A colleague asked me last Xmas if one of those GT 710 systems was a good buy for their son. Steered them away from it and towards a custom build that i could do. They ended up going for a console, sad they didnt get a PC but so relieved it wasn't a GT 710. Can you imagine trying to play games on that after spending all that money!
It's sad how many fall for it. I have had quite a few asking me why their systems aren't performing and it's turned out they have bought one of these types of systems. Nothing you can do for them.
My vintage Antec full tower cases are having a good chuckle at this comment. They'll take the biggest MB you can find and the longest GPU in the world.
i built a mid gaming rig from a hp elitedesk tower g1 800. it came with 320watt psu but i bought a psu cable adapter then put a 550watt in there. put 32gb ddr3 1600mhz ram in there and a gtx 1650 super oc 4gb. chucked in the i7 4790k and this haswell system has zero bottleneck at 1080p gaming. put an evo 870 samsung 1tb ssd in there also and done. you can also mod the hp bios then flash it to accept m2 on a pci e slot card. all together this system cost me only $300 nzd which is 139 pound in gbp - the funniest thing about this build is i used co pilot ai to help build it for zero bottleneck and it worked which made me laugh.
@@TechLabUK yeah those hp workstations are good cheap build bases too especially if u lucky enough to get a 400w psu one i think they have those if i'm not mistaken. just as an aside i read a hilarious comment from a poster about the 4th gen i7 4790k who said " intel i7 4790k - the muhammad ali of classic cpus!" lolol the next one should be reserved for ".... the lennox lewis of classic cpus!"
@@dagdamar2000 It wouldn't even be as bad if they didn't also use the cheapest, nastiest RGB fans you can buy. Some of these systems come with some real awful stuff in them.
Excellent video explaining how you don't have to be a computer "expert" to put this together. gt 710/730 mining apocalypses were definitely some dark times. My biggest tip would be to comparison shop. Many times a difference in $10 can mean a difference between 8/16g ram or an i5 and an i7 or the addition of an ssd.
Unfortunately a lot of people still fall for these scam systems on Ebay and Amazon. A lot of it is because they don't know how to build a system and they don't know much about comparative parts so believe the text in the adverts with made up stats and figures. I have spoken to so many now who have fallen for it and are so annoyed at the lack of performance and in some cases they can't even take them back.
@@TechLabUK I think one of the worst scams is the one that lures you in with a low price, but that's the base model with no frills... and if you just do the baseline, it might be an okay deal but not a really "complete" system, you'll have to add more for it to game well... but there's a "configurator" which upsells you every upgradeable part at above market value, so you end up getting royally ripped off. If you know what to choose, just build it yourself then, it's not like it's hard, it's like grown-up Lego... and honestly, I think half the fun is putting it together yourself, rather than having it all ready to go. Gives you at least a little sense of accomplishment, even if you didn't really do too much.
I picked up one of these 3 years ago for next to nothing, upgraded to an i7-6700 and 16gb ram. The 240w PSU has enough juice but doesn't have a pcie 6p/8p, but I modified it and added one to the wiring loom, and installed a GTX1650 Super. Been flawless as my daughter's first PC for years now.
There are even some power supply upgrade options that will just drop right in. There's the 300 watt from the XE3 SFF and the 360 watt from the XE3 MT. They both have 6-pin supplemental power for the GPU and can safely be adapted to 8-pin. So, for those that might want to upgrade and not have to worry about modding anything, it's got some decent solutions to upgrade the GPU.
If you choose to upgrade to an SSD on your own, you will need a proprietary cable to get a second line of Sata power off of the board. They can be found cheaply but you're stuck in the meantime if you don't realize this ahead of time.
Theres no denying this is a starter banger for those kids /adults on strict budget! However there is literally no upgrade path for this down the line, not without some serious modding. The 3050 6gb is widely regarded as awful in gaming setups, but for a system like this then yes its the very best thats currently on sale that dosent require a power connector. As for going for a 7700 it wont make much of a difference to your gaming at all. But you cant fault it for 200 notes! nearest i can get to for new parts modern (12100f+rx6600+1tb nvme ssd) is about 440 and thats building it myself with an oem win 10 key. Keep up the good work and let those older pc's llive a few more years before hitting the waste pile
I mean let's get real here. Upgrade path should never be a major factor at this low of a budget. It's a pointless exercise because you're going to sacrifice a lot of performance for a theoretical upgrade down the line and by the time people interested in these type of builds are looking at an upgrade the system is EOL. The 3050 isn't a bad card - it's just horribly priced. The people making these type of budget builds aren't going to be rocking 1440p-4k OLED 144hz + monitors either. So it's questionable how "awful" in gaming setups it is. They'll be on basic 60hz-maybe 75hz 1080p monitors. Also the 12100f is a good cpu + 6600 is a fine budget card. I have no problems with that. A fine budget combo. But in reality that's pretty much a dead socket too and is on the way out. The biggest problem with this is - are you really going to gamble on a 13th/14th gen intel CPU on the secondhand market or new? Especially in a couple of years knowing full well the problems with those CPUs? Your upgrade path is heavily compromised. You're better of going AM4 B450(which supports up to 4th gen Ryzen) + 2nd hand ryzen 2600 or 2700 or r5 5500 new. You at least have a 5800x3d to look forward to
My favorite version of this strategy is buying those old workstations. I bought two HP Z240s with i7 6700s, 16gb ram, and a Quadro M4000 for $85 USD each shipped on eBay. Not only is the M4000 about as good as a GTX 950, but I was able to sell both cards on eBay for $75 each basically having two systems for about 20 bucks each after fees. They also have pcie power connectors so I popped in some cheap local higher end 10 series cards for a super cheap but decently powerful pcs. I’d definitely advise anyone looking not to go for anything less than 4 cores and 8 threads though.
