The cheapest desktop computers today, not counting the monitor, are around 300 euros. But what if we could buy an entire team for a fraction of that price? More ambitious still, if we were only willing to spend only 1 euro? What would we get? A Polish youtuber has tried it, although he has achieved something, let’s say… a bit retro.
as collected Online games, the young man, known as Kepuexe, found a complete computer for that price on eBay and did not hesitate to buy it. The yellowish casing of the tower and the monitor tell us about good decades of antiquity. Let’s see what the hardware specifications of this equipment are and what the youtuber has been able to do with it.
The 1 euro computer
The Mark PC 586 computer has a Gigabyte GA-586TX3 motherboard, a processor Intel Pentium MMX a 166 Mhz, a 2 MB Elsa Winner 1000 PCI graphics card (with S3 graphics chip), 32 MB of RAM, and a 4 GB hard drive. Unfortunately it didn’t have an operating system installed, so Kepuexe had to install one.
What system to choose for a 1997 team? Windows 98 it was his choice, so after inserting the disk into one of his two CD trays (the only one that worked) and making some adjustments in the BIOS, he proceeded to format the hard drive and install the corresponding system and drivers to be able to use it as if it were in the nineties.
After testing the floppy drive, he went to the next level: testing the capabilities of the computer with games, yes, all with a monitor with a resolution of 640 x 480 pixels and DirectX 5.2. Among the titles that he managed to enjoy are ‘Rally Racing 97’, ‘Judge Dredd Pinball’ and ‘Jazz Jackrabbit’, with majestic graphics of the time, of course.
Kepuexe’s adventure with the computer did not go much further, at least according to his video posted on YouTube. However, the young man assures that for only one euro he managed to obtain an old game platform. And he is certainly not wrong. One euro translated into some moments of fun, yes, with an important plus: some guaranteed nostalgia.
In Xataka | Buying guide for desktop computers under 500 euros with Windows (2022)
