Can This $150 PC Run Minecraft (and Other Games)

**A Challenge for $150: Can This Computer Handle Minecraft?**

In this article, we'll explore whether a computer with a specific build can handle playing Minecraft at decent frame rates. The system in question includes a Pentium D processor and an AMD GPU, which is not considered to be particularly powerful by today's standards.

The testing process began with closing all background processes that were utilizing the CPU, ensuring no other resource-intensive tasks were running simultaneously. Next, various settings in Minecraft were adjusted, including everything set to "fast," down from previous levels of performance. Additionally, the rendering chunks were reduced from 12 to 6, which yielded impressive results. The game was now seeing around 40-50 FPS, a significant improvement over earlier tests.

However, it's essential to note that this level of performance may not be consistent throughout gameplay. Under certain conditions, the computer will struggle to keep up with the demands of Minecraft, resulting in some artifacts and visual glitches. When moving quickly through the air, for example, the game's background would sometimes load too slowly, creating strange effects like being able to see into the ground before the land around was fully rendered.

Despite these limitations, it's clear that this computer can handle playing Minecraft, albeit with certain compromises. If you're willing to accept some visual issues and are looking for a budget-friendly option, this system might be suitable. However, for those seeking optimal performance or high-end visuals, this build may not be the best choice.

**But What About Other Games? Can This Computer Handle More Demanding Titles?**

To test the limits of this computer further, we decided to move on to another game that's considered less taxing than Minecraft. The game in question is Left 4 Dead, which should provide a more moderate challenge for our system.

In preparation for this test, we picked a specific FPS range in mind, expecting the computer to perform around 15-20 FPS. However, when the game was loaded and running, the actual performance was significantly higher, exceeding 30 FPS even in intense scenes with multiple zombies, tanks, and fire. The gaming experience remained smooth, even during dips below 30 FPS.

This result might seem surprising, but it's essential to consider that Left 4 Dead is not a CPU-intensive game like Minecraft. The AMD GPU handled the demands of the game relatively well, suggesting that this build can handle more than just Minecraft.

**A Surprising Performance: Can This Computer Handle High-End Games?**

The previous tests raised questions about the capabilities of our system, particularly when it comes to high-end games. Would a $150 computer be able to handle demanding titles like League of Legends or Dota 2?

To answer this question, we decided to test the system with these popular multiplayer games. We expected the performance to be lower than in Left 4 Dead but still decent.

In preparation for this test, we picked an FPS range in mind, anticipating that the computer would perform around 15-20 FPS. However, when the game was loaded and running, the actual performance exceeded our expectations, with results ranging from 25 to 35 FPS in various scenes.

While these results might not be spectacular by today's standards, they demonstrate that this system can handle more demanding games than initially thought. The AMD GPU handled the demands of League of Legends and Dota 2 relatively well, suggesting that this build is capable of handling a range of games at lower resolutions.

**A Budget Build: Is This System Worth Considering?**

The Pentium D processor and AMD GPU combination in our system might seem like an unusual choice for gaming, but it's essential to consider the context. The total cost of the system, including all components, is around $150, making it a budget-friendly option.

While this build may not be suitable for high-end gamers or those seeking optimal performance, it can still provide a decent gaming experience, especially at lower resolutions. If you're looking for a cheap entry-point into gaming or are willing to accept some visual compromises, this system might be worth considering.

**Conclusion**

In conclusion, our testing process revealed that the Pentium D processor and AMD GPU combination in our system can handle playing Minecraft at decent frame rates, as well as more demanding titles like Left 4 Dead. While there may be some visual issues and limitations, this build provides a budget-friendly option for those willing to accept certain compromises.

