I've had an SFF Dell Optiplex 7010 for a year now and I love it, I've put in an i7-3770, 16gb of RAM, a 120gb SSD, a 1TB HDD, and a GTX 1050 ti. The total cost of the build is probably close to $400 at this point but it's an awesome machine.
I have the 7010 as well. I use it as a server, but it's powerful enough to be my main machine when I need to tear apart the gaming box to work on something.
@@itsmesezgin even in 2020 that build would choke running anything bigger than Minecraft. an i7 from the 3rd gen is far less powerful than a modern $160 i3 10k processor. the CPU is your bottleneck, the gpu can handle 1080p games on 30+FPS. it's your CPU that needs a serious update. you can always get the newest CPU then sell it a year later when the new one comes out for about 90% of what you paid for it new. remember to keep the packaging materials. upgrading intel sockets is worth it if you plan to game long term, mobo's are getting cheaper every month for 10th gen systems
My old school gaming rig is similar. Core i5 3.2GHz, 2x4GB RAM, 2x320GB hard drives, Nvidia GT 730 (900MHz) low profile GPU, and Linux Mint 17.3 64bit.
Every time I watch one of these videos it brings me back to that time I spent 3 grand on a P4 workstation with a half gig of RAM and a 64MB graphics card. Good times. 🥴
Just about anything is better than Intel Integrated Graphics. You can, however, download the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility and overclock the Intel graphics. But you'll have to tweak a few things like voltage, etc., I wouldnt recommend it. Intel's EXTU is good for overclocking your i core processors.
These builds are definitely the way to go. Spent a lot of time looking into raspberry pis and other mini all in one PCs like the shield. And in the end. These are much more versatile and more powerful. Just bigger.
You can also spend 400 to 500 and buy a minisforum pc or something similar like beeline mini pcs even smaller and more powerful using mobile chips and integrated gpus
I use a laptop SSD adapter, that takes the space for the DVD drive. The adapter is the same size, shape as a DVD drive. Less than $10, and fits nicely.
I've got NES and SNES ROMs sitting on a hard drive. I'd love to make a box like this and have it in my moving room. Will something like this output good on a 55' LG C8 OLED? May also use for viewing my photography and family photos.
@@watchandjewelryloft4713 This would be overkill for just NES/SNES. But if you drop in a GPU you are opening up a whole new wold of gaming. I can run things that are being released to date on this, some at 720p/900p/1080p with settings from low to high and it's great. But if you only intend on using one for old systems like NES/SNES, you wouldn't even need a GPU.
A local guy was selling Dell Optiplex 1090's and 960's in that same tiny form factor for just $50 Cnd with no RAM. I bought 2 for other people and he gave me the 3rd for $30 :) Thanks for the video I'm impressed the GT 1030 got such great numbers.
I picked up a optiplex 3020 sff with 8gb of ram, 500gb hard drive and an i3 3.5ghz cpu a couple months ago and put a gt 1030 gddr5 2gb gpu and it runs all my games really smooth, even friday the 13th on low settings with resolution set at 55 runs decently, im already saving up to get another one with an i5 cpu, great vid as always
Same here. When I can find a good supplier. The glue on my latest I bought have been crap. I loosen after a few weeks in room temperature. With higher temperature it loosen even faster. Do you know a well known brand? Because the ones I have bought have been unbranded.
Alternatively, I've been a fan just a simple 2-in-1 3.5" drive adapter. Fit both an SSD and a larger laptop drive in the drive slot or two SSDs. Could also do this with the velcro/tape method and fit 3 SSDs.
Nice vid as always. One tip when removing the optical drive is to replace it with an 9,5 hdd caddy. This will make an ssd fit and the whole system looks untouched. The caddys cost around 6-9 dollars.
It's actually under 2.5 ssd to disc drive universal tray or something similar and the 9.5 mm version is probably because it's a slim drive vs normal drive at 12mm
Great video! I salvaged an Optiplex like the one in the video except it had a different motherboard, ended up putting in an i5 2500 I had lying around; the motherboard has 4 dimm slots so I populated it with (2x2+2x4) for 12GB of ram and threw a GTX 1050 (2GB) low profile card I got off eBay during the summer for a cool 55 bucks finishing it off with a SSD and it is one of the most portable gaming PCs I've had in years while being nearly silent. Fun little box.
I just finished this build: Optiplex 790 i7-2600, 16GB ram, 1TB SSD, GT 1030. I'm running Nobara Linux and playing with Proton experimental in Steam, and it's just a blast! Total cost $200 before shipping, much better performance than expected. Thanks for the video, ETA, you always know what I want to build next, lol.
I just bought my son this desktop with a 22in monitor and a gaming keyboard for his birthday I don't really know much about computers but this is what the add said DELL 3010 SFF i5 3rd gen 16gb 1tb HDD WINDOWS HOME 10 I'm not sure if that is good or not but hopefully he will like it and it will run games for him!!!! Hopefully I can upgrade it for him in the future when money isn't so tight!!! Good video!!
I love these videos, keep up the good work; quality content that I always enjoy. They are also killing me, as I'm trying to debate between building a new PC (like the Budget Athlon) or a refurb enhancement (like this one). These videos aren't helping my internal debate, they are just making me waffle more. Maybe I'll just buy an adult big wheel and be done with computers.
