**Optiplex Azure Review: Can You Run Modern Games on this Budget Build?**

In our latest review, we put the Optiplex Azure to the test and saw if it's possible to run modern games at smooth framerates. The system's Sandy Bridge CPU is still capable of delivering a good gaming experience for its price, but we needed a dedicated graphics card to boost performance.

To start off, I lowered the render scale from 1080p down to 640x360, which is equivalent to 1/9 the pixel density of 1080p. This drop in resolution allowed us to hit a smooth 30 frames per second on average, although we still barely missed that mark at 27 frames per second with an average of 19 FPS as the 1% and 8 FPS as the point 1% low. I was able to play through some gameplay scenes and experience the game's visuals for myself.

Next, I decided to drop the resolution even further, lowering it down to 800x600, which is a familiar resolution from back in the day. Unfortunately, this didn't improve the system's performance much at all. The average FPS barely missed the mark of 30 frames per second, and we were still getting stuck at around 27 FPS on average. However, I was able to play through some gameplay scenes and experience the game's visuals for myself.

After those tests, I wondered what would happen if we tried to run the game at max settings at 1080p with our system. Unfortunately, this proved to be a bit of a challenge. We were only getting around 3 FPS on average, with one percent and point one percent losses that left us barely above 20 frames per second. This was far from smooth gameplay, and we'd essentially just been flipping through still images.

That's when I decided to upgrade our system by adding a dedicated graphics card. I picked up an NVIDIA GTX 1050 for $50 at my local market through offer-up, and after installing it in the machine, I cranked all the settings up to max at 1080p. The result was night and day - we were now getting smooth gameplay with over 100 FPS on average.

I played around Stormwind City and took down mobs, seeing an average of over 80 FPS, although the point one percent and point one percent lows dipped below 60 FPS. These numbers are actually pretty ideal for a system coming in at under $150, making it an attractive option for those on a budget.

If you're interested in buying an Optiplex Azure or similar system, be sure to check out CW's website, which we've linked down below in the description. At the moment, they offer a system with this exact configuration for just $75, and if you use the special coupon code noa-be at checkout, you can get an additional 10% off.

Keep in mind that CW doesn't pre-install Windows on these systems; however, they do come with a Windows 7 key from the sticker on the case, which I was able to use with a Windows 10 install and activated without any issues. To get started, you'll just need to create your own USB media device.

In terms of other configurations, there are options like the i3 or i5 that might be slightly more affordable, but they'd still require some compromises in terms of performance and compatibility with modern titles. The i7 is a good option if you want to run all the latest games, but it's currently priced at a premium.

**Conclusion**

In conclusion, the Optiplex Azure system proved itself to be a capable budget build for gaming, although we did encounter some limitations in terms of performance at high settings. With a dedicated graphics card upgrade, we were able to hit smooth framerates on even the most demanding games. If you're looking for an affordable option that still delivers a great gaming experience, this system is definitely worth considering.

**The Potential for Upgrade**

One of the things I love about these Optiplex systems and pre-built in general is their potential for upgrade. They're only really lacking one thing - dedicated graphics. Sandy Bridge CPUs are still very capable of delivering a good modern gaming experience for their price, and with the addition of a high-quality graphics card, you can take performance to new heights.

**Recommendation**

I highly recommend checking out CW's website for more information on this system or similar configurations. They offer competitive pricing and a wide range of options, including upgrade paths that can help you customize your build for your specific needs.

