The All AliExpress PC

- One of our favorite pastimes here at Linus Tech Tips is buying weird tech on AliExpress, waiting 4-12 weeks for it to arrive, and opening it up for all of you. Because I mean, let's be honest, it's always an adventure. Which begs the question, Linus, how come they haven't thought about building an entire computer with nothing but parts from AliExpress? Well, we did it. And we are doing it. What the hell is this? And why does GlassWire offer it to you? With GlassWire you can keep track of strange things connecting to your PC, even when you're not using it, and you can see if a strange device connects to your Wi-Fi and block it instantly.

Get 25% off today by using code Linus in the link in the video description. (upbeat music) The ground rules for our little experiment today were pretty simple. Build a pretty powerful gaming rig without spending so much money that you could have bought it somewhere else other than AliExpress. We went with the best components we could find and in cases where there was a tie, we went with the best AliExpress option. We actually don't have all the parts we ordered on June 3rd because as I mentioned before, the shipping time was about a week to four months and after five months we just canceled our order out of the blue.

But you don't wait to build your PC because your fans didn't come. So we grabbed a bunch of fans we had hanging around that looked a bit like AliExpress, and we're going to get this going. In fact, we have to build our own case, which of course means we get some very instructions from AliExpress. Oh, they must have printed this with their definitely legit Autodesk version. - Education, as education as version. - This is a virtual computer case with water cooling. Good cooling function, has good DIY transformation space. Fantastic. - So you offer the option to customize it for $5? - Yes. - But. - But. - They didn't personalize it and they simply refunded our money.

But Sarah had already created the design and we have a laser cutter. (Linus laughs) - Nerd. They included gloves. This is actually very important for an acrylic case because otherwise it will look ugly when you're done. I think there's a 95% chance I'll finish building the rest of the computer before you do that. Not because you stink, because that looks terrible. Here I'm going to start with the motherboard. This is the BATTLE-AX B450M-HD from Colorful. This puppy was $87.54 shipped, which isn't really a great deal since MATX B450 boards can be had for about $80 on Newegg, but it was the best we could do for an AliExpress motherboard.

We're actually off to a pretty good start in terms of fit and finish. Fits. - Nice. - It doesn't come out or anything - So far I've taken off one of these. I think the longest part of all of this will be just removing the stupid masking tape. - Our CPU is really fun. Now, obviously this is a B450 board, so we're going to put a regular old AMD CPU on it. That doesn't sound particularly AliExpress, until you consider that this Ryzen 7 2700 is $10 cheaper than, according to PCPartPicker, the price it has been sold for. The seller offers a lifetime warranty and from the listing it looks like it may or may not be refurbished, we don't know.

Did you know? No, this looks new. - Ha! - As if it didn't come with a cooler. It's probably about that $10 price delta. - Oh. - Now RAM, I hope I can find very, very Chinese RAM. This comes with a small broom. Interestingly, the broom is probably the most Chinese thing about this memory because it clearly uses micron chips which, as far as I know, are not made in China. So probably only module assembly is done there. Superior quality, lifetime warranty, professional factory wholesale service. What is 163.com? - A website where you can access and see news and they also have their email service. - So this is like a free email?

Oh yes, I'm sure the lifetime warranty will work great for you. 10 Hit, shsh. Wow, it's actually rated at 3200 megahertz CL16, that's not bad. But then 16 gigs of RAM for about $60 and the change is par for the course on sites like Newegg, so the lesson here is not to buy RAM on AliExpress. Not because this won't work, it probably will, with micron chips, but simply because. - So far the instructions are not that bad. So I feel like this will go relatively well. The most important thing is that if you don't have experience attaching things like this, it would be very easy to overtighten one of these screws and just blow the whole acrylic off.

So be careful with that and everything should be fine. - Is this just not the same as what you ordered? - I am so confused. - Did you order two coolers? - I'm going to go see if we have the real cooler. - OK, bye. Hey, we have the SNOWMAN. This pup will cost you just under $40 with shipping and that's if you select the venison option. But I'm actually not sure, oh, he's a, with a picture of a deer, of course. (Linus blowing raspberry) That's better. This is strange, so each of these fans actually has five leads, and then two of them just have heat-shrink terminations and hang down here, and the other four are connected to a single 4-pin power connector.

So you don't need a cable adapter or anything like that to mount it, which is great, but I also wonder what that cable was for. This says right in the AMD and Intel bundle, but this is clearly an AMD-only bracket and I don't see any other accessories. It's a good thing we chose AMD for our system. How little would you have to pay to justify building your own box versus paying a little more and purchasing one that's already built? - I don't know, for something like this, I prefer to build it myself because then I know that everything is built correctly.

I'd say it mostly depends on whether you think this looks cool for some reason. What's a little interesting is that these all slide like on the 80/20 rails that we have here. And then they like to have little indentations that hold it together, except for the bottom one, which instead of sliding in, it just stays on the bottom. - Oh, I understand why. It is so that there is additional entry space at the bottom. It's a foot. - Ah, yes, I see. - That's not a great approach, but. - They could have also reduced this even further. - They definitely could have done it.

The last piece we can assemble before Alex finishes with the case is the SSD. For $60, this could be anything from a great deal to a total rip-off, and we have no way of knowing because the website for Goldenfir's 512-gig NVME SSD says (Linus coughs) "The color of the PCB, the type of chips flash, The number of flash chip may vary depending on each batch." One thing I really want to know is if this is a DRAM-free design, which is why I'm removing the sticker here. And it is, so it's not cool. Damn, I think I lost the bet.

