Help me maximize this ebay find!

[TechSquidTV]

I found a great deal on a PC, or so I think, and I think it might make a half decent Youtube video. Want to help me make the most out of this "Junkyard build"?

 

Cost: $170 (including shipping)

 

 

 

HP COMPAQ ELITE SFF 8200

Specs:

Processor Type: Intel Core i7 2nd Gen.

Processor Speed: 3.40GHz

Memory: 8GB DDR3 1333 MHz

Hard Drive Capacity: 500GB

 

I was thinking this would make a decent Youtube video for a sub $300 gaming PC. Might not be the cheapest gaming PC on the market but I think it's pretty nice for the price. Definitely, think I can try and give this thing a console look.

 

Definitely going to find a budget SSD that I trust to boot off of only (Keep it cheap for the challenge), and I want to attempt to add a low profile graphics card. I don't really need the disk drive but it's already there and I don't think I can think of anything to put it it's place but maybe some kind of IO panel.

 

What kind of low profile card do you think it would be worth throwing in here? The onboard graphics won't be terrible and I know my options are limited. A new low profile 1060 will double the cost of the computer.

 

This build will probably become my girlfriend's gaming rid when I'm done putting it together and making a video out of it.

[aisle9]

It's SFF. That really, really limits your ability to upgrade it. It uses a nonstandard proprietary PSU that you may or may not be able to swap out with a TFX or Flex ATX, and the best you can do on a GPU would be a low profile GTX 1050 Ti. There is no low profile 1060.

 

I mean, if there is, damn son, I am there. Link it up!

 

Let me put this into perspective: my little SFF sleeper, Banzai, is an HP Slimline s3200n case. The internals have been completely replaced. H110 motherboard, 300W Seasonic Flex ATX PSU, GTX 1050 Ti, i7-6700T. The ODD is gone, replaced with an SSD. All told, the rig probably cost me close to $500, and as a gamer, it's not spectacular. I love that I can take it pretty much anywhere, and have actually taken it on road trips before and plugged it into the hotel TV. I love Banzai to death, but building him was not in any way easy or cost-effective.

 

That said, if you go ahead with it, you have my full support and I am completely rooting with you. Cleaning out the guts of an unremarkable SFF and making it awesome is incredibly fun and unbelievably rewarding when your friends see you fire up GTA 5 on a SFF slimline from 2007.

[Sir Asvald]

I'm sure there cheap USED GPUs on the market. You could mod the PC to a full GPU or just look for an old low profile GPU.

 

 

[Mantis21]

I agree with Aisle9. You should look into the PSU, and if you want more performance try to find one 3rd gen CPU, it should be a significant step up (if I'm remembering correctly). 

[TechSquidTV]

Definitely agreeing with you guys a new PSU would be ideal, but since it is SFF, I want to try to stick with it if I can for the sake of keeping it small because I can.

[TechSquidTV]

1 hour ago, CUDA_Cores said:

lolz, try going to a scrapyard. I just found an asrock Z87 extreme6 board + i5 4570K for $5. I beat you to it fam.

:0
Always wondered about this, doesn't the stuff get rained on? I went to a junk yard one but it was all cars. there's a recycling center near by.. maybe there.