This is a reupload because I didn't explain the entire story well enough on the first try. Thanks for waiting! & Check out Nebula. It's a really cool streaming platform for creators, directly supports me, and is very affordable, like $2.50/month.
I'm currently running a very similar setup: an Optiplex 7040 with a GTX 1060 6gb (I replaced the PSU as well). I should admit I also faced the lose power button problem myself 😂
hey hey, im on an Optiplex 3040 rn. Thinking about swapping out the psu, but i would need to buy a 24 pin to 8 pin for this motherboard? Did you do that?
@@tah-472 yep, I bought one from amazon. No problem so far. I also bought a right angle adapter for the gpu 6pin connector since my gpu was too wide and the case didn't close 😂 no problem with that either.
i have the 7040 with a 500w psu and gtx 1080 (i had to cut up the front panel to let the gpu fit (i refuse to get rid of the 1080 because i got it for a good deal)
😊 glad it worked out for you. I’d like to see the EPIC gamer build and how cheap you can make it. I have people asking how much my system cost and I have to convince them they can get good performance for less.
Working in IT at a university is a quick way to get crazy deals on these old OptiPlexes. We're currently phasing out 5060/5050/5040 models here as they're getting to roughly 5 years old, but the 5060s (although much less common) are worth their weight in gold - I got 3 with no drives (university policy for no drives) for $15 EACH. Insanely good deal. 5060s are a good model to find as they've got 8th gen Intel parts, a front panel USBC port, natively support Windows 11, and have a M.2 slot so drive installs are super easy.
I wish I could do that. I work in a public school district in IT support, but we're not allowed to buy or take any IT surplus. Its a state law I believe that states that we have to sell the items to recyclers that work with school districts.
Hey Oz, I remember how around 4-6 years ago, I watched a lot of your PC build videos, and they were amongst those that inspired me to build my own, about an equally long time ago. I'm typing this on it right now! You were randomly recommended just now, and I had a flashback instantly - I was very glad to see you're still around and uploading, without any drop in consistency or quality. Thanks, man!
I love my EVGA 1650 Super that you showed there and had great luck with it. I re-pasted it using Thermal Grizzly and had some really good overclocking results - that cooler is overkill anyway so there's quite a bit of headroom if you did well enough in the silicon lottery. Thanks for the great content Oz!
@@OzTalksHW user benchmark has it in the 100th percentile for that card so I was very lucky. I originally got +250 on the GPU and + 1100 on the memory but did eventually suffer one crash during a long RDR2 session and dialed back to +220 on the clock, haven’t had an issue since.
Love this video so much, happy to watch it twice! Thank you for highlighting an all too common struggle of budget buying/building and acknowledging that the process outlined by TechTube is often easier said than done. Keep up the great work, Oz!
Hi Oz, Ive done something similar to this a few times to help friends or make cheap minecraft/roblox pcs for their kids. a $20 case and a cheapo power supply will get you a lot further with upgradeability and I usually go for a case with a power supply in the $40-50 range for these low power entry level systems because the cases look decent and the kids like rgb fans even crappy cheap ones.
I think you should try a retake for sure. I think there is some Xeon server-based workstations from Lenovo and from HP that kick this computer but for the 140-180$ price range. Great video tho, thing with the dells there will always be thousands of them.
There is so much value in showing your methodology AND mistakes. Love this channel dunno why I haven't subbed yet. Content has gotten way better since I last watched you too!
I made a similar build and settled on the 1650 super. It matched perfectly with the power available and size restrictions. Sadly there was no video about it, but basically this with a standard SSD. I sold it for $250. My cost was just under $200.
I built this pc for 150 € and I think it shreds :) [GPU] AMD RX580 8 GB [CPU] i5-3470 [RAM] 8 GB [SSD] 1 TB Samsung HDD [HDD] 256 GB Samsung [PSU] Chieftec 750W [Case] no-name ATX The machine orignally came with GeForce GTX 750 and cost 100 €, I sold the GPU for 15 € and for 65 I got the RX 580. Ofc prices vary, this was in Estonia.
The power button problem isn't obvious. It's a rather niche problem. My first thoughts when a PC refuse to work are: reseat everything, maybe it's the PSU, RAM, or mobo. Power button is probably not on my "why this doesn't work" list at all.
