The Quest for the Perfect Mid PC: A Journey Through Etsy and the Steam Hardware Survey

We've had a mixed track record when it comes to Etsy, because for every cool thing that we've found in the past, there's something equally horrible that is also lurking on the site. But this time around, we have a game plan. On one end, we are going to be building the most mid PC of all time using the Steam hardware survey, as well as bestselling items on Amazon and Newegg. Then, we're going to spice it up with some accessories and accoutrement from Etsy.com. What could possibly go wrong?

Getting flashbacks to the Charmander PC, we'll see that when choosing the most average PC, you're gonna get some components that are decidedly not a good idea. So, let's take our graphics card. This is a GeForce 3060. That is by far the most popular GPU in the Steam hardware survey. Makes sense, it's a pretty decent mid-range card from a few years ago. However, that version is the eight gig, which you literally just can't buy anymore.

The obvious choice if you were buying this today would be the 12 gig. Same thing goes for the CPU. It's actually a little bit of an odd choice. So, this is the Intel Core i5 10600K. You'll probably be sensing a little bit of a trend here in that the average PC on Steam is a couple of years old, which makes a lot of sense. But this is still quite a reasonable CPU. It's gonna have a lot of performance and actually goes for a lot of our other components.

But at the end of this, I wanna find out how good is the average Steam user's PC setup. Now it's time to actually build this most average PC and to complete the package, we're going to be grabbing a bunch of the bestselling accessories that go along with it. So, we have mouse, keyboard, monitor, which best matches the actual performance that you're gonna get out of a 1080p display that is used by the majority of Steam users.

Starting with this, the Razer Ornata V3 gaming keyboard. And it's, well, it's not great. Sounds like a bag of bones. Hey, where's the mouse? Did I forget to buy the bestselling mouse from Amazon? Oh wow, look at that! A G502 Hero, the bestselling mouse on Amazon that I definitely already had and didn't forget to order.

Real talk though, this actually is one of the bestselling mice for a reason. It doesn't look super exciting but it is a very competent mouse for not a lot of money. Mouse is good. Keyboard is fine if you have no taste. To round out the boring setup, we have the most popular monitor which actually I think might be good, unlike some of this other stuff which is a little bit questionable.

Now, it's always a test when you pick up a cheap monitor. How light is it? Oh, it's not ultra superlight, it's just regular light. I mean, that seems fine, right? $90 bucks. Let's start looking at some Etsy items and let's begin upgrading this setup into something that you can actually be proud of.

Okay, so I'm gonna start out real broad. We're just gonna type in gaming PC. Now, I do not wanna purchase an actual gaming PC which I know there are plenty of. This is a 1.3 inch x 6.8 inch x 0.2 inch keyboard and mouse combo that looks like it was designed by a toddler having a temper tantrum.

