A YouTuber buys a gaming PC on AliExpress for 360 dollars. In the end, he is pleasantly surprised by the performance. Because the 360-dollar PC is more powerful than it seems at first. Because you can even play reasonably well on the device, if you make compromises on graphics.
This is what it’s about: YouTuber Dawid Does Tech Stuff regularly presents gaming PCs and especially pre-built PCs on his channel (via YouTube.com). He disassembles these PCs and tests their value.
Now he has ordered a gaming PC for 360 US dollars in a recent video. After the last gaming PC from AliExpress was a stressful endeavor, he wanted to find out what he actually gets for nearly 400 US dollars. For the “predecessor” he had spent 1400 US dollars.
In his video description, he explains that he didn’t expect much for 360 US dollars, yet the computer from AliExpress was “significantly more interesting than he had thought.”
Pre-built PC for 360 US dollars manages to surprise the tech YouTuber
This is his first impression: The package with the gaming PC arrives well packed at the YouTuber. But at first glance, Dawid notices that the graphics card is missing – at least it is not visible.
Only upon opening the case does he find the graphics card. Because it is sealed in bubble wrap and not connected. A gaming PC without a graphics card would have been a really bad deal.
The build quality of the system is average. The motherboard is not properly screwed to the case and screws are missing. There is cable management, but it is chaotic and more utilitarian than sensible.
Here’s what’s inside the 360-dollar computer:
- The gaming PC features an Intel Xeon E5-2640 as the processor. This is quite an old CPU that was released in 2012. The Xeon series is usually used in servers and workstations. You can now find the processor on eBay for 30 – 40 euros.
- The processor is built on a Chinese motherboard from the manufacturer Huananzhi. According to a comment under the video, Huananzhi is considered one of the better hardware manufacturers in China, and the currently best motherboard is installed here.
- The graphics card is an ATI HD 6750. The graphics card is from 2011 and was once a mid-range graphics card that at least supports DirectX 11. You can find the graphics card for about 30 euros on eBay. The biggest problem with the graphics card is the very small video memory of only 1 GB.
- According to the YouTuber, 8 GB of RAM is acceptable for this price range, but is on the lower side for a gaming system overall.
What performance does the PC have? The performance of the device is surprisingly strong. At least YouTuber Dawid is more than positively surprised:
- In GTA V, the PC achieves at least 40 FPS at a resolution of 1440×900 with medium to high details. Higher resolution is not achievable in GTA V. Dawid finds the performance “surprisingly good.”
- CS:GO runs with high details at Full HD at about 80 – 90 FPS. This is also where excellent temperatures for CPU and GPU are noticeable.
- Fortnite runs with 3D Resolution at 100% and view distance at maximum at least at around 30 FPS. Reducing the 3D Resolution noticeably increases the framerate, but the game also doesn’t look good anymore.
This is his conclusion: His final conclusion is quite positive. Aside from build quality issues, the 360-dollar system features surprisingly fast hardware, with which you can easily play some games.
The cooling performance of the graphics card and processor can also convince and completes the positive overall picture. A comparable gaming PC from Amazon that also cost 360 US dollars offered significantly less for the money.
Even compared to the 1400-dollar PC that he also tried out, the setup is impressive. The computer starts immediately without blue screens or other technical problems, and Windows works (partly in Chinese) without major issues.
The entire video from Dawid is embedded in this article. Here you can watch him dismantle the PC with more or less enthusiasm:
Another YouTuber also did the test with the 400-dollar PC: YouTuber Austin Evans bought a gaming PC on Amazon for 450 dollars and tested what he gets for the money. Unsurprisingly, not everything that says gaming is actually gaming.
Why Video Memory (VRAM) is so Important for the Graphics Card
The gaming system features an ATI HD 6750. This still offers considerable performance, but its biggest issue is the low video memory of 1 GB.
What is video memory? Video memory is abbreviated as VRAM, which stands for “Video Random Access Memory.” This is particularly fast memory that can only be accessed by the graphics card. Here, the graphics chip stores files needed for calculations.
The larger the memory, the more data can be stored here, and the graphics card has more room before data has to be deleted or moved from memory. Certain games even refuse to start if the graphics card memory is too low for what the graphics card officially offers.
What to consider when buying: If you want to buy a graphics card when you can get it at a fair price, you should ensure that the graphics card has at least 6 GB of video memory.
4 GB was considered sufficient until a few years ago, but this quickly becomes a problem with modern titles. Especially at high resolutions beyond Full HD, such as WQHD or 4K, video memory plays an important role.
VRAM is also becoming increasingly important for ray tracing. The GeForce RTX 3080 was criticized for its small video memory. Because this graphics card only has 10 GB of video memory, which might be too little for ray tracing in the long term. That’s why many are hoping for a 20-GB upgrade for the RTX 3080 or a Ti version.
MeinMMO editor Benedikt Schlotmann has now bought a 6-year-old AMD graphics card and with it, gaming is surprisingly good if you don’t care about high details or very high resolutions. However, there are some things to consider when buying used.
