Build a $500 (possibly?) VR ready gaming PC

[CircleTech]

Well this has been a long time coming for me, since I had to seemingly endlessly hunt ebay to look for these deals, but I think I have finally managed to do it. 

 

First before we continue, I would like to say this for now is a theoretical PC build. Until someone out there actually goes and spends their hard-earned money on this config I cannot verify any details about how fast this PC will be. But if you continue reading, I am sure you will discover why I published this. Because this PC will (theoretically) meet (or at least come close) to the minimum specs for VR and cost under $500 for the entire computer. 

 

Are you trying to build a PC on a budget? Do you want to squeeze every single dollar out of your build possible? Do you want your PC to play all your favorite games at 1080p with all the settings maxed out or dare I say, play games in VR? Well then I might just have the deal for you! If you play your cards right by buying some parts new and other parts used, you can actually build a PC for under $500 including windows, that should be able to play almost every game at 1080p on max settings or even play VR games. Now let's get into how I did this:

 

Step 1: Buy a retired workstation from ebay

In order to save as much money as possible, we cannot simply go out and buy each part individually (I will get more into this later). In order to save money we are going to take a different tactic: We are going to buy a pre-built workstation off ebay and drastically upgrade it. 

 

Now let's get into the machines I chose (and each of their quirks):

 

Choice 1: The HP Z400 Workstation:

Spoiler

The HP z400 Workstation uses the LGA 1366 socket and was very popular back in 2011, but has been retired from businesses ever since then. This computer can be found for ~$100-$150 on ebay:

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&LH_BIN=1&_sop=15&_nkw=HP z400&rt=nc&LH_PrefLoc=3&_trksid=p2045573.m1684

 

THE BAD:

1. The PSU is proprietary:

The power supply in this system while it is standard ATX, HP had decided to switch around a couple of pins on the ATX-24 pin power connector so that the power supply can only be used with the motherboard in the machine. 

 

2. The motherboard has proprietary power connectors:

Because the power supply is proprietary, The motherboard will only work with the proprietary HP power supply because of the proprietary power connectors. Therefore if you replace the power supply in this computer, you will need to replace the motherboard too.

 

THE GOOD:

1. The motherboard and PSU are standard ATX:

The good news is the motherboard and PSU in this machine is standard ATX. This means that you can easily replace the motherboard and Power supply with a standard ATX power supply and motherboard in this case. This means when it comes time to upgrade, you will not have to buy a new case because you can reuse this HP case (although you will still have to buy a new power supply because it only works with the HP motherboard).

 

 

 

Choice 2. The Dell precision T3500:

Spoiler

 

The Dell Percision T3500 is an old Retired workstation that uses the LGA 1366 socket that is now being sold off by many businesses. These computers on their own will never be a gaming PC, but with the right upgrades we can turn it into one. 

Currently the price of the Dell Percision T3500 is going for around ~$100-$150 on ebay:

http://www.ebay.com/sch/PC-Desktops-All-In-Ones/179/i.html?_from=R40&_sop=15&LH_BIN=1&_nkw=precision+t+3500

 

THE BAD:

 

1. The Motherboard is proprietary:

The motherboard in this computer is A proprietary form factor called BTX (not ATX). This means that you cannot install a normal ATX motherboard into this case because it will not fit at all. Therefore if you decide to upgrade your motherboard and CPU, you will need to buy an entirely new case to go with your upgrade.

 

THE GOOD:

The PSU in this computer is standard ATX (unlike our HP z400 above). Therefore you can reuse the power supply in your new case if you choose to do so

 

The Verdict:

Spoiler

With the HP machine you will have to upgrade the PSU alongside your motherboard if you choose to do a platform upgrade. With the dell machine on the other hand, you will have to buy an entirely new case as the dell case will not fit your ATX motherboard. It is your call to which case you want to buy. Although IMO I would get the HP machine, since by the time you need to upgrade your motherboard and CPU, you will likely have to upgrade your PSU alongside it anyway.

 

When we buy one of these two workstations, we are going to be using the:

Motherboard (minimum of $120 on it's own for this socket)

CPU Cooler (minimum of $15 on it's own)

Case (minimum of $20 on it's own)

525w Power supply (minimum of $30 on it's own)

Windows 7 (our Workstation is going to come with a COA sticker on the side with a windows key we can use on the machine. Buying this alone would cost $100)

Buying these parts would cost a minimum of $285 on their own, and we will be buying one of these workstations for $100 that comes with everything above. Therefore we are saving $185 by buying a dell or HP machine.

This is a great way to save money, as even saving $185 is going to help us greatly with only a $500 budget.