**Final Thoughts**

Overall, I had a great experience with the Optiplex Azure system, and I think it has a lot to offer for those on a budget. With some careful planning and configuration, this system should be able to deliver smooth framerates on even the most demanding games. If you're interested in learning more about this system or have any questions, feel free to let me know in the comments below!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey what's up everyone Danny here world of warcraft classic came out not too long ago and oh my goodness is it filled with so much goodness classic coming out is really important because up until this release there was no legal way to play the game as it was 15 years ago this is a really big title that was a huge phenomenon when it came out and it reached far beyond the gaming space and there's no way to experience it it's not like a game on your console from like you know Nintendo or Super Nintendo era where you can just pop in the game and play it anytime you want well I was an exclusive online game that has a persistent world that exists on servers so you couldn't play the older versions after like the new patches or expansions came out which did reshape the game permanently each time they did well you kind of could because there are private servers but those were not as reliable methods of playing because your character and the whole server could be deleted at any moment due to like ceasing the system Blizzard or just private server corruption and drama so while classic coming out is a way for everyone to experience the magic of the game as it was 15 years ago because a big chunk of gamers right now we're probably either not born at the time or we're too young to even have a chance to play it back then in this video we're gonna see how Wow classic runs on a cheap computer for those of you who wanted to hop in and try it out without spending a ton of money and this will not be a gaming computer initially anyways and it should be easily accessible for less than $100 so let's check it out so we're gonna be checking out while classic on the day lofty quick 790 these are some of my favorite low-cost systems ever and I've used the optiplex line on the channel in the past on multiple occasions I've used whole pre-built as well as standalone components pull through them since there are a ton of these in existence that are constantly being phased out from businesses and schools so everything about them is pretty inexpensive this Optiplex in particular actually came from upcycle computer works aka ucw I'm teaming up with them for this video because I really like what they're doing in the used computer space their company based in Chicago that refurbishes upgrades and repairs use pcs their mission is to keep machines out of landfills as long as they're usable for as long as possible for every 10 computers that they sell they donate one to at-risk youth who cannot afford one of their own they believe that having a good working computer is a right that everyone should have and I'm definitely on board with that I'll give you more details on how you can get a similar system later on in the video if you're interested after we check out all the specs and see how it reforms with Wow so this specific machine uses a processor from the legendary Intel Sandy Bridge line the i5 2400 with integrated HD mm as a gigabytes of ddr3 system memory and a 750 gigabyte mechanical drive it's got a Dell om motherboard in it so there's not too many bells and whistles with regards to the BIOS or extra features and it lacks USB 3.0 support it has a 265 watt om power supply with no external PCIe power connectors so you're pretty limited to graphics cards you can use unless you upgrade the power supply one really cool thing though is that it does have DisplayPort out which I find to be really nice so that you're not locked into using VGA even with integrated graphics so that's the quick rundown of the system now let's talk about the minimum required specs for a while classic this is a rerelease of the game as close as they can get it to how it was 15 years ago but it's not a one-to-one replica do you do a handful of technical reasons that was actually covered during a dedicated Blizzcon panel and I'll have that linked in the description below for those who are curious but the system requirements have changed due to the modernization of the game for it to work in this day and age don't worry though if you do want it to look like it did 15 years ago they do have graphic settings for that and it's actually a three out of ten on the preset graphic sliders I actually have an original vanilla box right here so let's take a look at what it required back then since the minimum system specs is printed right at the bottom of a box and compare it to what while classic requires now in 2004 the minimum system requirements called for either Windows 98 ME 2000 or XP and you had to have at least an Intel Pentium 3 800 megahertz or AMD Athlon 800 megahertz processor 256 megabytes of system memory that's megabytes there and at least a 32 megabyte graphics cards such as an NVIDIA GeForce 2 class card or above DirectX 9 4 gigabytes of space on your hard drive 4 X cd-rom drive so you can install it with the district came with and at least 56 K or better internet connection the recommended specs are in here as well I'm not gonna read them out though but feel free to pause the video if you want to check them out for yourself for modern day while classic the memory requirements are at least Windows 7 an Intel eesti 600 or AMD Phenom 8750 which will be more than fine since the i-5 24 under is way better than those at least an 8800 GT from Nvidia or HD 4850 from AMD or intel HD 4000 integrated graphics we're gonna fall a bit short here because we've only got Intel HD 2000 graphics which is 2 generations prior