Great advice with the low profile 3050. It will hold its value and demand will stay quite high as it goes out of production, wouldn't be surprised if you could get £100 for it a couple years from now just like the low profile 1050Ti and 1650 held their value, this year before the 3050 6GB released you could easily pay £150 for a used low profile 1650. Nvidia don't have any answer for the low profile/bus power demand in the 40 series and probably won't with upcoming 50 series either.
Yeah, they only have the LP 4060 but it's to big for some of my SFF cases and it requires the additional power connector. Took them long enough to drop the 3050 for this so another wont come for a while.
@@TechLabUK It is weird how they don't always release a card like this, RTX 4050 Mobile GPU could be used with a 75W power limit on a low profile card but Nvidia are a weird company sometimes.
@@lemagreengreen Tends to be an AMD thing really, Nvidia have no interest in these low end cards. They want to shift the high end, high margin stuff. You will probably find these LP 50 class cards appear because they have waste to get rid of or over stock on things or something. It's not their focus.
even now, low profile GTX 1650 cards aren't much cheaper than low profile RTX 3050 6GB on eBay, and those are listed (probably not selling) above MSRP, which is crazy. I guess it's up to the board partners to provide solutions for the low profile/single slot market, as you can't count on NVIDIA to bother with actual engineering beyond the silicon. I found one named "SRhonyra" (apparently translates to Songrey, whatever that is) that caters to the low-profile 1U server market. Unfortunately, they also charge quite the premium. I got one of their cards, a GTX 1050 - non-Ti, but oddly with 4GB GDDR5, instead of 2GB, so that's good - in a LP/single-slot form factor for my Optiplex 3020 (now moved over to my Lenovo M93p), and it's pretty nice. It has a blue anodized aluminum blower shroud, so it looks a lot like those pro AMD cards, but with NVIDIA silicon. I caught it on sale at Amazon for 40% off, which made it cost just under a Benjamin after tax and free shipping (was normally like $165, which is way too much). Perfectly cromulent video card for 1080p gaming, but my next move will be the 3050 6GB you showed in this video now that I have a PC that can take a dual-slot card, and the 1050 will go back to the Dell whenever I can get the 3050. I saw recently on Amazon where they (SRhonyra) actually made a low profile single slot GTX 1060 (which is oddly listed as 160-bit instead of 192? That can't be right) but they want $250 for it, which is totally ridiculous because for that kind of money you could swap out your Dell power supply for a 1U FlexATX and get adapters, which leaves you space for a dual slot card to hang below the motherboard... so why not go for the RTX 3050 6GB LP like you got there, way better card. And you might have change left over for lunch.
@@TechLabUK AMD seems to have very little interest in the market either; they made the RX6400 for low profile which was actually a laptop variant chip with only PCIe 4.0x4, but they didn't do anything low profile with their RDNA3 (7000) line. I was expecting an RX 7400 but no... not yet. Come on people, someone make a PCIe 3.0x16, LP/SS card with a modern GPU? No? Maybe Dell/HP/Lenovo stop making the SFF systems then? No? Ugh. It's an underserved market. I guess they are only considering business customers, and don't care at all about the used market, which is probably bigger than they think. Well, the A2000E (Ada generation) is there, but is like $649 because it's a current workstation-level card. And I don't expect that price to drop much, for years. Yeah, for that kind of money, you could build a whole rig from scratch (maybe some used parts), or do a really nice case swap and still fit a good GPU into the budget.
Tip for people doing this: Check how dusty the inside is, especially if it’s old. If you’re confident enough, it’s worth giving it a clean using a leafblower (or if you don’t have one a vacuum cleaner works), and if you want you can completely deconstruct it and clean each component. If you’re unsure I wouldn’t recommend doing that, though, since you have to put it back together. It’s also worth reapplying the thermal paste on the CPU.
man wants us to use a leaf blower to clean a PC. OK, Tim Taylor, woof woof woof. No. That or a vacuum can create gobs of static electricity and potentially fry components. Better to use compressed air or a specialty vacuum. And don't let fans free-spin when you're cleaning them, they can generate electricity as they spin and back-feed voltage across the wires, potentially frying stuff. Totally agree on the thermal paste, that stuff tends to dry out after a few years. There are some varieties that last longer, but they're seldom found on such systems. Just don't be a doofus and press down hard on the CPU while cleaning the old stuff off. I bent pins in the socket of a motherboard that way. Should have removed the chip instead. Fortunately it was inexpensive (I found a vendor who was parting out old systems) to replace. Board cost me $4 with $8 shipping, so a $12 mistake (could have been much worse).