His build is expensive though. I built mine below $200. Bought a 1st gen lga 1156 motherboard but instead of i series, i put xeon x3470 4c/8t instead. Paired it with rx 470 gpu then flashed the bios to an rx 570 bios. Other parts, you can easily find those super cheap on ebay but for me I bought those parts on AliExpress coz I live in the Philippines.
Gta v is not that hard to run. When it first launched to pc i played it with 9800gt 1gb and i get around 30-40 fps at 1280x1024. And that card was launched in 2008.
@@darshan5726 you don't get it brother. Xeons are way cheaper like a $25 xeon x5675 is comparable to an i7 8th gen for real. Plus, those optiplex are non overclockable. My xeon can get 4.5ghz on all 4 cores and take note, this is just an $18 cpu.
I was able to grab a pair of 3040s in SFF. i5-6500 cpus. Got em both for $150.00. Upped the ram to 16 each and installed a WD 500 SSD in both. One came with Win7 and one Win8. I upgraded to Win10 Pro. Both are still under the Dell warranty until later this year(2020). I have the same GT1030 in one of them for now. Trying to decide what to do with them at this point.
You’re so good at these eBay builds. I’d love to see you do a "media-server/HTPC/backup-hub pc" version of your eBay builds for us. I think many of us “prosumers" could really benefit from a dedicated home server but the price and handful of new technologies to learn keeps us away. Anyway, thanks for the video as always man. Your channel is such a great resource.
This is what I did for a total of $130 back in May of 2019. Got a used but great condition Optiplex 990, i7-2600 8GB RAM. That alone cost $70, that exact case and all. I'd rather have the normal case but it was a good deal at the time. Added a GT 1030 to it for $50 (now selling the same card for $115, btw) Added another 8GB RAM for $10 (same exact brand, probably from mass-offloads of Dell systems that used it). It does just about everything I want to do. I play the bigger, AAA games on my PS4 so my PC is more of a testing/emulation/smaller PC game machine. It's great performance for my money. I want to add a SSD soon as that alone does wonders for a low-budget system.
I want to thank you for this video, I did this exact build after watching this. I wasn't sure what to do getting into the emulation system. This by far was the best bang for buck. Also, your videos on batocera helped me set that up on the computer as well.
So for $200 you get a machine that can emulate PS2 and below without issue, play all eSports at 1080p and a significant number of current titles at 1080. This really makes a mockery of some of the fan bois who claim you "need" a (insert $500+ processor) and (insert $500+ GPU) to game. Love content like this! Going to assume PS2 was its max so in theory an i5 3010 and a GTX 1030 = PS2 and below.
I did a very similar build last summer with a 7010 SFF and it really does have some nice punch. One nice thing about the 7010 SFF is that it has 4 RAM slots instead of 2. also, the PCIe slot does allow for a low profile dual slot card (not all of the SFF do). With an SSD as the boot drive, it is a great little box.
Great vid. Love seeing these old workhorses get a new life in the emu scene. Along with craigslist, facebook marketplace, etc...don't forget to check out your local recycle/e-cycle companies too. I used to buy optiplex's from my local one for $50 a pop in lots of 25 with the COA and then reload windows clean, updates, AVG free, acrobat reader, etc & sell them for $125 all day long every day...it was like money falling out the sky lol.
That's awesome man I'm working on something similar for the last week...just got a dell optiplex 960 sff with an Intel core 2 duo for 10$ at the swapmeet..i put a 1tb samsung ssd,8 gb's of ddr2 gskill ram and a 1 gig stock gpu..we will see how it works as a dedicated emulation station..its yet to be determined until next weekend
Bought the mid tower edition today with 8gb ram with a 20" monitor, keyboard and mouse for $75. Will be going in my game room solutions build coming on Friday. Love the videos. Extremely helpful.
the optiplex upgrade is the best bang for your buck.. i have a 7k series with nvidia 1050.. 1tb HD. 250gb ssd for boot. and 16gb of ram.. total beast..i use parsec to dial in when I'm away from home and need to play something on my Samsung using deX
which PSU do you have on this machine? I got myself a Fujitsu PC with i3 6100 and 8GB of RAM but a shitty 250 watt PSU that can't be replaced so I was thinking about throwing a 1050ti there and give it away to someone.
I put together a very similar setup, except the CPU is an i5-3470 and the case is a mini tower. I've been pleasantly surprised by the performance for the price. I'd like to add that I did it with the help of these videos, so thanks ETA PRIME!
A pretty decent build for a price. The CPU is old but still usable for an entry-level build. As for the GPU, there are GTX 1060s available in low profile form, not sure if the PSU is powerful enough for them though. @2:53 You can get an ODD to SATA box and just use the original faceplate. You can find these dirt cheap on ebay.
Great fan of your videos. Funny tho, the TH-cam algorithm suggested me this one right after I closed a deal on a Yeston Rx 550 4Gb that I will pick up in 2 hours for 100 CAN$ (80 US$ approx). I might be able to get an SFF Optiplex soon enough :).
I'm rocking an HP SFF system, similar specs, just a step up; i5-3570, 1050ti, 16GB of RAM. Performance is great for what I use it to do. PS2 Emulation is excellent.
