Anyone who stops to look at the prices of graphics cards and other components will immediately understand that the market is divorced from reality, and now more than ever, it becomes imperative to explore the second-hand market. Online options are abundant, and so we come to the Budget-Builds Official channel, who found a Sandy/Ivy Bridge system for less than eight pounds (almost 10 euros), and brought it back from the dead for very little money...
Graphics cards for $1,000, motherboards for $700, ATX power supplies for $200... there is something truly wrong with all this, isn't there? Of course, money will continue to change hands, but more than losing the compass, hardware manufacturers decided to smash it with hammers. We must also add Microsoft, which insists on forcing us to retire computers due to Windows 11 requirements... and the PS5 Pro at $700 definitely doesn't help.
So... second-hand. Some markets are much more dynamic than others, but there is a fundamental truth: Certain systems can be acquired and upgraded for very reasonable amounts, and that is the route that Budget-Builds Official on YouTube usually takes. This time, he dove into eBay to discover a “gem”... and he found it:
A 10-Euro Computer: Exploration and Upgrades
The video begins with a detail: The computer had been listed as a modem, falling off the radar almost immediately. Its package was a horror, but the case managed to survive the bumps without major damage. The real problem was inside, as several cables disconnected, and the motherboard socket ended up with several bent pins. Classic.
The specs reveal a Pentium G2030 (dual-core) with 4 GB of RAM, a Gigabyte motherboard with LGA 1155 socket (Intel Sandy/Ivy Bridge), and an “ATX power supply” of the kind that aspires to become fireworks without warning. Logically, the computer shows some instability quirks (which brings us back to the bent pins), and the integrated video performance is dreadful, except in very old titles like Half-Life 2 and the original version of Skyrim.
The system received three upgrades: a Core i5-2400 (10 pence), a Radeon R7 450 graphics card (5 pounds, shown in a previous video), and 4 GB of additional RAM. This enabled running games like CS2 (71 FPS, 720p low), Red Dead 2 (30 FPS, 720p low), BeamNG (31 FPS, 720p medium), GTA V (59 FPS, 1080p high), Minecraft (158 FPS, 1080p Fancy+), and the original version of Skyrim (59 FPS, 1080p ultra).
In summary, for less than 17 euros (more or less), a practically discarded computer went on to offer hundreds of hours in several popular games, and a more than decent experience on the Windows 10 desktop. It's no coincidence that processors like the Core i7-3770k (the largest model in Ivy Bridge 1155) don't go below $40 online. That generation of hardware still has a lot of life left.
(Editor's note: In the main image, he is using the laptop as a “screen”, capturing the signal)
