The $25 CPU & Motherboard Combo! (2023)

Welcome to my latest video featuring an ultra-budget CPU/motherboard combo. Hope you enjoy!

Parts Featured:

Other parts:

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~Personal Rig Specs(Amazon Links)~

~Music Credits:~

Background Music:
LAKEY INSPIRED
Track Name: "Better Days"

DISCLAIMER: All Amazon links are connected to my Amazon Associate account. I earn a small commision from each purchase without any increase in cost to you. All bitly links that go to Newegg are attached to my Newegg affiliate account.

[HoloScope]

Hey I've been building systems with those motherboards for quite a while, I discovered that the row of pins by the sata ports can be used for RESET switch, HDD LED and POWER button as well! It follows the same pinout as the vostro's of the same era, no messing with that proprietary 5 pin at the top of the motherboard! No error codes either!

[malcolmmacdonald]

I've built many PCs with similar specs for friends and family over the past couple years. And yes, I've noticed the RX 470 and RX 570 are both getting very cheap on eBay and are a great deal.

[duncan]

Awesome video Matt! Thank you for making content about ultra budget PC gaming, it is often overlooked. I can't wait to see what you come up with next!

[CoalitionGaming]

Ooh when I built with E3 Xeons back in 2020, and cheap motherboards (an Acer veriton x4630g), the value was awesome. And they've gotten cheaper and cheaper. Always love to see Xeons :)

[panagiotisgalinos]

ITs fine. My pc is an i7-3770 (NON k) with Asus P8z77m, 32GB RAM, samsung evo ssd 512GB, Seasonic S12G 650W and RX 6700 XT. Ι gaming at 1080 with very high and ultra at all games, even on vr games

[mapesdhs]

This reminds me of the XEON 1620 v3, ludicrously cheap at just $8 (ie. 6 UKP where I am in the UK), a Haswell-E part and thus (unlike SB) it has all the modern instruction sets and provides PCIe 3.0. It behaves like an i7 4770, but of course the problem is finding a relevant S2011-3 mbd (X99). I bought one to fault-diagnose a Rampage V Extreme, but in so doing I was amazed at how well it ran in general. I've since obtained a replacement 6850K (old one had developed a PCIe controller fault), but I hope to find some other X99 mbd to test the 1620 v3 later. It may only be a 4c/8t CPU, but being X99 it has more memory bandwidth thain modern mainstream mbds and a lot more PCIe lanes. Mind you, the 6c 5930K is only 20 UKP so for the small extra outlay it makes more sense. :D

A while ago the 8c 2650 v2 (IB-E) was all the rage for budget builds via Aliexpress, using mbds such as the excellent PlexHD X79. It's moved on since then to X99/Haswell, but it's not as cheap as it used to be and RAM is priced higher now.

Another option, again if one can find a suitable mbd, is the 3930K, a 6c SB-E available for about $20, and unlike XEONs it can oc to 4.6+ on a decent mbd, but even at stock is still pretty good. Or there's the 4930K for not much more, or the 4c 4820K for a lot less. In the UK from CEX the 4820K is just 10 UKP, the 3930K is 18 UKP and 4930K is 22 UKP, plus of course these CPUs all have 40 PCIe lanes, so plenty of options for expansion *if* one can find a suitable mbd. Still, with the CPU costing so little, it perhaps matters less if then spending a bit more on a semi decent mbd, something like the ASUS P9X79 Pro or above. Another popular option for X79 is the 6c 1650 v2 because it can be oc'd, but I don't see the point when the 4930K is so cheap anyway and will always be supported (XEON support varies; Asrock and Gigabyte are usually fine, ASUS varies, MSI I'm not so sure about).

The other nice part about the above options is the quad channel RAM, so one can go for that 4x4GB and still obtain the higher memory bandwidth, which will help in some cases. Or double up the slots for 32GB.

Ho hum, if only it were still possible to easily obtain good X79/X99 mbds.

