This video makes me emotional. I'm an English teacher in a humble Chilean public school. Since I love PCs, my boss assigned me some computer lab duty. I found 25 computers exactly like these, but packing an i3 2100, 1x2gb 1333Mhz RAM and a 500gb SATA3gb HDD. I just "killed" all similar PC's layin' around at the school, bought some cheap 120gb SSDs on AliExpress and brought 12 PC's to life, all packing 4x2gb in dual channel. Got in contact with some friends and got old laptops and some more ram. Today, we have a fully functional lab with 15 decent office PC's and I can't be more proud. They even have a second monitor, thanks to those display ports. I just got some VGA-DP dongles and Voilá! I even managed to form a little PC building workshop, using DDR2 PC's which I got for free. I just love computers and I'm tryin' to guide some of my students through this fun path. As you said, these PCs are mostly trash, but for my school they are a treasure, best performance ever.
I love the under $100 idea, make it a series? Could also be cool to give options up upgrading, maybe up to $200. For example "This desktop cost $40, here's $160 worth of potential upgrades"
an i5 3570 is roughly 50$, so 100$ gpus must be an GTX 1650 (used ofc, I hate recommending RX 6400 since the LP XFX version is notorious for inadequate fan and super hot metal casing)
@@baoquoc3710 Yeah! I used a 1650 super for years that cost me about $100 and it served me very well. A ton of solid options to get you gaming while you build up budget for a better system
@@baoquoc3710😂😂😂 no, get a Xeon E3 V2 for $6-$20. Like 1225v2, 1230v2 or 1241v2. They have high clocks, more lvl3 cache and some have hyperthreading like an i7.
@@kevinwatson3874 its obvious why, the under $100 market is the wild wild west and you can find some GEMS posted by people who either dont care or just dont know what they have.
@GregSalazar it would have made more sense to spend $40-50 on a Dell RX 550 LP 4GB (they are plentiful) from eBay and $4 or whatever on another 4GB stick of RAM than to run that ridiculous RTX 4060 in that PC. I could see the 4060 with a newer office PC with like an i5-8500, but an older one with an i3-3220? I'm offended. Should at least upgrade that to an i5 or i7 if you're insisting on the 4060, but that's yet another $20-40 or so. And the sucky heatsink is probably only rated for an i3, so no. Probably not even an i5. Also, the sketchy way you had to power it? No. I like computers that can run with their side panels on and with no bullshit; I have a cat. My suggested upgrades (SSD, RX550, 8GB) would have kept everything around $100. Now, if the SSD is the only upgrade you were to do for it, no RAM or GPU, then you could still use it as a Batocera box or a basic Linux box... this thing ain't gonna be running Win11 or 12 probably so getting used to running Linux might be a good idea if you were to try to keep it past 2025.
Greg, around 6:39 you mention including DisplayPort and not HDMI. HDMI has royalty fees where DisplayPort does not. In lower end systems like this it is probably just cost savings imo. Keep up the great videos.
My dude Greg, an adapter from Displayport to HDMI is very simple. DisplayPort has compatible signal modes to HDMI, so the adapter is cheap, like $3-$5. Alternatively you can get a DP to DVI adapter, and a DVI to HDMI. Then you will be able to connect your little screen to more varied systems. Also you can get Xeon E3 processors to put in this system *Very* inexpensively, like $6-$20 depending if you want Core i5 or i7 levels of performance, and if you need integrated graphics. 1220v2, 1225v2, 1226v2, 1230v2, 1240v2, 1245v2 etc (the models ending in 5, or 6, have iGPU)
I bought one of these units refurbished from eBay in late 2021 that already had an SSD and 16GB of RAM installed, along with a 3rd gen Core i5, but had to quit using it for a while as the PSU went bad. But the PSU is really easy to replace, and after I bought a replacement and got it up and running again, I did something truly wild..........I installed Windows 11 Pro on it. I was honestly shocked at how well it ran. TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot be damned.
Old or "weaker" PC's are just fine for work and browsing the internet. I'm currently watching this video (at 1440p) on a Pentium G4560 with 16gb ram and a Radeon R5 430. Super cheap to put together and it runs smoothly and quietly. Cheers!
Here's the thing... with a 240 watt, that's more than enough power for any PCIe powered LP card out there. However, if someone wanted to upgrade the PSU, there are 24-pin adapters to put in something like a flex ATX. The 4060 on the other hand... a terrible option just for bottlenecking alone, even if it had an i7. The A2000 would be a better fit with an i7 3770. No need to upgrade anything, except the CPU... and some more RAM.
You can't cut and splice in an ATX PSU either. The ATX standard has a +5V standby, but the motherboard requires a +12V standby. These are just custom the whole way through.
Yeah I’m not hoping this becomes a series. Why bother buying an old school pc every week, it’s not like you’re gonna find an i9 or something. Tops an i7 920…I rather watch the guy clean nasty pcs.
