Recommendation for budget PC for gaming

[jonpd]

MY ancient Dell Optiplex 755 (Core2 duo, 4G memory, basic Nvidia card, Win7) is getting very long in the tooth and it is time to upgrade. I am looking at a budget of around $600 - $800. Problem is a lot of basic PC's in that range might be OK except for graphics and adding a graphics card usually means a beefier power supply so it starts adding up.

One possibility I saw was the Dell G5 in a configuration with an Intel i5-10400F, GTX1660 cars and 8G memory. Only has a regular HDD I would probably add an SSD. Base price is $849 without the SSD.

The only sim I run is Open Rails which is barely adequate on the Optiplex 755. I also have issues running TSRE especially in the graphics modes such as placing static consists it is practically unuseable.

Any recommendations?

Thanks in advane,
Jon

[rdayt]

Jon,

Take a look here. https://pcpartpicker.com/ . Go to the completed builds and use the price slider to see what others have done.
If you can use a screwdriver you can make your own, for much less.
Everything you need to know how to do is covered on youtube.

Randy

[jonpd]

Thanks for the link Randy. Looks like the "Modest Intel Gaming Build" would satisfy my needs and is in my price range.

Jon

[mikeebb]

PCPP is a great resource for trying different combinations.

I did a draft build that has everything in it for power estimation purposes (a bit over 300W with a GTX 1660 GPU). But I have a GTX 750ti that I can re-use (pending affordability and low power usage from something newer and better - though 1660 seems to be at an attractive price right now), and already have fresh storage, optical drives and a usb floppy (and actual old floppy drives but no motherboard has controllers for them any more). And a nice Ostrog full-ATX case. So all I really need is the motherboard, CPU, memory, and fresh PSU. PCPP with a AMD Ryzen 5, 16GB, ASUS motherboard, and 600W PSU comes in at $500 - very attractive right now to replace the antique (Core2 Extreme, 8GB) I'm using. The old one still works fine, and is credibly quick running Open Rails under Win10 Pro (fps around 60) with all sliders turned up).

[ftldave]

If you can use a screwdriver you can make your own, for much less.

That may have always been true years ago, but pc manufacturers buy parts in bulk, for much less than what you're ever going to find picking parts. And consider how much your free time is worth, the labor involved, whether you really want to spend your time building a pc. Some do, sure, and enjoy it. But for others, their time to do other things is more valuable. For those like me who work in IT, building a computer from the case up is the last thing I want to do during my valued free time.

Check the numbers, check the pc sales. BYO is not always much less in 2020, not like it was in 2000 and days-gone-bye.

[BNSF4723]

That may have always been true years ago, but pc manufacturers buy parts in bulk, for much less than what you're ever going to find picking parts. And consider how much your free time is worth, the labor involved, whether you really want to spend your time building a pc. Some do, sure, and enjoy it. But for others, their time to do other things is more valuable. For those like me who work in IT, building a computer from the case up is the last thing I want to do during my valued free time.

Check the numbers, check the pc sales. BYO is not always much less in 2020, not like it was in 2000 and days-gone-bye.

Although I'd agree that its a time saver, it's best to keep in mind that pre-builts often come with small cases that have shoddy power supplies and cheap motherboards which will severely limit the upgrade potential in the future. I suppose if you view your entire PC as disposable thats not a big problem but if you intend to refresh the system with a new video card or something to that effect, you're likely going to run into problems doing that.