This MUST be a Scam... "Treasure Box" Gaming PC
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- čas přidán 16. 05. 2024
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Glittery Dells have been showing up on store shelves recently and we need to find out why! They're shiny, they're dusty, but are they worth the money?
Update on the warranty: We called up the support line for Advanced Skytech (Treasure Box) secret shopper style. There was no wait time to get an agent, and they walked us through every step of fixing the issue including sending videos to assist us. They were patient and helpful overall. Pretty pleased with how it went.
Discuss on the forum: linustechtips.com/topic/14725...
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Intro: Laszlo - Supernova
Video Link: • [Electro] - Laszlo - S...
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Outro: Approaching Nirvana - Sugar High
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CHAPTERS
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0:00 Intro
0:47 What is the Treasure Box?
2:03 Opening it up
5:34 Software and Games
6:17 Is it a good value?
7:27 The TecDale PC
8:15 Inside the TecDale
9:17 Testing peripherals and games
11:06 Was the TecDale and TecFail?
12:08 Why do these even exist though?
13:37 Is this a good thing?
14:47 Conclusion - Věda a technologie
"Update on the warranty: We called up the support line for Advanced Skytech (Treasure Box) secret shopper style. There was no wait time to get an agent, and they walked us through every step of fixing the issue including sending videos to assist us. They were patient and helpful overall. Pretty pleased with how it went."
When a no name company that glitter bombs old office PC has infinitely better customer support than billion dollar OEM company Dell
imo the reason why is cause of the high markup on these kinds of systems. presumably to justify their price, they have to create some sort of value add that makes it stand out from other products including just going to another refurbisher and paying less outright.
Nice! Surprised kudos and mad respect
@@telepathicdragon OEMs sell similarly if not more overpriced systems without adequate customer service and get away with it, so I'm not sure what's your point.
I mean if aftersale really bad this kind of company already vanished from the world, it's clearly just for cheaper normal people
...
You're not LTT...
I work for a small family owned company in Indiana and "act" as our IT guy mainly because my boss overheard me talking about how I built my gaming computer one day. I have been buying Tecdale computers for our company for about 3 years, about 15 in total. All for around 250-300 bucks and have only ever had a problem with 1 of them...and Tecdale replaced it for free. I avoid the cringy LED light versions,. but they have been great for a small company like us who are on a budget and only need to use the internet and run our sales software program, thats it. Cool to see them on this video
That's really nice to hear. I'm guessing the sales software has to run on Windows? I want to say a Pi would be idea for that scenario too but that locks you into linux and they're annoying to find at the moment.
@@Furluge linux isnt something non tech savy people use. He needs the pcs to be straightforward as possible i imagine
@@Furluge not only does it lock you into linux, but not even x86 linux sometimes... it's ARM. making it even more niche.
@@Furluge I sold similar models to schools and non-profits for a while, these machines have much better specs compared to a Pi (you can even find some with enterprise graphics cards) in addition to the "benefit" of running a familiar OS like Windows. Its been a few years for us, but we were selling 7th or 8th gen i5's and i7's with 8GB - 16GB of RAM. We did sell quite a few running Linux as well though.
@@Furluge Spoken like someone who hasn't actually worked in IT or ran a business 💀
The RGB on the front panel of the second case was genuinely some of the best looking RGB I've ever seen on a case. It was distractingly good.
you mean the lcd Screen display?
@@MRALEX9870that's not an lcd screen
@@MRALEX9870 It's an infinity mirror, derpus. 🙄
@@MobileTaz Ok nerd
That bit about underinformed parents/grandparents buying these for ultimately disappointed kids hit me so hard
Something about adults doing things with the best intentions for their kids and still failing really gets me lol
is this a cry for help
@@spahgetti96 what
@@xpt read between the lines
Oh god this brings back the pain from when my mom got a free tablet with a subscription somewhere, and she was so proud to give it to me and my brother. It was an absolute piece of junk that was quite literally unusable, and we just pretended we loved it. Pretty quickly though it actually stopped working altogether, and she went after the comoany to have it replaced, which never happened, and so it was left to rot in the closet never to be used again. Something about that experience pains me to this day. Just seeing your sweet mom try so hard, and not daring to tell her the truth.
@Joris Keijser If your moms still around you should tell her, might make her feel better, knowing her kids appreciated everything she was trying to do
I genuinely think this is a really cool trend. Less e-waste is never a bad thing.
Refurbished office PC-s with i5/i7 were always popular in the budget segment.
I've worked IT for the last 5 years. I started in the office building myself, later helped with Work from Home efforts all throughout the pandemic, and even had a position where I was in charge of the fleet of laptops, docks, monitors, and peripherals we lent to the users. During that time with the fleet, I sometimes pondered the amount of waste just my job alone creates. Then I would get overwhelmed in my head at the sheer scale of global e-waste; take my job, then make it make a position for basically every company and government function on the planet.
This was a nice video for me in that regard
Honestly I think devices like these could live on for many years if they were marketed towards secondary use cases. I could see one being used as a media computer for watching movies on a tv. If the thing has a 1030 in it that'll easily run a 4k display. A person could also use one of these as a simple DIY NAS or home server. It might even be useful as a private game server for something like valheim--assuming it's at least got a quad-core cpu in it. Some of those server applications can be a little demanding if you have a ton of friends connected to it, but a handful of people punching deer in the wilderness won't break it that easily.
eventually they become waste when they are just phased out, one can only have so many pc(s), as in actively using, keeping them out of landfill is only temporary, what we really need is something like framework laptop and the likes and we just need to not consume and buy so much/ buy into the marketing department and buying things we absolutely dont need but just can
Reusing e-waste is great. Spraypainting old Dell shitboxes gold and selling them for double price to those who don't know better isn't.
As someone who has had to deal with these prebuilts, I have to give respect to figuring out those painful bios.
I just had prebuilt pc sold as cheap as 79 dollars. But I discovered that it can partly be updated. The whole process of upgrading to ssd was troublesome. Also had to upgrade the ram, the ghz was bad but sustainably for limited application.