 

Total so far: $100

 

Step 2: Buy the upgrades:

 

Now let's get into the upgrades we are going to make to this machine. I am making the assumption the workstation you bought is a barebones unit, so it only comes with the motherboard, CPU cooler, case, and power supply. Because of this, we are going to make some upgrades to the machine.

 

The parts you are going to buy NEW are in the PCPartPicker list is down below:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 3.5g Thermal Paste  ($5.88 @ OutletPC) 
Memory: Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($26.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: A-Data Premier SP550 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($54.99 @ NCIX US) 
Storage: Toshiba 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($41.99 @ NCIX US) 
Other: RX 480 8GB ($230.00)
Total: $359.85
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-06-02 17:40 EDT-0400

 

Out running total: $459.85

RAM: I bought 8GB of DDR3 because it is the minimum required for VR. Unfortunately, I couldn't buy the cheaper single 8GB stick because this platform only supports up to 4GB sticks of DDR3 and I didn't go with 16GB of RAM because it is just outside of our budget. Therefore I think 8GB is a compromise I will have to make to get the build under $500

 

HDD: I got a Toshiba 1TB HDD for storage. It's a 1TB hard drive for your mass storage, nothing special.

 

SSD: I went with a 240GB SSD because at every price point above $150, I believe everyone deserves an SSD. SSDs are a great way to make your PC "feel" faster in every single task on your computer outside of gaming. That is why I squeezed an SSD into this build. Although I will mention if you were to go with the 120GB model of this SSD that would give you just enough money to buy 16GB of RAM instead, so that is something to consider.

 

Video card: Since the AMD Radeon RX 480 was released it will enable us to build a PC just under $500 using this card. I manually entered in $230 for the RX 480 because I assumed you would want to buy the 8GB model instead of the 4GB model. This card is what really allows us to build a $500 PC on the cheap. The problem is the PSU in both of these machines only has a single 6-pin PCIe power connector, so this Rx 480 is the only card that will work. Although I will mention if you can't wait, you may be able to get a GTX 970 on ebay for cheap and use a 6-pin to 8pin PCIe power adapter for the time being, while you save up for a better PSU (assuming you got the Dell T3500 as the HP motherboard would not work with a standard power as already mentioned of course).

 

Thermal compound: Just some arctic silver 5 we will need when we go upgrade our CPU, nothing special.

 

There is a single part you are going to buy used, and that is the xeon W3565. This is a 4-core 8-thread Xeon processor with a base clock of 3.2GHz and a boost clock of 3.3GHz. This processor should barely meet the minimum VR spec, and will hopefully be enough to carry our GPU through our games on this GPU. ($35)

Buy on ebay:

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_sop=15&LH_BIN=1&_nkw=xeon w3565&rt=nc&LH_PrefLoc=3&_trksid=p2045573.m1684

 

Benchmark of the Xeon W3565:

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Xeon+W3565+%40+3.20GHz

 

Benchmark of the Intel I5-6400:

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i5-6400+%40+2.70GHz

 

As you can see the Xeon W3565 falls very close in performance to the Intel i5-6400 (the minimum required CPU for VR). Therefore this CPU should work fine in this machine without going massively overbudget to buy a higher-clocked xeon.

 

Other alternatives to the Xeon W3565 CPU include the: (these ones come close to meeting the minimum VR spec)

Xeon X5647, Xeon W3570, Xeon W5580,

 

Or if you are willing to step down just a bit for half the price: (these ones are further from meeting the minimum VR spec)

Xeon X5570, Xeon W3550, Xeon W5540

 

total for the whole machine: $494.85

 

Great. Now you can theoretically put together a gaming pc for under $500 that will come very close to meeting the minimum spec for VR.

 

Now all you have to do is place the order for all your parts and upgrade the workstation you chose when you get it.

Step 3: put it all together

 

When you receive your Desktop in the mail, the FIRST thing you want to do is update the bios. This is because sometimes OEMs fix bugs and add support for new CPUs and we will be upgrading this machine.

 

Then Upgrade the CPU in the machine, install the RAM, Install the HDD and SSD (but leave the HDD unplugged), and install the GPU. Then install windows using the COA sticker on the side of the computer to the SSD and plug back in the HDD. Then (assuming everything goes correctly), you have a killer gaming PC for under $500.