So cheap. I think it's time to build me an Old school ROM machine/family photo/video box. Been wanting to for some time. Been missing Mario bad stuff for too long! Great video 👍
I essentially made the same, I bought a optiplex 7010 from the thrift for 12,50 euro, I swapped the i3 it had to an i5-3570 that i had laying around from my old pc, It already had 8GB DDR3 in it, i then found a Quadro K1200 4GB online for 15 euro. which is slightly better than the GT1030, for like 1/5th the price second hand, Slapped a 256GB SSD in there and now it plays most games at low/medium 60fps for only a stunning 40 euro total ish.
For only a little more money you can get newer generation Core i processors. You can upgrade CPU's. I'm pretty sure you can swap in Xeons. There's a drive caddy that takes the place of the optical drive. My Optiplex has one with a functioning drive activity light. For 4k video, the Radeon R7 450 is an OEM card with GDDR5 and 16x PCi 3.0 and is inexpensive. (This probably isn't the best choice for this kind of gaming though.) There are low-profile RGB CPU coolers for added fun!
Getting this GPU for my Optiplex 7010 DT, and it's such an upgrade from intel graphics. I wanted something where I can play with friends on PC as some games don't have crossplay on Xbox, so this GPU covers that. I have a Series X so it's not like I need anything more powerful anyway :P
I have the almost exact same setup, only difference is i put 8GB of RAM in mine, i've got a 1TB toshiba laptop hdd in place of the SSD here, and a 2TB Seagate for my OS/Game drive. Also i'm on the i3 3220 (considered upgrading). And i can say that it runs like a champ! I can run most if not all games that are on PS4/XBOX 1 from 720-1080p anywhere from medium to high settings. As of emulation, i can run CEMU, Zelda BOTW at a constant 30+ FPS @ 1080p. Couldn't be happier with this setup.
@@dmick9168 A Zotac GT 1030 GDDR5 2GB Low Profile. Honestly, a 1050 isn't very far off on price, like around 50-60 dollars. I'd spring for that if i had to do it over again. But i will say that although a 1050 would be better, im happy enough with the 1030 that i won't be upgrading to that.
I have this identical system with the same mods plus a USB 3.0 card I threw together last summer. It's kinda silly how well it runs. Was able to get AC:Odyssey to run 720p Medium averaging 30-40fps, and Fallout 4 with some asset streamlining mods running at 1080p medium with 40-50fps. Not winning awards, but totally cheap and effective way to have a decent little gaming rig.
I just grabbed two 7040 sff towers with i5 6500, 8gb of ddr4, and 256gb NVMe drives for $140 each, I'm kind of psyched to toss a little gpu into one and see what it can do... they should be good little light office pcs
Thank you Intel for slacking for years, to be able to give us this kind of performance for this cheap. This would make a perfect emulation machine for an arcade1up cab, to play just about everything.
I have the same rig running CoinOps on a modified arcade1up with a Dell 200fpb monitor. It looks amazing. I have less games than on my 32 GB arcade punks image. However I can play 3d games without a hiccup.
@@SaadouneZinji Sometimes, less is more. Having 50k games to pick from can be very intimidating. I do plan on building themed cabs with limited game selections, for this reason. A shmups cab, a fighters cab, etc.
For an sffpc this is a great idea but for value I'd look toward mac 3 or 5,1s as they have quad to 8 core cpus, often 32gb ram even if ddr2 and tons of upgradability, often for 250 bucks and it can always have linux or windows slapped on it to support more modern emulators.
This is great information 👍 Definitely food for thought. Could you test this setup with Supermodel and Tecknoparrot? I would be very interested to know how these perform also. Keep up the great videos 🤘
Since you do so many videos on retro gaming and cheap builds, what do you think about doing a few videos on specific gaming needs. Like a build that's just for running ps2 games and lower or ps3 games and lower? Maybe finding refurbished pc's on ebay that you don't have to do any actually modifications to that can play up to such and such system. Just an idea, anyways love your videos and still get excited every time a get a notification about a new video...... thanks
Christ, I wanna do what you do. I bet i could make a business refurbishing old Pc's into great emulation devices. I know a lot of people who would love a good cheap device for old games/media.
Depending which country you live in it could be a viable choice. That said selling emulation boxes with games in them can get you into legal trouble in places like the US so keep that in mind.
I didn't get exactly the same Optiplex, I double sided taped my SSD to the PSU, I also left the DVD in place, but spliced power from the DVD power lead (theres a spare SATA port on the motherboard).
I had that 1 but with gtx 1050 + 480gb SSD, 500gb hdd for video collection. Play all my fav. emulator console game, offline pc game and android game (bluestack all the way+turn on nvidia only feature)
I have both the low profile versions of the 1030 GT & the 1050 TI and can tell you right now that the TI can do wounders to this setup and add in a 2500k stock speed and you'll be doing Wii U, PS3 & Xbox 360
Just a note from someone who has to service these old desktops, go ahead and pick up a new BIOS battery and some replacement fans for these systems. Changing out the thermal paste wouldn't hurt either. These things are great systems but need some love to get more years out of em.
