Finding a gaming PC for Christmas 2025
My bro in law text me (to close to Christmas) asking hey my brother has got a free GPU(XFX RX 6800XT) from his brother could we upgrade the PC I had given them years ago. Thus the challenge had began.
First I had to remember what they had. Then decide if it was worth it to put any money back into that machine or start over. So I started asking send me some pics of the machine they had. Turned out it was a Dell 9020 small form factor PC. I had maxed the DDR3 RAM when I had given it to them and put in a SATA SSD. Even with those upgrades we'd have a couple critical issues trying to fit a long 2 slot GPU into this machine. First it wouldn't fit, second the PSU wasn't powerful enough, third should we really be putting any money into a machine that was from 2014?
Ok so challenge is now how can we build or get the best value desktop. So I start looking at new AMD or Intel builds, anything that requires DDR5 is out the window since it's way to expensive. So that brings me to LGA1700(Intel 12th, 13th,14th) or AM4 build(Risen 1,2,3). After putting together a machine we were in the realm of ~$425 for a system I feel like could be serviceable for years. Sent that over and he came back with a budget of $300... So the challenge shifts again.
Off to the third party sites like FB marketplace. I then found a concerning trend of a lot of people selling machines I know didn't officially support Windows 11 as a W11 machine. This should be a big red flag since who knows when Microsoft upgrade breaks these. I don't think anyone should be spending money on I5 or 7-4th gen running a rx 580 for $325. My bro in law then sent me even more sketchy ones where they have fancy RGB cases but the guts are still questionable.
In the end be found a B450 motherboard based AMD system with a Ryzen 1 1700 custom build for $300. This should be serviceable for a few years depending on what his son wants to play.
In summary don't let the RGB new cases distract you from buying something that is really not going to be supported for more than a year!
