@@mylesbell2398 at least you guys have a dedicated gpu lol.i just have a laptop that cant get 60fps on csgo@ 800x600 and $900 desktop but no gpu or current storage devices
That 540 becomes just fine when you overclock it to 4.3 GHz, I did swap mine for a €8 X3440 from AliExpress though. Good thing to know is that basically every 1156 cpu and motherboard will take a decent OC.
@@RandomGaminginHD Me too, my €8 OC Xeon has the equivalent power of a i7 3770 Btw I managed to get an average fps of 120 with min and max at around 80 and 140 in Valorant maxed out with that i3, its around 300 now though.
I just recently completely upgraded to a Ryzen system but over the last year I found myself watching a lot of your videos (didn't find your channel until earlier this year) and piecing together/selling 3 other systems. I didn't want to get rid of one of them but during these rougher times I needed the money. Like you have mentioned though, it's actually quite a bit of fun piecing together systems and seeing what they will do, and trying out older graphics cards and stuff when its all you have for a period of time adds another element to the experience also. I can tell by what you say in your videos that you've been there and done that in the not so distant past as far as having to squeeze every frame you could out of the computer that you were stuck with for that time. If you can make it work for you so that you are able to have some fun, take your mind off of the world for a bit and escape maybe, then thats what counts. In conclusion, what a cool video that shows there are some cool games out there that you can still play even on the tightest budget possible, short of free I guess. :)
Man that title is the reason why I subscribed years ago. That is the reason to hit play, then pause a couple of seconds later, like the video, press play again.
You should definitely upgrade this to see how a few choice upgrades can help smooth out the experience (without the fire hazard aka OEM PSU). Lovely video as always!
Old hardware is so much fun. I would just stick to pre-2012 games and lower end indie stuff and have a blast. It'd be a great system for Oblivion, Skyrim, Borderlands 1, Portal 2, the Mass Effect trilogy, Dragon Age Origins, etc.
Only recently discovered your channel It’s a hobby of mine to find & game on budget hardware Look forward to more content :) Also an idea; find an old MacBook / iMac run bootcamp on it and see how well you can game on it
G'day & Happy New Year Random, This is why I love your channel, it's not about you the most expensive builds, the best GPU or CPU or trying to get 1000FPS, but it is about being able to build a PC no matter the budget so you can Have Fun Gaming 🥰
"The ultimate gaming PC for under 20$" lol No one could get away with that title! And not a single pleb would even be fooled by it.. Because it's impossible.
This pc actually reminds me of my old samsung laptop that i bought brand new like 4 years ago and used surprisingly long and harsh. It had a i5 processor and gt710 mobile graphics card. That laptop was most important thing for me and i did many many things with it for years. I didn't knew basically anything about computer hardware back then and that pc would look like a beast in my eye just because it was able to run ksp or some games even cranked ultra low settings. It's was not all about hardware and power mattered me back then, what i mattered me most was it beating my friends pc by mere 2 or 3 fps in minecraft. This pc ,that wasn't supposed to even run, you made using only less than only 20$ parts gives me same feelings as my old laptop. I enjoyed playing train sim world 720p or even 480p all day or grind whole german tech tree in war thunder on ultra low settings. Now i have a beast of a pc, really great tech acknowledge and now i'm actually studying for computer engineering in university but even after all of this, that 720p stuttery gameplay of skyrim or 30 to 40 fps csgo gameplay looks stupidly good in my eyes.
1:22 You can get some real gems if you explicitly search for broken parts on eBay. Kinda seems like people list things as broken if they don't have the means and/or desire to test them. I ended up with two fully functional PSones (US$10 shipped for both of them) like that. One of them only needed a light cleaning to bring it to like-new condition. The other went through what I can only imagine is a soda spill (seriously, the motherboard and the insides of the case were coated in sticky, Coke-colored goop), but after a thorough cleaning it came back to life and continues to run like a champ.
You hit the budget gamer/recycler jackpot! There are some very generous people around, just gotta pay attention to FB marketplace and Craigslist freebie section!
Yo your vids are soooo goood, your channel proves you don’t need a huge crew like Linus, please keep going because Your vids are so good I watch through the whole vid :D 👍
I have an Acer desktop (X5900) VERY similar to that one. The CPU is almost identical, an i3 530 compared to the 540 you've got. I ended up with 4GB of RAM in mine (that was upgraded to 8GB), also a WD Green 1TB HDD and a 512MB GeForce 310. Again, 220W PSU. Mine was from Lite-On, which isn't that dodgy. The PC itself was free from my uncle.
