An aging Intel Core i5-3570K paired with a two-gigabyte Radeon RX 550 sounds modest even before the $150 ceiling enters the equation, which makes the eventual Minecraft performance the central surprise. The creator sets sensible restrictions from the outset: build from individual parts rather than buying an office prebuilt, stay well below the maximum budget, maintain Linux compatibility, and target at least 200 FPS in Minecraft. That gives the shopping process an actual purpose beyond simply assembling the cheapest functioning machine.
The parts hunt captures both the possibilities and frustrations of extreme-budget PC building. The final list lands at a claimed $114.44, using an H61 motherboard, eight gigabytes of DDR3 in dual channel, a 128GB SSD, inexpensive cooling, and a used 400-watt 80 Plus power supply alongside the i5 and RX 550. There are compromises everywhere, particularly the tiny SSD and limited GPU memory, but the creator generally acknowledges them rather than pretending this is equivalent to a modern gaming system. Local Indonesian marketplace pricing and the Facebook deals are important context, however, because viewers elsewhere should not assume they can reproduce the exact build for the same amount.
Assembly is presented in an approachable, informal way. CPU installation, thermal paste, the cooler, dual-channel memory, I/O shield, motherboard mounting, power connections, storage, and graphics card installation all receive attention. The explanations are basic rather than comprehensive, and some advice—such as emphasizing enough screws so components do not “fall off”—is more conversational than technically instructive. Still, the sequence provides newcomers with a reasonably understandable picture of how the collection of inexpensive used and new components becomes a working PC.
Installing AerynOS significantly expands the project beyond a conventional budget-build benchmark. The creator walks through booting the installer, partition setup, XFS selection, KDE Plasma, and then spends considerable time customizing the desktop with a darker color scheme, monochrome icons, wallpaper, widgets, and panel positioning. That section reflects the creator's enthusiasm for Linux customization and gives the build personality, although it also delays the performance testing that is likely to be the primary reason many viewers clicked.
Minecraft provides the build with its best result. Using Prism Launcher and Fabulously Optimized, with fancy graphics and a stated 16-chunk setting, the creator reports roughly 200–300 FPS while recording, with moments reaching 400 and even 500 FPS after the world settles. Those figures comfortably exceed the original 200-FPS goal under the demonstrated configuration, but the headline-worthy peaks should not be confused with a sustained 400-plus-FPS result. The creator actually describes performance as generally stable around 300 FPS, making that the more representative claim within the presentation.
Resident Evil 4 Remake supplies an important reality check by falling to roughly 14 FPS and being declared unplayable. That contrast makes the benchmark section substantially more useful because it prevents excellent Minecraft numbers from creating the impression that this is broadly capable modern gaming hardware. The broader suggestion that games from 2020 or earlier should run at low-to-medium settings is much less firmly demonstrated, however, since no additional games from that period are actually tested. More benchmarks, along with resolution, detailed settings, temperatures, power behavior, and frame-time measurements, would have made the performance conclusions considerably stronger.
Pros
- The claimed $114.44 total comes in comfortably below the original $150 limit while producing a complete working system.
- Minecraft testing exceeds the stated 200-FPS target, with performance generally described around 200–300 FPS and higher peaks.
- Resident Evil 4 Remake provides a useful counterexample that exposes the RX 550 system's limitations with demanding modern games.
- The parts selection, physical build, Linux installation, customization, and gaming tests create a satisfying start-to-finish project.
- Used-market shopping and inexpensive older hardware demonstrate how aggressively costs can be reduced when buyers accept significant compromises.
Cons
- The 400-plus-FPS framing emphasizes peak Minecraft figures even though the creator describes roughly 300 FPS as the more stable result.
- Only Minecraft and Resident Evil 4 Remake are benchmarked, leaving the broader claim about pre-2020 games largely untested.
- Resolution, detailed benchmark methodology, temperatures, frame times, and other performance data are not provided.
- Indonesian marketplace and Facebook pricing makes the $114.44 total highly dependent on local deals rather than easily reproducible.
- The lengthy KDE customization section interrupts the momentum between completing the build and discovering how well it actually performs.
Turning barely more than $100 of old and bargain-bin hardware into a responsive Linux machine with genuinely impressive Minecraft performance makes this an engaging budget experiment. Its headline numbers need context and the testing is too narrow for broad gaming conclusions, but the creator does a good job showing both the remarkable value and the severe limits of the finished system.