Meanwhile, for normal consumer mbds the P55 era is still cheap and can be pretty good if paired with a decent CPU, but it is limited to SATA2, PCIe 2.0 and no native USB3 (though as you say one can fix this with addin cards). However, this matters a lot less than many would assume.

[adrianstech]

I have an Optiplex 790 DT and 390 MT, as well as 2 Optiplex 7010 MTs. I have tested a Xeon E3-1270 in both my 790 and 390 and they have worked flawlessly. I got it for around $20 USD converted from CAD. The only issue I had was that my 390 BIOS was on the first revision and wouldn't boot Windows 10/11 GPT installers, so I had to make a Windows 7 MBR installer and update the BIOS through Windows 7 before clean installing 10. Now everything works flawlessly on my Optiplex 390 (with the Xeon) and a Quadro K2200 I picked up for less than $15 USD

[desultorilypanacea]

Damn ye Matt! I keep saying PC gaming is impossible because it's too expensive. Keep up the good work.

[lennoxx_yt]

I would reccomend getting an old desktop for the case (I've found a few for as little as $5). This also means you can sell the rest of the components to have more money to say spend more on RAM or storage

[IX_]

nice work man u accually made a solid review and a veteren benchmarking
u deserve a sub and a thumbes up

[joelferguson]

25 for the cpu and mobo is a great price for a solid starter kit.

I've moved on to better hardware but for the person with little budget this is a great video.

[florider_hd]

im using an e3-1270v2 and a 1660super and it still rips. 1080p monster!

[BismuthOxide]

Hey matt, love the content. Would you be interested in checking out the new chinese DIY APE YTX motherboard? I havent seen anything about it yet and the new form factor looks super interesting.

[mesterak]

I have an Optiplex 390 build I put in a modded HP 8000 case. This board actually works well for a triple boot WinME, XP, and Win7 system. On eBay they have converters for the proprietary power/LED and front IO although it costs more than the board itself. There are guides online for pinouts for DIYers out there. I put a FirePro V5100 (Radeon x700 equivalent ) so WinME and XP can use the same card. For Win7 I swap out that GPU with a GTX 750 TI to play a few newer titles. Strange an OEM board can be that flexible, but with the SATA and ram patches by RLoew Win9x runs fine on the 390 too!

[zomien_]

yea love to see it. also i loved the gpu mystery box series

[gorjaharchangel]

Here in my country in Europe, any processor that has the i7 name or it's a 4c 8th Xeon get an automatic price premium.
I have easily found a Lenovo motherboard with standard connector and pin layout for 10€ but the only processor you can find for 15-25€ is an i5 or the equivalent Xeon 4c 4th ( e.g. e3 1220 ) . So I settled for a 15€ i5 2400 with a 10th gen Intel stock cooler. The integrated graphics were pretty useful in the beginning as I added a GTX 1050 a few weeks later.
All in all a made that pc for around 80€ and the other day I made a Zoom call with my students and it was capable of screen sharing while writing on my graphic tablet, as well as keeping some documents open without a hitch.

[ogbenchmarks]

The amount of rust on that motherboard - yikes! I like that eBay seller, but that board was rough.

[andrewmutavi]

E5 ...v3 chips are a banger even today, still worthit if found for cheap even today in my opinion

[Felix-vehs]

Fun fact: in 2014, more people were buying a Intel Xeon E3 1231 v3 than the Intel Core i7 4770 because it was much cheaper (until Intel noticed their mistake and put a stop to this)

[Sybertek]

This is dirt cheap. Well done on the sub-$200 parts list. I would never settle for a 960, though. I'd personally use either a 1050Ti or an RX 470 at least. Looks like it's good for someone who is desperate to get into esports. This is better than some of the stuff that was going for over $500 about a year and a half ago when scammer were selling i5 2600s with GT 710 and a bunch of cheap RGB fans.