- Hey, guys, this is Austin.
Recently, Ken went out and found
a surprisingly good $700 gaming PC
that was pre-built from a big box store.
So that got me thinking,
what happens when you want to spend $400?
I've built a lot of custom gaming PCs,
and the math is really simple.
You're almost always getting better price to performance
when you build it yourself versus buying a pre-built.
However, things have been changing lately,
and this $330 Lenovo is a great example of that.
One of the nice things about a pre-built system is
that you at least do get some accessories.
So this looks like a keyboard, and while I'm sure
it's not going to be particularly high quality,
it's better than nothing.
And especially if you don't have any accessories right now,
something like this will get you off the ground.
And now we have the computer itself.
So something that's a little bit interesting about this guy,
is that it's considerably smaller than most desktops.
Because of that, as you'll see a little bit later,
it does limit some of our upgrade options.
So it might not look like much,
but this guy has some potential.
So it's powered by a Core i3-7100,
paired with four gigabytes of RAM,
and a one terabyte hard drive.
And that might not sound too impressive yet,
but with one major upgrade,
I think it can actually handle some pretty decent gaming.
This is the NVIDIA GT 1030.
Typically lower end graphics cards
just don't make a lot of sense,
but the 1030 is surprisingly good.
And with a $70 price tag, it puts the entire price
of this build at $400.
Which I think actually might just be able to challenge
Ken's $700 system.
Well at least when you consider price to performance.
So open this guy up and one of the main issues
is that it only supports a low profile graphics card.
Which just so happens to fit perfectly with our GT 1030.
So I think the only thing we're gonna have to do here,
is just move the WiFi antenna out of the way.
But beside that it pretty much should be good to go.
And with that we have the graphic card installed.
So, as I'm looking inside here
there actually is some upgradability.
So on top of the graphics card,
you can't easily put another four gigs of RAM in here.
And while it does have a one terabyte hard drive
to start with, on the bottom there actually is a slot
for an M.2 SSD.
So if you wanted to spend another, say, 30, $40 on RAM
and maybe another $80 on an SSD.
For less than $500 you're getting a pretty decent system.
(record scratching)
So if we would've actually got the correct GT 1030,
which is about half an inch smaller,
it would fit no problem.
However with this one,
(banging)
not so much.
So normally, I would try to cut out a little bit
of the metal just so it would be able to clear.
But the problem is because this system is so small,
the hard drive is literately right here up against the lip.
So if I did that, basically I would have to pull out
the hard drive.
This ones like literally a half an inch to big.
So, can we just do the rest of the video
with the computer case open?
Can we just, can this just be the rest of the video?
Cuz it's not gonna close anymore than that (laughs).
A few Windows updates later and the system is alive.
So well yes, it might not look ideal right now,
we actually have some decent specs inside.
That Core i3 is clocked
at a pretty impressive 3.9 gigahertz.
And while the GT 1030 might not be
the most powerful graphics card around,
it should definitely be able to handle
some pretty decent gaming.
So our first game is going to be CS:GO.
Now it should be no surprise that this system
is easily able to handle it.
Even on high settings at 1080p, you're gonna
get anywhere between 110 and 140 frames per second.
Now sure it might not be the most competitive thing
in the world, where some systems can run it
at 300, 400 frames but I would say this qualifies
as playable.
You know, if can actually find someone.
I can just plant the bomb.
That's also an option.
Next we have Rocket League.
Now this is another game that isn't particularly demanding,
but it actually looks pretty good running here
on the $400 system.
So at 1080p on high settings,
we're doing anywhere between 50 to 60 frames per second.
Next, we have Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor.
As I almost get killed (laughing).
So this is a slightly older game,
however even on low settings,
I think it looks pretty decent at 1080p.
And we're getting a pretty solid 55 to 60 frames per second.
So if we would've gotten the correct size graphics card
for our case, I think actually would be looking pretty good.
And what's kind of impressive is what kind
of price to performance you're actually getting
out of this guy.
If you were going to build this system today,
it would cost you around $450.
And that's not including stuff like the optical drive
or WiFi card.
Now mind you, if I was going to build this system
for $400, I would probably make a couple of adjustments.
Like drop the Core i3 for a Pentium
and maybe consider a slightly faster graphics card.
But considering that we're $400 in
and didn't have to build anything,
besides not being able to close the case,
it's not bad.
If you guys wanna see how Ken was able to get
an even better deal on a pre-built system,
definitely be sure to go check this video out here.
But what do you guys think about our franken monster
for $400?
Let me know in the comments below
and I will catch you on the next one.