Well, I did build a couple of months ago an i5-6500 / 16GB DDR4 RAM / GTX 1060 6GB / 500GB Sata SSD PC for super-cheap with mostly second-hand parts as a gift to my cousin and it works suprisingly well, it was a nice gift; with the right expectations in mind old parts can still provide a lot of fun.
@@TechLabUK It is, maybe too good sometimes, in Monster Hunter World I saw 99% usage on the CPU alongside 99% usage on the GPU, never before or after have I seen such a thing.
I did the test with a 7300hq at 3.2 and the poor thing holds a 1050 4gb back. I canot imagine a gtx 1060 6gb the botlelneck must be huge. But if it runs ok i belive you.
Several months ago I was flipping a similar vintage gaming PC, I picked it up for a similar price, and upgraded the RAM and GPU, and was fairly happy with it with the i5 6500. I installed Starfield, and it would run, and get a decent framerate but it had a nasty stutter, every thirty or forty seconds it would just freeze for less than a second, I upgraded the SATA SSD to a fairly fast NVME, and it helped a little, but was still stuttering. I ended up coming across and optiplex with an i7 7700, swapped it in, and it was able to play Starfield very smoothly at 1080 medium. Before upgrading the CPU I even tried a 2070 Super in it, and it was that 4 thread CPU holding it back. I would keep an eye out for an inexpensive i7 upgrade for that system, I wouldn't spend much more than $50-60 but it would be worth it. I would love to see a video of the results of that CPU compared to the current i5. To me I believe that right now the absolute minimum spec for "modern gaming" is the i7 6700, the four core four thread i5s are just not up to the task. The 8th and 9th Generation i5's are much better. For me, my cutoff is the 8th generation Intel, older than that and they just can't handle modern AAA games even at lower settings. It is king of weird that you can point so easily to exactly where that line is, 7th Gen i5, no go, 6th or 7th Gen i7, still capable. I also avoid i3 below 10th gen, although a 9100F isn't terrible, it isn't great either, an 8th or 9th Gen i5 is still pretty solid, and the same gen i7 and i9 are absolutely still capable of playing modern games paired with a decent video car.
They seem fine for light weight gaming, people are recommending the i7 over them now though and we did see it as a bottle neck but I suppose it comes down to what you play. Thanks for watching though :)
I bought an i5-6500 system like this recently, and wanted a better cpu, without spending an absurd amount of money on 6/7th gen i7s. I found out about coffee time and spent 20 euros on a Xeon 1230 v5 (4c8t) cpu, and about 30 minutes modifying the bios on my h110 motherboard:) Time and money well spent, as it pairs well with a GTX 1070 without bottlenecking:)
Thanks, we like to keep people updated on these builds so revisit them. The i7 looks like it's a must so am going to start looking for something. The PSU is a little poo lol but it's still working for now.
I like overkill cpu coolers, especially when you are going to press it hard. An i7 would make sense if you intend to sell it. PC flip episodes for the channel ;)
Weirdly enough I never sell anything, I tend to just give it away to people locally who can't afford to buy their kids gaming PCs or offer upgrades to people when I am done with it. A lot of what's been on the channel is actually still stored in inventory but great shout on the i7, going to look for one for it.
Its so satisfying seeing older systems get a few upgrades that make them do things they couldn't do before. I could imagine this system being a great entry point for a lower budget or younger gamer dabbling in PC gaming for the first time!
Perfect for that tbh, greatest thing about PC gaming is that even though new, demanding games come out these types of systems will always have thousands of games that will run on them.
A little bit of Dremel work and a little plexiglas square with some double sided tape and you can have a nice window to highlight the bling ;-) Would make for a nice PC flip. You could probably get 250 ~ 300 for that upgraded system which means you can take the money to buy more parts ;)
I noticed that the AIO tubing is too short to be mounted frontally. Was that by design or was that modified? Or a case of mammoth case but tiny board? As someone who has owned a full custom loop watercooling setup for 2 separate builds, I would never ever do it again. My days of extreme overclocking are over. Maintenance is just a PITA. So I'm hesitant to do AIO builds. It's either passive setups for my music recording setup so the mic doesn't pickup noise or big tower coolers with quality fans for gaming now. I'm not so sure about these AIO's. I find the modern quality air CPU coolers do a good enough job and are pretty much bulletproof. In terms of noise fan tuning has been a godsend. You used to need a manual fan controller. Now you just set a fan curve in bios or in software and you're done. I honestly think, as pc users we have it backwards - we should be watercooling gfx cards not the cpu in MOST setups. Also tend to be the noisiest component. We're seeing problems with GPU sag with such massive heatsinks now.