Hey Oz, this video was really cool, even though I have already watched it on the first upload, lol. I find your videos very calm and relaxing. It's nice to find a RU-vidr who thinks about the budget gaming community.
i'd probably take everything out of the case and drill out the rivets that hold that drive cage, if i had an optiplex like this. just thoroughly vacuum out the metal fragments afterwards, and now you have ample space for anything you want.
the pc that got me into gaming was a repurposed optiplex with a 1050ti. I bought it from my workplace when they did some upgrades, it was $20! now i use the computer i built for myself, which doesnt sound like a jet engine... but im still grateful for that thing!
I've been running an Optiplex 3020 with an updated Xeon e3 1245 v3 (an I7 4790 equivalent for £20), an AMD RX 6650 XT, 16GB RAM, 450W PSU and adapter, 2 x 1TB SSD, dual booting Linux and Windows. It's been pretty good as a budget desktop with some gaming ability and a bit of an upgrade path in future. Been pretty happy with the performance for the past 9 months. The CPU might hold back the GPU slightly at times, but it was a known tradeoff going in.
😃 I think getting the super epic mega build working would be fun. Can you pull the drive cage out and double sided tape a SSD somewhere? hehe. It's not as plug and play as RX 460, but I recently picked up a WX 4100 on ebay for about $40. It's close to 460 but has 4GB of GDDR5. Downside is the only outputs are mini displayport so you'll need to adapt them to your monitor.
I'd love to see the "behemont" card in play too! 🎉 also replacing a hdd with ssd brings down the power needs so you just *might* have enough power (and space) for the rx 5700 from that puny 240W psu. I mean new sata ssds are like 10 bucks nowadays.
I can confirm that these systems do not limit the PCIe slot to 25 or 35 watts. And these newer Optis are designed with the intention that you remove the faceplate before swinging the chassis open. It's funny though, I'm building up a 7040 to flip right now. I had issues with mine powering on as well. Ended up that the CMOS battery was bad. Now I'm just trying to find a GPU that makes sense for a decent price. Seeing people paying near $100 for standard 1650s.
I haven't watched your videos in a long while. This video is refreshing, and is a good re-introduction. Also a good reminder that you don't have to have top of the line specs to have fun.
G'day Oz, 😁 for the "Epic Behemoth Gaming PC" Thanks for taking the time to re-edit & upload this video, adding the "Money down the drain" chapter really adds to understanding the full story, For some reason down here those OEM RX460s used are STOOPID Expensive $150AUD or more, 1650 used are similar price but at least performance is much better if you are limited to 75W, as a comparison if you can swap the PSU you can get RX570, 480 & 580 starting at $80AUD or GTX1060, 1070 1660 & 1660Ti for $150-$200AUD.
I bought a used Optiplex 7040 back in February this year. It came with an i5-6500, a 512GB M.2 SSD and 8GB of DDR4 ram. I bought it to use as a work PC, but over the months I ended up replacing the ram with 4x8GB (32GB) of DDR4 ram, a full size dual fan RX6400, a 5GHz Wifi Card and a 4TB HDD. Pretty capable machine, especially for older games and e-sports titles. I still use it for work every day, but it's not my main PC, still a fun project!
I've had to cut a couple of cases to make a big card fit in a pinch. It's always bitter sweet at the end. Ultimately you achieved the goal but it's clear there isn't enough air flow for the big card. Every time I do this I have that feeling of dissatisfaction when the card starts choking and fan speeds kick up.
Hey man, you are great. That passion cuts deep, I can't do it anymore but glad people carrying that torch. I've been around since 386 turbo was a thing. I played Wolf3d on floppy during turbo pascal class in HS. Yea, you keep going man, love your stuff and subbed, finally after many watches.
This story is a summarization of what happens to me every time I try to get cheeky and build anything "on a budget." People find some great deals. I find ways to waste my money lol Edit: Oh, and :)
I am currently using an Optiplex 7050MT with an i7 7700, 64GB of RAM, several nvme drives, standard Dell 240 Watts psu and a 75W Nvidia Rtx A2000, which is equivalent to a rtx 3050 but with lower power consumption, less heat and modern nvenc recording and streaming capabilities. On top of that, you can use other Dell branded proprietary 340W psu that are the same size as the original 240W psu (I can tell you the exact model number if interested). No need for a third party psu that you then have to make fit the case somehow. Cheers
Sadly you cannot get the optiplex 7040 in germany for that cheap, it's 108+ euros here. I had to buy a ddr3 system with an i7-4770,16gb ram and 128gb ssd, I am looking for a GTX 1060 6gig for the system and a better powersupply. A friend of mine would be interested in the PC he only wants to play GTA l - GTA V and the OG Tomb Raider series.