I have an i3 6100, i5 6500, i5 6600 and an i7 6700 at the studio. I did have an i5 6400 but I just can't find it anywhere so no idea what happened to it.
Correction: Intel's UHD graphics are better than a GT 710. In fact, intel's integrated graphics from 10 years ago outperform a GT710. That' how bad the GT 710 really is.
@@SeeJayPlayGames Because it is good for what it is designed to be, a cheap display adaptor. Buy it second hand and it's even cheaper. It was never meant for gaming.
The existing cooler fan is a standard 92mm with a standard 4Pin PWM connection. You can also replace the whole cooler with another because the peg layout is standard if you wanted.
@@TechLabUK careful with that advice, as though the mounting hole location is standard, rather than holes, the motherboards have threads instead (non removable back plate). Alot of aftermarket coolers come with a front plate which can screw in however.
@@jlgroovetek No, these units come with a removable backplates, it's stuck to the back of the socket plate but comes off with a little pull. You can then mount any LGA11XX cooler including the stock Intel cooler if you want. Makes them great for cooler upgrades.
@@TechLabUK fair enough! I assumed it was stuck hard on, but I didn't actually remove the motherboard to try. Fortunately the factory backplate is the same as many aftermarket ones anyway so I just re-used it for the new cooler.
@@jlgroovetek Yeah, I had checked it on this one as I was curious. Had some annoying Lenovo's where the mounts are in the actually case which are annoying. Dell did us a solid on this one though.
It's a great little setup for the money. Can even still upgrade the RAM and CPU as it will take 32GB DDR4 and an Intel Core i7 7700. I just hope the video helps people not get scammed by those awful "SupEr FaST FortnITe" gaming PCs.
The only thing this machine is lacking is an m.2 slot - many of these dell, lenovos and hps had m.2 slots from 6th gen intel processors onwards - u need to look carefully before buying.
A friend was asking for a PC for her 15 yo kid for play Fortnite, CS2, Valorant, etc. They told her at the PC shop that anything below 1.5k is trash And at the second hand store they tried to scam her for a 4th gen i5 and a 5GB Quadro GPU that is a cut-down GTX 1060 for EUR 350. I helped her find a local deal for a Ryzen 5 5600G + RX 580 for EUR 300. Kid can't be happier 😊 And it also did not break the bank.
I would make a point to do these type of videos with 8th gen or later. Many are now off lease and being dumped by corporations. With Windows 10 coming to support end next year, 7th gen really should not be recommended to beginners. Otherwise, good content.
Well you could use the same process with just a bigger system, buying a pre-build productivity system is always good and fun too. Just harder to measure performance as everyone tends to use something different in terms of software etc
@BREEZYM6015 Depending on budget and location, the 8700K would not really bottleneck a 3060 Ti or 6700XT. I tend to find used 3070 for the best value, but the 8700K would bottleneck it slightly at 1080P.
wait aren't the 3050 6gb models significantlly worse than the 8gb models?? they have lower clocks and less cuda cores don' they? I saw videos of them both compared the differences were so tragic idk why it's not just named the 3040
Yeah, the 3050 8GB is a much faster card I believe but requires an 8 Pin PCIe connection so wouldn't be of use in a system like this. Cards that don't require it are things like the GTX 1050, GTX 1650, RX 460, RX 560, RX 6400 and Intels Arc A380 LP but all of these are slower than the RTX 3050 6GB so a better option.
Lol this card is 170 usd. It performs better than rx 580 while consuming 1/3 the power of it. Do you know this thing consumes only 70 watts. It is just 5 percent behind the gtx 1660 while costing less and brand new with 3 year warranty. Thid is a great esports card u can buy brand new.
just installed Windows 10 on an Inspirion 3668 w/i3-7100, 8GB, SSD for basic use. To bad it 's not Win 11 compatible. Maybe best to start considering 8th gen or newer, the i5-8th gen have 6 cores.
maybe not "officially" compatible, but I've installed Windows 11 onto a 4th gen i5 and it's running okay, and all I did was boot the USB and install to a clean drive. It even picked up my old Windows 10 Pro key somehow and it's all legal and activated. Honestly I don't know what Microsoft is on about that "8th gen" bullshit...