The pipes did feel a little short but they are the same length as other 240mm AIO's we have so it must just be the massive case with the silly little board in it. I am sure we will use it in another build at some point, try it in a Micro ATX case or something and it should be better. It's a nice cooler though, never had one before and it works a treat.
1070ti still holds up with 1080p gaming i recently did a video with a 6700k, i was surprised it actually played black myth wukong benchmark just fine. The (rip) evga card i got was super clean.
These older quad core i5s are really rough on modern games, i7 6700 non k would do wonders here. I used to have 4670k paired with gtx 1070 and it was bottlenecking the gpu in few games here and there back in ~2017, when i upgraded to 4790k all the cpu limitations went away and i was fully gpu bound again.
@@TechLabUK yeah 7700 is still a competent gaming chip, i wonder if its worth over 6700. The biggest issue with i5 6500 is the lack of cpu threads and low core clockspeed. I guess if you tune your ram manually with custom timings it might improve a bit but still, it really lacks cpu multithreading performance
@@h1tzzYT I do have an i7 6700 somewhere so when I get the 7700 I might see if I can compare them and see which for the price would make the best upgrade.
In CPU intensive games, four core CPU's will normally have more issue with consistency and possible bottlenecking your rig. I have what is considered a great gaming four core CPU that I test out in different gear, a Ryzen 3 3300X and Battlefield 1 online will punch it in the gut in some scenarios. ...and in the same setup, a Ryzen 5 2600 will run markedly better in the same game.
@@mOddEdLiKeHeLL I believe so. Pretty sure the board will take up to an i7 7700k with the right bios although it’s a very basic board so probably not even worth it.
I have a pc similar to this, though I have an i7 6700 and rx480 8gb. What do you think is the best gpu upgrade for my PC? I was planning on playing some older games at 4k, like AC4, Splinter Cell Blacklist and Red Dead Redemption 2 and 1 when it comes out later this month.
I have an i7 6700, used it a couple of times in builds and I am pretty sure you could easily get away with a GTX 1080Ti, RX 5700XT, RTX 2070 Super and on more modern generations. RTX 3060, RTX 4060, RX 7600 and depending on game / settings things should work ok.
if you have cpu bottleneck don't use upscaling performance will be the same and quality will be worse try higher res if vram allows it or ssao if that's available and that kind of sht which don't have impact on cpu and lower population density can help
Well, I did build a couple of months ago an i5-6500 / 16GB DDR4 RAM / GTX 1060 6GB / 500GB Sata SSD PC for super-cheap with mostly second-hand parts as a gift to my cousin and it works suprisingly well, it was a nice gift; with the right expectations in mind old parts can still provide a lot of fun.
1060 would be a great match with this CPU.
@@TechLabUK It is, maybe too good sometimes, in Monster Hunter World I saw 99% usage on the CPU alongside 99% usage on the GPU, never before or after have I seen such a thing.
@@danielegalizzi8562 making sure you get everything you paid for.
@@TechLabUK Yeah, though a bit unnerving 😅
I did the test with a 7300hq at 3.2 and the poor thing holds a 1050 4gb back. I canot imagine a gtx 1060 6gb the botlelneck must be huge. But if it runs ok i belive you.
i would add a sleeved cableset, that would get it one star more.
1070ti is a legend, never had one, just a 1070.
Better than a PS5 !!! Thank you! Also you have a free calculator with windows 11 ❤
I actually use the calculator a lot too lol
Several months ago I was flipping a similar vintage gaming PC, I picked it up for a similar price, and upgraded the RAM and GPU, and was fairly happy with it with the i5 6500. I installed Starfield, and it would run, and get a decent framerate but it had a nasty stutter, every thirty or forty seconds it would just freeze for less than a second, I upgraded the SATA SSD to a fairly fast NVME, and it helped a little, but was still stuttering. I ended up coming across and optiplex with an i7 7700, swapped it in, and it was able to play Starfield very smoothly at 1080 medium. Before upgrading the CPU I even tried a 2070 Super in it, and it was that 4 thread CPU holding it back.
