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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)

#91

Post by beacon294 »

teaearlgraycold wrote: post #85
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 don’t see how you could run Qwen3.8 27B on 16GB of memory that’s shared with Linux. Are people running models at 2bit quants? Are they even worth bothering with? I had assumed you go down to 4bit and if you need to go smaller you have to lose parameters.

You can, it's kind of cool to have this capability on something gaming at such a low price tag. Its not optimal for your time but beats nothing by a LOT. And that model is pretty reliable.

https://unsloth.ai/docs/basics/dynamic-3.0-ggufs

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

#92

Post by some-guy »

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #82
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.

Not $60, but a bit close. I'd do something based on the RK3588 SoC. It's pretty beefy. GPU isn't stellar but it does have good video codec, a proper PCIe bus including support for e.g. m.2 slot nVME on many boards, and decent amounts of RAM, and good a multicore basis. And there's some amount of kernel upstreaming that makes it a bit friendlier than some.

I couldn’t find a board under $120, but this would be a compelling target performance wise, even with 4GB shared memory

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

#93

Post by mplewis »

NooneAtAll3 wrote: post #39
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…

> you still need ... DP to HDMI adapter what for? just use DP

My monitor doesn't have a DisplayPort port.

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

#94

Post by mplewis »

rbanffy wrote: post #76

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…

The intended usage was crypto mining. You bought a 4U of these in a rack of 12 blades.

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

#95

Post by RajT88 »

dragonwriter wrote: post #87
RajT88 wrote: post #30

$60 gaming PC's are doable if you buy an "untested" Dell Optiplex and get lucky. A few years ago, I bought a couple of these in that price range that not only worked, but had a GPU of some kind. Good enough for Left4Dead at least, and some other Indie games. All they needed was an HDD with Windows 10 (both of which I had lying around - Win10 licenses can be had for a few bucks).

> $60 gaming PC's are doable if you buy an "untested" Dell Optiplex and get lucky. Yeah, but a $60 lottery ticket that pays off in an X if you win isn’t a $60 X.

I'd take these over a lottery ticket. Not mentioned: I'd bought a handful of these off CL as well, and they all worked.

Dell business machines are pretty reliable. It's a much better wager than a lotto ticket.

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

#96

Post by cortesoft »

kylec wrote: post #13
monster_truck wrote: post #11

You are _not_ getting one of these for less than $300, and because of this post and many like it, there are countless scams selling just cases for them at this price from a dollar or two of filament.

If it's advertised as a case and it works, why is it a scam? I don't own a 3D printer, nor do I know anyone who does. If someone is designing, printing, and selling a useful product, why is that a scam?

If you are selling a product for way more than it should cost (like a $60 3D printed case), when that cost is the exact price that a popular blog says the computer costs, you are intentionally hoping to prey on people mistaking your listing for the actual computer.

You can make all sorts of arguments about possible reasons for charging that exact price for that exact product, but no reasonable person is going to buy that.

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

#97

Post by shiftpgdn »

monster_truck wrote: post #11

You are _not_ getting one of these for less than $300, and because of this post and many like it, there are countless scams selling just cases for them at this price from a dollar or two of filament.

How is it a scam to sell something for more than the cost to make it? Labor and energy are not free you know.

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

#99

Post by whateveracct »

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…

i would happily use my pangram plan to submit report pdfs

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

#100

Post by kecso »

Hey all! I've wrote the original [blogpost](https://devquasar.com/hardware/the-60-gaming-pc-amd-bc-250/) last year and maintaining the [how-to](https://github.com/csabakecskemeti/amd_bc-250_how-to) repo. I'm glad you found it useful!

Yeah the prices were much lower last year, but I think this is still a good deal for the tinkerers.

I've just added the how to portion of the CU 32->40 unlock on Manjaro Linux. Plus added an AGENTS.md so you can use your favorite AI to guide you trough the full process.

Happy hacking!

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