 

 

TL:DR version:

Spoiler

1. Buy A HP Z400 used on ebay

2. Buy a Xeon W3565 used on ebay

3. Buy 8GB of DDR3 in densities no more than 4GB per stick

4. Get a 1TB HDD and 240GB SSD

5. Buy a Radeon Rx 480

 

When you get the computer and all your parts:

1. Update the bios FIRST

2. Install the CPU

3. Install the RAM

4. Install the HDD and SSD and leave the HDD unplugged

5. Install the Video Card

6. Install windows to the SSD

7. Plug back in the HDD and format it to use for mass storage

 

 

Conclusion:

I spent several hours searching for the parts and choosing the best ones for the job with the best price/performance ratio, so I hope this helps you out. If this PC goes together perfectly, you will be able to have a pretty killer gaming PC for about half the price of the minimum price of building a VR capable PC out of new parts. Now of course that being said, this PC could still be used to play almost all 1080p games maxed out, it's just that this PC COULD (theoretically) play VR games. Hopefully anyone that comes asking for a budget gaming PC that stretches their performance/dollar to the maximum, this is a great PC to build.

 

EDIT: 

 

As @Ryan_Vickers pointed out, many of the people buying something like the oculus rift or HTC vive are likely going to be able to pay an extra $100 on their PC. Therefore here is a $600 PC build using all individually purchased parts. We are still going to go with X58 for this build, but the extra funds will allow us to get slightly better parts across the board. Anyway, here is a PC build using a mix of new/used parts, but will give you better performance due to the fact that we can overclock the CPU:

 

The new parts:

Spoiler

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  ($24.88 @ OutletPC) 
Memory: Mushkin Essentials 12GB (3 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory  ($39.98 @ OutletPC) 
Storage: A-Data Premier SP550 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($54.99 @ NCIX US) 
Storage: Toshiba 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($41.99 @ NCIX US) 
Case: Azza Cosmas ATX Mid Tower Case  ($21.00 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: Corsair CXM 650W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($49.99 @ Micro Center) 
Other: RX 480 8GB ($230.00)
Total: $462.83
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-06-02 19:24 EDT-0400

 

The Used parts that you are going to buy:

Spoiler

CPU: Xeon E5630: ($15)

http://www.ebay.com/sch/CPUs-Processors/164/i.html?_sop=15&LH_BIN=1&_from=R40&_sac=1&_nkw=xeon+e5630&LH_PrefLoc=3

Motherboard: X58 motherboard: ($125)

http://www.ebay.com/sch/Motherboards/1244/i.html?_sop=15&LH_BIN=1&_from=R40&LH_ItemCondition=1000|1500|2000|2500|3000&_nkw=motherboard x58&rt=nc&LH_PrefLoc=3&_trksid=p2045573.m1684

 

Now as you can see, the xeon E5630 performs worse than the Xeon W3565 in benchmarks:

Spoiler

E5630:

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Xeon+E5630+%40+2.53GHz

W3565:

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Xeon+W3565+%40+3.20GHz

 

But here is the thing: Because we are buying an x58 motherboard rather than a workstation, this CPU can now be overclocked. Many users have reported getting the E56xx series to around 4GHz successfully with coolers like the hyper 212 evo, and if you do the math 4GHz is an almost 50% overclock. That means the passmark score for this CPU will theoretically jump up from the original 5000 points all the way to around 10,000 points (assuming you get a good overclock). If you have an extra $100 to spend, this build is also a good one to go with too.

 

Better things about this build: 

Spoiler

RAM: The RAM is 12GB as opposed to the 8GB used in the other build (remember x58 is triple-channel)

Cooler: you now have a hyper 212 evo instead of the dell cooler that came with that machine

Case: the case is no longer proprietary like it is with the dell workstation

PSU: the power supply is now standard unlike the HP machine where the PSU is proprietary

CPU: you can now overclock your xeon to match or be better than the performance of a skylake-i5.

If you choose to build this $600 machine instead you can have very good CPU performance that will be even better than the $500 build above and at or above the skylake i5 (assuming your CPU reaches okay overclocks). Not to mention your power supply will be better. It depends on your budget, but i'll leave what you want to do up to you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[vanished]

Interesting idea.  If you push that budget up just $100 more could you get a better CPU?  I feel like going below the minimum is cutting it kind of close.

[CircleTech]

2 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

Interesting idea.  If you push that budget up just $100 more could you get a better CPU?  I feel like going below the minimum is cutting it kind of close.

Actually for another $100 more, you could afford to buy an overclocking capable x58 motherboard, a nice CPU cooler (hyper 212 evo) and the crappiest case you can find on newegg. Then you could OC the snot out of your W3565 as listed to around 4GHz and get performance slightly better than even a core i5-6500. I may mention that somewhere later in the article.

[mattonfire]

Damnnn, this looks great!

[vanished]

2 minutes ago, CUDA_Cores said:

Actually for another $100 more, you could afford to buy an overclocking capable x58 motherboard, a nice CPU cooler (hyper 212 evo) and the crappiest case you can find on newegg. Then you could OC the snot out of your W3565 as listed to around 4GHz and get performance slightly better than even a core i5-6500. I may mention that somewhere later in the article.