The BIOS from Dell is actually pretty usable
I did this for 5 years but refurbishing dell poweredge (00/10/20 series mostly) but we would get a fair few HP DL series and my god no one hates their customers like HP hates their customers. Consumer grade or Enterprise. The worst most restrictive bios ever made.
3:22 How privileged have we become when we aren't willing to shed blood for a build??? Truly I say we must dedicate ourselves thusly, even for the downtrodden prebuilts.
You can flash another similar bios in the motherboard. Neither Dell or HP produces motherboard and in most cases, the motherboard that they choose is already a project in production of the mb company. Actually, im using now a gigabyte bios from gen 3 in a itautec(kinda a small dell from brazil) prebuild
I’ve worked with Dell Optiplex desktops for 14 years. They are mostly tool-less, but they will slice your fingers open in every way possible if you’re not careful.
It makes me so happy to see this. These old desktops still have so much life to give for non-power users and I'm glad someone is blinging them up
its kind of nice knowing those old boxes were able to retire from the office life rather than being put down, they can go help old Doris play solitaire in style
I don't know about that, I'm a power user and some of these old desktops can give you some really good power with some upgrades for a very low pricepoint, especially a GPU upgrade in the full fat case would give some really solid performance inline with a 1500 to 2000 dollar machine
im super happy to see this and that 10+ year old PCs get a second life.
These types of cheap older PCs are also becoming popular for emulators. If you have at least Intel HD 630 in the CPU, the graphics performance is good enough for PS2 and Wii gaming. Add a GT 1030 or GTX 1050 for 4k video and light PC gaming.
@@truthdoesnotexistyou aren't getting anywhere near close to the computers that cost anywhere from 1500 to 2000 and even if you managed to get one of them to run a 30 series card from Nvidia then the temps are going to be really bad
@LinusTechTips
So cool that LTT reviewed a PC where I work at! To answer some of your questions; The RAMs are brand new from a vendor. We do used old ram but using new ram modules means more reliability and higher quality parts! The skins/vinyl are used to cover up the scuffs and dent repairs that was there when we got the PC from the businesses we got it from (They come in skids so dents and scratches are to be expected). As for windows, we believe that a clean install plus VLC is all a customer needs for their everyday tasks and keeps the computer running smoothly! No background task to eat up unnecessary resources.
Advance Skytech is North Americas second highest PC refurbishment company, we do pc, laptops and servers! Quality over quantity is our commitment, glad for a positive feedback from you!
Edit: The company is a wholesaler for companies to buy refurbished pcs from us to resell to the public, only a warehouse, no store and not open to the public.
Have the team considered buying in bulk some low profile GPUs, in order to upgrade these PCs into real gaming PCs?
"linistechtips" 💀
that's awesome! do you have some contact with someone over at the company? this product would be so popular in my country
Kinda weird that you make a statement like "quality is OUR commitment" while also saying you don't work there anymore lol
@@RealTaIk that’s that i was thinking 😂
Came in expecting a "wish" scam, found local businesses upcycling old office hardware with honest marketing, reasonable prices, legit licenses and at least some warrenty. I'm rarely happy to get the wrong 1st impression of a video, but this certainly turned out better and more wholesome than expected.
well the fucking bling doesn't really speak in their favor XD it just screams cheap junk in a fancy overpriced coat
yeah, tech waste is going to continue to be an issue, so it's really nice to see a company doing this with a good amount of integrity.
@@zwenkwiel816 don’t fucking disrespect the bling
@Zwenk Wiel you should be shamed for not accepting rgb.
@@imn0tgarbage I think by bling he means the glitter not the RGB lol
I feel like the warranty might actually be legit with the simple fact that they have an abundance of used hardware that will be dirt cheap to just send out which mean they really don't lose much
As an IT for a few small companies I've found that most of the refurbished pcs like this have incredible value. Never had a complaint about any of these machines (I don't know the glittery ones tho)
as someone who use to work in Ewaste recyceling and would pushout 50 to 70 dell 9020sff's a day i love that the things still turn up on youtube as budget pc alternitives and every time someone trys to pull a drive they get slived open, i have soo many permanate scars on my fingers from those things its nice to see it happen to someone else for a change
Lmao, ur pain is my pleasure 😂
... And you never considered using gloves?
@@Eyoldaith Do u wanna fit int there?
I was a field tech for Dell. I have never sliced myself open removing one of those drive cages, and considering that's the hinge point, I'm not sure why anyone would even have their hand up that side of it once the latch was popped. Odd.
Can you imagine being the owner of this company and seeing this video on youtube? These guys have to be stoked with this review from LTT, this is about as much of a two thumbs up as any system builder has ever gotten from them.
Hope they see this as a motivation to go further. Maybe sourcing old GPUs, like 680's, 770´s, 960's or 1050's and put them in for a small price increase.
Except almost the entire LTT audience knows the basics of how to assemble a computer
@@potatopotatopotatopotatopo8746
Keyword "almost".
I've watched countless PC build guides over the years, but I would never trust myself with building one myself (mainly due to money constraints). Sure, I've upgraded a few parts here and there, but never built one from scratch.
Something like these "glitter-furbished" PCs would be great for me. Peel off the tacky glitter. Slap in an older GPU, and be fine with the okay performance.
@@potatopotatopotatopotatopo8746 This doesn't mean they want to assemble and provide support for PCs, especially if not their own.
@@MeowMeowMeowMeowMeowMeowMeowww I mean those are like just barely beneath the real basic minimum, unless you're counting sub-1080p which is also fine I mean, I got by on an RX 550 4gb before which was "fine" for 1366x768p but was basically just an upgrade from a 7570 1gb which itself barely ran stuff by mid to late 2010s. So my point being, yeah idk about a 960, even if it's still "fine" but to be fair a 770 is still going to basically run like 3/4's of all games out there, I mean you can still play a whole bunch of pretty decent games on a dualcore and a GTX 480 max or something like that.
That being stated, do note: *older* games that run on a dualcore. So in other words, you can say good bye to most brand new indie games by going with a GTX 600 series card that's not gonna have the kind of OpenCL DirectX support you're going to need for even the most basic of Rimworld tier games usually. Because of that, I think that it eventually gets tot he point you'd be better off just getting an APU that runs modern DirectX versions that bothering with a somewhat faster but ancient GPU completely lacking in supporting those APIs.
