Let's discuss budget desktops. Like, under $100 builds. Where did you get yours, how much, and what's the specs?

pi zero

Better performance, can use video cards, switch out CPU's, non-retarded CPU architectures, and cheaper. Raspberry pi's suck in comparison

>Idk what to do with it though.
the world is your oyster

Is there anything specific you could use it for though? I've read people made torrent servers out of them but I don't know how that shit works.

Attached: 1498082108232.jpg (635x768, 90K)

I managed to get a thinkcenter m93 for £60, it has a Intel G3220T & 4gb ddr3, I'm going to set it up as a kodi box/ console emulator.

I use my raspberry pi for kodi, that's it really.

It's really easy to install Mac OS X on that machine, you gotta find the perfect ATI card to put in it for best results, I found one on e-bay for like 20 bux.

I got a Dell R410 server for 75 bux including shipping.

ebay.com/itm/263697589371

How's this boy

What's the best GPU I can put in a sandybridge i5 system w/ 8gb ram without bottlenecking issues?

Way too much, look on craigslist. I've found a few that have similar specs with a HDD for $15-$30.

lol.
the people at my job were throwing away a bunch of old computers and they threw away a few of these.
asked if i could take them.
took 3.
gave one to my sister and the other 2 are just lying in a closet.

Can I buy one off you, user. You live in Washington state?

Thinkpad. Lenovum make a desktop version of their Thinkpad called a docking station. Its amazing.

>$60 range
kek

I recently acquired 4 Dell Optiplex's from my University Surplus sale.

One's a 980 with an i7 860, and the other three are 990 series, with a i7 2600. Hoping I can flip at least three of them on Craigslist after I stick a HDD in them. Not bad considering I only paid ~$25~ for them.

Does it do symmetrical docking?

You live in Washington state?

texas.
I'm lucky because I haven't bought a new computer in over 10 years.
I did the same at my last job.

Fuck I'd buy that i7 desu 50 dollarydoos?

I mean the Nehalem i7, not SB.

yes. glad you asked. It supports symmetrical DVDA docking. its like a kind of multi-user multi-port experience.

SB?

Nope. NC
1050 Ti Maybe?

You can find $0-15 business surplus desktops everywhere. Kijiji, craigslist, thriftstores, local auctions, sides of the road. Socket 771 xeons are ridiculously cheap on aliexpress, and come with the 771-775 adapter attached already. I got an old thinkcentre and threw a $5 quad core in there and sold it easy for $100. Skip HP computers, they sign their firmwares so you can't add xeon support to it.

Put everything else into a midrange vid card. 771 xeons are similar to older i3's and i5's in performance.

Sandy Bridge, 2nd gen Core i series. I've been passively looking for a Nehalem (1st gen Core i processor) for an old mobo that I've got an i3 540 in. It's a shame the mobo itself is trash though.

lel

I've tried passive cooling. But it never gets it down. What do I need to strap to it to get the temperature down?

Fucking score. Chuck some ram and bring each unit up to 8gb, a GTX 1050ti, 250gb SSD and they'd be a hell of a 1080p gay-men rig.
I wanna build an Optiplex 990 for a little portable console.

Yeah I run my tiny headless servers on a loud, graphical, 100W machine too.

Attached: right-tool-for-the-job.png (577x435, 437K)

Under $100, not much but this, an i7 860, and an i7 750.
I've done plenty in the $100-200 range, though.

Attached: Lenovo.png (344x691, 216K)

I have a Core2 Quad desktop. I paid around $250 for it second hand a few years back. Has 8GB of RAM and 4TB of storage. Works great for YouTube, Jow Forums, and office stuff. I'm currently using Debian stable with XFCE. Without the storage you could probably get one for around a $80-100 now.

Attached: pepe457.png (865x526, 65K)

Lenovo m93p with a 1050ti. Bout $300. Also, just picked up a NIB ASUS dual OC 1070 from a negro gentleman for $200. Gotta look hard.

dq67sw and i5 2500 used on ebay.

Otherwise, watch out for used OEM boards like from hp and dell or you will find youself dealing with propietary everything.

>ebay.com/itm/263697589371

Just so you know OP, the case and board are propietary out the ass.

Heatsink/fan, heatsink/fan holes, all fan connectors, all front connectors including the power switch. Proprietary.

I am just saying, that if you go with a computer like this you are going to have a very hard time putting a gpu in or moving the board to a real case.

Got one just like this minus the drive to run my chinkshit CNC and Vinyl Cutter
Optiplex 760 E4600, 4GB, sadly intergrated graphics and 32 bit Win 7 that it came with and I didn't feel like reinstalling.
Paid $50, bought as surplus from University of Alberta last year

Attached: Dell-Optiplex-760-Desktop-2.jpg (500x486, 104K)

all you fuckers, youtubers, and ecelebs have raised prices and keep me from buying them

Whether they're trendier now or not, they still represent great value.