Didn't have computers when I was in elementary, only saw a computer in junior high. Got use use a computer in high school, but had to be a junior to take the class. We got Radio Shake TRS-80 model III's. The school put all 8 of them in 3/4 inch plywood boxes with padlocks on the opening. I -wish- we had Core i3's! 😁 I do enjoy seeing you keeping some of these old, but still useful, computers out of the recyclers or landfills.
I just picked up 23 of these exact systems all with Core i5’s refurbished with a vinyl wrap on the case and fresh install of Windows 10 on 500 GB mechanical hard drives…and each system has 8 GB of ram. I have no idea what to do with them but the price was good as they came with monitors for half of them basically for free. I know I got a amazing deal….but I don’t know why, lol. I love this series by the way! Getting people to find new ways of keeping these systems from hitting a landfill is a huge plus. By the way Greg….there are tricks out there for downloading Windows 11 on these systems….and in my opinion it runs fantastic!
I love that you're using a DeltaMax SSD on these closed cased PCs. I remember when everyone wanted those to display through their front and/or rear glass cases.
THis old hardware can be useful. I got an old Pavilion office machine from next to a dumpster. It has an old AMD A4-3420 APU (LlanoX2) in it. I maxed out the ram and threw in an old 1050 and made it my media center PC. Outputs to a 4k 55inch tv and plays movies with absolute beauty.
Thanks, Greg, for the chuckle. My elementary and middle school computers consisted of (in alphabetical order) multiple Apple IIe's, an Apple IIgs, and an occasional Texas Instruments TI-99/4a.
Thanks for the video. Back in high school we were typing commands in Basic. early 1980s .. cheers. These older machines are great for internet .. Down loading drivers and programs.. if they wreck the computer it is nothing fix.. and they are usually pretty quite.
I had one of these with an i5 2400 it, used it as a server for about five years, great little machine. Easily took an upgrade to an i7 2700K. I also had a quadro k600 in it for video encoding.
That mobo layout looks like mBTX....I wasn't aware the BTX standard survived past the Pentium 4 era. I definitely recall getting a mBTX board by mistake and thought I got a motherboard from the mirror dimension back when I was building my first machine. :P Anyways the benefit the BTX layout has is that expansion card IO like video card ports aren't upside down in BTX tower cases like they are in ATX stuff. It would have made it easier for modern boards. The dedicated graphics card slot if arranged as the top mode one like with ATX boards wouldn't obstruct the ones below it. Today's big beefy 3 and 4 slotters would be rising up instead of down so no worries about losing access to other expansion slots. Instead you'd only need to worry about CPU heatsink clearance which surely gaming board makers would simply increase the distance of in the later full BTX board spec. Would have been interesting if BTX standard took off...but sadly it did not. :(
Jank stuff...I like this! A few friends on Discord and I are planning on a lopsided PC build...right now I'm considering using an Athlon X2 7750BE and AM2+ platform and try to run it with a 4090...could be real fun!
Something to consider if you continue with the older stuff- universities will often sell there older machines in surplus once a department upgrades to newer equipment. I’m able to get Intel 6th-8th gen processors, ram, and mbs for $25-45. Due to security, they pull the drives, but grab an affordable SSD, and one has a fully operational system. Then you just need to figure GPU out.
There is no such thing as an inverted ATX layout. This is a (micro)BTX Layout. Intel came up with this form factor back in the days when their Pentiums 4 and and Rambus Memory produced to much heat for an OEM PC. Through the fan duct the CPU is cooled directly with outside air for better temps to stay in spec.
I’m really curious to see if putting another 4GB stick of RAM would boost the performance at all. Dawid Does Tech Stuff did a video on RAM recently and found that, as long as games weren’t running on a single stick of ram, performance stayed relatively the same from 8GB-32GB of RAM
These are solid workhorses. They absolutely outlive their usefulness by many years. Great machines to use for a cheap old school gaming system, XP era or 7.
Many of these are sold in bulk by universities at auction. The hdds are removed and certified destroyed then packed onto pallets. Anyone can buy a pallet then resell for a profit.
To use this setup with a single power supply, you can use an 8-pin SATA to PCIe power adapter. It takes 2 SATA power inputs and converts them to 8-pin PCIe power. This will provide +100W to the card, combined with the 75W provided by the PCIe slot will give the card 175W, which should be more than enough. The original power supply should have at least 2 SATA power connectors (one for the DVD drive and one for the boot drive), but you'll need an additional connection for the new SSD. If the power supply does not have a third SATA connection for the SSD, you can use a USB 3.0 adapter to connect the SSD to one of the USB ports on the back, which will be much better than an additional power supply. If the original PSU has Molex you may adapt it to PCIe power as well. It doesn't make economic sense to pair this card with this older configuration, but it's definitely cool.
I've rebuilt and given away a dozen of these. Not even worth $20 except to someone who cannot afford a computer. For future episodes, please go for a custom built, newer (DDR4 and up), non working computer, because at least when you're done you'll have something worth using.