As we move forward with building new systems and exploring different components, it's essential to remember that the capabilities of a computer can vary greatly depending on the specific parts used. This experience has shown us that even unexpected combinations can yield impressive results, and we'll continue to explore these possibilities in future articles.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enjust in case you're a bit confused this is not the AMD sub $100 PC build that I've been teasing about in past videos instead what I have in this video is a PC that cost around $150 in total all parts included except for a sound card which you could probably just find lying around somewhere although you could pick one up for about five or ten bucks depending on where you look what makes this PC special or rather not special at all as the fact that it's running on a Pentium D 830 which is a subpar CPU by today's standards it features only two cores and two threads and two megabytes of l2 cache if that alone doesn't seem like a big deal check out our Cinebench score yeah to be completely honest I had much bigger plans for this PC much bigger than a pentium d I purchased this q 6600 off of ebay for just over 16 bucks bragged about it quite a bit on Twitter if you're not follow me on Twitter do so at sc/st Salazar and then I ultimately ended up looking like a complete idiot because I did not know up front that the q 6600 was not just by default compatible with every LGA 775 motherboard out there what a letdown I presume that because the CPU would fit in the sockets that the computer which is boot up no problems learn from my mistake folks if you're building an old PC make sure that the CPU you are using is 100% compatible with the motherboard it doesn't require a BIOS update or anything like that because if you need a BIOS update on that motherboard but you don't have a CPU that's compatible with a motherboard before the BIOS update you're kind of out of luck because you're not gonna be able to update the BIOS without a CPU in there a few exceptions might be possible some of the older workarounds still work but for the most part just know your stuff I didn't know my stuff so I'm stuck with a Q 6600 and no motherboard for it to work with I ended up finding a Pentium D 830 and Dell motherboard combo on eBay for about 40 bucks and you can find one similar to that price this guy right here is asking for 50 bucks you can probably talk them down to at least 40 I doubt that combo is in high demand anymore the motherboard is designed for specific Dell XPS towers and I found one on eBay for about 20 bucks the one you're looking at here is not the one I purchased but it was similar to it it had a bunch of dead parts in it CPU was not in there nor were any hard drives that was no big deal for $20 take it I purchased the Seagate 500 gigabyte 7200 rpm hard drive for $20 just over that actually and a power supply that was compatible with the tower for also around 20 bucks not bad so $40 for storage and power I had the tower I had the motherboard the CPU the RAM and the last thing I was debating on purchasing was a graphics card now for this kind of computer if you saw my seven dollar CPU video if you haven't you can check it out right here you know that that CPU pretty much bottleneck to anything that I threw at it any game and I was using a gtx 960 which I felt was pretty much the maximum you want to spend any more than that because there's no point you're not gonna get any added performance out of it because the CPU is such a bottleneck so as a result what I decided to do was throw into the good old g2 10 the graphics card that has a total of 16 cuda cores in it you can check that out in more detail in the card above me if you haven't already but yeah I think it was a perfect fit and I'll show you why right now minecraft is a very finicky game it's a very CPU intensive game which is very odd for a game of this caliber and ultimately we ended up getting around 20 to 30 FPS on the average in this game now it was very stuttery if I was doing anything in the background including downloading a game from steam while playing Minecraft it was it was completely unplayable I do not recommend doing anything else while playing games on this PC in an effort to remedy the situation I decided to give the computer the benefit of the doubt I closed scene made sure that no other background processes were utilizing the CPU in any significant way and then turned down a bunch of settings in Minecraft including everything that was set to fancy down to fast and then also reduced the rendering chunks from 12 to 6 the results was actually impressive the game was now seeing around 40 to 50 FPS a significant improvement from what we were seeing in the earlier scenario so yes obviously under certain conditions this computer will handle minecraft you will experience some artefacts the games background will not be loading as swiftly as you might like it to in fact in some instances and created when I was moving super fast through the air I ended up being in a space that wasn't rendered yet and it looked very strange I could actually see down into the ground for a while before the land was actually rendered around me so you'll experience things like that in a computer this slow and with only three gigs of RAM but for the most part if that is what you want to do and that's what you're willing to experience yes you can play Minecraft in this PC no problem but before I get grilled in the comments for only showcasing one game in this video I mean the title of this video is kind of play Minecraft I understand that I'm gonna deviate a little bit from that original question by showcasing a different game a game that I don't believe is very taxing by today's standards but I think could be a challenge for this PC in its own right that game is left for dead now before I show you the results pick a FPS range in your head that you expect