Hi everyone, thanks for reading and helping with this thread. I'm new to the forum and in upgrading old PCs for gaming.
My original idea was to upgrade a Dell Optiplex 9020 Mini tower and if possible making it a mid-level gaming rig. Since I found a couple of options I would like your advice on selecting which one has the best potential to upgrade and make it a mid-level gaming PC. (Civilization VI, COD: WWII, CS:GO, Rocket League and simulators like X-Plane, MS FlightSim and designing in Sketchup)
My budget is $250, not sure if with this I can build a new PC out of old parts or even new.
I think the one that has the best potential to upgrade and make it a Mid Level gaming rig is the Mini Tower Dell 9020 with i5 since it was only used for common tasks, but that leaves me with another $125 to spend an extra 8GB of RAM, 120GB SSD for installing windows and not sure if with the rest of the money I could get the best GPU for the i5-4570.
Option 1: Dell Optiplex 9020 Mini Tower
CPU: i5-4570 3.2GHz
Memory: 4GB DDR3 (Could upgrade to an extra 8GB)
HDD: 500GB SATA
comes with mouse and keyboard
$125USD - https://articulo.mercadolibre.com.mx/MLM-687847640-cpu-dell-optiplex-9020-core-i5-4570-4gb-ram-500hdd-monitor20-_JM?quantity=1
Option 2 (Used for gaming not overclocked)
Motherboard: Gigabyte F2a68HM-H Socket FM2+
CPU: AMD A10 7870K Quad-core 3.9GHz Radeon Graphics R7
HDD: 1TB
PSU: 500W (Came with the case, not a gaming PSU)
Case: Acteck Micro ATX TD-510
$150 USD (Found it on FB Marketplace)
Option 3 (Used for common tasks, YouTube, Office, Movies)
CPU: AMD A10 5800K Quad-core 3.8GHz Radeon HD Graphics
Memory: 8GB (2x 4GB)
HD: 320GB
Regular case
$175 USD (Also found on FB Marketplace)
For the options 2 and 3, I'm not sure if they can be upgraded to get good performance for the games mentioned above. Also, the sellers only showed the cases in their posts so I can't get a picture for the PCs but they told me I can run some tests before buying to see everything is right.
I live near the border with the USA so I'm getting my parts from Mexico.
This is my first endeavor in building or upgrading old PC¿s. so any advice on cooling, GPU, RAM, for any of the listed options or anything to optimize one of these PC's would be greatly appreciated. Anything from PSU, case, you name it. I've joined the forum explicitly to get your feedback.