We'll see how the performance of this setup turns out in our next video.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- We've had a mixed trackrecord when it comes to Etsy,because for every cool thingthat we've found in the past,there's something equally horriblethat is also lurking on the site.But this time around, we have a game plan.On one end, we are going to be buildingthe most mid PC of all timeusing the Steam hardware survey,as well as bestsellingon Amazon and Newegg.But then we're going to be spicing it upwith some accessories andaccoutrement from Etsy.com.What could possibly go wrong?Getting flashbacks to the Charmander PC.Now you'll see that whenchoosing the most average PC,you're gonna get some componentsthat are decidedly not a good idea.So take our graphics card.So this is a GeForce 3060.So that is by far the most popular GPUin the Steam hardware survey.Makes sense, it's a prettydecent mid-range cardfrom a few years ago.However, that version is the eight gig,which you literallyjust can't buy anymore.So the obvious choice ifyou were buying this todaywould be the 12 gig.Same thing goes for the CPU.It's actually a littlebit of an odd choice.So this is the Intel Core i5 10600K.You'll probably be sensinga little bit of a trend herein that the average PC onSteam is a couple of years old,which makes a lot of sense,but this is still quite a reasonable CPU.It's gonna have a lot of performanceand actually goes for a lotof our other components.But at the end of this, I wanna find outhow good is the averageSteam user's PC setup.Now it's time to actuallybuild this most average PCand to complete the package,we're going to be grabbing a bunchof the bestselling accessoriesthat go along with it.So we have mouse, keyboard, monitor,which best matches the actual performancethat you're gonna getout of a 1080p displaythat is used by themajority of Steam users.Starting with this, the RazerOrnata V3 gaming keyboard.And it's, well, it's not great.Sounds like a bag of bones.Hey, where's the mouse?Did I forget to buy thebestselling mouse from Amazon?Oh wow, look at that!A G502 Hero, thebestselling mouse on Amazonthat I definitely already hadand didn't forget to order.(laughing) Look at that.Real talk though, this actually isone of the bestselling mice for a reason.It doesn't look super exciting,but it is a very competentmouse for not a lot of money.Mouse is good. Keyboard isfine if you have no taste.To round out the boring setup,we have the most popular monitor,which actually I think might be good,unlike some of this other stuff,which is a little bit questionable.Now, it's always a test whenyou pick up a cheap monitor.How light is it?Oh, it's not ultra superlight, it's just regular light.I mean, that seems fine, right? 90 bucks.Let's start looking at some Etsy itemsand let's begin upgrading this setupinto something that youcan actually be proud of.Okay, so I'm gonna start out real broad.We're just gonna type in gaming PC.Now, I do not wanna purchasean actual gaming PC,which I know there are plenty of.So this is a 1.3" OLEDthat you can plug intoyour PC as an accessory.So they've got here like Ethereum pricing,but you also could see like your CPUor GPU temperature or something.That's really neat.What is an ice PC set?Ice-themed decoration for your PC.So basically it's a whole icy setupthat you can magneticallyattach to your PC.That's actually kinda neat.This is so sick. Absolutely.I hope that we have a white case, right?A Glorious Model O Wireless Charging Dock.Oh, that's neat.So instead of using Qi or something,when you actually do it,it will attach the mouse to the top.That's really sick.Create your own customprinted RGB GPU backplate.Oh yeah, we should do this.That's actually really cool.So it looks like it's got like RGB builtinto the actual back plate.If we can use Etsy to takethe most mid PC of all timeand turn it into somethingwhich not only is super functional,but also looks really cool.Man, two thumbs up for this.I'm excited, dude. We'refinding so much good stuff here.Oh God!It's cat ears, tail, and feet for your PC.(Alex laughing)You know what, we were doing so goodwith this aesthetic sort of picksand now we're just gonnathrow it all away.Look at this boring setup.If only we had a wide varietyof wonderful items from Etsyto make it less boring and less normal.Oh wait, we do.This first one, I saw it on Etsyand I was like, you know what?I need this in my life.And I would argue a lot of gamersprobably need this in their lives too.And no, it's not deodorant.Behold, my friends.The one and only,smells like video game rage candle.Now, you might ask,what, Austin, does videogame rage smell like?And to that, I would say(audience jeering)like a candle, okay.(cricket chirring)Hey! Okay.- Is this a fire hazardhaving it like right next to your PC?- Candles have never caused,are you trying to insinuatethat candles could start fires?Boy, I really do not have a-- Oh, maybe not over the fire.Don't put that over the fire!- Oh, oh, oh, yeah, yeah, good point.Oh wait, all your followers?Did someone somehow figure out who I ambased on placing an order fora bunch of PC parts on Etsyunder the name Austin Evans?- What? You'renot Pierre Luigi, what?- I forgot to order as Pierre Luigi.That was very nice, Etsy.Thank you for givingus some extra bonuses.I can't be mean to youbecause you wrote a nice note.- You can still be mean to them.- No. No.- All right, can I be mean to him?- Apparently if you scan theQR code, you get 35% off.Yeah, you can be mean to me. That's fine.- Yes!- So this is what we actually ordered.So this should go something like thison the bottom of our system.- Damnit Zeke, it'sgood. I can't roast you.- That's legitimately terrific.That's really, really cool.Wait a minute.Am I about to put a hugeamount of white accessoriesinto a black case?I hope that we have a white case, right?So after unboxing most of our Etsy items,I realized that with a black caseand all white accessories,I made a little boo boo.So it's time to go backto the drawing boardand see how we can fix this.Also, did I just say boo boo unironically?