Men of Culture , Gentlemen at large , . . . this is the time stamp you are looking for. 0:51 Greg, you have a blessed life. I have to say, I wish more GPUs had the 8/6-pin power connector on the end like that 4060. Like many workstation cards do. Especially if it is a plain, no blink, basic card.
We still got same cases at work, working fine for officework :D Some different specs maybe , but in working order (maintenance is a bit of a pain but it's ok)
I would have chosen something like XFX Speedster SWFT105 Radeon RX 6400 Gaming Graphics Card with 4GB GDDR6. The 4060 is way too much for that old i3 to handle. It's going to stutter badly during gaming and the CPU will be pegged at 100%. It's always better to use a bottleneck calculator and match the GPU with the CPU. Remember, you did say to tell you what we thought.
That LP 4060 is so cute! I would have one in my system just for the looks of it, a commom ATX Mid tower case, with a tower CPU cooler and that smol 4060
Now greg. This pc are hotcake here in kenya, especially in high school, Cyber cafe and not forgetting majority of gamers this the kind of machine we use, the only requirement it's upgrade 😅😅😅😅
Greg, listen to me, only Toyota can guarantee you your professionally delivered below $100 pcs. I personally wrap my eggs in Toyota wrapping and I've never ever broken one, even when I'm cooking them inside my cpu!
You should try an RX6400. GREAT card for a system like this. 2 slot, low profile, no external power required. Just be sure to get the PICe4 version. Newegg has them for $120.
I got a piece of nostalgia for ya. How about a 486-DX/4 100MHz, with a VLB SCSI/floppy card, VLB 2MB VGA, 64MB EDO RAM, and a bunch of I/O? I should assemble it and test to make sure everything's still working. heh
I have one but made it a xp build Put a gtx 730 mini and a 1tb drive and load up pre2007 games from GOG They work perfectly and great fun, just F.E.A.R is only one that needed wierd file edits
These are great videos, and helpful for those of us who are accustomed to cobbling together decent systems from discarded hardware. I have purchased five older Dell Optiplex PCs of various models. They have all been Core i7 4th Gen and have all cost less than $100 to purchase. My wife uses a SFF system with an i7 4790 and integrated graphics. My two youngest children use the mid-tower version with a separately purchased Xeon E3 1271 with 16gb of included Crucial memory and an RTX A2000 GPU. It runs Roblox flawlessly along with general MS Office programs and Photoshop. The other Optiplex is another SFF with another Xeon E3 1271 and A2000 GPU that functions as our very capable 4k HTPC. They all run quietly, smoothly, and with low temperatures. It would be great to see you experiment with a Lenovo, HP, Dell, or another brand SFF HTPC and/or gaming system with a Gen 4 or newer CPU and A2000 or RTX 4060 LP. They really are solid systems.
DisplayPort is passively compatible with HDMI up to single link DVI speeds generally 1080p ish. Same thing with DVI just need a passive adapter that changes the connector on the end.
I know it's cursed but I wouldn't hesitate to use a SATA to 8 pin adapter to get a GPU running in a system like that. I've done this a couple times with GPUs of similar power demand and never ran into a problem.
Thanks for telling us about the thinner graphics card. I would never had though about that if I would have bought one of these computers mostly because I don't know anything about these slim cases.
I suspect the lack of HDMI on these used workstations comes down to two things: a) HDMI is (or was, when these were made) a patent-encumbered technology, whereas DisplayPort is an open standard, so if you're an OEM, the latter option is cheaper to mass-produce, and b) DisplayPort can be daisy-chained, so that one DP port can actually be used for 2 or more monitors (I've had three monitors on one DP port) although that depends on the what the GPU of your specific machine can support. I assume most of y'all know this already, but seemed worth mentioning.
Greg, I have 2 of these. a 5950 and a 6005 SFF. both are AMD builds and I use the 6005 as a media player in my livingroom TV and the 5950 is my shop PC... great little computers. they do the job... I went with a 2GB GPU for the 6005 and left the 5950 with its onboard video... adding a bigger GPU is kind of over kill as these units are basically work station PC's...
You just installed twin turbo's on a Yugo... Yes it's fun BUT.... I really love this series. I like to take old PC's and get them back up and running. It's good to see what can be done without spending lots of money on them. I usually just install windows 10 on an SSD and it wakes them up pretty well. Sometimes I'll throw a second 4g mem into ones that only have one. Now my daughter and grandson have computers that only cost me about $40 each for the SSD's and windows 10 activated from the OG win 7 license.
This wasn't a bad system at all for the price paid ($40). All that this system needed was a second 4GB RAM stick and an inexpensive SSD (or SSD/HDD combo) and this is perfectly viable as an office box, or similar. I would have personally swapped the CPU to an i5 from that era (maybe an i7 if the PSU could take it), gone to 32GB DDR3 across all four slots, added in a decent SSD as well as a spacious HDD (keeping the ODD), adding a PCI or PCI-e Wi-Fi adapter (as there were both PCI and PCIe slots available) and then added in a low profile graphics card that did not require supplementary power.