@@SeeJayPlayGames I've installed Win11 on unsupported as well, seems to work fine. It will be interesting to see what Microsoft does come Oct 14th, 2025 when it comes to the unsupported PC's running Win11. Updates could stop any time on those machines leaving that option less desirable in the long run. I suspect Microsoft will leave the door open to some degree, still... it will be interesting to see what happens
Unless you're willing to install Linux down the road, I would not purchase any PC with anything older than an 8th gen Intel CPU. Win 11 upgrades need to be considered nowadays. MS will eventually stop being able to upgrade unsupported hardware.
hello my friend have you had a chance on testing the beelink dock yet on other desktops using a riser cable very interested in the dock if it works on them
@@aaldrich1982 Yeah but its a prebuild so it will probably under perform anyway, as they often do. Lots of used 2nd/3th/4th gen custom pcs with i7 on the market with a gtx 970 or something like it for $100 or less right now. Up the front side bus a little and your 3th gen i7 is a 4th gen all of a sudden which is impossible with prebuilds. With a little higher speed on a 3th gen there is hardly a upgrade to the 7700, which is still way too expensive for what it brings to the table. Anyways, nearly same performance for way less money, specially if you take the rtx card into account.
@@mealot7613 I'm not arguing that there are other options to the prebuilt + 3050 path. I just think the focal point of the video is to help people avoid buying a 2nd gen Intel system with a gt710. This build is super easy and that's the idea. Many of us could scour classifieds for a perfect price to performance used parts rig but this video is more aimed at novices.
The ryzen 2200g's built in graphics is way better than a 710 lol, even intels UHD graphics 630 is better than the 710. 2200g is equal to a gt 740 at most.
Get an i7 and a 2060. They are cheaper than the 3050 6GB on the used market and are nearly 50% more powerful. 4th gen and above can run Windows 11 24H2 if you use Rufus to bypass the TPM check. It will not run on 3rd gen and older due to lack of AVX2. I've tried. You'll get the installer to run but it will be BSOD soup when it goes to do initial setup. a 4c4t CPU is not good enough for gaming these days. You'll be very disappointed with the performance and, even with the pathetic 3050 6GB, you'll be seriously bottlenecking your GPU in more recent titles and esports titles. No, a 4c4t does not provide a playable experience in Fortnite in 2024. I'm currently building an ultra budget machine with a Quadro K2200 and an i7-3770 on a Lenovo workstation MB. I tested a 3570 first and it just wasn't going to cut it. Third gen Lenovo MBs are non-proprietary and 4th gen ones just need an inexpensive 24-14pin adapter. They will not take a stock intel cooler, however, nor any other one that uses those stupid push pins. Holes are too big.
A colleague asked me last Xmas if one of those GT 710 systems was a good buy for their son. Steered them away from it and towards a custom build that i could do. They ended up going for a console, sad they didnt get a PC but so relieved it wasn't a GT 710. Can you imagine trying to play games on that after spending all that money!
It's sad how many fall for it. I have had quite a few asking me why their systems aren't performing and it's turned out they have bought one of these types of systems. Nothing you can do for them.
what is sad we lose another kid to a console, pc's are so much more than something to play games in
The most versatile PC case I've ever seen.
No glass cover, no unnecessary "decoration", just a simple, utilitarian design.
It's pretty clean isn't it, it's small size also makes it look really cute on the desk lol
My vintage Antec full tower cases are having a good chuckle at this comment. They'll take the biggest MB you can find and the longest GPU in the world.
@@TechLabUK for real man, i like these kind of pc builds :) . Also nice video
i built a mid gaming rig from a hp elitedesk tower g1 800. it came with 320watt psu but i bought a psu cable adapter then put a 550watt in there. put 32gb ddr3 1600mhz ram in there and a gtx 1650 super oc 4gb. chucked in the i7 4790k and this haswell system has zero bottleneck at 1080p gaming. put an evo 870 samsung 1tb ssd in there also and done. you can also mod the hp bios then flash it to accept m2 on a pci e slot card. all together this system cost me only $300 nzd which is 139 pound in gbp - the funniest thing about this build is i used co pilot ai to help build it for zero bottleneck and it worked which made me laugh.
Nice! We have done similar with larger HP Workstations and it's a great way of getting a decent system up and running.
@@TechLabUK yeah those hp workstations are good cheap build bases too especially if u lucky enough to get a 400w psu one i think they have those if i'm not mistaken. just as an aside i read a hilarious comment from a poster about the 4th gen i7 4790k who said " intel i7 4790k - the muhammad ali of classic cpus!" lolol the next one should be reserved for ".... the lennox lewis of classic cpus!"
Absolutely not! You need a glowing transparent case with RBG and 8 internal fans. You also need Windows 11 force installed onto an i5 2400 system.
Maximum FPS!
@@TechLabUK yes because everyone knows the more RGB = more FPS!!!!
@@dagdamar2000 It wouldn't even be as bad if they didn't also use the cheapest, nastiest RGB fans you can buy. Some of these systems come with some real awful stuff in them.
A listing with just Intel i7 or i5 in its name is an instant red flag. There have been 14 generations of those CPU.
right, if they're not specific about which generation it is, it's probably old.