Or by going brand new if used market is not going so well in your country... You could get the super small Asrock DeskMini a300 barebone with a cheap fully unlocked Athlon 3000G, 2666Mhz G-skill 4/8 GB So-Dimm DDR 4 (overclockable to 3200Mhz) and a small cheap 30/40$ Sata/M.2 SSD for a total of around 300/350$ (€ in my area), it does a wonderful job just like you and LowSpecsGaming reviewed recently!
pretty much what i did with my Optiplex 7040 sff i5 6th gen. I installed a GTX 1050ti. All the games I play run great... Except for DOA6 will sometimes slow down--I only have 8gb of ddr4 sdram. Maybe i need to add another 4gb to it. But, yes, I completely recommend turning these little machines into gaming systems. I think i paid 300-320 or so. Really cant go wrong, and can always be upgraded.
Great job! I would look for a Dell 9010 SFF with 51FJ8 mother board. This board has four ram slots for 16GB and support for PC3 12800 memory which is faster. This gives much needed overhead. With a 7200 rpm mechanical drive, W10 load time is decent. If sticking with budget theme, I would drop the SSD in favor of more RAM. More RAM pays dividends all the time. GT 1030 looks like a winner. I'm running a GTX 745 which is great for streaming but not good enough for gaming.
@@Butcher-m7y I'm not it's literally in the video did you watch it, I play overwatch on Xbox one and this is definitely much better with the 1080p and 80fps average
@@24mercado The Switch version runs on a tablet smaller than a bluray box and that came out three years ago. It is actually a fairly crummy port but you do need to have reasonable expectations (and desires)/
I've had an SFF Dell Optiplex 7010 for a year now and I love it, I've put in an i7-3770, 16gb of RAM, a 120gb SSD, a 1TB HDD, and a GTX 1050 ti. The total cost of the build is probably close to $400 at this point but it's an awesome machine.
I have the 7010 as well. I use it as a server, but it's powerful enough to be my main machine when I need to tear apart the gaming box to work on something.
using a SFF with an I7 is overkill but with an I5 3570K+GTX1650 low profile will be much better and more compatible with very less bottleneck
@@DD-ow4or what is bottleneck
@@itsmesezgin even in 2020 that build would choke running anything bigger than Minecraft. an i7 from the 3rd gen is far less powerful than a modern $160 i3 10k processor. the CPU is your bottleneck, the gpu can handle 1080p games on 30+FPS. it's your CPU that needs a serious update. you can always get the newest CPU then sell it a year later when the new one comes out for about 90% of what you paid for it new. remember to keep the packaging materials. upgrading intel sockets is worth it if you plan to game long term, mobo's are getting cheaper every month for 10th gen systems
Yah I have same thing but an i5 2400 and 1650 4gb Phoenix. Runs high fps low temps
King of Recycling, Love these cheap emulating builds
Plus side is with these cheapie systems? You'll build something your family can get a lot of mileage out of if all they do is facebook.
My old school gaming rig is similar. Core i5 3.2GHz, 2x4GB RAM, 2x320GB hard drives, Nvidia GT 730 (900MHz) low profile GPU, and Linux Mint 17.3 64bit.
@@NathanJennings1222 I absolutely recommend upgrading to a 1030. It makes a rather big diffrence i nthe games your box is already able to run.
Is it worth it if i have the budget to get a 1050 instead? I don't mind 720p in all games as long they reach high framerates
Guys do you think would make a big drop in perfomance if i get an i5 4570, instead of the i5 3450?
Every time I watch one of these videos it brings me back to that time I spent 3 grand on a P4 workstation with a half gig of RAM and a 64MB graphics card. Good times. 🥴
Hopefully, not recently ;)
Ouch! Well, we live and learn
Throw that 1030 into the Athlon build for science. It would be interesting to see how it performs compared to the integrated graphics
Probably be an improvement but not sure how much.
IanC14 the 1030 helped the 2200g so it will definitely help out the athlon
Just about anything is better than Intel Integrated Graphics. You can, however, download the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility and overclock the Intel graphics. But you'll have to tweak a few things like voltage, etc., I wouldnt recommend it. Intel's EXTU is good for overclocking your i core processors.
@@dauntless78 except for a gt710. That's worse than most of the integrated graphics that are in the systems they usually get shipped with!
These builds are definitely the way to go. Spent a lot of time looking into raspberry pis and other mini all in one PCs like the shield. And in the end. These are much more versatile and more powerful. Just bigger.
You can also spend 400 to 500 and buy a minisforum pc or something similar like beeline mini pcs even smaller and more powerful using mobile chips and integrated gpus
I respect how environmentally conscious this epic refurbishment is. Nice video, I loved watching it
Always love these, I modded an arcade 1 up with Pandora's box with your how to video!
I use a laptop SSD adapter, that takes the space for the DVD drive. The adapter is the same size, shape as a DVD drive. Less than $10, and fits nicely.
I love knowing that I am able to build a gaming PC on a tight budget. Thanks ETA.
I've got NES and SNES ROMs sitting on a hard drive. I'd love to make a box like this and have it in my moving room. Will something like this output good on a 55' LG C8 OLED? May also use for viewing my photography and family photos.
@@watchandjewelryloft4713 This would be overkill for just NES/SNES. But if you drop in a GPU you are opening up a whole new wold of gaming. I can run things that are being released to date on this, some at 720p/900p/1080p with settings from low to high and it's great. But if you only intend on using one for old systems like NES/SNES, you wouldn't even need a GPU.
