This $69 Gaming PC is INCREDIBLE

Our last $69 gaming PC from 2018 was a pretty good machine for the budget. Will we be able to beat it in 2022? Watch to find out!

Purchases made through some store links may provide some compensation to Linus Media Group.

FOLLOW US
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MUSIC CREDIT
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Intro: Laszlo - Supernova

Outro: Approaching Nirvana - Sugar High

CHAPTERS
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0:00 Intro
1:48 A new challenger - HP Z420
2:20 Looking inside the Z420
5:40 Availability and more options
7:55 A GPU and storage for $25?
9:40 GPU secured!
10:35 Storage for $2.07?
12:05 Step 1 Sell old GPU. Step 2 cha-ching!
12:54 Booting up the $69 PC
13:36 Benchmarking games
16:19 Conclusion
16:53 Outro

[imadqadri]

so... when we gonna get a $420 PC build?

[joemarais]

Whichever writers worked on this did a great job meeting that price point. Honestly thought sub $100 windows 10 gaming machines were dead.

[RedSoutherly]

I work in my university's e-waste centre and we give out machines, like the one you started with, for free all the time. Becasue otherwise the uni has to pay to get them recycled. So for anyone wanting a base machine like the HP maybe ask around local institutions for what they do with their outdated equipment, they might just let you have it 🙂

[AndrewPRoberts]

Love the fact that you went with a z420 for the $69 PC build. Very nice.

[jtbwilliams]

I started out with a rig like that, replaced the CPU, GPU and Motherboard over a year or so and its pretty powerful...
It's a PC of Theseus.

[LucasRodmo]

Bonus point: usually business centered workstations are pretty solid and can last a long time. They really put an extra effort in the parts.

[AllenKey]

I love how Linus accidentally called out his own store's pricing comparing the PC to the screwdriver 😂

[AdaptiveArtisian]

Considering inflation, high prices and people being laid off - this is an amazing video for the student, the family struggling with presents for their children, fathers wanting to treat themselves without selling a kidney etc. All jokes aside, amazing video and truly helpful in these times.

[MrR]

Oh, man this episode made me smile. I found one of these Z420's in the electronics recycle bin at work. My new(to me) free rig had inside, a 4C/8T Xeon E5-1620-0 at 3.6ghz, 16GB of DDR3 at 1600, a GTX 770 2GB and 240GB SSD. I added a GTX 1060 6GB (this was in 2017) and a 2TB HDD for games/storage and I was off to the races with what ended up being a rock solid gaming rig that never gave me a single problem for 3 years. With that 1060 inside, it ran Witcher 3, AC Odyssey, GTA V and other newer titles at 1080p medium/high settings with no issues. Good times!

[code_master]

I was given one of these workstations and installed a 980 and an SSD a few years ago. Still runs great. Good to show that it doesn't take a lot to be able to get into PC gaming.

[wordlance]

I have to say I appreciate you guys putting these videos together. I live on a fixed income and have wanted to upgrade my 2009 HP desktop for years (my steam and gog libraries are filled with games I can't play) but kept putting it off due to the costs of computers -- especially now with rocketing inflation. A modest upgrade like this one could give me access to 90-95% of my libraries. Thx!

[eldibs]

Old-ish office PCs are a gold mine. With a tiny amount of work they're basically the fastest PC your non-enthusiast friends/family have ever used.

[annagulaev]

It's good to see this kind of content become possible again.

[Mittau]

The 10 SATA slots would make this an interesting basis for a ultra budget storage machine.

[heckin_dinosaw]

My first desktop was a HP Z240, I chucked 8GB of ram in it and eventually a 1050ti and it was a pretty powerful computer for what I was used to, when gaming it wasn't anything special, but when I did the occasional video editing, cad work or photo editing, the xeon absolutely crushed it, still have it sitting in storage for use with 3D printing once I have the space

[CanIHasThisName]

I think the biggest takeaway is that when you're trying to build a PC on a very low budget, start looking into old workstations. And if you manage to get in touch with someone who's selling a number of them, ask for a monitor, keyboard and mouse, they might be able to get you something really cheap as well.

Be aware of all the limitations, especially if it's one of those low profile ones (low profile GPUs are really hard to find right now). And also make sure that you actually want a PC for that cheap. Because if you're planning to start gradually upgrading sooner or later, you will run into trouble due to the weird form factors and proprietary stuff. Even the motherboards sometimes won't fit into regular cases and a lot of these workstations come with PSUs which don't have any PCIe connectors (meaning you need a GPU that will run just on the 75W from the motherboard).

[jasonviande]

Until recently used one of these as a gaming PC. Quick tip, make sure you get a Z420 with a 1620 v2 (Linus is using the slightly older one), so that you are basically guaranteed a dual six pin. They also occasionally packaged these with very nice water cooling, so it might be worth it to look.

[Struggle-Snuggle]

When I was broke a few years ago, a buddy gave me this exact computer. I put a GTX 1060 and SSD in it, it gamed quite well! Fixing up old office PC's is OP.

[payman_azari]

as a personal experience as service engineer, the Siemens Healthineers MRI scanners were equipped with HP Z400, Z420 and recently Z440 (intel Xeon), they work pretty well as heavy-duty workstations. even the former versions are still at service without even dust cleaning service!

[CoalitionGaming]

Happy to see my go-to budget gaming "base" of the HP Z-series workstations covered by a much larger techtuber! Good to see, Linus & team! For anyone wondering, the Z420 is also transplantable with a ATX PSU adapter (from Moddiy) and some tweaks. The ATX PSU adapter is all you need if you're cool with a "press f1 to boot" error, but if you want a clean boot then you have to disable USB 3.0 in the BIOS, add a PCI-E USB 3.0 card to keep any USB 3.0 functionality, put a jumper on the sense pin of the yellow USB 2.0 header, and thats it. Use PWM fans on any/all headers and you'll be all set. Oh, almost forgot to mention a different cpu cooler would be needed too due to the way the stock one installs. I've done mods to these, adding a clear side panel, as well as complete transplants into new cases fully gamer'd and RGB'd out. I love these workstations! Would be awesome to see you guys evolve this system into a stronger and stronger budget behemoth in upcoming videos!