I purchased a refurb box like this a few years ago via Amazon (not a blinged-out version but otherwise the same kind of Dell box) to run a simple dedicated app with attached industrial equipment and it's worked out great.
We had dell optiplex 9020's at work. They were 4790 i7's and we had 1050ti GPUs in some. I think we had over a thousand of them and never had a single one fail. And some are still in use as meeting room pcs, they made really good media pcs.
Seeing PCs like these on resale is a great thing. They make great starter PCs for younger children and a great starting platform to build on. My love of PC building and modding came from upgrading my massively overpriced Time PC. Seeing hardware staying out of landfill is a brucey bonus.
Upgrading is limited on these. The BIOS will have limited CPU compatibility, the case makes upgrading the GPU very limited and power supply could use proprietary wiring harnesses where you would need to mod.
@@toolbaggers I agree but as I said, these PCs are starter PCs. No seasoned PC builder would buy something like this but that isn't the target market.
Used office PCs are definitely a great value, usually. When you're paying twice as much as you normally would for a refurbished machine, so you get a case that looks a bit nicer and get a crappy SSD with it I am not so sure anymore. Maybe the warranty is worth it to some people.
@@toolbaggers BIOS has no limits. Idk if that has changed but on the time Dell released these models, they actually upgraded the motherboard microcode several times, and some models do support Xeon cpus (Inspiron 3847 being one of those). The PSU might be the first wall you might hit, actually.
@@r.lr.l1531 that's a valid point but unfortunately there are thousands of products on the market that target above their ability. Its the nature of corporate greed and colourful marketing.
This honestly hits so close to home, my first experience with gaming on my own pc was using an old decommissioned optiplex from my local county government, it was used for mapping and data entry and for some reason had duel mini gpus. Legit helped my dad who worked in IT at the time rip out HUNDREDS of these and i would take them and build them into computers for my friends, had a squad of 15 year olds playing league of legends on desktops used for child support cases or court case proceedings
SLI but for Excel lol
same here my first pc was a "shuttle" square box pc that only had a bad power supply. Added a gtx 660 and it was a great pc for the time
My first true gaming PC was a Packard-Bell desktop that needed a video card to play Half-Life.
Still play games with an optiplex 7010 3rd gen i7, 16gb ram and an rx580 8gb.
@@GodSaveTheUnitedStates did you have to install a bigger PSU to use the 580? I've been looking into doing a build similar to this, but I'm nervous about the power requirements of the 580
Fun fact: Dell Optiplex is commonly used as the heart and soul of an arcade machine. Usually running Windows or Linux configured to autostart the game. I know this as I work at Chuck E. Cheese.
Actually these desktop are great for that and seen them used in quite a few arcade and also casino games as well. They built well quite reliable and easy to get part for and dirt cheap. I use one for my electronic work bench and been great as only PC that works with my chip burners and other programmers while my newer computers won’t work barely, or at all with older programmers. The Dell 5040 I have works with everything I thrown at it and is a true workhorse.
Yea get people like latest and greatest but in some when dealing with certain older programmers and older hardware requires an older PC and the older dell optiplex are great and well built as well.
R u the real Charles Cheese bro?
@@paulsbunions8441 I guess me and my non-manager coworkers all are.
Its cool to see you shining light on these old systems, we use the dell optiplex 3020's as recycled game servers, there great ex office systems, and run older game servers beautifully probably not best used for gaming, unless your willing to really pair up each part 1 by 1
That’s really neat that the warranty actually has value. The more expensive ones still feel very overpriced, but the cheaper ones aren’t bad at all for non-techy people.
It's the ultimate grandma machine
Sometimes these PCs can cost like 300-400$ and for that price you can build a new PC with 12th gen i3 and beat any of the 3rd-4th gen i7.
Idk bruh I got a $150 refurbished pc with a 6th gen i5, 16gb of ddr4, and a 256gb ssd so this is pretty horrible by comparison
@@ristekostadinov2820 right I mean hell all ya gotta do is find the best Deal you can on a GPU... I mean a 3060 can be had for 200 maybe less or amd ya might something
@@RyanUlring I got a $10 full size ATX OptiPlex 3010 w/ an i5-3470 before
Although whoever from Goodwill that posted it on eBay mistakenly thought it was just the case lmao, banked on it real quick after noticing there was there a motherboard in it based off of the pic of the backside of the case
The Treasure Box looks like a sci-fi tv/movie setpiece. Imagine a stack of 20 of them sideways in a cabinet pretending to be a data server.
You COULD cluster them...
There are worse ways to learn clustering, high availability, etc....
A very good possibility. The thing about those cheap PCs is they keep e-waste out of landfills and give it a second life. It gives people without a lot of money a chance to have some sort of machine they can use for most things too. I can imagine someone in college using one of these to do his homework. That or a cheap laptop anyhow.
@@ewenchan1239 I'm actually considering getting two or three for exactly that reason. These things seem like pretty decent value and I wonder if one could contact the companies and get some for cheaper, if you forgo the Windows license, since in a cluster you'd just be slapping some kind of Linux on them anyways.
@@PontschPauPau3451
You might be able to google the companies and send them an email to see if they would be willing to do that.
I SUSPECT (and again, this is just me) that they might be getting like "OEM" licenses, which might only be maybe like $10/20 a pop or something akin to that.
In other words, the cost of the Windows license is probably NOT significant given the fact that even in the video, Linus mentioned that if you priced out all the parts, it's about $240 which comes pretty close to the $300 cost that they charge.
You MIGHT be able to find the systems on eBay for less, but I doubt that it would be significantly less without the Windows license.
If nothing else, you can always buy their systems, and then swap the SSD with your own SSD and then that way, that SSD will have a licensed copy of Windows 10, and then you can install Linux on something else, so it's like getting a "free" licensed copy of Windows 10 with your purchase that you can then put into another system, as long as the activation key isn't locked to the hardware.
