I'm a dad trying to build a gaming PC for my son on a budget. I have a spare PC I can upgrade, but need advice on the best bang for buck upgrades. I have built many PCs over the years, but I am not savvy in terms of what makes a gaming PC a top performer - cpu, gpu, ram, etc. He is interested in emulation as well as current games, so I'd like a machine that can cover all the bases as much as possible. I could use some friendly advice on where to put my money.
The machine is a Dell Optiplex mini-tower. It has a microATX Dell 0GY6Y8 motherboard and can handle a full size video card. It has a Core i3 3220 @ 3.30 Ghz. I understand it will support up to a 3rd generation quad core i5 or i7. It has 16 Gb dual channel DDR3 @ 798 MHz. It has an Asus brand 512MB ATI Radeon HD 4300/4500 Series card in it. It has a 1 TB WD spinning disk HDD right now. I have decent enough resolution monitors I can use, but no 4K or anything fancy like that.
I would really like to keep the costs under about $300, but if that is unrealistic I will adjust my expectations. Also will note that I work in IT, so I generally have access to parts for free from failed or recycled machines, if that helps.
Would greatly appreciate advice regarding this.
The machine is a Dell Optiplex mini-tower. It has a microATX Dell 0GY6Y8 motherboard and can handle a full size video card. It has a Core i3 3220 @ 3.30 Ghz. I understand it will support up to a 3rd generation quad core i5 or i7. It has 16 Gb dual channel DDR3 @ 798 MHz. It has an Asus brand 512MB ATI Radeon HD 4300/4500 Series card in it. It has a 1 TB WD spinning disk HDD right now. I have decent enough resolution monitors I can use, but no 4K or anything fancy like that.
I would really like to keep the costs under about $300, but if that is unrealistic I will adjust my expectations. Also will note that I work in IT, so I generally have access to parts for free from failed or recycled machines, if that helps.
Would greatly appreciate advice regarding this.