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Budget for a dedicated PC and any display as upfront purchases, then estimate monthly electricity from the setup’s average power draw at the wall and your local electricity rate. For a 30-day month, a computer drawing 100 watts on average uses 72 kWh; at the 2025 U.S. residential average of 17.30 cents per kWh, that would cost about $12.46 in electricity. That is an illustrative calculation, not a measured cost—and YouTube’s web playback can pause for a “Continue watching?” prompt, so a PC is not guaranteed to play unattended for a whole month.
Separate the upfront purchase from the monthly budget
Start with the items your setup actually needs. The PC and display are usually upfront costs; electricity recurs. Add an internet-plan cost only if this setup requires a new plan or pushes you over a data cap. A subscription is optional and belongs in the budget only if you want one.
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- Upfront: dedicated desktop PC, display if needed, and any other hardware you choose to buy. The available evidence does not establish a specific model, configuration, or purchase price, so compare current listings for your needs rather than assuming a particular PC will be suitable or inexpensive to run.
- Monthly: electricity for the PC and, if it will also stay on, the display. Use your local electricity tariff rather than treating a national average as your rate.
- Conditional: additional internet service or overage charges, and any optional subscription you decide to use.
For YouTube Premium, YouTube says an individual Premium, Premium Lite, or Music Premium account can stream video or audio on one device at a time; household plans have different limits. No regional subscription price is established here, so check the terms and price available where you live before adding it to your estimate.
Calculate the electricity cost from measured power draw
Use the computer’s average draw at the wall while playing videos at the resolution you plan to use. A plug-in power meter can help you measure representative playback. Do not use the power supply’s maximum rating as the computer’s expected consumption: it is not a measurement of what the system draws while playing.
#1 Best Overall
- This Certified Refurbished product is tested and certified to look and work like new. The Refurbishing Process includes functionality testing, basic cleaning, inspection, and repackaging. The product ships with all relevant accessories, a minimum 90-day warranty, and may arrive in a generic box. Only select sellers who maintain a high-performance bar may offer Certified Refurbished products on Amazon.com.
- HP 600G1 Intel I5 Quad-Core 3.2 GHz Processor.
- What's Inside: 8GB RAM, 500GB Hard Drive, DVD Optical Drive.
- Includes: USB Keyboard and Mouse, Microsoft office 30 days free trail.
- Operating System: Windows 11 Pro 64 Bit-Multi-Language Supports English/Spanish/French.
- Measure the PC: run representative YouTube playback at your intended resolution and measure its average wall draw in watts.
- Measure the display separately if it will stay on: add its average watts to the PC’s average watts. A PC-only measurement does not include a display.
- Calculate monthly energy: average watts ÷ 1,000 × hours per month. Continuous operation for a 30-day month is 720 hours.
- Calculate monthly electricity: monthly kWh × your applicable electricity price per kWh. Use the rate on your bill or tariff; taxes, fixed charges, and other bill components may affect the total bill.
For example, if the combined PC-and-display average is 100 W, the calculation is 100 ÷ 1,000 × 720 = 72 kWh for 30 days. Multiply 72 by your own per-kWh rate to estimate the energy charge.
Illustrative U.S. electricity examples
The following are arithmetic scenarios using the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s 2025 residential annual average of 17.30 cents per kWh. The wattages are assumptions, not tested readings for any PC. The examples exclude purchase costs, display power unless included in the assumed draw, taxes or fixed bill charges, internet, replacement parts, and subscriptions.
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| Assumed average draw | Energy for 30 days at 24 hours/day | Electricity at 17.30¢/kWh |
|---|---|---|
| 50 W | 36 kWh | $6.23 |
| 100 W | 72 kWh | $12.46 |
| 200 W | 144 kWh | $24.91 |
The EIA’s 2025 residential annual average is a U.S. benchmark, not a universal rate. For context, its 2025 average retail prices for all utility customer types ranged from 8.20 cents per kWh in North Dakota to 35.72 cents per kWh in Hawaii; those state figures cover all customer types, not residential customers alone. The EIA’s July 2026 national monthly residential average was 18.31 cents per kWh. Rates vary by location and customer type, so your own tariff and measured setup draw are the useful inputs for a personal estimate.
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Check playback and internet needs before buying
YouTube recommends using a current browser and operating system for computer viewing. Its published sustained-speed recommendations are 5 Mbps for 1080p and 20 Mbps for 4K UHD. These are YouTube recommendations, not a guarantee that your connection or service will remain uninterrupted. If other people or devices share the connection, account for their use too.
Rank #3
- Model: Dell OptiPlex 7050 Small Form Factor (SFF)
- Processor: Intel Core i7-7700 3.60 GHz
- Memory: 32GB DDR4 Ram
- Storage: 1TB Solid State Drive (SSD) Fast Boot + Storage
- Operating System: Windows 11 Pro (64-bit)
Choose a PC based on the playback resolution you actually need and verify that it can run a current supported browser and operating system. The available guidance does not establish a universal minimum hardware specification for every YouTube video, nor does it show that any particular PC has been tested for month-long operation.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Plan for YouTube’s playback interruption
Autoplay does not repeatedly replay one video by itself: when it is on, YouTube says another related video will play automatically after a video ends. On the web, YouTube says the “Video paused. Continue watching?” prompt may appear after 60 minutes of uninterrupted viewing when Autoplay is enabled. YouTube explains that the prompt is intended “to protect your watch history and help make sure you don’t use internet data if you’re not actually watching YouTube.” An unattended computer may therefore stop advancing until someone responds.
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- Dell OptiPlex 3040 Small Form Factor Desktop PC, Intel Core i3-6100 up to 3.7GHz, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, WIFI
- Ports: 8 External USB: 4 x 3.0 (2 front/2 rear) and 4 x 2.0 (2 front/2 rear); 1 RJ-45; 1 Serial (optional); 1 Display Port 1.2; 1 HDMI 1.4; 2 PS/2 (optional); 1 UAJ, 1 Line-out; 1 VGA (optional)
- Included in the box: Computer; Power Cord; USB Keyboard; USB Mouse; WiFi Adaptor
- Operating System: Windows 11 Pro 64 Bit – Multi-language supports English/Spanish/French.
- Support 4K (3840x2160) display, high quality image quality gives you the best visual enjoyment.
If playback fails, YouTube’s troubleshooting guidance recommends updating the computer and browser, closing excess tabs, and trying Chrome or another supported device. These are troubleshooting steps, not evidence that a PC will run reliably for a month without attention.
Quick wins for a faster PC:
Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →When a cloud service may fit a different goal
If by “loop YouTube videos” you mean keeping prerecorded videos live as a YouTube stream, rather than playing YouTube videos on a screen, StreamNeo is a different option: it plays uploaded videos as a 24/7 YouTube live stream from the cloud. It does not replace a PC for watching YouTube videos, and it does not stream from a camera.
- Upload a recording or build a playlist.
- Add your YouTube stream key once.
- Go live; StreamNeo loops the uploaded videos from the cloud.
Nothing has to stay on at home. Your uploads stream as made, up to 4K 60fps, at one flat price per slot rather than quality tiers; StreamNeo automatically recovers if YouTube drops the stream. The first day is free with no card, one free day per account. The monthly option is $9.99 per month. See StreamNeo or its pricing page for details. To try it, start a free day with StreamNeo.
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