250 more than a PS5. You get access to so much. Emulation (up to ps3/wiiu/360,) games not on consoles, tons of older games (gog and steam,) and abandonware. That includes productivity. Blender, Python, Gimp, Adobe, etc.

[@Lucromis]

I would get a dell optiplex large enough for a gtx 1650 and that would be real solid as a start. There are so many years of playable older pc games and emulation this low end pc tier is still worth the money.

[@Stefan_Payne]

Small Formfactor PC Builds is Hardmode PC Building. Booksize PC builds are Nightmare mode. I know, been trying it for almost 20 years, even had an Antec Aria...

[@mrfov1011]

I did something similar to this but i decided to get the pc first then save up another paycheck to buy the gtx 1050ti low profile card for that extra power. its still a very capable card even today. they also just released the rtx 4060 low profile card which is the latest new low profile card since the 1050ti and I would imagine it would run way better than the 1050ti, but it will run you about 350 USD. great video! hope this comment helps people considering going this route since pc building can be quite intimidating for new people.

[@chrisvw352]

That looks like a blast for 'someone' else to do. I have been doing research on getting a PC myself and I think I can get one and be happy with it for a while for about 1,200 to 1,400. AMD of course. I think it will be worth the time to save and the cost of it.

[@Gatitasecsii]

This is a great video, I know it's not your most profitable type of video but I really appreciate this

[@Rashomon20s]

Steam Deck user here, after playing THE FINALS docked to our TV. It’s official, I want to play this game maxed out on the TV. How could one with no knowledge of PCs achieve that? I hope Valve’s potential Steam Console can pull off something like that.

[@anabang1251]

Took the opportunity to squish Palworld into the thumbnail lol

[@dayko.]

Definitely would be interesting to see how much more you can get for $300.

[@basti__]

Interesting idea, would like to see the 300$ PC.

[@imalearnsya]

I grabbed a elitedesk 800 g1 for 40$ it had a i5 4590. I threw it in a extra atx case i had and threw in a 2060 super. Its a bit bottle necked but with throwing in another 8gb ram stick, and a new psu im pushing close to 100 fps on dayZ. luckily i had everything else already but being able to spend 40$ and get a secondary rig is awesome! Perfect for Batocera!!

[@frozenninja4030]

Always been a console guy. Cost isn't really an issue but the thought of trying to build my own PC and getting into that space is a little intimidating. It was very cool to see how cheap and easy it is to get something that could be a good starting point into PC gaming.

[@matthewhardwick8208]

I personally opted for the Rog Ally + Steam Deck as my main PC devices. Maybe at some point in the future I'll splash out on a dedicated gaming PC setup. I'm feeling a bit negative about console gaming at the moment.

[@user-vi4xy1jw7e]

Why are you feeling negative?

[@sycoraz]

It's like my recent favorite set up too lol

[@olivercorrodi3340]

two words: used workstations. hp z, dell precision, thinkstation p... you can get a z440 at around 100-200$ now, and they can juice almost any non-4090/3090 gpu. and upgraded ram and cpus are cheap as dirt because you can use server hardware, which gets decomissioned in 3-5 year cycles usually. seen any consumer mobo take up xeons and ecc ram? no, thats why the market forces used server hardware to be so cheap, but theyre still plenty powerful - and even more quality than consumer crap. i already helped 7 friends get into gaming, almost all of them have nearly no money but still were able to game in ultra at 1080p up to 1440p. lowest record is 120$ for a quadcore z440 with a gifted gtx 970 with 32gb ram, maximum for about 450$ is my z440 with 3070, 12 core gpu, 128 GB ram

[@robertwahlstrom]

My Asus Rog Ally Z1 Extreme compined with a SSD dock is actually my new gaming PC and it's much better than I thought. John, I would highly recommend doing a video on that instead on how to use an asus rog ally as a PC gaming computer for high end games and emulation. My current setup: 2 TB of internal SSD memory, 512 GB SDXC memory, 4 TB SSD docked memory. Up to 8 Tflops of graphical performance. And yeah it cost around 100 dollars (probably cheaper in other countries as I live in high tax country). Retrobat is good if you want to play old game backups.

[@zeromythosver.]

This is funny because the PC in the thumbnail is the same one in every lab at my school They buy them cheap, and then have a lab tech refit them with 30 series cards or whatever is needed to do the art or game development tasks the computers are set up for

[@jamelflores9680]

Yes I would love to see you double the price. I have a $450 Build so I would like to see what Can it do?