Excellent video explaining how you don't have to be a computer "expert" to put this together. gt 710/730 mining apocalypses were definitely some dark times. My biggest tip would be to comparison shop. Many times a difference in $10 can mean a difference between 8/16g ram or an i5 and an i7 or the addition of an ssd.
Unfortunately a lot of people still fall for these scam systems on Ebay and Amazon. A lot of it is because they don't know how to build a system and they don't know much about comparative parts so believe the text in the adverts with made up stats and figures.
I have spoken to so many now who have fallen for it and are so annoyed at the lack of performance and in some cases they can't even take them back.
@@TechLabUK I think one of the worst scams is the one that lures you in with a low price, but that's the base model with no frills... and if you just do the baseline, it might be an okay deal but not a really "complete" system, you'll have to add more for it to game well... but there's a "configurator" which upsells you every upgradeable part at above market value, so you end up getting royally ripped off. If you know what to choose, just build it yourself then, it's not like it's hard, it's like grown-up Lego... and honestly, I think half the fun is putting it together yourself, rather than having it all ready to go. Gives you at least a little sense of accomplishment, even if you didn't really do too much.
Thanks for the heads up
No problem!
I picked up one of these 3 years ago for next to nothing, upgraded to an i7-6700 and 16gb ram.
The 240w PSU has enough juice but doesn't have a pcie 6p/8p, but I modified it and added one to the wiring loom, and installed a GTX1650 Super.
Been flawless as my daughter's first PC for years now.
Nice!
There are even some power supply upgrade options that will just drop right in. There's the 300 watt from the XE3 SFF and the 360 watt from the XE3 MT. They both have 6-pin supplemental power for the GPU and can safely be adapted to 8-pin. So, for those that might want to upgrade and not have to worry about modding anything, it's got some decent solutions to upgrade the GPU.
If you choose to upgrade to an SSD on your own, you will need a proprietary cable to get a second line of Sata power off of the board. They can be found cheaply but you're stuck in the meantime if you don't realize this ahead of time.
Theres no denying this is a starter banger for those kids /adults on strict budget! However there is literally no upgrade path for this down the line, not without some serious modding. The 3050 6gb is widely regarded as awful in gaming setups, but for a system like this then yes its the very best thats currently on sale that dosent require a power connector. As for going for a 7700 it wont make much of a difference to your gaming at all. But you cant fault it for 200 notes! nearest i can get to for new parts modern (12100f+rx6600+1tb nvme ssd) is about 440 and thats building it myself with an oem win 10 key. Keep up the good work and let those older pc's llive a few more years before hitting the waste pile
I mean let's get real here. Upgrade path should never be a major factor at this low of a budget. It's a pointless exercise because you're going to sacrifice a lot of performance for a theoretical upgrade down the line and by the time people interested in these type of builds are looking at an upgrade the system is EOL. The 3050 isn't a bad card - it's just horribly priced. The people making these type of budget builds aren't going to be rocking 1440p-4k OLED 144hz + monitors either. So it's questionable how "awful" in gaming setups it is. They'll be on basic 60hz-maybe 75hz 1080p monitors.
Also the 12100f is a good cpu + 6600 is a fine budget card. I have no problems with that. A fine budget combo. But in reality that's pretty much a dead socket too and is on the way out. The biggest problem with this is - are you really going to gamble on a 13th/14th gen intel CPU on the secondhand market or new? Especially in a couple of years knowing full well the problems with those CPUs? Your upgrade path is heavily compromised. You're better of going AM4 B450(which supports up to 4th gen Ryzen) + 2nd hand ryzen 2600 or 2700 or r5 5500 new. You at least have a 5800x3d to look forward to
My favorite version of this strategy is buying those old workstations. I bought two HP Z240s with i7 6700s, 16gb ram, and a Quadro M4000 for $85 USD each shipped on eBay. Not only is the M4000 about as good as a GTX 950, but I was able to sell both cards on eBay for $75 each basically having two systems for about 20 bucks each after fees. They also have pcie power connectors so I popped in some cheap local higher end 10 series cards for a super cheap but decently powerful pcs. I’d definitely advise anyone looking not to go for anything less than 4 cores and 8 threads though.
Great advice with the low profile 3050. It will hold its value and demand will stay quite high as it goes out of production, wouldn't be surprised if you could get £100 for it a couple years from now just like the low profile 1050Ti and 1650 held their value, this year before the 3050 6GB released you could easily pay £150 for a used low profile 1650.
Nvidia don't have any answer for the low profile/bus power demand in the 40 series and probably won't with upcoming 50 series either.
Yeah, they only have the LP 4060 but it's to big for some of my SFF cases and it requires the additional power connector. Took them long enough to drop the 3050 for this so another wont come for a while.
@@TechLabUK It is weird how they don't always release a card like this, RTX 4050 Mobile GPU could be used with a 75W power limit on a low profile card but Nvidia are a weird company sometimes.