It'd be cheaper than building a single, bigger system, but of course, running three systems will cost more in power than a slightly bigger, monolithic system (and then just doing the same stuff that you were going to do, with VMs instead of physical systems).
you can make a server of em . 5 would be enough , to hold 10tb🙂😂
As someone who has worked with a lot of Optiplex, on the full tower, you will usually not be able to upgrade the PSU as dell usually uses a propriety motherboard connector. Wattage on stock PSU is also very tight with little headroom. There is a reason why they put a 1030 and not anything better. Forget about gaming on SFF versions. I use a SFF for a Plex server.
I had no problem throwing an aftermarket psu in a couple optiplexes I Frankensteined into Thor 2 cases. The only proprietary issue I ran into is the power button with the integrated led, I could have sorted it out to use the case button but I left the stock button poked out the back of the case and called it a day
i know the 7010 takes a standard atx power supply
One of my favorite YT channels OzTalksHW has been doing videos for a long while on how people can build PC just like this for cheap. I like the idea expanding more, I’d like to see the best optiplex build they can make!
I have to say I love this idea in terms of keeping these out of landfills. And while I’m sure not a lot of people will be doing this with these I think it’s so fun trying to get as much performance out of hype budget computers
Problem is these used to be readily available for only $150 and the best source for cheap internet machines for family on a budget. Now I know why they all disappeared.
Problem is these used to be readily available for only $150 and the best source for cheap internet machines for family on a budget. Now I know why they all disappeared.
no one puts PCs in a landfill lmao its valuable metals ... unless u live in africa or india or china ,landfills detect and grab any metals that morons have not put in the recyles
I think retro PCs are cool by themselves tho, why are they trying to put some cheap glitter on it. A little glitter might be ok, but just sell glitter tape bro. That's my opinion.
Honestly the treasure box PC is adorable with the glitter. If my daughter was a couple years older, I would definitely consider it for a starting computer for her and then build out from there.
Just a GPU can make that Optiplex fly...GTX 1650 or RX 6400.
@@AMV12S To big for the Case. Literally just bought on ebay a R7 350 for such a usecase for 23€. Slim Case PC no PCIE. And don't buy the RX 6400 for this Systems PCIE 3.0 together with 4x are not great: 30% performance loss.
@@AMV12S A Quadro P1000 or T1000 series or one of the Radeon Pro 4 GB models. That Optiplex SFF looked like it would be best with a single slot card for airflow.
@@stephen1r2 often the PSUs on these boards arent that easy to hook to GPUs, and the motherboard use specific non ATX connectors which makes things complicated for uprgades. But as a tiny GPU, bus powered, the Nvidia A2000 is amazing
I love the idea of these. Great little productivity machines, affordable, simple enough to maintain or even upgrade with used components down the line. A solid first PC for a student, a backup rig for someone who rarely uses a desktop, or even a simple network storage setup, with the addition of a cheap HDD. Everything about these little rigs help remove product from the e-waste stream. I dig it!
I love that little Infinity Mirror RGB. Wish I could find an easy way to add that to an existing case.
I used to work for a refurbisher in Belgium who had literally thousands of these Dell optiplexes, but even with some upgrades (though, no snazzy glitter stickers or RGB) we couldn't get rid of these even though we tried. :D Bet they would be happy to see this now.
I'm from France, and I was in the French Navy. There were a shit ton of those PCs in all the naval bases lol. Good memories. ^^
The stickers and RGBs are honestly the magic touch here, because otherwise these actually decent PCs are unlikely to catch anyone's attention. With or without the stickers and lights, these are fantastic little machines for daily use for people with light workloads. Making them look nice (depending on your tastes of course) will actually get them out the door and keep them out of the landfill which I think is really cool.
You were trying to sell pigs. You need to put some makeup on them and make em look pretty for people to want them!
Dude, the 7010s with the i7 are amazing value. I bought one years ago, and I actually want another. Very upgradable.
@@jafizzle95 I started doing this for this exact reason. Over my 19 years, Ive gotten so many for free that I ran out of room. Ive now sold every one 😁.
That infinity RGB made the CD tray look so much better.
It actually looks like a gif on a small LCD display.
It has no right to go that hard
@@certifiedpossum1638 It seems to have parallax though, a gif wouldn't have any parallax
I use the cd trays 😶
@@certifiedpossum1638 an LCD would be much more expensive
@@omegaPhix and lower quality no matter what you attempted.
When analog works, it WORKS.
I love everything about his brand he is truly a hero for us outsiders living outside Canada
This video is really making me rethink some things, as I used to refurb/upgrade and sell used office pcs online and local, and now I do a lot of work with my cricut, and can easily cut vinyl... those old cases would look great with a vinyl covering
I love how the Vessi add now says "Vessi says their shoes are waterproof." That's how you maintain relationships with sponsors while sticking to your principles
Yeah nothing is waterproof. Not even rocks
Was there an anecdote or something on the WAN show about them not being waterproof?
@@joeykeilholz925 water is waterproof.
If you repeat the words of someone while taking money from them it's not really protecting your integrity.
@@TennisGvy , yeah, Linus objects to the "proof" since water will eventually get in anywhere (the carving through rocks was his anecdote). The industry standard of course for waterproofness is much less stringent and is a different thing from water resistance (having bought both types of shoes and worn them in rainy Seattle). Since we don't have an IPX system for shoes, I'm personally fine with shoe manufacturers claiming waterproofness if it'll keep my feet totally dry when I'm biking home for 20 min in a deluge--I really don't care if water would eventually make its way in if we dropped them 5 m down in a pool. The industry standard for water resistance is that a couple of drops of rain will bounce off but your feet will definitely be soaked in that bike ride I mentioned. I wear exclusively GoreTex and haven't tried Vessi's attempt at waterproofness, so I'm not sure whether it does actually fall closer to more water resistance and Linus might have more of a practical rather than just a pedantic point. But I get that he's trying to maintain his integrity as a creator.
Honestly I'm just glad to see these systems put to good use. My company isn't even that big and we've alone sent hundreds of these 9010 and 9020s to the local e-waste recycler while they're still perfectly usable for someone who just needs a basic PC. The wrap to hide their previous life and the cheap SSD are all perfect answers to how to get these things a second life. Even at ~$200 they're prolly making a pretty decent profit from each unit, too.
damn, I would buy you a couple of those for a cheap price if you ever have some to throw away. Need some cheap machines to make some servers
Average price i was coming up with on ebay was ~$50 usd for a 9020.