A local guy was selling Dell Optiplex 1090's and 960's in that same tiny form factor for just $50 Cnd with no RAM. I bought 2 for other people and he gave me the 3rd for $30 :) Thanks for the video I'm impressed the GT 1030 got such great numbers.
I picked up a optiplex 3020 sff with 8gb of ram, 500gb hard drive and an i3 3.5ghz cpu a couple months ago and put a gt 1030 gddr5 2gb gpu and it runs all my games really smooth, even friday the 13th on low settings with resolution set at 55 runs decently, im already saving up to get another one with an i5 cpu, great vid as always
So this is the ideal system for running game emuators on it.
Fantastic!
Instead of double sided tape, I use Velcro tape. That way you can remove it when you need to.
Same here. When I can find a good supplier. The glue on my latest I bought have been crap. I loosen after a few weeks in room temperature. With higher temperature it loosen even faster.
Do you know a well known brand? Because the ones I have bought have been unbranded.
Alternatively, I've been a fan just a simple 2-in-1 3.5" drive adapter. Fit both an SSD and a larger laptop drive in the drive slot or two SSDs. Could also do this with the velcro/tape method and fit 3 SSDs.
I just let it hang in there...
Nice vid as always. One tip when removing the optical drive is to replace it with an 9,5 hdd caddy. This will make an ssd fit and the whole system looks untouched. The caddys cost around 6-9 dollars.
Post a link please
Just do a Google search, hdd caddy and measure The thickness of your opticaldrive. There is two sizes. 9,5mm and 12, 7mm.
It's actually under 2.5 ssd to disc drive universal tray or something similar and the 9.5 mm version is probably because it's a slim drive vs normal drive at 12mm
Great video!
I salvaged an Optiplex like the one in the video except it had a different motherboard, ended up putting in an i5 2500 I had lying around; the motherboard has 4 dimm slots so I populated it with (2x2+2x4) for 12GB of ram and threw a GTX 1050 (2GB) low profile card I got off eBay during the summer for a cool 55 bucks finishing it off with a SSD and it is one of the most portable gaming PCs I've had in years while being nearly silent. Fun little box.
I just finished this build: Optiplex 790 i7-2600, 16GB ram, 1TB SSD, GT 1030. I'm running Nobara Linux and playing with Proton experimental in Steam, and it's just a blast! Total cost $200 before shipping, much better performance than expected. Thanks for the video, ETA, you always know what I want to build next, lol.
I just bought my son this desktop with a 22in monitor and a gaming keyboard for his birthday I don't really know much about computers but this is what the add said DELL 3010 SFF i5 3rd gen 16gb 1tb HDD WINDOWS HOME 10 I'm not sure if that is good or not but hopefully he will like it and it will run games for him!!!! Hopefully I can upgrade it for him in the future when money isn't so tight!!! Good video!!
I love these videos, keep up the good work; quality content that I always enjoy. They are also killing me, as I'm trying to debate between building a new PC (like the Budget Athlon) or a refurb enhancement (like this one). These videos aren't helping my internal debate, they are just making me waffle more. Maybe I'll just buy an adult big wheel and be done with computers.
+60 FPS in GTA 5 with this build is really impressive
Is that real? It really surprises me a lot.
His build is expensive though. I built mine below $200. Bought a 1st gen lga 1156 motherboard but instead of i series, i put xeon x3470 4c/8t instead. Paired it with rx 470 gpu then flashed the bios to an rx 570 bios. Other parts, you can easily find those super cheap on ebay but for me I bought those parts on AliExpress coz I live in the Philippines.
Gta v is not that hard to run. When it first launched to pc i played it with 9800gt 1gb and i get around 30-40 fps at 1280x1024. And that card was launched in 2008.
@@jezreeldelrosario5385 nice
But i would avoid 1st gen
And get 3rd or 4th gen i5, they kind of cheap now a days on aliexpress
@@darshan5726 you don't get it brother. Xeons are way cheaper like a $25 xeon x5675 is comparable to an i7 8th gen for real. Plus, those optiplex are non overclockable. My xeon can get 4.5ghz on all 4 cores and take note, this is just an $18 cpu.
I was able to grab a pair of 3040s in SFF. i5-6500 cpus. Got em both for $150.00. Upped the ram to 16 each and installed a WD 500 SSD in both. One came with Win7 and one Win8. I upgraded to Win10 Pro. Both are still under the Dell warranty until later this year(2020). I have the same GT1030 in one of them for now. Trying to decide what to do with them at this point.
Throw in a 1050ti low pro
@@lacklustre222 Stuff one into an enclosure and build yourself a pretty good retro arcade cabinet.
@@lacklustre222 1050Ti is too power hungry to work with a low wattage power supply.
You’re so good at these eBay builds. I’d love to see you do a "media-server/HTPC/backup-hub pc" version of your eBay builds for us. I think many of us “prosumers" could really benefit from a dedicated home server but the price and handful of new technologies to learn keeps us away.
Anyway, thanks for the video as always man. Your channel is such a great resource.
This is what I did for a total of $130 back in May of 2019.
Got a used but great condition Optiplex 990, i7-2600 8GB RAM. That alone cost $70, that exact case and all. I'd rather have the normal case but it was a good deal at the time.