I would keep an eye out for an inexpensive i7 upgrade for that system, I wouldn't spend much more than $50-60 but it would be worth it. I would love to see a video of the results of that CPU compared to the current i5. To me I believe that right now the absolute minimum spec for "modern gaming" is the i7 6700, the four core four thread i5s are just not up to the task. The 8th and 9th Generation i5's are much better. For me, my cutoff is the 8th generation Intel, older than that and they just can't handle modern AAA games even at lower settings. It is king of weird that you can point so easily to exactly where that line is, 7th Gen i5, no go, 6th or 7th Gen i7, still capable. I also avoid i3 below 10th gen, although a 9100F isn't terrible, it isn't great either, an 8th or 9th Gen i5 is still pretty solid, and the same gen i7 and i9 are absolutely still capable of playing modern games paired with a decent video car.
Great video, I've been seeing a lot of old office PCs with the i5-6500 might buy one now
They seem fine for light weight gaming, people are recommending the i7 over them now though and we did see it as a bottle neck but I suppose it comes down to what you play. Thanks for watching though :)
I have an i5 6500 and GTX 1650 super. It works for what I need it for. I play Overwatch, LoL, and older triple A games.
That's awesome.
I bought an i5-6500 system like this recently, and wanted a better cpu, without spending an absurd amount of money on 6/7th gen i7s. I found out about coffee time and spent 20 euros on a Xeon 1230 v5 (4c8t) cpu, and about 30 minutes modifying the bios on my h110 motherboard:) Time and money well spent, as it pairs well with a GTX 1070 without bottlenecking:)
For those scratches on the case just use a black permanent marker to better hide them.
Great video series.. there is only one big upgrade to do.. i7! (Maybe a psu upgrade too.)
Thanks, we like to keep people updated on these builds so revisit them. The i7 looks like it's a must so am going to start looking for something. The PSU is a little poo lol but it's still working for now.
I like overkill cpu coolers, especially when you are going to press it hard. An i7 would make sense if you intend to sell it. PC flip episodes for the channel ;)
Weirdly enough I never sell anything, I tend to just give it away to people locally who can't afford to buy their kids gaming PCs or offer upgrades to people when I am done with it. A lot of what's been on the channel is actually still stored in inventory but great shout on the i7, going to look for one for it.
@@TechLabUK ship it to south Africa 😅 I have an i7 4790 paired with h81 motherboard and 8gb ram just need a gpu and extra ram Tobe honest
Its so satisfying seeing older systems get a few upgrades that make them do things they couldn't do before. I could imagine this system being a great entry point for a lower budget or younger gamer dabbling in PC gaming for the first time!
Perfect for that tbh, greatest thing about PC gaming is that even though new, demanding games come out these types of systems will always have thousands of games that will run on them.
A little bit of Dremel work and a little plexiglas square with some double sided tape and you can have a nice window to highlight the bling ;-) Would make for a nice PC flip. You could probably get 250 ~ 300 for that upgraded system which means you can take the money to buy more parts ;)
@@Dingbat1967 I can remember when that was how we used to get windows in our PCs. I do miss old school modding sometimes.
I noticed that the AIO tubing is too short to be mounted frontally. Was that by design or was that modified? Or a case of mammoth case but tiny board? As someone who has owned a full custom loop watercooling setup for 2 separate builds, I would never ever do it again. My days of extreme overclocking are over. Maintenance is just a PITA. So I'm hesitant to do AIO builds. It's either passive setups for my music recording setup so the mic doesn't pickup noise or big tower coolers with quality fans for gaming now. I'm not so sure about these AIO's. I find the modern quality air CPU coolers do a good enough job and are pretty much bulletproof. In terms of noise fan tuning has been a godsend. You used to need a manual fan controller. Now you just set a fan curve in bios or in software and you're done. I honestly think, as pc users we have it backwards - we should be watercooling gfx cards not the cpu in MOST setups. Also tend to be the noisiest component. We're seeing problems with GPU sag with such massive heatsinks now.
The pipes did feel a little short but they are the same length as other 240mm AIO's we have so it must just be the massive case with the silly little board in it. I am sure we will use it in another build at some point, try it in a Micro ATX case or something and it should be better. It's a nice cooler though, never had one before and it works a treat.
Just need to chop a hole in the side panel add a window and some rgb!
lol old school modding!
You Should Check Out Corsair A115 CPU Cooler😅
Thanks for that, didn't know they existed but ouch at the price lol Might stick with my £20 AIO lol
I'd love to see this system maxed out ... best CPU that will go with the MB and matching GPU and ram.
@@coleman1981able On it 😀
1070ti still holds up with 1080p gaming i recently did a video with a 6700k, i was surprised it actually played black myth wukong benchmark just fine. The (rip) evga card i got was super clean.