I'm so tight with money that i'd have just bought a 1650 and had done with it. When the PC doesn't post, i'd again be so tight with money that i'd jump the power pins on the mobo (ie try everything possible) before buying multiple cards and psu's. Enjoyed the vid anyway as always dude
I bought this same PC for 80 dollars. It came with a i7 6700, crucial 500gb ssd, 16gb ddr3l and the same video card in your video. I bought a rx 550 on amazon for 35 bucks. Plays really great for the price. Used mostly for free games on steam and Warzone 2.0 multiplayer.
Having build computers since the 1990s it is very frustrating and long nites troubleshooting when PCs do not work as expected. Even back then with a 350 Watt Power Supply, it does not have enough power for everything hence along the Dell 240 Watts. Got a similar Dell that you have about 2 years ago. As a desktop work computer that play some older games it is a great value. One of the big limiting factor to go this route is not a lot of space inside and the small power supply.
You should link your parts in the desc so your viewers can replicate. Awesome work man, love your budget builds. I would like to see one for 200 usd with a reliable upgrade path please.
80 bucks. A8 7650K. APU from 2014. 95W P.D 8GB 1600mhz Wifi built-in. SSD crucial MX500 500GB. HDD 750GB Barracuda 3.5 inch. 315W PSU. FMA88X+ motherboard with overclocking feature. Mini-ITX format. All I did to it is, upgrading the RAM from 8 to 16GB of DDR3 1866mhz from Patriot. And swap that massive HDD for an SSD from Kingston, 960GB for a bargin. (A400) This PC is a retrogaming beast. PS2 emulation is fine, dolphin mostly fine. It can run about anything I would want to play. If it's struggling on the graphical or CPU side, I can rise the clockspeed. I locked mine at 3.2Ghz (3.3 is supposed to be the base C.S, but I ran into stability issues no matter the voltage. So. Yeah.) Basically got my gaming PC for nothing. If I want to have extra power I can go for a cheap GT710 or GT1030, or maximum 750ti/1050ti or 1630 to really unlock my PC's potential, even tho it won't be spectacular, quad cores being old and outdated nowadays, and it, being more comparable to a first gen I3 to I5 in performance will not be powerful, at all. It's basically doing what I want it to do. Playing retro games, decently. 720p too. If one day my PS3s dies, I'll swap for an R7 5700G to emulate this masterpiece of a generation 🥰 That's all. Just keep on scrolling and keep on checking each day for a good bargin' on the marketplace and pray that the PC isn't dead 😂
love it, buddy just bought one of these optiplexes ("gaming" with a gt710) been telling him a 1650 super is a good route to go, as I just upgraded from one to a 4060 since it barely uses any more power (iirc 100w for 1650 super, 115w for 4060, and myself using a HP prebuilt with a 400w, now 500w psu, its perfect until I get a new case and mobo)
I went through a very similar experience building my Optiplex 5040 recently! I ordered the wrong voltage of RAM and had to buy an SFX power supply to replace the micro ATX one I had ordered, which set me back about $70, and cost me a week to finally complete. I'm planning on swapping the board out to a 7040's soon with some ddr4 ram, since I did 0 research before building it, like a fool.
Easiest way is to find a free Optiplex that’s at least Core series or newer (especially if you manage to find one with a 6 pin power supply in it) then put a GPU in it. If you have money leftover cheap RAM and whichever CPU the board takes that’s the most powerful but not too expensive (like typically the top i7’s cost 3x more just bc they’re more rare)
6:21 If I understand what you meant, you're concerned that a dual sata to pci-e power would pull too much power? That dual adapter would have worked fine; the dual connection means it could deliver more power, but the actual load would be determined by the video card's power load (75W - what it gets from pci-e slot). You could connect either one or both of the sata connectors and it would be fine. If the pc refused to turn on, it would not be a problem with the power adapter. (Note: sata connectors are rated for 54W max, so don't try pull more than that per sata connector)
Yooo I had no thought of this at all. My moms laptop recently broke and thankfully we had another one she could use but it made me think of future prospects if that one dies. I was thinking a desktop would be best instead of another laptop, and I had no thought whatsoever to check for mini tower or micro towers secondhand and then do upgrades. My mom uses Linux so if it can't handle windows 11 it doesn't matter. Thank you so much for this video!
Did I pay too much($300)for this PC? Specs are: MSI Z370-A PRO MOTHERBOARD i7 8700k ASUS GTX 1060 6GB Turbo 16GB DDR4 RAM at 3000MHz Corsair H100i 240mm AIO cooler Kediers C570 open air case with 7 fans.