[@kikeoenr]

To be fair , im pretty sure you can buy an used Series S for 150U$S (or less) and the comparisson is fair since this pc is used. Since Series S does run games like Starfield or Alan Wake 2 decently , you could say Series S is way above this pc build. There still reasons to get this , navigating pirates waters ;) or just making use of the huge free library from Epic's weekly gifts , easy setup for emulators , only pc games like Starcraft 2 , Warcraft III , Dota 2 , etc. Nice video btw.

[@astr0sauce]

would love it if you covered the new macs that can run all kinds of games. i have one and i emulate like crazy, plus stuff like resident evil 4 is natively supported

[@spacevector2188]

This was a fun vid I would be down to see more of this from spawn!!!

[@jessragan6714]

I mean, I've got a Switch Lite that plays Skyrim well enough. It depends on how much you're willing to slum with your technology... and I'm willing to slum a LOT. 1080p is still high definition to me, if that tells you anything. I grew up with the Atari 2600 and NES. 4K is NOT a high priority for me over here.

[@piewackete]

i built a very budget gaming PC a couple months ago and it ened up being able to run most of my gsmes with no problem mainly GTA5 and the new Resient Evil games but it also runs ready or not and palworld although i had some stuttering in that one but upgrading from 16 to 32 gigs of ram seemed to help that

[@UnWorthyDaisy42]

you can buy adaptors for external GPU setups

[@CasualSpud]

Hp elitedesk with i7 8700 and an amd rx 6400 (low profile limited).. Good pairing for 1080p and emulation

[@superamigo987]

Would love for you to do more PC content John!

[@CoolDudeSuperNoob]

I have a 7050 SFF, i7-7700, 16Gb ram and RTX A2000 with the latter doing the heavy lifting when it comes to PC gaming 😁

[@breadone_]

the quadro is pretty overpriced for what it is tbf, you can get a 4070 for like 10% more where i live and that'll absolutely smoke the A2000

[@CoolDudeSuperNoob]

​@@breadone_ it was all down to the SFF form factor when it came to getting the RTX A2000. Getting the GPU 2nd hand at a ridiculous cheap price also helped.

[@cowboyd5673]

I second the comments for having a series of videos showing what we can buy for $X at intervals of $100-$200.

[@thesavful]

I’ve got an Optiplex 7060 micro I was gonna use for a Plex server - your emulation point makes me wonder how much I can push outta it. Thanks!

[@Psychadelirious]

I’m looking into buying two PCs for Palworld to play with my wife so different price tiers would be helpful!

[@timothypatch5080]

I would love to see you do more PC stuff

[@TerenceCole]

Yes, please show us more budget builds!

[@ishicoatlnaemarestrangelou9435]

a 300 dollars pc video would be nice, but include the other parts like storage and monitor for all the people who has no idea or wants to start from scratch

[@Silenceman123]

I had almost the same build for a year except i had an rx6400. I recommend a gtx 1650 or 1050ti Lp more tho because of the included encoding and not getting their performance bottlenecked by pcie 3.0 like the rx6400 sadly did in my build. Still a great emulation machine and gaming machine

[@nicolaemoncayo5103]

This would be good for all the really small PC exclusives and emulators

[@JohnDoe-wq5eu]

Yeah these cheap office computer builds are a seriously double-edged sword. On one hand they're cheap and easy to find and cheap and get the job done for the most part but on the other hand they're incredibly cramped and for the most part use extremely proprietary components and things that make upgrading and making any adjustments difficult and or possibly expensive. It seems like a good idea but only under certain conditions with huge caveats and pretty serious drawbacks.

[@ging3rbreadtiger618]

double it and give it to the next person!!! thanks for sharing.

[@EhEhEhEINSTEIN]

Could just be me.. But Palworld at the 1080p medium settings looked like lineage 2 from 20 years ago

[@remakeyourself]

Cool video. I have a gaming PC in my basement but have often thought about getting a weaker, smaller form factor PC for my office so I can have a Windows Box for when I'm doing stuff like loading roms on an emulation machine, or converting legacy formats...you know, just stuff that Macs aren't good at. $300 is totally a range I'd consider and there's no way I'm looking into one of those cheap knock-off Amazon PCs loaded with malware.

[@twistedimagev2]

You know you can just reformat one of those Amazon PCs and then you don't have any worries about malware

[@NintendoFlashShorts]

Damn, wonder if my old referb can run palworld now, might as well give it a try

[@DuneRunnerEnterprises]

Some Chnesium socket 2011 v3 motherboards will get you MUCH,MUCH better performance for the price of 150. Or,if going even lower - first gen 2011 Xeon'ed ones.