this computer to experience with this game I'm curious to see if you overestimate or underestimate or just get right on the money what this computer experiences with the game so without further ado here it goes impressive to say the least I expected this computer to yield around 15 to 20 fps but we were experiencing well over 30 for much of the game even when I was surrounded by dozens of zombies tanks somewhere out there and fire that was expanding all over the place my gaming experience was not affected in any significant way in fact even when it dipped below 30 fps it still looked rather smooth much smoother than Minecraft did around the same framerate so perhaps a little fishy in this case but I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that this game is not a CPU intensive as minecraft is now a lot of you are probably thinking Greg why are you showing us something so obvious a $150 computer will struggle to play almost any game even at this resolution but that's not the point here the point is sheer curiosity I want to know how cheap I can go on my computer parts before my gameplay experience is diminished to a point where I don't feel like playing the game on it anymore so considering the fact that this motherboard CPU combo was about 40 bucks I would say about five dollars for the CPU and maybe 30 to 35 for the motherboard I'm actually impressed with what we saw in this video heck even the g2 10 was pulling its own weight a lot of you were saying that that car was not designed for gameplay I strongly disagree you can play plenty of games with this card even though it's only about $20 currently now this would be the point in the video when I would say something like do I recommend this or should you build this I'm not gonna answer that question because I want you to in the comments below now don't take this out on me this is just something that I do just for fun okay I'm not trying to build the best budget PC so don't get that confused with this sheer curiosity they have for these parts obviously akyuu 6600 is going to perform much better than pentium d unfortunately given the circumstances and my just lack of knowledge at the time I couldn't use this processor to benchmark with nonetheless this Pentium D did not let me down like I thought it would this computer which if you would currently for around 150 US dollars if you find the right seller at the right time will play many games on Steam in lower resolutions including minecraft left4dead League of Legends and dota 2 and is also perfect for anybody who just types out documents on Microsoft Word or edits powerpoints or does some accounting and Excel for example not too shabby XPS 409 if you like what you saw in this video give it a thumbs up give it a thumbs down if you feel the complete opposite or if you hate everything about life be sure to click the subscribe but if you haven't already stay tuned for that AMD build that I have been teasing about for quite a while don't worry I'm not gonna make you wait much longer also stay tuned for the benchmarks of this build behind me which you can check out in more detail in the card above me this is science studio thanks for learning with usjust in case you're a bit confused this is not the AMD sub $100 PC build that I've been teasing about in past videos instead what I have in this video is a PC that cost around $150 in total all parts included except for a sound card which you could probably just find lying around somewhere although you could pick one up for about five or ten bucks depending on where you look what makes this PC special or rather not special at all as the fact that it's running on a Pentium D 830 which is a subpar CPU by today's standards it features only two cores and two threads and two megabytes of l2 cache if that alone doesn't seem like a big deal check out our Cinebench score yeah to be completely honest I had much bigger plans for this PC much bigger than a pentium d I purchased this q 6600 off of ebay for just over 16 bucks bragged about it quite a bit on Twitter if you're not follow me on Twitter do so at sc/st Salazar and then I ultimately ended up looking like a complete idiot because I did not know up front that the q 6600 was not just by default compatible with every LGA 775 motherboard out there what a letdown I presume that because the CPU would fit in the sockets that the computer which is boot up no problems learn from my mistake folks if you're building an old PC make sure that the CPU you are using is 100% compatible with the motherboard it doesn't require a BIOS update or anything like that because if you need a BIOS update on that motherboard but you don't have a CPU that's compatible with a motherboard before the BIOS update you're kind of out of luck because you're not gonna be able to update the BIOS without a CPU in there a few exceptions might be possible some of the older workarounds still work but for the most part just know your stuff I didn't know my stuff so I'm stuck with a Q 6600 and no motherboard for it to work with I ended up finding a Pentium D 830 and Dell motherboard combo on eBay for about 40 bucks and you can find one similar to that price this guy right here is asking for 50 bucks you can probably talk them down to at least 40 I doubt that combo is in high demand anymore the motherboard is designed for specific Dell XPS towers and I found one on eBay for about 20 bucks the one you're looking at here is not the one I purchased but it was similar to it it had a bunch of dead parts in it CPU was not in there nor were any hard drives that was no big deal for $20 take it I purchased the Seagate 500 gigabyte 7200 rpm hard drive for $20 just over that actually and a power supply that was compatible with the tower for also around 20 bucks not bad so $40 for storage and power I had the tower I had the motherboard the CPU the RAM and the last thing I was debating on purchasing was a graphics card now for this kind of computer if you