I once bought an untested z77 Extreme4 motherboard for $55, once I got it in it worked fine and served as my main machine for almost 2 years. It still works to this day in another machine.
I had this exact model of Acer Aspire from 2012-2016, but it had a AMD E-450 with integrated Radeon HD 6320 graphics, 4 GB of RAM and that same power supply (which blew up in early 2019 to nobody's surprise). Was your PSU also rated 80+ Bronze somehow? I know mine was, and considering it was made by Chicony, that seems like a lie lol
you crushed Linus's $69 pc in every way!!!! great work, this was a huge surprise; the upgrade path to an i5-750 or an i7-860 and 16GB of RAM and a GTX 1050 / TI / 1650 is super enticing as well!! future video?
Nice low budget build! With the new GTA and Battlefield some time away maybe you could do a theme build. I did one myself because I stumbled across a Asus GTX 560ti Battlefield 3 edition at a local flea market. Combined with a X3430, some stickers and a spraycan it became my nephews pc for almost a year. Costing around 55 euro's total.
When i first started watching this channel i was only getting back into pc gaming and i had a gt 745, since then i have had a 1050ti then to a 980ti and now i have an rtx 3070 but i still enjoy watching what the older and cheaper hardware is capable of
Wow great job, this is one of my favorite videos of yours. You have absolutely no idea how much I want this PC, I'm on an extremely tight budget and getting this PC would be absolute heaven. Could I have some links?
This video reminds me of the first PC I bought; it was very similar to this one (an Acer desktop SFF) but AMD-based. It had an AMD Athlon II X2 220, 3GB RAM DDR3 and NVIDIA onboard graphics. I upgraded the processor to an AMD Phenom II X4 945, upgrade the RAM to 8 GB and installed a GPU Radeon HD6570 low profile. I could play games like Assassin's Creed 3, Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag and Tomb Raider at 720p with Medium settings, I gamed on that PC for like 8 years until got faulty last year. Then I made a new built with a Ryzen 5 3600 and a GTX 1660 ti.
Nice B though :D Very funny! Edit: Loved btw. how that feral ghoul paused and gave you a moment to inject your stimpak, very considered feral ghoul that was :D
I got lucky with an untested GT 440 recently. It is true that some sellers genuinely dont have the hardware or time to test the components they are selling.
Nice build - despite its dubiousness, you can definitely make a profit on selling the parts themselves. The 1TB HDD by itself would be worth buying this PC as 1TB HDDs tend to sell close to £25 on eBay (or similar). DVD drives are also worthwhile having, the GPU is worth using as a test GPU and the motherboard/CPU is worth having around as a test system for CPUs on that socket. The 220W PSU isn't great but at least with OEM stuff, there's a resale market: people wanting to restore a PC might find they need a specific PSU to fit in their case.
I have come across dozens of Chicony PSUs over the years. While unspectacular they are very reliable. The basic rule to follow with them is to take Max wattage (220 in this case) and knock off 10%. The CPU and GPU here will draw a max of 135 watts so the power supply is fine.
Sometimes "untested" means just that, though. Because I've come across sellers that just collect a whole bunch of stuff from wherever they can just to sell it on and they don't want to bother (or aren't able) to test it all. - And they would also just flat-out say that there's a chance it might not work because they didn't bother testing it (especially when it's about much older hardware) and it's just sold "as is". - Then again, those would also not sell for high prices either, so it's just a small gamble.
Reminds of when I got into PC gaming by slapping a 1 GB GTX 650 into my brothers pre-built 1st gen i3 with no HDD space and about 4 GB RAM. Did a good chunck of my Arkhan City playtime using that setup.
I'd imagine a Shoebox of the right dimensions might be a nice little case upgrade.. maybe even cut a sight window and use thin clear plastic as a tempered glass substitute.
I enjoy your videos, there’s a certain charm about making use of old hardware. Though in my opinion, testing games at 720p is a bit illogical. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a PC monitor using that resolution. Why not test at the far more common 1366 by 768? Even most old ”720p TVs” actually have that native resolution in their panels.
Those two core four threads CPUs are still fine for light gaming. I've built a cheap pc for a nephew many years ago, with the i3 3240 and recently I've told him if he wants a free i5. He told me that it doesn't feel the need, the GTX 660ti is doing fine with the i3! I have no idea what his games are, other than fortnite, ofecours... On the other hand, I've found myself in a rough spot with the Athlon 200ge at 4.1ghz and a GTX 1070ti. I've thought that it's fine to crawl along until the 5k is out.