(upbeat music)Ooh, that smells like success, my friends.Welcome to the most boring gaming PC,or so it was, because nowI've gotta say that when you lookat the Etsy-ified system we have built here,it is one of the coolestPCs I've ever built.And by me, I mean y'alldid most of the work'cause I got frustrated yesterday.So since we originally built the system,we obviously swapped itout to the white versionof the Corsair case.'Cause I forgot to orderthe white one to begin with.So that part's fine.We had to swap the motherboardbecause the super cheapo boardthat we originally worked withhad no RGB headers whatsoever.Between that, between our desk mat,between our fact that we didhave to swap the keyboard,because when we realizedthe Razer keyboarddidn't have easily swappable keycaps,we swapped over to this,which is the Royal Kludge.We have our full Unown set of key caps,and by full, I mean just the QWERTY ones.All that was left was wehad to swap out the coolerbecause some of our accessorieswe later realized after we ordered them,were meant for an AIOand not a air cooler.Which is fine, becauselook how lovely this is.Okay, let me walk you throughall the things we've done here.So starting out with, wehave all of these icicles.So this is all purchasedfrom a single Etsy seller.So we have them along the top.We have them along our AIO tubing.We have it on our AIO pump, on the fans,those are actually really coolbecause it's not only a grille,but also it has a little spikes.We have 'em on the bottom.And on top of that, we have augmented itwith some actual legitimate real crystals.We have a large amount ofOverclock logos everywhere.In fact, even on our desk mat.So if you're a big fan ofOverclock Media and white,then this is the system for you.Might be describing myself right now, maybe.But you know what? It's fine.So we've got ourselvesthis bottom display.So it has a small 3.5inch display that has,we've got it programmed witha little Pikachu set up,so we can see CPU, temperature,SSD, that kind of stuff.But it also does have theOverclock logo etched in it,and it has some LEDs inside.We also have a custom LEDback plate for our RTX 3060.So this is specificallydesigned for the MSI card,so it just attaches right like that.On top of that, we also havesome of these Overclock fan shrouds,which is actually kindly given it to usby one of the Etsy sellerswho recognized the channel.So shout out.Oh God, did I just do the...- Blessed?- Hmm.Blessings.Is this a silly setupand way too much work forthe most boring computer?Absolutely.Does it look sick? Yes.And look at the giant Overclock logo,which is our GPU support.The GPU does not need a support,but it's a full 3D printed Overclock logo.How cool is that?Not to mention the fact,in case you forget myname, it's right here.Oh, and we've got thisreally, really dumb littlecart for the PC, which Iwill say not a big fan of,but, luckily all this was very affordable.I was, no,it was priceless.Wait, we didn't spend more on Etsythan we did build at the PC, did we?- (laughs) Well.The PC, including all the accessories,so that's including theheadphones, the mouse,the keyboard.- The whole setup.- The whole setup.- Yep.- Is a little bit, it's $1,100.- We spent $1,100 on the most average PC.I mean, to be fair, it ismonitor everything, but okay.- All the Etsy stuff was over $800,and that's including allthe various discountsthat Etsy was like, "Hey,since you're spending so much,you want a discount on stuff?"- Oh, my God.So you're telling me thatwe spent over $800 on Etsyand people gave us a bunch of free,like half the stuff wasfree, extra bonus goodies,and then the rest ofthe stuff is little...Let's put this all to the test and see.While the extra money we have spentcertainly has not given us any extra FPS,it'll give us some extra CPS.(disc scratching)Not Child Protective Services.Cool points and style.So just as a refresher, thissystem, as flashy as it is,is using very much standard components.This is an Intel Core i5 10600K,as well as an RTX 3060,and 16 gigs of RAM.So, I mean, according to Steam,this is as average asaverage components get.Time to get number oneVictory Royale. Let's go.There we go. Look at that.I'm so good at Fortnite.I mean, this is obviouslya great experience, right?Ah! Nope, nope, nope,nope, runaway, runaway.We're rocking 120 FPS, 1080p.No problems whatsoever.If this is what theaverage person is using,they're actually gettinga pretty good experience.Like realistically, I mean,uh-oh, I disconnected, what?Wait, I lost internet,and yet the game isstill continuing, what?Well, I got confused.I really think that ifthis is the average systemthat people are using, it'sactually really not bad.Now, I'm not gonna talk to you at allabout the price to performanceof taking the most averagesystem and upgrading it.But once you can play a gameat a nice, smooth frame rateat decent settings, everythingelse on top of that,it's nice for future proofingand blah, blah, blah.But look, ultimately, areyou really gonna noticethat big of a difference?Is this gonna change yourexperience that much?I would argue no.If you really want a PC toexemplify your creativity,if you really wanna showoff what you're all about,you could actually save some money in,instead of buying a4070 Super or whatever,put that towards somecool Etsy accessories.Like I actually thinkthat for a lot of people,the wow factor of thissystem is worth something.Maybe not $800.But I legitimately, thisis a very usable setup.I'm pretty happy withhow we were able to turnthe most boring gaming PC in the universeinto something that,honestly, it's a vibe.Is it your vibe? I'm not sure.Did I win by doing literallynothing? Yes, I did.But sometimes in life,much like with Etsy,you get what you get andyou're either happy with itor you gotta go and return your crystals.- On the bright side,you're a crystal girl now.- Eyy, shout out.- I, well, ever sinceMercury's been in retrograde,I've been feeling a kind of way,like I spent too much money on Etsy.