Large lots were even cheaper, ~$30-40 per unit.
So, yeah, the markup for a bit of 'bling' is pretty substantial.
@@nyblenproductions5166 Unfortunately that's not an option - as mentioned in the video, like most businesses we're required to destroy the hard drive when disposing of workstations. So we work with a local e-waste recycler that is able to certify that the disks have been destroyed (and means they're legally liable in the unlikely event we find out company info was leaked via a HDD they said they had destroyed). There's just not time to destroy hundreds of drives ourselves; nor manage individual sales. As far as accounting is concerned, the assets have been fully depreciated and have no value so - we just need to get rid of them as quickly and painlessly as possible.
@@chrisbaker8533 Exactly. Not to mention most recyclers are getting these things for free from businesses doing a big e-waste purge. Hell; sometimes we've even paid form them to send a truck out.
The benefit of them being OEM pre built units is than even windows 7 era machines STILL get free windows 10 upgrades as an in place upgrades, which can then be freshly re installed thanks to its shiny new digital license
A lot of business PCs are still using BTX or something almost like it. I call it Backwards ATX. It flips the board to the other side of the case, changing the orientation of the expansion cards to put the heat producing chips on top, like they were back in the ISA/EISA/VLB era, before whomever designed PCI went and made it backwards. Being flipped like that also has the benefit of (usually) putting the PCIe x16 slot in a position where there's no other slot that will be made useless by a thick cooler.
Unfortunately, a lot of business BTX systems don't have an additional slot for the double stack of ports on thick GPUs. :( So you're stuck with whatever you can find in single thick GPUs (negating the non-conflicting space by the slot) or carving a slot in the back of the case, if there's room for it.
These computers also tend to use wonky proprietary connections for power (HP Elite is a common offender, so much that there are Elite to ATX power adapter cables) front panel (DELL!!!) or both. Along with nearly 100% of them having the IO holes punched into the back of the case instead of using a removable IO plate (which of course is narrower and longer than ATX, when a BTX box has it) almost any BTX board swap is going to require case cutting and wiring alterations.
The BTX form factor was a technically superior thing, like the 2.88M floppy disk. But like the 2.88M floppy, the PC industry has mostly gone "Nope. We'll stick with the inferior but familiar ATX."
I haven't seen a BTX motherboard since 2006. They're still hanging onto those old PCs?
@@pikachuchujelly7628 BTX started in 2005~2006. The main users of it have been Dell, Gateway, HP, and Fujitsu.
I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of a refurbished Optiplex. It has a slight gearing towards gaming, but the big selling point to me was that it's a good starting point for eventual upgrades.
I've replaced hundreds of thousands of these when companies upgrade or their contracts end. Disposing of them as E waste is a lot more expensive than paying recyclers to take them away. I'm glad they are being reused in this way.
@@35mm21 It is def too bad. There's so few decent low-profile cards that the GTX 1650 is like $200-250. But u know why manufacturers don't make new ones? It would cannibalize sales for the more expensive cards. There's a ton of ppl who don't want to spend more than $3-400 for a complete PC gaming system (myself included) But u know, gotta milk consumers 😁
you can tell Linus truly loves his job when he's having so much fun with these really cheap PCs and entertaining everyone while he's at it
Linus is so good at dropping things that he's even got drops of blood in this one
When I used to fix dell pcs we used to get ones similar to the ones in this video. It was always interesting seeing these optiplex pcs all dolled up to look like standalone units.
This makes me feel the nostalgia I have for the Tech Showdown days of LTT. Still love you guys, but I miss those kinds of pure, authentic, "because we can" episodes. Stay golden LTT. I love you.
I feel like the majority of the out of the box things they do are "because we can", especially when they drop sponsorships for the sake of the content
I live in Ohio and worked at place that made these as well. We took computers that companies didn't want anymore (there were tons) and changed the internals and put in a new HDD or SSD. We did reuse ram from the pcs. It was difficult at times finding ram sticks that matched and we at times had to order new ram sticks. We also covered the PCs with vinyl to cover up any scuffs or scratches and give them a new look. The dust inside the PC was normal we cleaned the external case but didn't do anything with the internals in terms of cleaning.
Ohio💀
Ohio💀
Ohio💀
Tell me you left such a terrible place. No one deserves to live in Ohio
Mfs 'live' in ohio 💀
I was considering putting leds in my old dell office pc to make it look extra gaming. I love these.
I spent a summer doing this kind if thing to old computers from the place where my dad works. Sans bling of course. It really is nice to see them go to people who will make use of them rather than seeing 20+ perfectly functional pcs getting taken out to the great big dumpster in the sky. Or the dumpster in the unused truck loading zone
Always amazing how sharp the inside of some pc cases are. It's like they put all the informercial knives that never sold inside those cases. I remember one time a stubborn molex connector finally gave up its last grip as my hand flung directly into the case cutting all 4 knuckles directly to the bone so clean and fast I didn't feel it at first.
Wait til Apple finds about this trick while granting you your right to repair.
Yup, i still have a scar between my thumb and pointer finger from something similar. A right of passage perhaps lol
You aren't kidding. I work on old hardware alot and it cuts me up quite often
Brian from techyescity went to the hospital and got stitches in his fingers from such a case
It used to be standard. Things have got a lot better even on the cheapest of cases. I'm actually surprised this happened to Linus.
I love those dell optiplex refurbs. Weird budget machines. Bought one for the office and it can run roblox at 30fps haha
I bought a whole stack of Lenovos, similar deal: black vinyl everywhere. Half of them couldn't complete the Windows OOBE so I actually called their support and got product keys. Pretty good experience overall.
Sure kid, "for the office". It's your bedroom.
@@DJHEADPHONENINJA why are you mad
@@DJHEADPHONENINJA bro has an anime profile.
I've got that 2nd one, Optiplex 9010, i7 3770, 16gb ram, and a GTX 770. Not great, not terrible.
I got a model similar to these for my nephews for christmas that came with a RTX 2060, so far so good. Only issue we had was that the side panel, which you have to remove to get rid of packing stuff, is easy to get stuck on the side. We had to dismantle the clamp portion of the side panel to get it unstuck once it attached incorrectly to another part of the case. But otherwise, smooth sailing and very happy with the product they got.