I have seen for sale computers similar to these with a little bit of bling added to them (LED, new fronts, repainted, etc) being sold as "Custom" gaming PCs for around $300. No SSDs in most cases. This at least shows what they should be worth. Problem with those small cases is that it really limits the graphic cards you can use. Cannot just drop in a GTX 980 or GTX 1070. While my main desktop is a Ryzen 7 5800x and RX 6800, I still have an FX 8350 with a GTX 1070 in another room and I have tested with a few moderate age games and it does damn well.
That little HP is identical to one I had in appearance. Mine had an i5 2500 and 8GB of Ram. I added a LP 1050Ti and another 8GB of Ram. I sold the 1050ti during the lock down and gave the little HP away to an older guy who still watches old western movies on TH-cam with it.
We had those PCs in middle school then at my first workplace. When those where replaced cause of Win10 uprgade in the office I bought one for 28$ claiming its not working anymore, same as here just needed a storage drive, my father still using that PC.
The displayport connector is labeled DP++ (see at 6:39 mark), which means it is capable of outputting HDMI signal, all that is needed is a passive DP to HDMI cable.
@@bb2ridder757 DP++ is an optional feature in the standard. Most devices do, but it is not guaranteed. Ideally devices should display the DP++ logo, but most of the times they don't. Anyway, in this case it is a DP++ connector, thus a passive cable is all one needs.
I have the exact same PC. Recently put a GTX 1650 from zotac in it. The lid can't go on but my frames are a lot better. Going to be getting an i7 3770 for it soon and they'll be the end of the line because I really don't want to mess with the power supply stuff
Wow, I would love that 4060 slim line.. I don't know how well it would do under stress and heat, and for your power, you should always power on the video card power first, for a 3 count, and then the computer, the video card should not drive power to the motherboard at all until the motherboard gate opens and does a function call for the power increase on data relay channels.
this is gonna end up being a new serie
Yes I hope I hope it's gonna be a new serie... I thought people who liked this type of content were a rare specie... turns out I was wrong
I hope so
sir, are you here to trigger my oc...?
@@TH-cam-Censorship-Police Why so seriou?
I miss his PCDC series :/
Make this a series. I don't know a damn thing about these older comps. It's fun to learn and you keep it interesting. Cheers. 🤟
This video makes me emotional. I'm an English teacher in a humble Chilean public school. Since I love PCs, my boss assigned me some computer lab duty. I found 25 computers exactly like these, but packing an i3 2100, 1x2gb 1333Mhz RAM and a 500gb SATA3gb HDD. I just "killed" all similar PC's layin' around at the school, bought some cheap 120gb SSDs on AliExpress and brought 12 PC's to life, all packing 4x2gb in dual channel. Got in contact with some friends and got old laptops and some more ram. Today, we have a fully functional lab with 15 decent office PC's and I can't be more proud. They even have a second monitor, thanks to those display ports. I just got some VGA-DP dongles and Voilá! I even managed to form a little PC building workshop, using DDR2 PC's which I got for free. I just love computers and I'm tryin' to guide some of my students through this fun path. As you said, these PCs are mostly trash, but for my school they are a treasure, best performance ever.
I remember working on these models...with a HDD!! Painfully slow. Putting an SSD helps revive systems like these.
I love the under $100 idea, make it a series? Could also be cool to give options up upgrading, maybe up to $200. For example "This desktop cost $40, here's $160 worth of potential upgrades"
an i5 3570 is roughly 50$, so 100$ gpus must be an GTX 1650 (used ofc, I hate recommending RX 6400 since the LP XFX version is notorious for inadequate fan and super hot metal casing)
@@baoquoc3710 Yeah! I used a 1650 super for years that cost me about $100 and it served me very well. A ton of solid options to get you gaming while you build up budget for a better system
@@baoquoc3710😂😂😂 no, get a Xeon E3 V2 for $6-$20. Like 1225v2, 1230v2 or 1241v2. They have high clocks, more lvl3 cache and some have hyperthreading like an i7.
Keep the under $100 series going!!! 👍
There are so many channels that just do this PERIOD !
@@kevinwatson3874 And?
@@kevinwatson3874 its obvious why, the under $100 market is the wild wild west and you can find some GEMS posted by people who either dont care or just dont know what they have.
@GregSalazar it would have made more sense to spend $40-50 on a Dell RX 550 LP 4GB (they are plentiful) from eBay and $4 or whatever on another 4GB stick of RAM than to run that ridiculous RTX 4060 in that PC. I could see the 4060 with a newer office PC with like an i5-8500, but an older one with an i3-3220? I'm offended. Should at least upgrade that to an i5 or i7 if you're insisting on the 4060, but that's yet another $20-40 or so. And the sucky heatsink is probably only rated for an i3, so no. Probably not even an i5. Also, the sketchy way you had to power it? No. I like computers that can run with their side panels on and with no bullshit; I have a cat. My suggested upgrades (SSD, RX550, 8GB) would have kept everything around $100.