Never had one or used one before this and it seems alright, just wish they were cheaper but at least I got my favourite model.
These older quad core i5s are really rough on modern games, i7 6700 non k would do wonders here. I used to have 4670k paired with gtx 1070 and it was bottlenecking the gpu in few games here and there back in ~2017, when i upgraded to 4790k all the cpu limitations went away and i was fully gpu bound again.
Looking for an i7 7700 now so we can show people the difference if they spend a little more.
@@TechLabUK yeah 7700 is still a competent gaming chip, i wonder if its worth over 6700. The biggest issue with i5 6500 is the lack of cpu threads and low core clockspeed. I guess if you tune your ram manually with custom timings it might improve a bit but still, it really lacks cpu multithreading performance
@@h1tzzYT I do have an i7 6700 somewhere so when I get the 7700 I might see if I can compare them and see which for the price would make the best upgrade.
In CPU intensive games, four core CPU's will normally have more issue with consistency and possible bottlenecking your rig. I have what is considered a great gaming four core CPU that I test out in different gear, a Ryzen 3 3300X and Battlefield 1 online will punch it in the gut in some scenarios. ...and in the same setup, a Ryzen 5 2600 will run markedly better in the same game.
That 1070ti definitely gave it more life! Even though the i5 is pinned at times. But it’s chuggin along!
See if you can pick up a Xeon for it.
@@mOddEdLiKeHeLL I don’t know much about the Xeons and asked a few people which would work and they said this generation didn’t support them?
@@TechLabUKdamn, that sucks, so only i7 would be the upgrade
@@mOddEdLiKeHeLL I believe so. Pretty sure the board will take up to an i7 7700k with the right bios although it’s a very basic board so probably not even worth it.
I have a pc similar to this, though I have an i7 6700 and rx480 8gb. What do you think is the best gpu upgrade for my PC? I was planning on playing some older games at 4k, like AC4, Splinter Cell Blacklist and Red Dead Redemption 2 and 1 when it comes out later this month.
I have an i7 6700, used it a couple of times in builds and I am pretty sure you could easily get away with a GTX 1080Ti, RX 5700XT, RTX 2070 Super and on more modern generations. RTX 3060, RTX 4060, RX 7600 and depending on game / settings things should work ok.
@@TechLabUK Thanks a lot. I'll look for the best price on those here in my country.
Nice
Sorry for posting an undesired (and silly) question, but how can the i5 6500 handle Minecraft (with GPU attached)?
@@MinhChiếnTrần-p6o I don’t play the game but I assume it will run fine, people play it on a lot less.
@@TechLabUK Thank you, sir!
How much would a build like this cost without your upgrades cuz I already got the parts
We took a look at it in a previous video without the upgrades, I paid £35 for the system: th-cam.com/video/GELh7Kjnt9c/w-d-xo.html
@TechLabUK okeh
if you have cpu bottleneck don't use upscaling performance will be the same and quality will be worse try higher res if vram allows it or ssao if that's available and that kind of sht which don't have impact on cpu and lower population density can help
Thumbs up for the immortal 1070 Ti and thumbs up for the refusal to leave the house and spend 9 cents on mounting screws from the hardware store.
I wouldn’t need to leave the house for screws, I have boxes of them from hundreds of AIOs, just everyone else doesn’t so I showed their method.
I'm surprised that the i5 6500 is the bottleneck after all the other upgrades, it goes to show how far we've come with modern CPUs.
Yeah, they have come a long way. Even an i3 now stands ahead of these.
The I7 6700 is £40, while the 7700 is £52 currently at CEX. I think the 6700 at that price really would be the missing final piece of this puzzle.
@@thedandyp I do have an i7 6700 in a box somewhere but will see if I can grab a cheeky bid on a cheap 7700 at some point.
If you've already got an i7 6700, just use that, I don't think anyone here would begrudge you not actually buying another i7!
@@thedandyp I just want an i7 7700, they are like Pokémon, I have to catch them all lol. I will use the 6700 if people want silly money for 7700's
I have an i7 8700k, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, and a GTX 1060 6GB. 😂
i have an i3 7100 should probably toss it in the dustbin
@@grobariza if it works for your needs it’s fine.
The i5 is not good enough for all those games an 6700 i7 would be much beter.
Pretty useless enabling fsr if your cpu is already at 100% all the time. Gtx 1070 ti is a bad pairing as it can hardly handle a gtx 970.