to that but for system memory they call for 2 gigabytes of RAM which we've got covered because we have quadruple that amount 5 gigabytes of storage which we also have plenty of broadband internet and a minimum display resolution of 1024 by 768 so the system pretty much passes with flying colors for all the specs except in the graphics department but let's see how it performs I first tried to play at 1080p and I started with the lowest graphics available that's a 1 out of 10 on the preset slider here I am in Hills Brad foothills killing the beast right outside of town and I was getting roughly 19 FPS average with 9 fps 1 % and for FPS 0.1% lows those are some pretty bad numbers if you ask me but it was still playable to some degree you know I was able to quests and kill mobs and I even engaged in a little bit of PvP it just wasn't the most ideal experience at the same settings except in a major capital city like Stormwind where there's a lot more going you know there's people running around everywhere there's people sitting afk at the bank mailbox and auction house the average FPS job a couple of points 217 so there isn't a huge difference whether yeah in the Rose questing or if you're in a populated city again I was still able to get stuff done it just wasn't the most enjoyable experience since I'm used to playing on my own personal PC which maxes just came out no problems these results makes sense though we're using integrated graphics there are two generations behind from what they recommend as the bare minimum so try to get a smoother experience I dropped the render scale down to the equivalent of 720p and I kept at the same lowest graphics quality and the performance improved by a lot the average FPS got really close to hitting at 30fps which is what I would consider very playable it was just shy at 27 with 19 FPS as the 1% and 8 FPS as the point 1% lows in search for that average 30 FPS with the system I decided to drop to the resolution even further so I lowered the render scale to the equivalent of 640 by 360 which is 1/9 the pixel density of 1080p check out those sweet graphics at these settings it looks like we're back in 2004 actually probably even worse because even back then I was playing at 800 by 600 unfortunately the average FPS does not get much better it still barely misses the average 30fps were targeting however it did feel a lot smoother since the 1 and point 1 percent were both now above 20 now I know what you're thinking Danny what happens if we try to go the exact opposite direction and try to run the game at max settings at 1080p on the system and I knew you're gonna ask that question so I went ahead and tested that too what you're seeing here is the actual performance an astounding 3 FPS average with one and point one percent loss of 1 FPS are we still playing a game here are we flipping through still images I don't even know so jokes aside the overall performance of the system at the most optimized settings was a bit short of ideal it gets you in the game and your story will do stuff but I think most people will likely want more than that so that leads me to the next part of the video which is what I've always loved about these optical axes and most prebuilt in general and that is their potential to be elevate and how cheap it is to do so because you're only really lacking one thing that's build and that's dedicated graphics the Sandy Bridge CPUs are still very capable of delivering a good modern gaming experience for their price and all you need in order to boost the performance drastically is to throw in a graphics card that is completely powered through the PCI Express slot I was recently able to pick up a GTX 1050 for 50 bucks in my local market through offer up and I stopped in the machine and now let's check out the performance after this upgrade I cranked all the settings up to max at 1080p and it was a night and day difference the gameplay was super smooth I was running around the very busy Stormwind City and I was getting over a hundred FPS average and the point one percent lower right near that 60 FPS mark on the world questing and killing mobs the average went down a bit to the mid 80s but the one percent and point one percent lows were at 60fps or higher I'd say these numbers are pretty ideal for a system coming in at a total of $150 or less with that said if you guys are interested in buying one of these Optiplex Azure something similar definitely check out you cw's website which I'll have link down below in the description and you can get the exact model that I showed in this video for $75 and if you use a special coupon code no that's noa be at checkout you can get an additional $10 off to get the prices of these systems as well as possible ucw does not pre install windows on them they do however come with a Windows 7 key from the sticker on the case which I was able to actually use with a Windows 10 install and it activated with no issues you just have to create your own like USB media device there are other configurations which you know go down to as Louis and i3 which is a little bit cheaper or an i7 which is gonna cost a bit more for a while classic and to be able to play other modern titles are a bit harder to run I'd recommend getting at least an i-5 and you're gonna be set um but yeah anyways that's gonna wrap it up for this video I hope you all enjoyed and found it either helped or entertaining in some way let me know your thoughts on these optiplex systems in general and if you have any other questions definite let me know in the comments below and myself for other helpful members of the community we'll try to answer them also let me know if you are playing Classic well or if you have any interest and at all or you're just like you don't care because I'm really curious how many people care for this is it how many that don't but yeah I want to