You did mention that your monitor refreshrate was limited to 75mhz? Most monitors can be unlocked and overclocked a bit, making a 75mhz doing maybe 85mhz or more. Would be cool to see if you can include some OC’d monitors to your budget builds. :-)
That PSU brand (Chicony) is actually not that bad, it's not well known for sure... Had one going for like 10 years without any problem (LGA 775: C2Q /w HD4670 and then a GTX 650), tho' it was a 460W piece :D After these years it still worked, but after like 10 years it started to make a high pitched noise: it turned out after the disassembly, that the high voltage (mains) side capacitors were at the end of their life. I choosed not to mess around with it (replace them), after 10 years I think it served me well, and done enough... Long story short, the brand itself looks "dodgy", but according to my experience, it was not bad at all!
My first computer I bought off creigslist for $100. it was a dell with an i3 550. I upgraded the ram, gpu to a gtx 970 and got a new psu. It ran stuff great for many years. what a wonderful system it was.
I actually have a 650. I never tested it, since my old job (prior to covid) had a bunch of PC stuff they were gonna toss. I took 3 PCs home, plus a 650 and some old AMD/Radeon GPU that doesn't have HDMI . I never used the GPUs, but kept them, but I used the PCs as bases for budget gaming PCs. I put a 1050 and gave one to my dad, and a 1050ti for my brother in law. The last is my backup lol.
You might be able to make a few bucks selling the PSU, those dodgy small form factor ones are usually quite expensive because they are somewhat rare and don't last that long.
I was wondering.What happened to the gtx 680 Super oc edition.The one with the 5 fans on the top panel of the gpu?Do you still have it?and if so why not make a 2020/21 video on it?You did the original video 2 years ago so would be nice how it does today.
gtx 650 was my first gpu i ever bought!! back in 2012. it was an evga single fan model,it was the og! i then moved to a evga 970 in 14’, then a asus 1660 super last month.
No surprise given Acer own Packard Bell, but this motherboard looks identical to the socket 1156 in my old Packard Bell iMedia S3810 (i3 550). Still runs perfectly mind including the PSU, but retired this year as a daily driver.
Hi Random Gaming, I watch and enjoy all your videos trying to learn a bit about them, it’s very impressive listening to you and your knowledge but the truth is i often haven’t a clue what your talking about, I’m sure most of your audience are computer savvy and understand what your saying, it would be nice if maybe you done a “for dummies” type video that explains what the various settings actually do, and how they affect the gameplay, I know what CPU means (I think 😂) but most things you call by initials I’m lost 🤣🤣🤣 doesn’t stop me enjoying your videos though 👍
that's the exact CPU that is in our HP desktop from 2011. manages the most recent sim city game at a decent framerate. 4GB of 400mhz RAM and in built graphics
Swapping the i3 for a Xeon. The good thing about that motherboard is it will take a standard power supply so you can drop it in a cheap case. It’s a standard size
Just goes to show what kind of performance you can get out of hardware, But yeah, that's gonna need a half-decent 300W PSU, just for sanity's sake. Apart from that though, Very impressive. Oh, and I like to think of 80% of 1080p as 1.6k, because it is literally 1536x864, unless I've added it up wrong.
Kinda like my old PC. Intel DH61CR MB with an i3-2100, 8gb of random tiny ram and a GTX660, ran GTA on Normal/Medium around 40fps and it was very much playable!
i've the same case, it's a horrible case x) The CD Drive is never aligned well, and it's a real oven, you can feel it by touching the case , the PSU become very hot with a GTX 320... also good idea with the CPU fan to avoid hot air to get out x)
I built one for $150USD Upgraded Pentium G3220 to a i5 4690 and GPU to a Red Devil RX480/8GB for $100. Got so lucky as my card if you can find one is like $250 on eBay. Huge heatsink , triple fans , dual BIOS , never runs over 63C
We'll replace i3 with x3430 and slap a good gpu like gtx 960 or hd 7870 or gtx 1050ti or even a r9 280x and u will have a 1080p low settings capable system
Story time: That is the same exact acer mobo and CPU combo I started with 4 years ago. I spent $20 USD for the entire desktop + case no GPU. Added a Radeon 5770 1GB for $30 locally and was able to play CSGO at medium - low settings 1080p. Also you can upgrade that CPU to an i7 870 for very cheap if you are interested. Double the performance for about $20 USD. Its also a great overclocker, 4ghz is easily achievable.