This is so relatable! I sometimes upgrade PCs and laptops for my friends and colleagues, and EACH AND EVERY TIME this require some stupid shenanigans to work properly. 2 days ago I bought Sata SSD and optibay (DVD to SSD/HDD adapter for notebooks) only to find out that this particular laptop HAVE NO DVD-ROM. There were just plastic stub and no Sata connector inside😅
A lot of people just don't even know what an RX 5700 is, and wouldn't know to look for it. To my knowledge, it's very similar in performance to an RX 6600 or A750. The 5700 is, I think, much rarer than the 5700 XT, but isn't really that much slower. A great entry level card. The RX 460 is probably not worth bothering with unless you really know that you're only planning on playing older games, or some specific game which you know will work well on it.
I initially wanted to build a gaming PC for $200. Over time with the SSD upgrades it end up costing $400. My video card does not fit in my PC. I have connected my video card with a PCI-e cable. I use a video card outside a PC case. The advantage is that my video card is much cooler. Dell Optiplex 3060 SFF I5-8500 16GB Ram Nvidia GTX 1650 4TB SSD
GTX 970s are going for $40-50, yea it does require a decent amount of power but a good deal if you have the PS to support it. I’m glad these prices are going down
i have same experience with optiplex 3070(slim/low profile ver.) i5 9500 cpu. the rx 550(low profile) would go black screen before finishing the amd driver installation. the fix is i went to bios and set i5 9500 igpu as primary display and f10 save. plug the display port to the motherboard and i can install the rx 550 without error. the msi afterburner detect rx 550 100% usage when playing dota 2 and other game even without setting graphics settings to high power in windows 10.
- knows he'll need a SFF power supply - Still orders a giant 20cm BIG BOI GPU I've been there. Those OptiPlexs aren't the magical deal you think they are.
👍👏Thanks for being so honest!! Too many videos out there praising cheap Dells and Lenovos as gaming machines etc. Objectively, they may be good, in particular for home automation, nas builts or office/server use. But you have to be aware of the downsides. Non standard psus, non standard mobo size factors and power connections.Non standard cases with cooling issues by design. AND when they have been used in a company they often ran over night and have billions of hours. The old psus are often close to death just by running all these hours. So compare that to either a cheap new build or even one of these mini pcs with amd igpus. Maybe worth the extra money in terms of future proofness.... Have been there, learned it the hard way....
I recently was on eBay and grabbed a similar Dell OptiPlex MT 5055 specs on it are Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 w/ Rx550 4gb, & 16GB DDR4 2x8 dual channel, 256GB nvme SSD got it for just under $100 after tax & delivery 😊
you should test competitive titles(cs, valo, tf2, fn, apex, etc) on these units, that's probably the only games people buying that cheap of a pc will play
Love all of you videos. I am looking to get a workstation PC and drop in a GPU. But later do an "easy" PSU upgrade and upgrade the GPU again. Then still leaving room to take everythin and put in a Tower and upgrade the GPU again. I find it hard to know the Watts of the PSU in different workstations. Which workstations have the most up-gradable path?
I have a case and I think the power supply is good. The rest is crap. Maybe the 1060 is good, I can't test it right now. What is the easiest build to throw in there. A Ryzen 5 5500? Ever thrown parts from a broken laptop into a PC case? I think you should build the Optiplex you want it to be, go big I guess.
I enjoyed this video and your views on solving the problems you had. Well done! I also have been building and selling machines more on the extreme value side so I can appreciate your views.
If someone is working with a super limited budget and has a ssf computer around all you need is the amd r5 340x 2gb for a video card and a few ram sticks probably about 8gbs and a k series intel such as a 2500k if its lga 1155 in my case mine is and the optiplex 390 sff i had since 2016 and has been in use since 2011 runs fantasticly for 2010s era games
The best opersting system for testing if hardware is functional is linux, the easiest one to get going would be linux mint very familiar to windows 10 and has built in drivers for most hardware, nvidia may require drivers to be installed via the tool for such
A couple months ago I got an Opti 3070 i5 9500 for $100, I received laced the ram and added a $100 used Gtx 1660 with a sata adapter. It’s running like a champ.
I feel your pain. My own story of my attempt to build an affordable upspec pc is one of woe and ennui, costing me about 4x what it should have. Oh well, I ascribe the additional money as the cost of education (so I don't cry).
btw u can def put like a newer rtx on it 100% and switch to a full psu if you don't mind having the psu outside the case and the case open so the bigger gpu could be in there its kinda ghetto but it just works
I am looking to upgrade my Lenovo 510A. I bought it for work. I don't do much gaming on it since I use it for mostly for everything but I would like to have to to game during my down time.