thank Chris over at ucw for teaming up with me on this video and I want to thank you all as always for watching and for your continued support of the channel I'll see you all in the comments as a husband in the next video bye youhey what's up everyone Danny here world of warcraft classic came out not too long ago and oh my goodness is it filled with so much goodness classic coming out is really important because up until this release there was no legal way to play the game as it was 15 years ago this is a really big title that was a huge phenomenon when it came out and it reached far beyond the gaming space and there's no way to experience it it's not like a game on your console from like you know Nintendo or Super Nintendo era where you can just pop in the game and play it anytime you want well I was an exclusive online game that has a persistent world that exists on servers so you couldn't play the older versions after like the new patches or expansions came out which did reshape the game permanently each time they did well you kind of could because there are private servers but those were not as reliable methods of playing because your character and the whole server could be deleted at any moment due to like ceasing the system Blizzard or just private server corruption and drama so while classic coming out is a way for everyone to experience the magic of the game as it was 15 years ago because a big chunk of gamers right now we're probably either not born at the time or we're too young to even have a chance to play it back then in this video we're gonna see how Wow classic runs on a cheap computer for those of you who wanted to hop in and try it out without spending a ton of money and this will not be a gaming computer initially anyways and it should be easily accessible for less than $100 so let's check it out so we're gonna be checking out while classic on the day lofty quick 790 these are some of my favorite low-cost systems ever and I've used the optiplex line on the channel in the past on multiple occasions I've used whole pre-built as well as standalone components pull through them since there are a ton of these in existence that are constantly being phased out from businesses and schools so everything about them is pretty inexpensive this Optiplex in particular actually came from upcycle computer works aka ucw I'm teaming up with them for this video because I really like what they're doing in the used computer space their company based in Chicago that refurbishes upgrades and repairs use pcs their mission is to keep machines out of landfills as long as they're usable for as long as possible for every 10 computers that they sell they donate one to at-risk youth who cannot afford one of their own they believe that having a good working computer is a right that everyone should have and I'm definitely on board with that I'll give you more details on how you can get a similar system later on in the video if you're interested after we check out all the specs and see how it reforms with Wow so this specific machine uses a processor from the legendary Intel Sandy Bridge line the i5 2400 with integrated HD mm as a gigabytes of ddr3 system memory and a 750 gigabyte mechanical drive it's got a Dell om motherboard in it so there's not too many bells and whistles with regards to the BIOS or extra features and it lacks USB 3.0 support it has a 265 watt om power supply with no external PCIe power connectors so you're pretty limited to graphics cards you can use unless you upgrade the power supply one really cool thing though is that it does have DisplayPort out which I find to be really nice so that you're not locked into using VGA even with integrated graphics so that's the quick rundown of the system now let's talk about the minimum required specs for a while classic this is a rerelease of the game as close as they can get it to how it was 15 years ago but it's not a one-to-one replica do you do a handful of technical reasons that was actually covered during a dedicated Blizzcon panel and I'll have that linked in the description below for those who are curious but the system requirements have changed due to the modernization of the game for it to work in this day and age don't worry though if you do want it to look like it did 15 years ago they do have graphic settings for that and it's actually a three out of ten on the preset graphic sliders I actually have an original vanilla box right here so let's take a look at what it required back then since the minimum system specs is printed right at the bottom of a box and compare it to what while classic requires now in 2004 the minimum system requirements called for either Windows 98 ME 2000 or XP and you had to have at least an Intel Pentium 3 800 megahertz or AMD Athlon 800 megahertz processor 256 megabytes of system memory that's megabytes there and at least a 32 megabyte graphics cards such as an NVIDIA GeForce 2 class card or above DirectX 9 4 gigabytes of space on your hard drive 4 X cd-rom drive so you can install it with the district came with and at least 56 K or better internet connection the recommended specs are in here as well I'm not gonna read them out though but feel free to pause the video if you want to check them out for yourself for modern day while classic the memory requirements are at least Windows 7 an Intel eesti 600 or AMD Phenom 8750 which will be more than fine since the i-5 24 under is way better than those at least an 8800 GT from Nvidia or HD 4850 from AMD or intel HD 4000 integrated graphics we're gonna fall a bit short here because we've only got Intel HD 2000 graphics which is 2 generations prior to that but for system memory they call for 2 gigabytes of RAM which we've got covered because we have quadruple that amount 5 gigabytes of storage which we also have plenty of broadband internet and a minimum display resolution