Added a GT 1030 to it for $50 (now selling the same card for $115, btw)
Added another 8GB RAM for $10 (same exact brand, probably from mass-offloads of Dell systems that used it).
It does just about everything I want to do. I play the bigger, AAA games on my PS4 so my PC is more of a testing/emulation/smaller PC game machine.
It's great performance for my money. I want to add a SSD soon as that alone does wonders for a low-budget system.
DannyWilliamH If you get a normal sized case 500w psu and throw a RX580 8gb in there you’ll be able to play AAA games at 1080p at max settings plus vr
@@nexttrackmusic2748 rx 580 is really bad in vr.
I want to thank you for this video, I did this exact build after watching this. I wasn't sure what to do getting into the emulation system. This by far was the best bang for buck. Also, your videos on batocera helped me set that up on the computer as well.
So for $200 you get a machine that can emulate PS2 and below without issue, play all eSports at 1080p and a significant number of current titles at 1080. This really makes a mockery of some of the fan bois who claim you "need" a (insert $500+ processor) and (insert $500+ GPU) to game.
Love content like this! Going to assume PS2 was its max so in theory an i5 3010 and a GTX 1030 = PS2 and below.
I did a very similar build last summer with a 7010 SFF and it really does have some nice punch. One nice thing about the 7010 SFF is that it has 4 RAM slots instead of 2. also, the PCIe slot does allow for a low profile dual slot card (not all of the SFF do). With an SSD as the boot drive, it is a great little box.
Very similar to my personal Optiplex build. Loving mine so far. Thanks for sharing your build.
Great vid. Love seeing these old workhorses get a new life in the emu scene. Along with craigslist, facebook marketplace, etc...don't forget to check out your local recycle/e-cycle companies too. I used to buy optiplex's from my local one for $50 a pop in lots of 25 with the COA and then reload windows clean, updates, AVG free, acrobat reader, etc & sell them for $125 all day long every day...it was like money falling out the sky lol.
You are my hero. If I can find two of these, I can actually replace my PC and have one solely for gaming on the teevee
That's awesome man I'm working on something similar for the last week...just got a dell optiplex 960 sff with an Intel core 2 duo for 10$ at the swapmeet..i put a 1tb samsung ssd,8 gb's of ddr2 gskill ram and a 1 gig stock gpu..we will see how it works as a dedicated emulation station..its yet to be determined until next weekend
Reminds me of Simply Austin's builds. Really miss him and hope he comes back soon.
i bought a dell optiplex 7010 for a customer linux box, threw in an old 128gig ssd. Really impressed with the performance
You can get a 3.5 hdd/ssd dock that will slip right in where the cd-rom sat. I have one with a i7 4770 and a low profile gtx 1050ti with 8gb ram.
All of which costs more. It does look like he could have put the SSD on top of the PSU.
Bought the mid tower edition today with 8gb ram with a 20" monitor, keyboard and mouse for $75. Will be going in my game room solutions build coming on Friday. Love the videos. Extremely helpful.
the optiplex upgrade is the best bang for your buck.. i have a 7k series with nvidia 1050.. 1tb HD. 250gb ssd for boot. and 16gb of ram.. total beast..i use parsec to dial in when I'm away from home and need to play something on my Samsung using deX
For the record there is enough room between the DVD drive and the mechanical hard drive below it to slide an SSD in.
That's what I was thinking as well.
I just purchased this set up to put together. Thanks ETA for these vids. Looking forward to trying it out.
Got an elitedesk i5-4570 last year, added a 1050ti and some more ram. Can play AC:odyssey and Far Cry 5 1080p 60fps with shadows turned way down.
which PSU do you have on this machine? I got myself a Fujitsu PC with i3 6100 and 8GB of RAM but a shitty 250 watt PSU that can't be replaced so I was thinking about throwing a 1050ti there and give it away to someone.
@itz_me but what about the PSU ? can it handle a GTX 1050, 1050ti or GT1030 ?
I put together a very similar setup, except the CPU is an i5-3470 and the case is a mini tower. I've been pleasantly surprised by the performance for the price.
I'd like to add that I did it with the help of these videos, so thanks ETA PRIME!
Built me a nice gaming optiplex from all your videos thanks man!!
These little boxes make a great virtual pinball system.
I just did a SFF Optiplex with a 1650 💪 (Optiplex 9010 DT has full size slot on top)
What a good performance at this budget
Man you are a beast!
Much respect.
I have a dell optiplex 790 sff with a 640 gb hard drive 8 gb ram i5 2400 and soon to put a gt 1030, these are really capable pcs.
I got a optiplex 990 SFF about a year ago, installed a 1050ti and it runs very well
A pretty decent build for a price. The CPU is old but still usable for an entry-level build. As for the GPU, there are GTX 1060s available in low profile form, not sure if the PSU is powerful enough for them though.
@2:53 You can get an ODD to SATA box and just use the original faceplate. You can find these dirt cheap on ebay.
Got the usff version of this, that has a monitor with a mount for it on the back. Is perfect for a garage/workshop pc.
@Kwistenbiebel200 true but doesn't matter if it's not for gaming.
don't know what i would do without theses awesome videos!!
Buying this right now. Thanks, ETA! I'll definitely use your links, if I can.