[@YoboVFX]

take note this is actually how most people game or on previous gen consoles bc of compatibility and how cheap it is

[@sergeleon1163]

I have a Dell Optiplex SFF combined with a GTX 1050Ti which is pretty balanced and is a great system for simpler games and emulation

[@Jarjarfunk]

I've made a bunch of gaming PCs like this for kids

[@xRostro]

All in for this series!

[@ethanvalentine4299]

Personally I feel that the minimum of you are serious about pc gaming should be 600-800.. last thing you want is to build a pc and not be able to play certain games with it… a lot of the allure for pc gaming comes from it being able to look better and run better than a console plus mod support and much more sales on games.. this type of build that’s really cheap could be a great way to get someone interested in playing on pc but once they really start to enjoy it they will need a better set up this also doesn’t take into account peripherals most people need a monitor a keyboard and a mouse and I’ve spent more on each of those components than this entire build.. granted there are more budget friendly options but with a poor screen and poor quality input devices you might ruin pc gaming for some.. if you want to game on a budget sadly the best option is a console or a steam deck.

[@dino-t243]

Please do a 300 dollar build video! My friend wants to get into pc but doesn't have a 1000 dollars to spend. It would be nice to see what the acceptable amount of money to spend for quality is. This is a little low. Great video though!

[@Xero36]

Let's do these in 3 or 4 tiers. I love this idea

[@Justachamp772]

Love it, wish I was in Europe or America, In India the used market is crap no site to list on and very unreliable people who over charge for a used item, and I made a 500 buck PC with only a 5600g and could not afford a gpu, that being said in the peak of pricing of it in June 2022 but still that same PC would 350 bucks, it's really bad here GPU are 100 bucks more expensive than in America

[@just_a_stump]

Ngl, SFF Dell has been the bane of my existence since it entered my life

[@kennypowers1945]

I’d still rather have a console but this is cool for people who can’t afford a pc or console

[@christopherholmes888]

The down side using anything less than a 8th gen processor is Windows 11 is not supported.

[@drpintoa]

Series S vs $300 PC and Series X vs $500 PC would be fun to watch

[@demolitionman5384]

How about streaming, what is tue cheapest pc that can be used for streaming.

[@alexk9295]

Are there any pc 's that handle starfield at a level that people are happy with?

[@D1G5166]

yes more videos of this

[@Boss_Fight_Index_muki]

it never ceases to amaze me that places like hi security places (banks, accounting firm) entrust their data to the worst PCs money can buy

[@dayko.]

I mean those kind of places all have backups of backups anyway and while these PCs are not pretty (cables with different colors/green mother board etc) they work just fine in my experience.

[@jonathansoko1085]

Well no offense but you are ignorant. The strength of the PC is literally irrelevant as all of the security is handled by people like me. Professionals and it it done so with other hardware and software. The power of their computers has NO baring on the strength of the security because that security is handled by people like me, professionals who do all that work with other things. I.e.... professionals.

[@Boss_Fight_Index_muki]

@@jonathansoko1085 😑🤦‍♂

[@jonathansoko1085]

@@Boss_Fight_Index_muki What I said to you is literally fact.

[@Boss_Fight_Index_muki]

@@jonathansoko1085 nvm

[@KramerJones]

Yeah if you can do slightly higher budgets that’d be lit

[@balaam_7087]

If I wanted a pc for literally one reason, retro console emulation, what’s the best route? I cheapo build like the one here? Or would I be better off with a raspberry pi or even a knockoff mini pc type thing?

[@claudiobizama5603]

Up to what console you want to emulate? If you want up to 5th console gen (PS1, N64) pretty much any desktop PC can run them. With notebooks, anything above a dual core 2hz. With the Pi, 3B or 4 is preferred.

[@balaam_7087]

Id go maybe as far as PS2 era, but I’d be fine stopping at PS1/N64/SS.

[@moonkey537]

I own 3D dot heroes 😁 how much is it worth nowadays? $300?

[@Coleees]

Holy shit that’s the school computer I took apart in cyber security class

[@juanbermudez964]

My first video card was a rx550 with a Xeon 5680 back in 2016 and I was running GTA 5 at 1440p high settings over 60fps all day long, and I paid $300 usd for that pc in 2016 later I updated to a 1060 6gb card and I was running red dead redemption 2 when it was released for pc, at 1440p med settings, right now you can get a 3070ti for $300 and a ryzen 5 5600x for $120 a ssd for $50, motherboard for $80 power supply for $50 for $600 you can get a ryzen 5 5600x with a 3070ti a very good pc for sure,