EClark1894 posted at 10:47AM Wed, 06 May 2020 - #4388293

That's not quite true. You can, and I have, bought computers for far less. One place you can try is your local state surplus store. Some times they sell it first come, first serve, other times in an auction. I won't buy in auctions though, which is part of the reason why I avoid places like ebay. You can also try local computer repair shops or even flea markets once the pandemic is over. The laptop I'm on, now, even though it's old and I need to replace it, I originally bought from a flea market under $200.

If your time is no value, sure.

You can get by on a 4 core/4 thread system with 8Gb of total memory, running off a 5400 rpm drive. (Ask me how I know)

It won't be a good experience, however.

If you don't have a lot of money - then your best bet is to get a OEM potato, and upgrade - It can be very inexpensive, IF you are willing to shop around & go with used parts, and can use a screwdriver.

My gaming rig isn't a bad Poser boxen:

Z 210 mini-tower $47 Xeon E3-1270 [4 cores/8 threads @3.4Ghz] $25 off ebay. 32Gb of 10600R ECC ram - $25 RX 480 8Gb - $75 120 SSD Boot drive - $25 1Tb HHD Data drive - $39 1 tube of arctic silver - $8 (used when replacing the original i3 CPU with the aforementioned Xeon.

Right now, you can get a Z210 Small Form Factor (SFF) with 8Gb of ram and a 4 core/8 thread xeon for $112 - upgrade ram to 32gb of ram for $25 & you are looking at less than $200. It will hold 2 hard drives, so you can add storage as needed. SFF systems only take low profile video cards, which are expensive relative to their full - height brethren; they also have small power supplies - usually 240 watt - but that is 90% or more efficient, so you could actually fit a low profile GTX 1650 in it.