Now, if the SSD is the only upgrade you were to do for it, no RAM or GPU, then you could still use it as a Batocera box or a basic Linux box... this thing ain't gonna be running Win11 or 12 probably so getting used to running Linux might be a good idea if you were to try to keep it past 2025.
Next to the Fix or Flop these are my favorite. More please.
I think a less than $100pc series would be cool
Second that
Under 200 more realistic.
I'd find comparing a 100 v 150 v 200 v 250 really interesting
Greg, around 6:39 you mention including DisplayPort and not HDMI. HDMI has royalty fees where DisplayPort does not. In lower end systems like this it is probably just cost savings imo. Keep up the great videos.
Thanks for info! That makes sense.
My dude Greg, an adapter from Displayport to HDMI is very simple. DisplayPort has compatible signal modes to HDMI, so the adapter is cheap, like $3-$5. Alternatively you can get a DP to DVI adapter, and a DVI to HDMI. Then you will be able to connect your little screen to more varied systems.
Also you can get Xeon E3 processors to put in this system *Very* inexpensively, like $6-$20 depending if you want Core i5 or i7 levels of performance, and if you need integrated graphics. 1220v2, 1225v2, 1226v2, 1230v2, 1240v2, 1245v2 etc (the models ending in 5, or 6, have iGPU)
Low cost builds / upgrades are always interesting and fun to watch
I bought one of these units refurbished from eBay in late 2021 that already had an SSD and 16GB of RAM installed, along with a 3rd gen Core i5, but had to quit using it for a while as the PSU went bad. But the PSU is really easy to replace, and after I bought a replacement and got it up and running again, I did something truly wild..........I installed Windows 11 Pro on it.
I was honestly shocked at how well it ran. TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot be damned.
All day at the thiftstore for $10 bucks
I love these Mystery ebay videos. Your finding awesome deals
Old or "weaker" PC's are just fine for work and browsing the internet.
I'm currently watching this video (at 1440p) on a Pentium G4560 with 16gb ram and a Radeon R5 430.
Super cheap to put together and it runs smoothly and quietly. Cheers!
Here's the thing... with a 240 watt, that's more than enough power for any PCIe powered LP card out there. However, if someone wanted to upgrade the PSU, there are 24-pin adapters to put in something like a flex ATX. The 4060 on the other hand... a terrible option just for bottlenecking alone, even if it had an i7. The A2000 would be a better fit with an i7 3770. No need to upgrade anything, except the CPU... and some more RAM.
Hello Mr GameBench, your vids are sick man, genuinely you're the Optiplex aficionado
240 watt psu is perfect for using old hardware to make a NAS.
Arc A380 is more reasonable for this kind of build though, and as far as the Rebar issue goes, 6GB of VRAM would still suffice
Thanks I'm a geek myself and do this all the time but so I'm busy and never have time to post videos. Keep it up love it!
Thanks! Will do!
You can't cut and splice in an ATX PSU either. The ATX standard has a +5V standby, but the motherboard requires a +12V standby. These are just custom the whole way through.
Yes, you need something do do the conversion and there are adapters out there so you can install a standard off the shelf PSU.
Didn't know this! Glad I didn't try LOL.
9:15 I had a two PSU system for years with a PSU that only powered the GPU. It was a much cheaper solution and let me put more money into the GPU.
These are awesome, but if it becomes a series, its gonna be a pain in the head to get rid of most of these PC's 😅👍🏼
Thrun then into pi holes or similar give them a job like DNS/Kids PC with a OS like chrome flex.
Yeah I’m not hoping this becomes a series. Why bother buying an old school pc every week, it’s not like you’re gonna find an i9 or something. Tops an i7 920…I rather watch the guy clean nasty pcs.
I’ve been wanting to try this for a long time! Love your videos. Been watching since day 1 of fix or flop. My favorite channel
Didn't have computers when I was in elementary, only saw a computer in junior high. Got use use a computer in high school, but had to be a junior to take the class. We got Radio Shake TRS-80 model III's. The school put all 8 of them in 3/4 inch plywood boxes with padlocks on the opening. I -wish- we had Core i3's! 😁 I do enjoy seeing you keeping some of these old, but still useful, computers out of the recyclers or landfills.
I just picked up 23 of these exact systems all with Core i5’s refurbished with a vinyl wrap on the case and fresh install of Windows 10 on 500 GB mechanical hard drives…and each system has 8 GB of ram. I have no idea what to do with them but the price was good as they came with monitors for half of them basically for free. I know I got a amazing deal….but I don’t know why, lol. I love this series by the way! Getting people to find new ways of keeping these systems from hitting a landfill is a huge plus. By the way Greg….there are tricks out there for downloading Windows 11 on these systems….and in my opinion it runs fantastic!
I'd really like to buy one of these prebuilt PCs but the only thing stopping me is the shipping cost, it would be more expensive than the unit itself.