I like your dark blue cabinets. Couldn't help but notice. I'm a cabinet painter. I get tired of white or gray cabinets. Yours look nice!
I used to sell refurbed workstations to non-profit organizations in bulk, and the "cover the scratches with vinyl" technique has been around for a very long time. Some manufacturers even sold kits with pre-cut vinyl for their specific models. Looks like someone just took this to the next step by making them pretty.
5:07 The other reason to do this is because a lot of those old Dell machines will disable some front USB under various conditions (SATA usage, weird BIOS settings), so better to cover it up than to have the user try it and think those ports are "broken." Not saying that's absolutely the reason why, but just something I've run into working on old Optiplex machines.
We buy a ton of refurbished PCs in this chassis style at my company, albeit in their stock configuration for office use. The mismatched front panels are a really, really common issue. I've uncovered far more hidden USB ports than I can even remember, but the funnier scenario is when they put the 4 port panel on the 2 port chassis, you're just left with two metal backed rectangles on the front of the case.
I bought myself a cheap refurbished Dell from Amazon a year ago when I started working from home, although not the bedazzled one. Didnt want my work stuff on my laptop and didnt want to pay $1-2k for a higher end rig. Think i paid $200. Has worked perfectly for everything i need it for.
Pro Tip to Linus: Windows 10 can be activated with a Windows 7 key. Micro$oft let the back door open for the upgraders on purpose. So if you have a Win7 Pro key, you can have 10 pro. The iso is available on their site to use off of a USB stick and is set up so you can choose from the Education versions to the pro version.
This is exactly how I've been sourcing Win10 for the past few years after support ended for Win7.
I've been using my old Technet keys and haven't needed to buy new licenses since they ended the program.
Yea, but that requires I downgrade to win 10 and lose all the features I paid for in Win 7 ultimate.
Win 7 for gaming, Linux for security. MS can get bent until win pro edition becomes actual pro edition and not a slightly less bastardized home edition.
Can it be upgraded to Windows 11 for free, also?
@@Daywalker222 yes
That gold color looks baller AF. For a cheap used Dell, these actually seem like a pretty fun option.
could be a good sleeper PC, just slap a 4090 and a 13900k in there or something and you'll impress all your friends at the LAN party (are LAN parties even a thing still? XD)'
if you can even fit a 4090 in there that is....
@@zwenkwiel816 You'd have to mod in a mahoosive go-faster power bulge to fit a 4090 in. Then double the budget (before the GPU) for a new PSU & probably motherboard.
People do it with cars. So, you never know lol
@@zwenkwiel816 you'll just be saving the case, you need a whole swap mobo, psu, or even case fabrication to use new parts like that.
@@Ardeact well yeah it's not really practical but it'd be cool to show up with your bedazzled optiplex and then blow everyone else's fancy gaming PC out of the water
I completely feel this. My work computer is an Optiplex 990 that I inherited from my predecessor. I have maxed everything the board and psu can withstand (i7, gtx1650 LP, and such) in order to keep up with the times, and have added a few pretty bits along the way.
I got a Optiplex 7040 SFF from work when they upgraded PCs. Had it in a closet for 2+ years. Recently installed new ram, 1tb NVME and RX 6400. I love it 😍
5:34 I almost skipped because I thought he was going to say "Almost as clean, as the segway. To our sponsor!" because normally i skip through the sponsor
This is cool, I have no issue with this. If enough people get these and look up "How to get more performance" It may just create more enthusiasts with the amount of documentation for upgrade paths for a lot of these machices. A PC in use on a desk is better than one wound up in a landfill.
I think the vinyl sticker to get rid of scuff marks is a really neat idea that honestly could apply to more things!
A while back I modified an old Optiplex with RGB strips in the front just like in this video controlled by an Arduino. It was a fun project but I thought to myself it was kinda silly. Never did I think this was a whole industry xD
I've bought many used Dell laptops on Amazon for work and they all were vinyl wrapped, but they all worked fine and were priced good.
Same here (apart from the vinyl wrapping, and ebay rather than amazon). I bought a latitude e6230 for £50 a few years ago (got a bit lucky on that one), stuck an SSD in, and was more than happy with it as a traveling work machine. The company I worked for bought 5 more for
This is honestly the kind of system that I would have loved to have when I was a kid.
As a teen I had half speed dial-up, no graphics card and waited a while for downloads of nes/SNES ROMs. PSX/N64 supplied most of my gaming.
Yeah a kid (hopefully) doesn't need a graphics card above a 1050 to have fun with their new desktop
In the same year you were a kid im assuming? For a couple more beans a Xbox or PS5 (even 4) gonna blow this thing out the water.
@@firstname565 Yeah but if u need a computer for school stuff then u need to buy a whole other system. You can also update them slowly over time not to mention games are much much cheaper. Especially any games this thing could run.
@@shrayesraman5192 its being sold as a gaming PC. If youre looking to play games from 2000 sure, awesome. What kid in 2022 is looking to do that?
i always appreciate how you're so straight up- Even when you expect to dump on something you always give it a fair shot. Great video! I think other "TechTubers" sometimes forget not everyone is out there buying $2000 RTX 4090s (and based on the games they play they shouldn't even if they could afford it). THANK YOU!
Gotta agree with you. I roll my eyes at people looking just to dig in on cheap stuff. They don't see the value!
DDR3 is not as easy to get as you think. A lot of times the DDR2/DDR3 we use in these refurbished, new lease-on-life machines is not exactly used or new.
The DIMM's come from specialty shops that work in the memory recovery space. A lot if times they run hundreds if used modules through its paces for QC. Depending what happens in the QC the batch gets cleaned and sold to other shops as matched units (no they aren't selling just one, more like 50 to 200 modules). If the ram doesn't pass QC then it's sent to another department that examines the modules and reevaluated the modules where anything from SPD profiles can be downgraded or density can be reduced.
If a module makes it to the last department it is destined to have each chip tested, if it's good it gets desolderd and put in a bin. They keep blank boards in stocks for each type and make new modules as needed with a Pic and Placer as orders for stuff not in stock come in. That is how you end up with that shinny clean new module you had.