I just recently got an optiplex to run my plex server on, seeing as how it is the optimal plex machine. Threw on linux mint and its really like this was all meant to be. Now I'm trying to figure out the best way to add more data storage, not sure what route I'm gonna take next.

>figure out the best way to add more data storage
Have you tried hard drives?

Its rather limited on space, thinking I might need an external solution.

I know, they only fit one HDD.
You could buy a large one, or go with external if you have eSATA in yours

Yeah its got one. I was thinking though, what if I did a pcie adapter for an SSD to run the os and then ive got the spare bay + esata.

bumb

Why are all these core 2 duo SFF's so overpriced on ebay and craigslist? Somehow the youtube channel budgetbuildsofficial finds these desktops for $30 or much less. Are these just suddenly popular for people who want to build a super budget gaming desktop?

80€
i3 2120
4GB Ram
320GB HDD
Win7 Pro

got ripped off bruh

HP Z220 SFF i3-2120 3.30GHz 8GB 500GB HDD for $70, should I buy it?

also, putting a ASUS AMD Radeon R7 250 that I found for $20 in it. $90 all together, how did I do?

bought an i5 2500 8gb ram hpz210 for 99 bucks other week.
slapped an evga gtx 750 ti FTW

Could use it for a pretty dank pfsense box

That card can fit in a SFF and the power supply had enough wattage to power it?

pic is gpu in case. psu is 400w

Attached: JPEG_20180518_164058.jpg (2067x1731, 1.96M)

Nice, those GPU's are surprisingly cheap now. Saw a few for around $80 on craigslist. I remember when they were $250 new.

If you want gaming 300 would be enough.

Buy a dell optiplex 990 and put in a 1050 ti (low profile medel if necessary) and done.

>Asus GTX 1070 for $200
damn son you lucky

ick you should have just bought a fucking 760

i got my 1080 ti for 220

Not exactly budget, but I got a max spec x260 with one cycle on the batteries for £650.

got gpu for free so i cant really argue

Or you just fit a GTX1050/1050ti micro like everyone else does with the SFF Optiplex.

Same. Got mine for free at work after they were throwing them out. Got two free hard drives, 8GB RAM. Only thing I spent money on was a new PSU and put in an 8800GT I had lying around.

>Auctions
>Dell optiplex
>get i7 version

Throw in ssd and GPU and you're golden.
....
Or trade the GPU for more RAM then youll have powerful little server or a overkill pfsense router.

Nah that was before zen came out and processors were more expensive.
Still the pc died after a year so...

Home server maybe? I built a plex server with similar specs recently.

>Buying cheap hardware with high power consumption
>using it as an home server
Genius.

Well a home user isn't likely to be running it at high load. Even Core 2-era chips don't use much power at all if they're sitting there dozily ticking over at 1.2GHz. The power consumption vanishes into the noise of a typical household. Unless you're a German paying $0.40/kW-hr or something.

Funny I'm german and while the average cost would be 0.25-0.3€ i myself pay less than 0.02€ per kWh.

But let's say you are using a pretty good power supply and your server would idle all the time (which it shouldn't since if it's never used there would be no need to have the server in the first place). You are consuming at least 35W (that's a best case number keep that in mind). 35W/h makes 840W/d makes 302.4kW/y. Even if you're in the land of the free and pay only 0.15$ per kWh you're still paying 45.36$ per year. That's a best case scenario, if your psu isn't the best and your server is doing actual work and you're paying a bit more than 0.15$ you are easily looking at costs close to 100$. I myself use nuc from asus i got for 88€ that uses a n3150 (which uses under load less then half the power a core2 duo based system uses in idle). In idle it uses more than 20W less. Such a system will have realistic costs of 20$/y (if we use 0.15$ per kWh, if it's higher the advantages will be bigger obviously). Nether the less we are looking at savings of 30-70$ per year. Btw. a core 2 duo might have bettwr single core performance, the n3150 is a 4 core chip, making it just as good as the core2 duo for multi threaded applications.

Just don't use inefficient hardware for your server, it won't be worth it.

Attached: aHR0cDovL21lZGlhLmJlc3RvZm1pY3JvLmNvbS80L0svMTkzMjY4L29yaWdpbmFsL3BzdV9pZGxlX3Bvd2VyXy5wbmc.jpg (450x268, 28K)

This picture made me lol, literally. Thank you.

last year i bought a compaq 6000pro sff for 60 u$S it came with a shitty celeron 4gb of ddr3 a small hd (about 200gb) and a win7 acc

So my 4 year old Alienware died the other day and I'm posting from a toaster. Which is better right now? Prebuilt gaming PC, or build my own?

I've got a budget of about 1k, and I want something VR capable if I choose to also pick up an occulus or vive.