This was built for a friend of mine who wanted a PC to game on and being stuck home due to covid asked me to build something for him. The goal was something that would deliver a good gaming experience at a low price. He isn't trying to play Cyberpunk in 4k he wants to play all the games he's missed out on in the last decade.

All the parts (minus PSU) were sourced from various used markets such as hardwareswap and ebay. The component choices just sort of came down to what was the best thing I could get for the lowest price. The 4670k I obtained for $40 started me off so from there on it was building a Haswell system in 2020 (I know, I know). I wound up score 16gb of unbranded DDR3 1333mhz for $25. The RAM was surprisingly good and did 1600mhz without a voltage increase and passed Karhu for a few hours. The CPU was old and came from a workstation meaning it had been used, a lot. I wound up delidding it and replacing the stock TIM (which had become totally cured) with conductonaut. I managed to get up to 4.3ghz @ 1.25v and it doesn't get above 65c stress testing it using only a 120mm AIO to cool.

Speaking of the AIO, I got my hands on a new OEM AIO from Alienware for about $25. Needed to put an Asetek ring on it to get it to fit the LGA1150 socket but after that it was golden.

The GPU is a XFX Black r9 390. I managed to get this $57, it performs about equal to an RX570 but at a lower cost. It also comes with a higher price point.

The PSU is a Corsair CV 650w. This was purchased new for about $43.

It runs great, a little tuning and he picked it up yesterday. He was all excited to game he texted me late last night and just said "not going to bed lol"