of 1024 by 768 so the system pretty much passes with flying colors for all the specs except in the graphics department but let's see how it performs I first tried to play at 1080p and I started with the lowest graphics available that's a 1 out of 10 on the preset slider here I am in Hills Brad foothills killing the beast right outside of town and I was getting roughly 19 FPS average with 9 fps 1 % and for FPS 0.1% lows those are some pretty bad numbers if you ask me but it was still playable to some degree you know I was able to quests and kill mobs and I even engaged in a little bit of PvP it just wasn't the most ideal experience at the same settings except in a major capital city like Stormwind where there's a lot more going you know there's people running around everywhere there's people sitting afk at the bank mailbox and auction house the average FPS job a couple of points 217 so there isn't a huge difference whether yeah in the Rose questing or if you're in a populated city again I was still able to get stuff done it just wasn't the most enjoyable experience since I'm used to playing on my own personal PC which maxes just came out no problems these results makes sense though we're using integrated graphics there are two generations behind from what they recommend as the bare minimum so try to get a smoother experience I dropped the render scale down to the equivalent of 720p and I kept at the same lowest graphics quality and the performance improved by a lot the average FPS got really close to hitting at 30fps which is what I would consider very playable it was just shy at 27 with 19 FPS as the 1% and 8 FPS as the point 1% lows in search for that average 30 FPS with the system I decided to drop to the resolution even further so I lowered the render scale to the equivalent of 640 by 360 which is 1/9 the pixel density of 1080p check out those sweet graphics at these settings it looks like we're back in 2004 actually probably even worse because even back then I was playing at 800 by 600 unfortunately the average FPS does not get much better it still barely misses the average 30fps were targeting however it did feel a lot smoother since the 1 and point 1 percent were both now above 20 now I know what you're thinking Danny what happens if we try to go the exact opposite direction and try to run the game at max settings at 1080p on the system and I knew you're gonna ask that question so I went ahead and tested that too what you're seeing here is the actual performance an astounding 3 FPS average with one and point one percent loss of 1 FPS are we still playing a game here are we flipping through still images I don't even know so jokes aside the overall performance of the system at the most optimized settings was a bit short of ideal it gets you in the game and your story will do stuff but I think most people will likely want more than that so that leads me to the next part of the video which is what I've always loved about these optical axes and most prebuilt in general and that is their potential to be elevate and how cheap it is to do so because you're only really lacking one thing that's build and that's dedicated graphics the Sandy Bridge CPUs are still very capable of delivering a good modern gaming experience for their price and all you need in order to boost the performance drastically is to throw in a graphics card that is completely powered through the PCI Express slot I was recently able to pick up a GTX 1050 for 50 bucks in my local market through offer up and I stopped in the machine and now let's check out the performance after this upgrade I cranked all the settings up to max at 1080p and it was a night and day difference the gameplay was super smooth I was running around the very busy Stormwind City and I was getting over a hundred FPS average and the point one percent lower right near that 60 FPS mark on the world questing and killing mobs the average went down a bit to the mid 80s but the one percent and point one percent lows were at 60fps or higher I'd say these numbers are pretty ideal for a system coming in at a total of $150 or less with that said if you guys are interested in buying one of these Optiplex Azure something similar definitely check out you cw's website which I'll have link down below in the description and you can get the exact model that I showed in this video for $75 and if you use a special coupon code no that's noa be at checkout you can get an additional $10 off to get the prices of these systems as well as possible ucw does not pre install windows on them they do however come with a Windows 7 key from the sticker on the case which I was able to actually use with a Windows 10 install and it activated with no issues you just have to create your own like USB media device there are other configurations which you know go down to as Louis and i3 which is a little bit cheaper or an i7 which is gonna cost a bit more for a while classic and to be able to play other modern titles are a bit harder to run I'd recommend getting at least an i-5 and you're gonna be set um but yeah anyways that's gonna wrap it up for this video I hope you all enjoyed and found it either helped or entertaining in some way let me know your thoughts on these optiplex systems in general and if you have any other questions definite let me know in the comments below and myself for other helpful members of the community we'll try to answer them also let me know if you are playing Classic well or if you have any interest and at all or you're just like you don't care because I'm really curious how many people care for this is it how many that don't but yeah I want to thank Chris over at ucw for teaming up with me on this video and I want to thank you all as always for watching and for your continued support of the channel I'll see you all in the comments as a husband in the next video bye you\n"