Free shipping on both of these! :-)
Unless you're international, it shouldn't be much
Yep Americans have the benefit of cheap or free shipping.
90% of people won't agree with me but until RGB actually increases performance or cooling it still doesn't matter.
I love that you're using a DeltaMax SSD on these closed cased PCs. I remember when everyone wanted those to display through their front and/or rear glass cases.
THis old hardware can be useful. I got an old Pavilion office machine from next to a dumpster. It has an old AMD A4-3420 APU (LlanoX2) in it. I maxed out the ram and threw in an old 1050 and made it my media center PC. Outputs to a 4k 55inch tv and plays movies with absolute beauty.
these old pc were like tank man, through any office work or like even for a student it's really very good to go pc
loving these vids
I appreciate it!
I love this series! Great video one again. Would love to see you turn one into a powerhouse sleeper pc from one of these!
man, i just love seeing you repair small pc's like this, pls make this into a series
Thanks, Greg, for the chuckle. My elementary and middle school computers consisted of (in alphabetical order) multiple Apple IIe's, an Apple IIgs, and an occasional Texas Instruments TI-99/4a.
Thanks for the video. Back in high school we were typing commands in Basic. early 1980s .. cheers. These older machines are great for internet .. Down loading drivers and programs.. if they wreck the computer it is nothing fix.. and they are usually pretty quite.
you need to buy a cheap DP HDMI adaptor. gpu 6 pin >> molex adaptor
I love watching Greg’s videos this channel needs to LIGHT UP this man deserves to have millions of subs.
I had one of these with an i5 2400 it, used it as a server for about five years, great little machine. Easily took an upgrade to an i7 2700K. I also had a quadro k600 in it for video encoding.
That mobo layout looks like mBTX....I wasn't aware the BTX standard survived past the Pentium 4 era. I definitely recall getting a mBTX board by mistake and thought I got a motherboard from the mirror dimension back when I was building my first machine. :P
Anyways the benefit the BTX layout has is that expansion card IO like video card ports aren't upside down in BTX tower cases like they are in ATX stuff. It would have made it easier for modern boards. The dedicated graphics card slot if arranged as the top mode one like with ATX boards wouldn't obstruct the ones below it. Today's big beefy 3 and 4 slotters would be rising up instead of down so no worries about losing access to other expansion slots. Instead you'd only need to worry about CPU heatsink clearance which surely gaming board makers would simply increase the distance of in the later full BTX board spec. Would have been interesting if BTX standard took off...but sadly it did not. :(
Jank stuff...I like this! A few friends on Discord and I are planning on a lopsided PC build...right now I'm considering using an Athlon X2 7750BE and AM2+ platform and try to run it with a 4090...could be real fun!
Something to consider if you continue with the older stuff- universities will often sell there older machines in surplus once a department upgrades to newer equipment. I’m able to get Intel 6th-8th gen processors, ram, and mbs for $25-45. Due to security, they pull the drives, but grab an affordable SSD, and one has a fully operational system. Then you just need to figure GPU out.
@2:33 I love the title HP compOq!
Yes Greg, please make a Retro-PC Game Box series!!!
There is no such thing as an inverted ATX layout.
This is a (micro)BTX Layout. Intel came up with this form factor back in the days when their Pentiums 4 and and Rambus Memory produced to much heat for an OEM PC. Through
the fan duct the CPU is cooled directly with outside air for better temps to stay in spec.
I’m really curious to see if putting another 4GB stick of RAM would boost the performance at all.
Dawid Does Tech Stuff did a video on RAM recently and found that, as long as games weren’t running on a single stick of ram, performance stayed relatively the same from 8GB-32GB of RAM
in my experience going from 8 to 16 also gives another slight boost and alot more stability
Dual channel gives performance boost.
Keep this series going!
These are solid workhorses. They absolutely outlive their usefulness by many years. Great machines to use for a cheap old school gaming system, XP era or 7.
Many of these are sold in bulk by universities at auction. The hdds are removed and certified destroyed then packed onto pallets.
Anyone can buy a pallet then resell for a profit.
To use this setup with a single power supply, you can use an 8-pin SATA to PCIe power adapter. It takes 2 SATA power inputs and converts them to 8-pin PCIe power. This will provide +100W to the card, combined with the 75W provided by the PCIe slot will give the card 175W, which should be more than enough. The original power supply should have at least 2 SATA power connectors (one for the DVD drive and one for the boot drive), but you'll need an additional connection for the new SSD. If the power supply does not have a third SATA connection for the SSD, you can use a USB 3.0 adapter to connect the SSD to one of the USB ports on the back, which will be much better than an additional power supply. If the original PSU has Molex you may adapt it to PCIe power as well.
It doesn't make economic sense to pair this card with this older configuration, but it's definitely cool.
