A Redditor thanked his father for gifting him something that he plucked out of the trash. Alternative-Run363 claims that his dad enjoyed a big ‘W’ by fishing out a PC packing an Intel Core i5-9400F, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660, and more. That’s a ‘W’ indeed, since it all seems to work, and Windows 11 is installed and activated. It's certainly better than the kipper bones, tin cans, or old boots that Thomas Jasper Cat Sr. usually found in the trash.
My dad Found this pc to me in the Trash with an gtx 1660 and a i5 9400f w dad from r/PcBuild
In this latest case of finding computer treasure in the trash, we don’t get much of a backstory regarding the find. However, it certainly looks like the PC system in the picture has seen better days. You can clearly see dust and grime has built up in this machine over the years. From the single picture, it is difficult to determine if there are dust filters missing or if they were just unmaintained. According to the social media posting, there's a glass side panel that was removed for the photo.
So, let’s take a closer look at what Alternative-Run363 managed to snag for the grand total of zero dollars and zero cents:
- CPU: Intel Core i5 9400F
- CPU Cooler: Asetek Shark Gaming AiO
- GPU: Asus Phoenix Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660*
- Motherboard: Asus TUF B360-Plus Gaming motherboard*
- RAM: 16GB dual-channel
- Storage: 500GB Kingston A2000 M.2 NVMe SSD
- Case: InWin chassis with at least two system fans
- PSU: Unknown, unknown condition
- OS: Windows 11 was installed by Alternative-Run363, and they found out it was activated
- (*We guessed these precise component models after some pixel peeping)
In summary, we have here a mid-range gaming PC that was probably put together between 2018 and 2020. As it stands, it should perform respectably at 1080p in PC titles of that era (and older), and it will also be fine for daily office and web-based activities. We’d still recommend a thorough de-dusting of the system and would be tempted to throw in a fresh PSU (we can’t see any condition indicators for the existing top-mounted unit).
Depending on Alternative-Run363’s intended purpose for this system, the platform could be upgraded to a higher-tier 9th Gen Intel Core processor. Right now, the system packs a modest hexa-core CPU without hyperthreading. The B360 board could be upgraded with a Core i9-9900 to deliver 8 cores and 16 threads of processing, for example.
Meanwhile, there are oodles of GPU upgrades possible thanks to the enduring PCIe standard. But in the context of this system, and its PCIe 3.0 x16 slot, you would probably look for bargains from the old Nvidia RTX20 or AMD RX5000 series.
We note that the freshly unleashed Borderlands 4 official system requirements mention an Intel Core i7-9700 and RTX 2070 / RX 5700 XT in its minimum specifications column. So, in theory, this trash find could be dragged up to a level to enjoy the newest episode of this looter shooter. Don’t blame us if Borderlands 4 runs horribly, though; that seems to be a trend.
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