Is this support 1600mhz ram
Man THANK YOU! I really was looking for something like this! Great video
Great fan of your videos. Funny tho, the TH-cam algorithm suggested me this one right after I closed a deal on a Yeston Rx 550 4Gb that I will pick up in 2 hours for 100 CAN$ (80 US$ approx). I might be able to get an SFF Optiplex soon enough :).
Awesome, I’ve been trying to get my hands on that little GPU
cheap meshing taped/glued on the inside of the case covering drive hole will work. will look nice and get more air coming inside the case
I LOVE ETAPRIME
This channel is life
I'm rocking an HP SFF system, similar specs, just a step up; i5-3570, 1050ti, 16GB of RAM. Performance is great for what I use it to do. PS2 Emulation is excellent.
Now try the new hotness, the GTX 1650 LP.
Bank they are a killer option no psu plug. Even some ti are like that
More than enough for command & conquer generals and mods
So cheap. I think it's time to build me an Old school ROM machine/family photo/video box. Been wanting to for some time. Been missing Mario bad stuff for too long! Great video 👍
I essentially made the same, I bought a optiplex 7010 from the thrift for 12,50 euro, I swapped the i3 it had to an i5-3570 that i had laying around from my old pc, It already had 8GB DDR3 in it, i then found a Quadro K1200 4GB online for 15 euro. which is slightly better than the GT1030, for like 1/5th the price second hand, Slapped a 256GB SSD in there and now it plays most games at low/medium 60fps for only a stunning 40 euro total ish.
you need to get a 3D Printer or a friend with one, you can print out any adapters that you would ever need such as the SSD to Slimline drive.
I was wondering why he didn’t buy one. All you have to do is detach the faceplate from the ODD.
Meh. Duct tape is almost free.
For only a little more money you can get newer generation Core i processors.
You can upgrade CPU's. I'm pretty sure you can swap in Xeons.
There's a drive caddy that takes the place of the optical drive. My Optiplex has one with a functioning drive activity light.
For 4k video, the Radeon R7 450 is an OEM card with GDDR5 and 16x PCi 3.0 and is inexpensive. (This probably isn't the best choice for this kind of gaming though.)
There are low-profile RGB CPU coolers for added fun!
Very surprised you got RDR2 to run on that machine. Very impressive. Well done
Getting this GPU for my Optiplex 7010 DT, and it's such an upgrade from intel graphics. I wanted something where I can play with friends on PC as some games don't have crossplay on Xbox, so this GPU covers that. I have a Series X so it's not like I need anything more powerful anyway :P
Another awesome video, thanks a lot ETA
I have the almost exact same setup, only difference is i put 8GB of RAM in mine, i've got a 1TB toshiba laptop hdd in place of the SSD here, and a 2TB Seagate for my OS/Game drive. Also i'm on the i3 3220 (considered upgrading). And i can say that it runs like a champ! I can run most if not all games that are on PS4/XBOX 1 from 720-1080p anywhere from medium to high settings. As of emulation, i can run CEMU, Zelda BOTW at a constant 30+ FPS @ 1080p. Couldn't be happier with this setup.
I have the i3 3220 as well. What graphics card do you have?
@@dmick9168 A Zotac GT 1030 GDDR5 2GB Low Profile. Honestly, a 1050 isn't very far off on price, like around 50-60 dollars. I'd spring for that if i had to do it over again. But i will say that although a 1050 would be better, im happy enough with the 1030 that i won't be upgrading to that.
just encase anybody wants to know, you can use 16gb ram, meaning 2 8gb sticks, but it has to be ddr2 buffered. Worked for me.
I have this identical system with the same mods plus a USB 3.0 card I threw together last summer. It's kinda silly how well it runs. Was able to get AC:Odyssey to run 720p Medium averaging 30-40fps, and Fallout 4 with some asset streamlining mods running at 1080p medium with 40-50fps. Not winning awards, but totally cheap and effective way to have a decent little gaming rig.
Look at those ETA Prime moments.
I just grabbed two 7040 sff towers with i5 6500, 8gb of ddr4, and 256gb NVMe drives for $140 each, I'm kind of psyched to toss a little gpu into one and see what it can do... they should be good little light office pcs
Thank you Intel for slacking for years, to be able to give us this kind of performance for this cheap. This would make a perfect emulation machine for an arcade1up cab, to play just about everything.
agreed
I have the same rig running CoinOps on a modified arcade1up with a Dell 200fpb monitor. It looks amazing. I have less games than on my 32 GB arcade punks image. However I can play 3d games without a hiccup.
@@SaadouneZinji Sometimes, less is more. Having 50k games to pick from can be very intimidating. I do plan on building themed cabs with limited game selections, for this reason. A shmups cab, a fighters cab, etc.
@@MightySquirrel I might build a couple more arcades. However they will all be identical and will be gifted to some good friends.
For an sffpc this is a great idea but for value I'd look toward mac 3 or 5,1s as they have quad to 8 core cpus, often 32gb ram even if ddr2 and tons of upgradability, often for 250 bucks and it can always have linux or windows slapped on it to support more modern emulators.
This is great information 👍
Definitely food for thought.
Could you test this setup with Supermodel and Tecknoparrot?
I would be very interested to know how these perform also.