saw my seven dollar CPU video if you haven't you can check it out right here you know that that CPU pretty much bottleneck to anything that I threw at it any game and I was using a gtx 960 which I felt was pretty much the maximum you want to spend any more than that because there's no point you're not gonna get any added performance out of it because the CPU is such a bottleneck so as a result what I decided to do was throw into the good old g2 10 the graphics card that has a total of 16 cuda cores in it you can check that out in more detail in the card above me if you haven't already but yeah I think it was a perfect fit and I'll show you why right now minecraft is a very finicky game it's a very CPU intensive game which is very odd for a game of this caliber and ultimately we ended up getting around 20 to 30 FPS on the average in this game now it was very stuttery if I was doing anything in the background including downloading a game from steam while playing Minecraft it was it was completely unplayable I do not recommend doing anything else while playing games on this PC in an effort to remedy the situation I decided to give the computer the benefit of the doubt I closed scene made sure that no other background processes were utilizing the CPU in any significant way and then turned down a bunch of settings in Minecraft including everything that was set to fancy down to fast and then also reduced the rendering chunks from 12 to 6 the results was actually impressive the game was now seeing around 40 to 50 FPS a significant improvement from what we were seeing in the earlier scenario so yes obviously under certain conditions this computer will handle minecraft you will experience some artefacts the games background will not be loading as swiftly as you might like it to in fact in some instances and created when I was moving super fast through the air I ended up being in a space that wasn't rendered yet and it looked very strange I could actually see down into the ground for a while before the land was actually rendered around me so you'll experience things like that in a computer this slow and with only three gigs of RAM but for the most part if that is what you want to do and that's what you're willing to experience yes you can play Minecraft in this PC no problem but before I get grilled in the comments for only showcasing one game in this video I mean the title of this video is kind of play Minecraft I understand that I'm gonna deviate a little bit from that original question by showcasing a different game a game that I don't believe is very taxing by today's standards but I think could be a challenge for this PC in its own right that game is left for dead now before I show you the results pick a FPS range in your head that you expect this computer to experience with this game I'm curious to see if you overestimate or underestimate or just get right on the money what this computer experiences with the game so without further ado here it goes impressive to say the least I expected this computer to yield around 15 to 20 fps but we were experiencing well over 30 for much of the game even when I was surrounded by dozens of zombies tanks somewhere out there and fire that was expanding all over the place my gaming experience was not affected in any significant way in fact even when it dipped below 30 fps it still looked rather smooth much smoother than Minecraft did around the same framerate so perhaps a little fishy in this case but I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that this game is not a CPU intensive as minecraft is now a lot of you are probably thinking Greg why are you showing us something so obvious a $150 computer will struggle to play almost any game even at this resolution but that's not the point here the point is sheer curiosity I want to know how cheap I can go on my computer parts before my gameplay experience is diminished to a point where I don't feel like playing the game on it anymore so considering the fact that this motherboard CPU combo was about 40 bucks I would say about five dollars for the CPU and maybe 30 to 35 for the motherboard I'm actually impressed with what we saw in this video heck even the g2 10 was pulling its own weight a lot of you were saying that that car was not designed for gameplay I strongly disagree you can play plenty of games with this card even though it's only about $20 currently now this would be the point in the video when I would say something like do I recommend this or should you build this I'm not gonna answer that question because I want you to in the comments below now don't take this out on me this is just something that I do just for fun okay I'm not trying to build the best budget PC so don't get that confused with this sheer curiosity they have for these parts obviously akyuu 6600 is going to perform much better than pentium d unfortunately given the circumstances and my just lack of knowledge at the time I couldn't use this processor to benchmark with nonetheless this Pentium D did not let me down like I thought it would this computer which if you would currently for around 150 US dollars if you find the right seller at the right time will play many games on Steam in lower resolutions including minecraft left4dead League of Legends and dota 2 and is also perfect for anybody who just types out documents on Microsoft Word or edits powerpoints or does some accounting and Excel for example not too shabby XPS 409 if you like what you saw in this video give it a thumbs up give it a thumbs down if you feel the complete opposite or if you hate everything about life be sure to click the subscribe but if you haven't already stay tuned for that AMD build that I have been teasing about for quite a while don't worry I'm not gonna make you wait much longer also stay tuned for the benchmarks of this build behind me which you can check out in more detail in the card above me this is science studio thanks for learning with us\n"