I was one day curious where the modules we used to replace by the hundreds came from in a tiny shop. We servoced mainly government entities or laptops for field service techs. The memory shop was across the highway and took a tour one day. It was an impressive operation that no one would know was there, unless you are in the repair industry or whole sale. They don't have a publicly facing persona B2B.
I bought one of these with the i7 and 32gb of ram. Ended up rigging it to fit a 3060 mini, upgraded the psu to another dell prop one and then upgraded the HD. It is an AMAZING living room emulator and console replacement.
these are actually really great. ewaste is a problem and these are helping out, sounds like a good business model tbh. Also, slap these on a old refurbished 720p monitor and the gaming performance would probably be pretty decent for little timmy.
Nah man, little timmy's games wouldn't actually run on this. Lil tim probably plays warzone and fortnite and stuff, and they don't know they can lower the default graphics settings.
@@JorisKeijser performance mode would be great on this
little Timmy plays Garten of BanBan that will choke your RTX 3060
The only Dell you can buy and actually get decent customer support for 🤣
LMAO
lol true
@@Total_Egal
I recommend you watch the video and read the description, because they pretty obviously went over the warranty details.
My current rig started its life as a dell optiplex 390, 3 mobos, 3 cpus and 1 ssd swap later and im still running that initial OS install 11 years later on a 100% custom build.
They are really good value office machines. They are popular here in Argentina. Upgrade them with a SSD and they are fast and compact for jobs that require Office or light image editing.
I love when you guys bring back and cover older technology gems and topics like this. I know ltt is not new to showcasing older small formfactor pc’s that bring value to money, but it’s always a treat to watch as opposed to the latest and greatest hardware that’s more common. Seeing other CZcamsrs go crazy and creative with these machines makes me want to see more coverage with the biggest Hardware channel on CZcams! Just a couple of years ago, I had a few older computers and was in no position to buy or ask my parents to help be a small gaming machine. I realized that I could supe up some pieces together for a relatively low price and make a dream come true out of it! Now I have a part time job and in college and could probably afford to build something newer and prettier but my hp 8300 i7 3700 and gtx 1650 I started with a while back keeps me satisfied even today and does everything I want, maybe in now the quickest, efficient, fastest ways but I don’t really need a new system. This won’t stop me on my other project computer and having later and greater technology but it’s nice having the old robust super up and reliable office desktop that started it all for me!
I actually love this so much. These old 3rd gen and 4th gen Dell OptiPlexes are fantastic little machines and I'm happy to see that the companies refurbishing them seem to all be on the level. I have 3 OptiPlex SFFs that I originally bought for a small ESXi homelab. They've long been retired from homelab duty but I still use them ALL THE TIME for various projects where I need to spin up a quick test rig for some software or something like that. One of them is currently serving as a backup server running TrueNAS. Feels like these things will last forever, and I'm glad that a handful of companies are turning them into PCs that people actually will want to buy and keep them out of the landfill.
I actually got 4 surplus Dell 3020 SFFs similar to this. One got a $5 R5-240. One got it's power supply moved a bit & got a GT 1030 & SSD. One got it's mobo swapped into a regular tower with a HD 7850 & SSD. And the best one got an RX 480, SSD, HDD, and full-size power supply stuffed into the original SFF case with a homemade extended top to contain it all.
Bit of insight: on liquidation websites often the best old PC and component lots are from Canadian sellers (often ~30% lower than similar lots in the US). Many of these sellers will only ship to Canada.
I'll be honest, these devices are on the same level as my daughter's first PC, back when she didn't need much and was running simple games like Webkins and Wizard 101. (She's an adult now, so yeah, this was "A Long, Long, Time Ago...") My daughter did (and somewhat quickly) outgrow her first PC, requiring me to build her something beefier (thanks, Minecraft), and then upgrade it (thanks, Overwatch) as she got older. But, yeah, I can see the value of these as providing a young kid their first PC. Especially if they didn't include bloatware.
I've picked up a few of these refurbished system over the last 5 years and have been quite happy with them. They also stack well when you're using them as processing nodes 😁
Stackable is probably something they originally were designed for. If nothing else to make to easier to buy and ship in bulk
"Retro gamer? Processor Node? Doorstop? Is customer happy? YES!"
That's exactly how I ended up with 3 of them lol. Stacked in the corner running ESXi. That was a while ago and since then I use them for whenever I need to spin of something quickly, or just need something to run some service that doesn't require a ton of processing power. One of them is a TrueNAS backup server currently. No redundancy of course, but still better than no backup at all.
4:25 Linus, those "half height cards" are called "Low Profile". There are even a few gaming cards out there for this version!
my budget desktop is a dell 7010 from AST, which is kinda fun. The only original part in there is 1TB ssd and 8GB of ram - I upgraded everything else. Mine isn't all blinged out, though.
I'd love to see a video where you list the worst things to find when shopping for used parts, to help give us a bit more confidence with our repairs and upgrades.
I've never heard of these before, but I'm not surprised they exist. The tech economy always keeps you guessing!
This was such an interesting watch and a great surprise. Awesome video
i like seeing old tech be useful. Its also nice that you can upgrade them later
A quick note about those king fast SSDs: I have experienced through work with these refurbishers and there have been several batches of king fast SSDs with a higher than 70% failure rate in the first 3 months. It's been bad enough that we have refurbishers sending us packs of 20 or 30 SSDs instead of having us RMA each individual drive. Also, another note, it seems that most of these refurbished machines are coming from one place.
And most zippers are coming from YKK, because they actually BUILT the machinery to make good ones. After US copyright hegemony made it near impossible to produce stuff like SDDs that can be afforded wiith the salary for making them, it has been normal that the bottom batch of that SAME production line from the exact same factory is just sold as knockoffs.
Normally, if "interantional copyright law" is adhered to, Disney pays to shred its "brand-damaging" faulty mickey mouse dolls in front of the same children who probably sewed on the buttons for its eyes.