@@lemagreengreen Tends to be an AMD thing really, Nvidia have no interest in these low end cards. They want to shift the high end, high margin stuff. You will probably find these LP 50 class cards appear because they have waste to get rid of or over stock on things or something. It's not their focus.
even now, low profile GTX 1650 cards aren't much cheaper than low profile RTX 3050 6GB on eBay, and those are listed (probably not selling) above MSRP, which is crazy.
I guess it's up to the board partners to provide solutions for the low profile/single slot market, as you can't count on NVIDIA to bother with actual engineering beyond the silicon.
I found one named "SRhonyra" (apparently translates to Songrey, whatever that is) that caters to the low-profile 1U server market. Unfortunately, they also charge quite the premium. I got one of their cards, a GTX 1050 - non-Ti, but oddly with 4GB GDDR5, instead of 2GB, so that's good - in a LP/single-slot form factor for my Optiplex 3020 (now moved over to my Lenovo M93p), and it's pretty nice. It has a blue anodized aluminum blower shroud, so it looks a lot like those pro AMD cards, but with NVIDIA silicon. I caught it on sale at Amazon for 40% off, which made it cost just under a Benjamin after tax and free shipping (was normally like $165, which is way too much). Perfectly cromulent video card for 1080p gaming, but my next move will be the 3050 6GB you showed in this video now that I have a PC that can take a dual-slot card, and the 1050 will go back to the Dell whenever I can get the 3050.
I saw recently on Amazon where they (SRhonyra) actually made a low profile single slot GTX 1060 (which is oddly listed as 160-bit instead of 192? That can't be right) but they want $250 for it, which is totally ridiculous because for that kind of money you could swap out your Dell power supply for a 1U FlexATX and get adapters, which leaves you space for a dual slot card to hang below the motherboard... so why not go for the RTX 3050 6GB LP like you got there, way better card. And you might have change left over for lunch.
@@TechLabUK AMD seems to have very little interest in the market either; they made the RX6400 for low profile which was actually a laptop variant chip with only PCIe 4.0x4, but they didn't do anything low profile with their RDNA3 (7000) line. I was expecting an RX 7400 but no... not yet. Come on people, someone make a PCIe 3.0x16, LP/SS card with a modern GPU? No? Maybe Dell/HP/Lenovo stop making the SFF systems then? No? Ugh. It's an underserved market. I guess they are only considering business customers, and don't care at all about the used market, which is probably bigger than they think.
Well, the A2000E (Ada generation) is there, but is like $649 because it's a current workstation-level card. And I don't expect that price to drop much, for years. Yeah, for that kind of money, you could build a whole rig from scratch (maybe some used parts), or do a really nice case swap and still fit a good GPU into the budget.
Very nice video. Even if this saves the purchase of one of those gaming pcs it's done it's job
Hopefully.
Tip for people doing this: Check how dusty the inside is, especially if it’s old. If you’re confident enough, it’s worth giving it a clean using a leafblower (or if you don’t have one a vacuum cleaner works), and if you want you can completely deconstruct it and clean each component. If you’re unsure I wouldn’t recommend doing that, though, since you have to put it back together. It’s also worth reapplying the thermal paste on the CPU.
man wants us to use a leaf blower to clean a PC. OK, Tim Taylor, woof woof woof.
No. That or a vacuum can create gobs of static electricity and potentially fry components. Better to use compressed air or a specialty vacuum. And don't let fans free-spin when you're cleaning them, they can generate electricity as they spin and back-feed voltage across the wires, potentially frying stuff.
Totally agree on the thermal paste, that stuff tends to dry out after a few years. There are some varieties that last longer, but they're seldom found on such systems. Just don't be a doofus and press down hard on the CPU while cleaning the old stuff off. I bent pins in the socket of a motherboard that way. Should have removed the chip instead. Fortunately it was inexpensive (I found a vendor who was parting out old systems) to replace. Board cost me $4 with $8 shipping, so a $12 mistake (could have been much worse).
@@SeeJayPlayGames Oh shoot, I used a vacuum on my grandparents’ PC…
Nice video. For anyone looking, 6th Intel i5 6400 is the oldest/cheapest CPU I would recommend
I have an i3 6100, i5 6500, i5 6600 and an i7 6700 at the studio. I did have an i5 6400 but I just can't find it anywhere so no idea what happened to it.
Correction: Intel's UHD graphics are better than a GT 710. In fact, intel's integrated graphics from 10 years ago outperform a GT710. That' how bad the GT 710 really is.
The GT 710 is dreadful.
@@TechLabUK why does it still exist? Why haven't they been recycled for their metals yet? Freaking WASTE OF SAND!!!!!!
@@SeeJayPlayGames Because it is good for what it is designed to be, a cheap display adaptor. Buy it second hand and it's even cheaper. It was never meant for gaming.
@voteDC 1050 a better option and I only paid £20 for the last one I bought, not for gaming but an excellent display card
@@aeroflopper A GTX 1050 will still be alright for light and old gaming. Never seen one for £20 though but when I do I will get one too.
Dell already done this on their website, they put more options for it and they have rtx 3050 too
Yes, a lot of pre-built system when new come with a GPU option of some sort but you will pay through the nose for it.