Keep up the great videos 🤘
Since you do so many videos on retro gaming and cheap builds, what do you think about doing a few videos on specific gaming needs. Like a build that's just for running ps2 games and lower or ps3 games and lower? Maybe finding refurbished pc's on ebay that you don't have to do any actually modifications to that can play up to such and such system. Just an idea, anyways love your videos and still get excited every time a get a notification about a new video...... thanks
1:54 is that an hdmi on it?? thought it would have VGA
Christ, I wanna do what you do. I bet i could make a business refurbishing old Pc's into great emulation devices. I know a lot of people who would love a good cheap device for old games/media.
Do it...
Depending which country you live in it could be a viable choice. That said selling emulation boxes with games in them can get you into legal trouble in places like the US so keep that in mind.
@@alexisrivera200xable Not with Roms or anything, just the emulation software.
I didn't get exactly the same Optiplex, I double sided taped my SSD to the PSU, I also left the DVD in place, but spliced power from the DVD power lead (theres a spare SATA port on the motherboard).
Great video. Impressive performance.
Go for the 7020 mt supports 4th gen CPU’s has 4 ram slots fits a bigger gpu and psu and it doesn’t cost much more
I bought a second hand SSD like the one you got with windows pre installed on it but I can’t seem to get it to boot off of the ssd
In esport games like csgo u must not turn on vsync because you want the best response time in order to remain competitive
First time I'm this early lol
Either ways I like seeing your videos and I am impressed by this creation of yours!
Gt 1030 is a beast gpu, thats what doing on low end cpu
Got from 4fps on a hd5450 to 30-60 on honkai star rail
I had that 1 but with gtx 1050 + 480gb SSD, 500gb hdd for video collection. Play all my fav. emulator console game, offline pc game and android game (bluestack all the way+turn on nvidia only feature)
@ETA PRIME I saw project cars 2 and for 5 seconds thought it was real Life lmao.
Fucking sick build bro. Such a good little system.
I have both the low profile versions of the 1030 GT & the 1050 TI and can tell you right now that the TI can do wounders to this setup and add in a 2500k stock speed and you'll be doing Wii U, PS3 & Xbox 360
Just a note from someone who has to service these old desktops, go ahead and pick up a new BIOS battery and some replacement fans for these systems. Changing out the thermal paste wouldn't hurt either. These things are great systems but need some love to get more years out of em.
I've noticed the fan in my 7010 is getting pretty noisy, you're right.
would love to see a 4k gaming ssf with this old pcs
Or by going brand new if used market is not going so well in your country... You could get the super small Asrock DeskMini a300 barebone with a cheap fully unlocked Athlon 3000G, 2666Mhz G-skill 4/8 GB So-Dimm DDR 4 (overclockable to 3200Mhz) and a small cheap 30/40$ Sata/M.2 SSD for a total of around 300/350$ (€ in my area), it does a wonderful job just like you and LowSpecsGaming reviewed recently!
Wondering what GPU would bottleneck that CPU? Really surprised those games run that good! Thanks ETA.
pretty much what i did with my Optiplex 7040 sff i5 6th gen. I installed a GTX 1050ti. All the games I play run great... Except for DOA6 will sometimes slow down--I only have 8gb of ddr4 sdram. Maybe i need to add another 4gb to it. But, yes, I completely recommend turning these little machines into gaming systems. I think i paid 300-320 or so. Really cant go wrong, and can always be upgraded.
I should probably also mention that I have my 1050ti geared far more to quality side, rather than performance.
Great job! I would look for a Dell 9010 SFF with 51FJ8 mother board. This board has four ram slots for 16GB and support for PC3 12800 memory which is faster. This gives much needed overhead. With a 7200 rpm mechanical drive, W10 load time is decent. If sticking with budget theme, I would drop the SSD in favor of more RAM. More RAM pays dividends all the time. GT 1030 looks like a winner. I'm running a GTX 745 which is great for streaming but not good enough for gaming.
I bought a 7010 sff (has usb 3.0 and 4 slot for ram) two days ago with a i5 3470, 8gb ram, 500gb hd for 125€. Then a bought a 1050 ti lp for 100€ :)
That's how Red Dead 2 on the switch will look if it comes out.
Overwatch looks 10 times better than Switch.
@@24mercado the version he played in the vid looks better than any console version no joke they are 900p or 1080p with dynamic Res and dips below 60
@@bnbnism no, you just overexaggerated there
@@Butcher-m7y I'm not it's literally in the video did you watch it, I play overwatch on Xbox one and this is definitely much better with the 1080p and 80fps average
@@24mercado The Switch version runs on a tablet smaller than a bluray box and that came out three years ago. It is actually a fairly crummy port but you do need to have reasonable expectations (and desires)/
You can get one of those laptop DVD caddies to put the SSD in. It’ll block that gap then.
Great Video as always .. love to see the StarWars Trilogy and setup of the best emu for it
Need to get my hands one of these older PCs to setup an emulation box next to the TV.
Thanks for the video, awesome little machine. Could you make a video of retro gaming emulation on an AMD a series laptop APUs, like A8 or A10.
picked up a 7010 sff for 50$ had a 1050ti lp to throw in it and this things a beast.
I just got a optiplex 7020 for 45$... awesome emulator
This computer is proof to all the console peasants out there that you don't need a $5k rig just to run any modern games
Proven even more with the 1650
you can get a cd to ssd adapter so you dont have a hole in the front