Today, I finally got my GPU for my $200 budget gaming PC! Drivers have been installed, games have been downloaded... this is now my new gaming PC! Let's talk about it.
Specs:
Dell Optiplex 7010 MT
3.4 Ghz i5-3570
Gigabyte RX 480 4GB G1 Gaming
8GB DDR3 1600 Mhz RAM
Corsair CS550M Semi-modular PSU
500GB 7200 RPM HDD
This thing is awesome! I already had the PSU and in total for everything else I payed right at $185 for everything (minus my PCIe wifi card which most people probably won't need). This thing has been a fun build that came with it's challenges. When you have this low of a budget, issues are bound to come up, but it's simply a matter of finding a work around to get everything going. Before we get too much into it... If you're wondering if this thing can play the latest games the answer is... absolutely!!!
This thing was pretty basic when I first got it. Before I ever turned it on, I swapped out the stock PSU with my Corsair one and everything went pretty smoothly there. While it's a budget PSU, I was lucky to have a semi-modular PSU which saved a lot of hassle of excess cable management, which is something this case doesn't really have. The second thing that I did was to use a few pieces of foam mounting tape to place the HDD right under where the CD/DVD drive goes. While it's supposed to be put into the bottom right portion of the PC, the seller didn't include a HDD mounting tray so an alternate solution had to be found.
The next thing I did was to install a PCIe wifi network card which was fairly straight forward. No real issues there. Windows recognized it and installed drivers for immediately. I'd seen a 200x improvement on my wifi speeds and I'm not joking. It's awesome!
Last but not least, my GPU. I got this thing in the mail today, popped it in, and installed the drivers for it. A couple issues came up with this thing though. The first is that I had to unplug both CD/DVD drive as well as my two front panel USB 2.0 connectors to get the GPU to sit properly. It was a small sacrifice, but one that needed to be made. I was lucky enough to have a right angle SATA connector, but I also had to file down the back of it to make my GPU fit flush in my case. If you're wanting to build a similar build, just buy low profile SATA connectors, you'll be glad you did. The very last thing that I did was because I noticed my GPU was sagging a bit, I actually just used a bread tie (the things that come on bread) and looped it through the hole where a PCIe screw is supposed to go as sadly my case didn't come with them. It's an... interesting solution to say the least, but it works!
Last thing, when playing games I noticed that there was a constant buzzing/whining sound coming from my earbuds that wouldn't stop unless I exited out of the game I was playing. Yet again I found a workaround to this issue as well. I simply turned my PC sideways and plugged my earbuds into the back of my PC case... no more buzzing!
This thing was a bit of a challenge, but so so fun. I'm really happy with what I got and would recommend anyone who's wanting to build a PC on a tight budget to do some research, shop around, find some great deals on some used components, go with an Optiplex MT if you can, and enjoy it.
As someone who's currently unemployed, money is tight to come by, but even I managed to somehow scrape up enough to throw this awesome budget gaming PC together. This will easily compete with a $600 prebuild any day of the week.
There's some people that, without them, this wouldn't have been possible...
I'd like to thank the person from the Gods Unchained Discord who sent me 0.5 ETH was made up the majority of what the PC itself cost. I won't name them for obvious reasons, but I've thanked them personally already.
I want to thank TeamOCD, Acidyo, all my readers, and the GU community themselves.
TeamOCD and Acidyo introduced me to this platform and most of the money that I got from writing articles here went towards this build. TeamOCD and Acidyo played a big part in this by not only introducing me to the platform and helping me out in every possible way, but also upvoting my posts which also earned me Steem which I then used to fund this budget gaming PC. Thank you everyone from TeamOCD!
Lastly, I have to thank the GU community. While rather small in comparison, everyone who bought my GU cards on the marketplace also helped me to fund this build whether they knew it or not.
Thank you everyone!!!
For now, I'm gonna go play some games!
I wish you all the best and I hope you have a wonderful day!!! :)