I love doing/watching these office PC upgrades!
5:15 can you really easily replace the cpu fan? does it use regular 4pin pwm connector?
The existing cooler fan is a standard 92mm with a standard 4Pin PWM connection. You can also replace the whole cooler with another because the peg layout is standard if you wanted.
@@TechLabUK careful with that advice, as though the mounting hole location is standard, rather than holes, the motherboards have threads instead (non removable back plate). Alot of aftermarket coolers come with a front plate which can screw in however.
@@jlgroovetek No, these units come with a removable backplates, it's stuck to the back of the socket plate but comes off with a little pull. You can then mount any LGA11XX cooler including the stock Intel cooler if you want. Makes them great for cooler upgrades.
@@TechLabUK fair enough! I assumed it was stuck hard on, but I didn't actually remove the motherboard to try. Fortunately the factory backplate is the same as many aftermarket ones anyway so I just re-used it for the new cooler.
@@jlgroovetek Yeah, I had checked it on this one as I was curious. Had some annoying Lenovo's where the mounts are in the actually case which are annoying. Dell did us a solid on this one though.
Best bang for buck
It's a great little setup for the money. Can even still upgrade the RAM and CPU as it will take 32GB DDR4 and an Intel Core i7 7700. I just hope the video helps people not get scammed by those awful "SupEr FaST FortnITe" gaming PCs.
@@TechLabUK I'd shoot for 8th gen instead of 7th, but maybe that's just me.
My first gaming PC was an Inspiron, I put a used cx650m PSU and a 1660ti in it, it was a beast 🤣
The only thing this machine is lacking is an m.2 slot - many of these dell, lenovos and hps had m.2 slots from 6th gen intel processors onwards - u need to look carefully before buying.
Was a little nnoyed this one didn't come with one tbh as like you say, a lot of them do. Must be a newer version of it or something.
Sometimes they even don't mention which one of i7 or i5 it is
I have noticed that, a few I have seen recently just say "i7" and you can only guess it's either a second or third gen.
@@TechLabUK yep you can only hope for the best 😂
A friend was asking for a PC for her 15 yo kid for play Fortnite, CS2, Valorant, etc.
They told her at the PC shop that anything below 1.5k is trash
And at the second hand store they tried to scam her for a 4th gen i5 and a 5GB Quadro GPU that is a cut-down GTX 1060 for EUR 350.
I helped her find a local deal for a Ryzen 5 5600G + RX 580 for EUR 300.
Kid can't be happier 😊
And it also did not break the bank.
Good job you were their to help her, everyone trying to scam people nower days.
@@TechLabUK The best part is that EUR 300 system is super upgradable. Put in a Ryzen 5800X3D/5700X3D, a Rx 7800XT and maybe 32GB.
It will fly
🚀🚀🚀
I would make a point to do these type of videos with 8th gen or later. Many are now off lease and being dumped by corporations. With Windows 10 coming to support end next year, 7th gen really should not be recommended to beginners. Otherwise, good content.
And you've got RGB as well in that monitor screen.
How about building a video editor rig on the cheap?
Well you could use the same process with just a bigger system, buying a pre-build productivity system is always good and fun too. Just harder to measure performance as everyone tends to use something different in terms of software etc
I7 would help with those lows
It would and it would make a nice little upgrade later one, we might do this to show people the difference.
Why use FSR in cyberpunk when DLSS is available?
We did originally test it with DLSS and it ran like garbage, FSR just provided a smoother experience.
I have an i7 8700k and GTX 1060 6GB. What GPU would be a good upgrade to pair with an i7 8700k?
@BREEZYM6015 Depending on budget and location, the 8700K would not really bottleneck a 3060 Ti or 6700XT. I tend to find used 3070 for the best value, but the 8700K would bottleneck it slightly at 1080P.
wait aren't the 3050 6gb models significantlly worse than the 8gb models?? they have lower clocks and less cuda cores don' they? I saw videos of them both compared the differences were so tragic idk why it's not just named the 3040
Yeah, the 3050 8GB is a much faster card I believe but requires an 8 Pin PCIe connection so wouldn't be of use in a system like this. Cards that don't require it are things like the GTX 1050, GTX 1650, RX 460, RX 560, RX 6400 and Intels Arc A380 LP but all of these are slower than the RTX 3050 6GB so a better option.
Lol this card is 170 usd. It performs better than rx 580 while consuming 1/3 the power of it. Do you know this thing consumes only 70 watts. It is just 5 percent behind the gtx 1660 while costing less and brand new with 3 year warranty. Thid is a great esports card u can buy brand new.
just installed Windows 10 on an Inspirion 3668 w/i3-7100, 8GB, SSD for basic use. To bad it 's not Win 11 compatible. Maybe best to start considering 8th gen or newer, the i5-8th gen have 6 cores.
Looking for an 8th or 9th gen system to play with at the moment but they jump up in price by a lot.