It would need more power. That might be a viable option for something with around a 300 watt PSU, but ill advised with only a 240 watt.
oh man another perfect timing when am about to eat
I've rebuilt and given away a dozen of these. Not even worth $20 except to someone who cannot afford a computer. For future episodes, please go for a custom built, newer (DDR4 and up), non working computer, because at least when you're done you'll have something worth using.
Men of Culture , Gentlemen at large , . . . this is the time stamp you are looking for. 0:51
Greg, you have a blessed life.
I have to say, I wish more GPUs had the 8/6-pin power connector on the end like that 4060. Like many workstation cards do. Especially if it is a plain, no blink, basic card.
We still got same cases at work, working fine for officework :D Some different specs maybe , but in working order (maintenance is a bit of a pain but it's ok)
You can use an adapter cables to use a standard ATX PSU for these PCs 😉
Your Windows key came in clutch today. Just finished my wife’s build and needed it. Thank you
I would have chosen something like XFX Speedster SWFT105 Radeon RX 6400 Gaming Graphics Card with 4GB GDDR6. The 4060 is way too much for that old i3 to handle. It's going to stutter badly during gaming and the CPU will be pegged at 100%. It's always better to use a bottleneck calculator and match the GPU with the CPU. Remember, you did say to tell you what we thought.
That LP 4060 is so cute! I would have one in my system just for the looks of it, a commom ATX Mid tower case, with a tower CPU cooler and that smol 4060
Now greg. This pc are hotcake here in kenya, especially in high school, Cyber cafe and not forgetting majority of gamers this the kind of machine we use, the only requirement it's upgrade 😅😅😅😅
Greg, listen to me, only Toyota can guarantee you your professionally delivered below $100 pcs. I personally wrap my eggs in Toyota wrapping and I've never ever broken one, even when I'm cooking them inside my cpu!
😂👍
You should try an RX6400. GREAT card for a system like this. 2 slot, low profile, no external power required. Just be sure to get the PICe4 version. Newegg has them for $120.
Checking out the dull edge. I like this project!
Love this content, subscribed!
Awesome, thank you!
I got a piece of nostalgia for ya.
How about a 486-DX/4 100MHz, with a VLB SCSI/floppy card, VLB 2MB VGA, 64MB EDO RAM, and a bunch of I/O?
I should assemble it and test to make sure everything's still working. heh
I have one but made it a xp build
Put a gtx 730 mini and a 1tb drive and load up pre2007 games from GOG
They work perfectly and great fun, just F.E.A.R is only one that needed wierd file edits
Oh wow, i haven't seen a slim GPU like that in years, so cool.
4:24 the hard drive would go into that empty space of the case so the psu fan is actually cooling both the hard drive and the psu itself
Cool, I haven't seen an BTX Motherboard in years. My first computer was a Dell that had the same type of MB.
Loving the new series!!
I have this same issue.... Been modernizing a socket 775 build and it's really just a sickness!
I made a system to go to pax south. I used the HP slim case, but I put in a itx motherboard and a new sfc power supply.
The 4060 LP would make a lot more sense at $199, but that's probably a long way away.
These are great videos, and helpful for those of us who are accustomed to cobbling together decent systems from discarded hardware.
I have purchased five older Dell Optiplex PCs of various models. They have all been Core i7 4th Gen and have all cost less than $100 to purchase. My wife uses a SFF system with an i7 4790 and integrated graphics. My two youngest children use the mid-tower version with a separately purchased Xeon E3 1271 with 16gb of included Crucial memory and an RTX A2000 GPU. It runs Roblox flawlessly along with general MS Office programs and Photoshop. The other Optiplex is another SFF with another Xeon E3 1271 and A2000 GPU that functions as our very capable 4k HTPC. They all run quietly, smoothly, and with low temperatures.
It would be great to see you experiment with a Lenovo, HP, Dell, or another brand SFF HTPC and/or gaming system with a Gen 4 or newer CPU and A2000 or RTX 4060 LP. They really are solid systems.
Low profile GT 710 or low profile RX 550 should be good fits for that system. Both cards can be powered by the PCIe x16 slot itself.
GTX 1050 Ti's as well.
GT 710 is horrible. A Quadro K620 is cheaper and it's more powerful than it
DisplayPort is passively compatible with HDMI up to single link DVI speeds generally 1080p ish. Same thing with DVI just need a passive adapter that changes the connector on the end.
Try upgrading it and getting power supply adapters for a case swap.
I know it's cursed but I wouldn't hesitate to use a SATA to 8 pin adapter to get a GPU running in a system like that. I've done this a couple times with GPUs of similar power demand and never ran into a problem.
Oh, Speedy Racing. Nice choice man!
Great video buying broke PCs and giving them life again is a great idea for a series
We have 4 of these we still use at work, all needed replacement PSU’s, but otherwise they are just fine 👌
Thanks for telling us about the thinner graphics card. I would never had though about that if I would have bought one of these computers mostly because I don't know anything about these slim cases.
