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The "$60 Gaming PC" – AMD BC-250 (2025)

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Re: The "$60 Gaming PC" – AMD BC-250 (2025)

#71

Post by jolan »

serbuvlad wrote: post #61
jolan wrote: post #57

I bought one while waiting to see if my Steam Machine reservation would be fulfilled. I paid ~$186 shipped for the board on eBay 5 weeks ago. I use an ATX power supply and NVMe that I had laying around and I printed a big case for it[0]. I seem to have gotten a good one as it has no problems after unlocking the extra CPU/GPU cores. I run vanilla Arch on mine configured to boot into Steam. The jank factor is pretty hi…

What's the performance delta? I'm waiting on a SM reservation but I wouldn't mind saving $500+ :) Is there any "jank" during active use or is this mostly a set up thing?

They are very close in benchmarks. https://i.imgur.com/Bk5Dcfb.jpeg

I think we will continue to see some performance improvements for both systems over the next coming months.

It works great if you turn the BC-250 on, play games, and turn it off.

By jank, I mean it's not a streamlined console experience like the Steam Machine. There's no suspend/resume and the idle power is quite high. If you want wifi/bluetooth, you'll have to pick a chipset well supported by Linux. (I use ethernet and a steam controller). If you want USB ports and a power button in the front like a console would have, you'll have to pick a solution for those. Carefully read over the options for power and cooling. They're very important if you're going for max performance. All the little extras add to the over-all cost as well.

https://mosfet.party/ sells a bunch of BC-250 add-ons to give you an idea of price and options.

Re: The "$60 Gaming PC" – AMD BC-250 (2025)

#72

Post by nullify88 »

I have a bunch of these as headless gaming PCs in a rack running sunshine and Steam on Linux. The kids stream from them using moonlight on whatever smart device they want to play on.

Had the idea from LTT but he went a bit bonkers and bought expensive hardware to transmit video and input over cables. Gigabit Ethernet is more than enough.

Re: The "$60 Gaming PC" – AMD BC-250 (2025)

#73

Post by qlte »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #38
hackersnooze1 wrote: post #36

Does anyone else immediately lose interest in an article when you realize it was written by AI?

Yes but I'm also getting a bit tired of reading complaints about it as well.

Sure it's noise but it does serve a valuable purpose so I don't waste my limited time reading an article on the front page if I see a consensus from dozens of AI complaints in the comments.

Dang at one point mentioned HN was planning to create another flag button specifically for obviously AI written content which would be the best solution IMO. If implemented then trivial AI complaints could be considered spam and told to use the AI flag instead.

Readers could then decide themselves if they want to click through after seeing some kind of small AI indicator next to the post when the flags pass some threshold, at least that's how imagined it could work for posts.

Re: The "$60 Gaming PC" – AMD BC-250 (2025)

#74

Post by nsbk »

jauntywundrkind wrote: post #62
nsbk wrote: post #12

I built one of these. It is not possible to do so for 60$ anymore since the board itself goes for 150+. On top of that you still need a PSU, NVMe, a high pressure fan, DP to HDMI adapter, possibly BT and Wifi adapters, and a 3d-printed or DIY case. It is also a very hacky build. You need to flash the BIOS which enables a few interesting unlocks: from 24 to 40 GPU compute units and 6 to 8 CPU cores. It's a bit of a si…

I got one for $130 ~8-10 weeks ago. Whew. Lucky. The Steam Machine I think is part of why these things are now suddenly super in demand but also, yeah, it was a riotously good deal for a long time; thank you for this one good thing crypto. Just to note there are already over a half dozen esp32 based power controllers. The BT detect is cool. Reddit is at the "Yet Another esp32 controller" phase, has been for a while.…

Well played! I guess we’ll never see such prices anymore.

With regards to the wireless power on, I was definitely not the trail blazer. I’m just using https://github.com/Thunkar/bc250-esp32-switch

Re: The "$60 Gaming PC" – AMD BC-250 (2025)

#75

Post by therein »

qlte wrote: post #73
tonyedgecombe wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes but I'm also getting a bit tired of reading complaints about it as well.

Sure it's noise but it does serve a valuable purpose so I don't waste my limited time reading an article on the front page if I see a consensus from dozens of AI complaints in the comments. Dang at one point mentioned HN was planning to create another flag button specifically for obviously AI written content which would be the best solution IMO. If implemented then trivial AI complaints could be considered spam and t…

That would be a good solution. I'd very much like that.

Re: The "$60 Gaming PC" – AMD BC-250 (2025)

#76

Post by rbanffy »

It’s an intriguing machine, but, by now, I’d have imagined someone would offer a sheet metal case with a PSU and fan (or mounting holes, at least).

The form factor is unfortunate. I wonder what was the intended usage (server side gaming?) and if other high-volume parts (as game console APUs are) can become small similar systems, preferably with expandable memory). The history of how this thing came into being must be really interesting.

Speaking of form factors, it’s a shame there is no generic desktop/deskside/tower conversion kit for 4 and 5u rack servers. Some machines have tower counterparts, but having an aftermarket option would save a lot of machines from the metal crushers.

Re: The "$60 Gaming PC" – AMD BC-250 (2025)

#78

Post by some-guy »

If one were to actually build and design a SoC, ARM $60 game “console” that plugs into your TV in 2026 and sell it at a decent volume, what would the equivalent game console be potential-wise?

I’ve been doing 3D game development for retro consoles for fun and it’s actually quite impressive what you can actually achieve with little hardware.

Re: The "$60 Gaming PC" – AMD BC-250 (2025)

#79

Post by giantrobot »

some-guy wrote: post #78

If one were to actually build and design a SoC, ARM $60 game “console” that plugs into your TV in 2026 and sell it at a decent volume, what would the equivalent game console be potential-wise? I’ve been doing 3D game development for retro consoles for fun and it’s actually quite impressive what you can actually achieve with little hardware.

The Switch is essentially that. Obviously not $60 but it's a several generations old Nvidia Tegra SoC. The AppleTV wasn't far off either before its massive price hikes.

Re: The "$60 Gaming PC" – AMD BC-250 (2025)

#80

Post by bpye »

nsbk wrote: post #12

I built one of these. It is not possible to do so for 60$ anymore since the board itself goes for 150+. On top of that you still need a PSU, NVMe, a high pressure fan, DP to HDMI adapter, possibly BT and Wifi adapters, and a 3d-printed or DIY case. It is also a very hacky build. You need to flash the BIOS which enables a few interesting unlocks: from 24 to 40 GPU compute units and 6 to 8 CPU cores. It's a bit of a si…

Are there DP-HDMI adapters that work with HD audio bitstreaming and VRR? Different use case, but I've not had much luck finding good options.
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