I lost the game. - I'll do it without tools. Where is this going? - Hey, so I won, great. Man, I love working here. Not because of the work, the work is, you know it's work, but I love you guys. Alright, let's go ahead and put in this I/O field. Is it only inserted from one side? It definitely doesn't grip as well as the other side, but it's in. Oh. Hey, luckily we have that other cooler, the Alseye that we thought was for this version, but we don't actually know what it's for, we can use this one. - Hurrah. - That worked.

Also RGB. Well. I'm fine now Alex, no zip ties needed, it's beautiful. Hey, there it is. This motherboard has two fan headers, including the CPU header, but it has an integrated RGB header. - Oh sick. - This lack of fan headers has unexpected consequences, so I had to connect a Molex to 4 pin and then two Y-splitters to get the four fan connectors I need to plug the rest of my fans in here. The best part is that we are not really saving any money. The only thing I know for sure is that the power supply will make this less stable or more stable.

Now, we're still not sure if it's 800 watts or 1000 watts. We know it's not modular and we hope it has all the cables and connectors we need and, boy, is it incredibly stylish. That is, don't hate the game, hate the player. Are you ready for the weight comparison? 1,200 grams. Alright. Mmm, 1,900 grams. The cables are also supported on the table. - Plus, it's an 850. - It's also an 850 watt power supply. Dare me connect this to an RTX 3090. - No! - In theory he will execute it. - Actually it won't be. - So much for my theory that it helps with structural rigidity.

I hope this is really okay. Again, Colorful is the only really decent brand in China that I can think of that we also don't have access to in Europe or North America, so this was the best AliExpress we could find. As for why we chose the 2000 series instead of the 3000 series, well, like I said, we waited a long time for these parts and the 2000 series was relevant when we ordered this. To be fair, I don't think I can get the card out without breaking the case. But honestly, that doesn't say much. Oh. After a bit of rubbing, it looks like the laser went through.

I don't know, how is that? You can see it? - Yes. Can you see this shirt? lttstore.com (Linus laughs) I got them. Well. Alex? - Yeah? You're done making the mistake. It has a key, it only goes in one direction. The last thing I want to see before trying out the whole AliExpress gaming experience - yes, there are peripherals too - is whether adding this other side panel helps the rigidity a little. In theory it should. This is now a box instead of what we had before. Is better. It's much better. Now it's like, hey, you know, it's not even coming apart at all.

Yes, that is our case, yes. Remember my theory about the air intake under the power supply? All we have is this little piece here. The rest, the acrylic reaches the table. Oh, these are the Lair RGB fans. - Oh. Like you were talking. (upbeat music) ♪ I imagine myself pretty in a limo ♪ ♪ My face on the cover of every magazine ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ Sexy, sexy ♪ ♪ That's all I want ♪ ♪ Sexy, sexy ♪ ♪ That's all ♪ ♪ Sexy , sexy ♪ ♪ That's all I want ♪ LED light mouse pad, oh. Oh Lord. Look at this graph. What is this? Did you know this had something like a giant undead dragon? - Yes.

Thick and soft, waterproof and comfortable, I think that describes it. I have a keyboard with Zhejiang blue click switches. (keyboard click) But when you press it it definitely has the ca ca ca sound. - Yes. (keyboard click) - That's not a bad onomatopoeia. You know, this is far from the worst cheap gaming mouse from AliExpress I've come across. A PMW 3360 sensor. - Yes. - Compatible with all types of motherboards, Windows XP operating system, 7, 8, 10. Damn, this is $27? It actually feels pretty good. - Yeah. Rubber grip, like ha! This inspires a little less confidence, but hey, at least it has a braided cable.

This is the strongest braided cable you will ever find. AliExpress Playtime. Are we ready boys and girls? Give it the old scope over here. Oh, is it plugged into the wall? - Did you press the power button? - Ah, yes, here we go. Oh no, I don't think it connects at all, Alex, because of a clearance issue with the acrylic. It's like he almost entered. Oh wait, I think the microphone is, wait, what just happened? Computer restart. We are restarting sir, okay. Forget it, we just won't have audio. Okay, well, there's one thing below. - Oh, it only gives audio to the monitor? - No, I checked.

Yes, it's supposed to be RGB, what's going on? Hey, there it is. Wow, that's really not very bright. I mean, in the dark, we could see it. You have to come and get a close up of that, I doubt you'll be able to see it any other way. Wait, did this just restart again? What the hell? I don't think it was from connecting the front panel audio, I just rebooted again. I'm back at the login screen. - Do you think it's the power supply? - I think there's a good chance it's the power supply, yes. Yes, it makes sense, as soon as we start using the GPU, this probably won't be able to keep up.

I mean, we have hardware in folk right? And that, my friends, is the reason why you do not buy your power supply on

aliexpress

.com. In fact, there's really no good reason to buy any of this from AliExpress, right? - Not precisely. I mean, if you absolutely had to have this case, I guess it's different than other cases on the market, so that would be the place to get it, but everything else here is available for the same price or less from reputable stores . sites like Newegg, Amazon or Micro Center. And you don't run the risk of waiting, you know, four months or even ever for your product to arrive.

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So. - Wow. - You know, what was our agenda to make a PC exclusively from AliExpress? Wow, I wonder. I've been accused of making videos to get views before you know it. - Wow. - I'll tell you a secret, you don't make videos so they don't see you. - PC Taobao complete? - What is a complete Taobao PC? I raised this hand to cover myself and hit the bottom of the table. - Oh I'm sorry. - Really difficult. Not well. Oh. Like I had dented my hand. Alright.