@@TechLabUK I agree, price is a bit higher currently, I wish they would come down too.
@@cookieboy5300 Like double the price for pre-built systems like the one in this video. I will find one eventually though lol
maybe not "officially" compatible, but I've installed Windows 11 onto a 4th gen i5 and it's running okay, and all I did was boot the USB and install to a clean drive. It even picked up my old Windows 10 Pro key somehow and it's all legal and activated.
Honestly I don't know what Microsoft is on about that "8th gen" bullshit...
@@SeeJayPlayGames I've installed Win11 on unsupported as well, seems to work fine. It will be interesting to see what Microsoft does come Oct 14th, 2025 when it comes to the unsupported PC's running Win11. Updates could stop any time on those machines leaving that option less desirable in the long run. I suspect Microsoft will leave the door open to some degree, still... it will be interesting to see what happens
Unless you're willing to install Linux down the road, I would not purchase any PC with anything older than an 8th gen Intel CPU. Win 11 upgrades need to be considered nowadays. MS will eventually stop being able to upgrade unsupported hardware.
i own a gt 710 its a GREAT GPU!!!!! (for a video encoder for my server) you get 1080 60hz solid
hello my friend have you had a chance on testing the beelink dock yet on other desktops using a riser cable very interested in the dock if it works on them
No, I haven't had chance yet although I cannot see any technical reason why it wouldn't work. The dock itself is basically a PCIe extension.
Weird thing is telling how the old i7 3770 is not that good for gaming to take an even weaker cpu in the form of a i5 7400.
The i7 3770 is a smidge faster but also much older and when paired with a GT 710 it wouldn't matter anyway.
Exactly. I'd rather have the 4 cores 8 threads vs 4 cores 4 threads. 8th gen and newer i5 is where the jump to better comes in.
Nothing to stop you getting an i7 7700 in this though.
@@aaldrich1982 Yeah but its a prebuild so it will probably under perform anyway, as they often do. Lots of used 2nd/3th/4th gen custom pcs with i7 on the market with a gtx 970 or something like it for $100 or less right now. Up the front side bus a little and your 3th gen i7 is a 4th gen all of a sudden which is impossible with prebuilds. With a little higher speed on a 3th gen there is hardly a upgrade to the 7700, which is still way too expensive for what it brings to the table. Anyways, nearly same performance for way less money, specially if you take the rtx card into account.
@@mealot7613 I'm not arguing that there are other options to the prebuilt + 3050 path. I just think the focal point of the video is to help people avoid buying a 2nd gen Intel system with a gt710. This build is super easy and that's the idea. Many of us could scour classifieds for a perfect price to performance used parts rig but this video is more aimed at novices.
very big CPU bootleneck....
Irony is HP had the same model but with Ryzen 3 2200g instead and the APU is about on par or better than the GT 710 ...
Pretty much how the HP 285 G3 we have came and that was like £50 on it's own lol
The ryzen 2200g's built in graphics is way better than a 710 lol, even intels UHD graphics 630 is better than the 710. 2200g is equal to a gt 740 at most.
@@RaffyART1995 I have no idea how these people are getting away with selling system with the GT 710 in them and calling them "Gaming PCs".
@@RaffyART1995 It gives the RX 550 a run for its money I would think but yeah, and still has driver support.
HP = How Pathetic
Dell = Dummies Everywhere Love Losing
Those were just made up by me on the spot because I can't stand "brand-in-a-box" desktops.
They can be pretty dumb but they are ok for people who have no idea how to build a PC and just want something basic to play a game with.
Toasty bros are selling gaming pc with a gt710 scam channel
OMG I just had to look that up and they do! That's terrible and some of the others listed are even worse. Not cool.
Not bad at all. The only downside is that some of these office PCs don't have great airflow
They are very limited which is why I would stick with lower tier parts.
Get an i7 and a 2060. They are cheaper than the 3050 6GB on the used market and are nearly 50% more powerful. 4th gen and above can run Windows 11 24H2 if you use Rufus to bypass the TPM check. It will not run on 3rd gen and older due to lack of AVX2. I've tried. You'll get the installer to run but it will be BSOD soup when it goes to do initial setup.
a 4c4t CPU is not good enough for gaming these days. You'll be very disappointed with the performance and, even with the pathetic 3050 6GB, you'll be seriously bottlenecking your GPU in more recent titles and esports titles. No, a 4c4t does not provide a playable experience in Fortnite in 2024.
I'm currently building an ultra budget machine with a Quadro K2200 and an i7-3770 on a Lenovo workstation MB. I tested a 3570 first and it just wasn't going to cut it. Third gen Lenovo MBs are non-proprietary and 4th gen ones just need an inexpensive 24-14pin adapter. They will not take a stock intel cooler, however, nor any other one that uses those stupid push pins. Holes are too big.
awful computer build, those Dell systems are just E-Waste . reason proprietary Motherboard and conectors and power supply, and terrible ventilation.
good salvage / upgrade report, FSR 3. rtx ?? haha mb