What happens here, is that Americans have stopped even PRETENDING to look busy to justify a rigged GDP, and that hurts the economy so much that now these knock-offs are getting a fighting chance in the opulent western market. INSTEAD of getting shredded, because the AGONY of just checking if it works is too much for your pedicured little hands. But the device is the EXACT same, only the chance of failure higher because it's gone through a few checks already. Few checks of probably chinese testers chocking on tar in the air, waiting for you to finally figure you can let go of your old parts so THEY get to have their go.
@@sboinkthelegday3892 You say that like we should just overlook copyright infringement - which, incidentally, is theft.
I think these are great. I work for a refurbishing company. we sell a LOT of these desktops and a ton of small form factor and micro's to small businesses and people all over the place. We mostly deal with laptops though. I think these things are pretty well advertised and priced, and they do look pretty neat tbf
I work on replacing warranty swaps and repairs on Dell Optiplex at work and can't help but think that a LOT of these Treasure Box refurbs were most likely touched by my hands before they got bedazzled. It makes a weird kind of sense that they would use these too as these models are super easy to tear down and rebuild. A usual tear down and rebuild for a motherboard replacement takes me typically 10 to 15 minutes.
I got a Skytech prebuilt about 2 years ago during the pandemic when GPUs were hard to come by. Shipped in a multiple layered boxed and no damage. It came with all new popular name brand parts w/ a newly released, at the time, 3080 3700x 3600mhz 16gb ram 850w plat psu and asus motherboard and under $2k at the time.
Im still using it now with no issues. I'm not sure about these bedazzled ones in the video but I know Skytech is pretty trustworthy and decent quality just in case anyone was unsure.
I've taken enough of those apart at my company, I knew Linus was going to get cut the way he was grabbing it. 🤣 We went from these to Lenovo TiO. You can't beat their business warranty service.
Several years ago at work we bought a whole fleet of used business PCs. The recycler we were buying them from was THRILLED when we said we didn't want the HDDs as we would be dropping in SSDs instead. This meant they should shred them instead of doing a secure wipe. The cost difference due to the reduced labor was half the cost of an entry level SSD at the time, which would be about half the cost of an entry level 1TB SSD today.
I was able to pick up a dell optiplex from a apartment complex that was switching out pc’s it had an i5 7500. I installed a 500gb Kingston ssd and gt 1030. I installed botacera on it and it’s a fantastic emulation station. Running MAME all the way up to PS2 flawlessly.
I've seen old acers with 2 of the 4 front usb ports stickered over from the factory. Open it up, add the second cable, and cut out the sticker to get the higher end I/O. would have been nice to see if the other ports were actually functional, or if it was dell that cheaped out.
i unironically love these things. not only are they an ode to the value of ecycling, I actually love the aesthetic of the midtower. The huge infinity mirror RGB in the optical bays is genuinely inspired. It may be huge and tacky, but it does it in a way no-one else has tried. I'm tempted to steal the idea myself for a case flip of my own. God knows I already have the spare rgb tape. But odds are I'll be dedicating that space to some fan mounts instead.
But if it doesn't have an infinity mirror, how are you supposed to see inside the CPU?
@@NeonVisual You jest, but with the commonality of CPU coolers with infinity mirrors on them, and the number of rich kids who receive them for christmas, we may well see people who actually believe that
The OptiPlex SFF makes for pretty good Home Servers. I've got two running Plex and Promox, which both have been very reliable. So it good to see these get a second life. And because they're everywhere, they're really cheap as well.
Agreed. I've been running a Dell Optiplex SFF as a Plex Server. I connected a 8TB external drive for media storage, works great!
I’ve intern’s in the area you guys mentioned and you guys are on the markish. Regarding Markham having a notable tech focus, fun fact: Huawei is also headquartered in the area, that is fairly true but the reality of the tech sector in Toronto is that it’s very scattered. Generally, tech companies are based on the outskirts of the city with Google having notable facilities both in and out of the Toronto area.
But, the supply thing you mentioned is very true and it’s not just businesses that are the sources for these computers. Likely a lot of schools in Toronto, and a portion of Ontario in general, use Dell as their main computer in libraries, labs, etc. So it’s a near certainty schools might be a good source of these computers.
Several years ago at work I bought a few of an earlier form of this type of refurb where it was more to take B and C grade dentless units and sell them near-ish what A grade price points. The large sticker over the sides of the case hiding scratches and scuffs was weird. These glame-furbs somehow make more sense.
Used to work in a refurb place and we'd have tons of optiplexs coming through us. Ebay and Back Market are great places to find them.
I legit love the retro esthetic and flashy looks of the familiar office machine. Be fun to have a couple around the house as decor and PLEX servers, etc.
That would be the dumbest thing ever though, cost wise.
Give me a $100... and I'll hook you up with a machine with 4th Gen i7, 16GB Memory, and a Samsung 512GB SSD - running on Optiplex 7020's or better. HAHAH!
Hope there will be an episode when Linus making a high-end sleeper PC version with these Treasure Box PC.
On the HP bit at the end that Linus mentioned. I bought a HP Desktop 190 for $120 AUD, threw in an i5 8400, 16gb of RAM, a 310W power supply from the HP Desktop Pro G2/G3 (same wiring/size - plug and play) with a GTX 1650 and I was playing Age of Empires IV on high settings at 1440p. Goes well, just needs more air flow (hole saw should solve that!) and I believe it’s compatible with Windows 11.
11:16 why is the game playing by itself?
sorry u waited this long for a comment linus is just watching a bot play the game
@@drzwicharliego4458 oh, yeah, that makes sensei XD
This plus a another $200 on a half card might not be bad. These system reintegratord are actually getting really crafty with how they refurbish the PCs. I like it.
About the RGB remote for the keyboard, I'd prefer that over ICUE or another bloatware that uses half the resources of the PC to light up 4 LEDs
I had one of the small ones, with an i5-2400, I took out the CD drive and put an SSD with an adapter in its place. It was not a very powerful machine, but when I put its GTX1050ti and 16 gb of ram, it became an absolute BEAST. It would have been interesting to try a Noctua heatsink, to see if it would stop sounding like a plane about to take off, and add a mini front fan, but well ....
A GTX And A newer, lower end AMD CPU would probably be ideal but compared to some PCs that companies still sell for the price for that, it looks quite good
Quick question, how much was that? Your PC, I mean.