I suspect the lack of HDMI on these used workstations comes down to two things: a) HDMI is (or was, when these were made) a patent-encumbered technology, whereas DisplayPort is an open standard, so if you're an OEM, the latter option is cheaper to mass-produce, and b) DisplayPort can be daisy-chained, so that one DP port can actually be used for 2 or more monitors (I've had three monitors on one DP port) although that depends on the what the GPU of your specific machine can support. I assume most of y'all know this already, but seemed worth mentioning.
i used this exact premade, except it had an i5, with a 1030gt when that came out. was pretty nice for the price range
Greg, I have 2 of these. a 5950 and a 6005 SFF. both are AMD builds and I use the 6005 as a media player in my livingroom TV and the 5950 is my shop PC... great little computers. they do the job... I went with a 2GB GPU for the 6005 and left the 5950 with its onboard video... adding a bigger GPU is kind of over kill as these units are basically work station PC's...
I had back in the day the core i3 3220 for 6-8 years. Love that cpu back in the day. Now running a Ryzen 5 1600 AF. Soon be getting a Ryzen 5 5800X3D
You just installed twin turbo's on a Yugo... Yes it's fun BUT.... I really love this series.
I like to take old PC's and get them back up and running. It's good to see what can be done without spending lots of money on them. I usually just install windows 10 on an SSD and it wakes them up pretty well. Sometimes I'll throw a second 4g mem into ones that only have one. Now my daughter and grandson have computers that only cost me about $40 each for the SSD's and windows 10 activated from the OG win 7 license.
This wasn't a bad system at all for the price paid ($40). All that this system needed was a second 4GB RAM stick and an inexpensive SSD (or SSD/HDD combo) and this is perfectly viable as an office box, or similar.
I would have personally swapped the CPU to an i5 from that era (maybe an i7 if the PSU could take it), gone to 32GB DDR3 across all four slots, added in a decent SSD as well as a spacious HDD (keeping the ODD), adding a PCI or PCI-e Wi-Fi adapter (as there were both PCI and PCIe slots available) and then added in a low profile graphics card that did not require supplementary power.
I have seen for sale computers similar to these with a little bit of bling added to them (LED, new fronts, repainted, etc) being sold as "Custom" gaming PCs for around $300. No SSDs in most cases. This at least shows what they should be worth. Problem with those small cases is that it really limits the graphic cards you can use. Cannot just drop in a GTX 980 or GTX 1070.
While my main desktop is a Ryzen 7 5800x and RX 6800, I still have an FX 8350 with a GTX 1070 in another room and I have tested with a few moderate age games and it does damn well.
"...it's cooling the case." No, normally there is a caddy for another HDD there.
Adding a second DIMM should enable dual channel mode which would really help with bandwidth issues.
I wasn't watching the screen and i heard this... Damn 7:42
That little HP is identical to one I had in appearance. Mine had an i5 2500 and 8GB of Ram. I added a LP 1050Ti and another 8GB of Ram. I sold the 1050ti during the lock down and gave the little HP away to an older guy who still watches old western movies on TH-cam with it.
I like where you went with this new series...
We had those PCs in middle school then at my first workplace. When those where replaced cause of Win10 uprgade in the office I bought one for 28$ claiming its not working anymore, same as here just needed a storage drive, my father still using that PC.
I really enjoy this series.
The displayport connector is labeled DP++ (see at 6:39 mark), which means it is capable of outputting HDMI signal, all that is needed is a passive DP to HDMI cable.
Can't display port always be converted to hdmi?
@@bb2ridder757 Yes, but standard DisplayPort connections require an active cable, that typically uses USB power to do the conversion.
@@bb2ridder757 DP++ is an optional feature in the standard. Most devices do, but it is not guaranteed. Ideally devices should display the DP++ logo, but most of the times they don't. Anyway, in this case it is a DP++ connector, thus a passive cable is all one needs.
That'd be a BTX board & case there Greg. Just like me 'ol gateway p.o.s. Pretty sure btx stands for, ”It's backwards, don't buy it"...
I have the exact same PC. Recently put a GTX 1650 from zotac in it. The lid can't go on but my frames are a lot better. Going to be getting an i7 3770 for it soon and they'll be the end of the line because I really don't want to mess with the power supply stuff
I'm sure I'm speaking to the choir, but DP++ is capable of sending out an HDMI signal-- you just need a cheap passive DP to HDMI adapter.
As soon as I saw the small form factor I knew you were going to go with the 4060 slim, cool little card for what it is
That empty space under the psu is supposed to have a 3.5inch HDD bracket.
Wow, I would love that 4060 slim line.. I don't know how well it would do under stress and heat, and for your power, you should always power on the video card power first, for a 3 count, and then the computer, the video card should not drive power to the motherboard at all until the motherboard gate opens and does a function call for the power increase on data relay channels.
That 4060 slim is wild never seen one like that before. I would have expected that from the 10 or 20 series but not from a 40 series gpu, pretty cool.
Just noticed the toon blue eyes, the winged dragon of ra. And relinquish. Can’t tell what the spell card is but nice yu-gi-oh cards on display.