Optiplex Gaming PC

[Artify]

Hey everyone, I was looking to do an Optiplex or some sort of business desktop upgrade so it could be viable for gaming. I’m still wondering what model I should get, and also what graphics card I should get that wouldn’t bottleneck these older systems. I’m already planning to add as SSD that’s about $40-50 and a 500w power supply that’s also around $50. With that factored, I’d like to try and keep the total cost under $350. Thank you!

[Electronics Wizardy]

Probably for for the lga 1150 based ones,  so 9020, 7020, 3020, and 5020. Get the large form factor one., then they use standard size psus. you need a adapter for the psu, so id probably pick a gpu like a 1650 so you don't have to change the psu.

 

 

[Artify]

What do you think would be like a reasonable price I should pay for the Optiplex?

Edited November 23, 2020 by Artify

[aisle9]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-OptiPlex-7020-MT-i7-4770-3-40Ghz-8GB-RAM-240GB-SSD/133519464016 (Offer this guy $190. If he counters, go to $200 and stay there. Do not pay more than $200 for a 7020 specced like this.)

https://www.ebay.com/itm/MSI-GTX-1650-Ventus-XS-4G-128-Bit-HDMI-GDRR5-DirectX-12-VR-Ready-Graphics-Card/353157754123

 

Grab a 1TB hard drive for games and additional storage, then add a second 8GB stick of DDR3 for about $15-20. That puts you around $405. You don't need the PSU or the SSD with this build, so back those costs out. If you can't put that much scratch together right now, I'd recommend skipping the 1TB drive to take you to $360-ish, because you already have a 240GB SSD in there. The only way to get much lower would be to start really stepping down the chain to something like a GTX 1050 or RX 560, and at that point you're really handicapping your gaming performance.

[Doqtori]

5 hours ago, Artify said:

What do you think would be like a reasonable price I should pay for the Optiplex?

I bought a Optiplex 9010 for ~100€, + a monitor for free. You want to look for ones that are sold by schools/businesses, they'll usually be sold in a lot, but if you contact them, you may be able to get a single tower by asking. If you buy one from like Ebay, you'll most likely be buying it from someone who bought one of those lots, and is reselling them, so you'll end up paying more.

 

What I want to note, is that even the mini-tower models are quite small, and if you do decide to go for a beefier GPU, you need to make sure it's not too long (I ended up chopping off my HDD bay).

 

Also doing bigger upgrades (such as new mobo, new case, or smth like that) is difficult and you need to do them at once since Dell uses proprietary stuff for things like the power button and USB ports.

[LogicalDrm]

-> Moved to Laptops and Pre-Built Systems

[Artify]

13 hours ago, aisle9 said:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-OptiPlex-7020-MT-i7-4770-3-40Ghz-8GB-RAM-240GB-SSD/133519464016 (Offer this guy $190. If he counters, go to $200 and stay there. Do not pay more than $200 for a 7020 specced like this.)

https://www.ebay.com/itm/MSI-GTX-1650-Ventus-XS-4G-128-Bit-HDMI-GDRR5-DirectX-12-VR-Ready-Graphics-Card/353157754123

 

Grab a 1TB hard drive for games and additional storage, then add a second 8GB stick of DDR3 for about $15-20. That puts you around $405. You don't need the PSU or the SSD with this build, so back those costs out. If you can't put that much scratch together right now, I'd recommend skipping the 1TB drive to take you to $360-ish, because you already have a 240GB SSD in there. The only way to get much lower would be to start really stepping down the chain to something like a GTX 1050 or RX 560, and at that point you're really handicapping your gaming performance.

This seems like a really great plan, thank you I appreciate it!

[Artify]

13 hours ago, Doqtori said:

I bought a Optiplex 9010 for ~100€, + a monitor for free. You want to look for ones that are sold by schools/businesses, they'll usually be sold in a lot, but if you contact them, you may be able to get a single tower by asking. If you buy one from like Ebay, you'll most likely be buying it from someone who bought one of those lots, and is reselling them, so you'll end up paying more.

 

What I want to note, is that even the mini-tower models are quite small, and if you do decide to go for a beefier GPU, you need to make sure it's not too long (I ended up chopping off my HDD bay).

 

Also doing bigger upgrades (such as new mobo, new case, or smth like that) is difficult and you need to do them at once since Dell uses proprietary stuff for things like the power button and USB ports.

Thank you!