That's what I would do.  Remember, you're pitching this to people who have the money for a Vive or Rift already, and an empty room in their house potentially to setup the beacons.  I doubt another $100 on the machine driving it is going to be a deal breaker

[CircleTech]

1 minute ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

That's what I would do.  Remember, you're pitching this to people who have the money for a Vive or Rift already, and an empty room in their house potentially to setup the beacons.  I doubt another $100 on the machine driving it is going to be a deal breaker

True, i'll go ahead and add that in. Although I'm still gonna keep the $500 PC build around cause I threw so much effort into it, and it could of course be used as a great 1080p gaming PC also.

[Energycore]

I think it's possible to build an all-new $500 VR-ready computer now that the RX 480 is out.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($110.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H110M-DGS Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill NT Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  ($31.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($48.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 USB 3.0 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($29.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($52.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Other: RX 480 ($200.00)
Total: $524.93
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-06-02 18:45 EDT-0400

 

Almost.

[MeDownYou]

2 minutes ago, CUDA_Cores said:

True, i'll go ahead and add that in. Although I'm still gonna keep the $500 PC build around cause I threw so much effort into it, and it could of course be used as a great 1080p gaming PC also.

 I'd call it a 1440p gaming machine tbh, i would probably go with a different chipset myself because for 600 dollars you could nab a better shinier xeon with and a board with more features, but tis' amazing I must admit. I really really really want one of these cards now.

[CircleTech]

1 minute ago, Energycore said:

I think it's possible to build an all-new $500 VR-ready computer now that the RX 480 is out.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($110.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H110M-DGS Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill NT Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  ($31.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($48.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 USB 3.0 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($29.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($52.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Other: RX 480 ($200.00)
Total: $524.93
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-06-02 18:45 EDT-0400

 

Almost.

yes BUT:

 

1. Your build has no SSD, mine has a 240GB one

2. The build is using a dual-core CPU, mine is using a quad-core as per the minimum specs for VR. 

3. My build used the RX 480 8GB version, yours uses the 4GB version of the card.

[Suika]

Why rely on socket LGA 1366 when you can get something more modern in the LGA 1150  socket?

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Precision-T1600-Intel-Xeon-E3-1245-3-30-GHz-504F-/191882100218?hash=item2cad107dfa:g:a3EAAOSwoJZXR0R9

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Memory: Mushkin Essentials 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1066 Memory  ($24.98 @ Newegg) 
Storage: A-Data Premier SP550 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($57.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: XFX XT 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($53.98 @ Newegg) 
Other: RX 480 ($199.99)
Other: Dell Precision T1600 ($159.00)
Total: $495.94
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-06-02 18:50 EDT-0400

 

Basically similar idea as what you've got but on a more modern platform with significantly better CPU performance.

[Energycore]

Just now, CUDA_Cores said:

yes BUT:

 

1. Your build has no SSD, mine has a 240GB one

2. The build is using a dual-core CPU, mine is using a quad-core as per the minimum specs for VR. 

3. My build used the RX 480 8GB version, yours uses the 4GB version of the card.

That's fair. It's nice that we're close to being able to buy an all-new VR ready setup for $500. Perhaps next generation.

 

 

Unless those prices are for new computers. Then wow.

 

[Mr.Meerkat]

2 minutes ago, Energycore said:

I think it's possible to build an all-new $500 VR-ready computer now that the RX 480 is out.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($110.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H110M-DGS Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill NT Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  ($31.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($48.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 USB 3.0 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($29.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($52.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Other: RX 480 ($200.00)
Total: $524.93
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-06-02 18:45 EDT-0400

 

Almost.

Drop the case for a cardboard box and ez, <$500 VR capable machine  

 

1 minute ago, CUDA_Cores said:

yes BUT:

 

1. Your build has no SSD, mine has a 240GB one

2. The build is using a dual-core CPU, mine is using a quad-core as per the minimum specs for VR. 

3. My build used the RX 480 8GB version, yours uses the 4GB version of the card.

Well it's a completely new PC plus it has 4 threads...which is close enough to being a quad  

[Energycore]

1 minute ago, Suika said:

Why rely on socket LGA 1366 when you can get something more modern in the LGA 1150  socket?

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Precision-T1600-Intel-Xeon-E3-1245-3-30-GHz-504F-/191882100218?hash=item2cad107dfa:g:a3EAAOSwoJZXR0R9

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Memory: Mushkin Essentials 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1066 Memory  ($24.98 @ Newegg) 
Storage: A-Data Premier SP550 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($57.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: XFX XT 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($53.98 @ Newegg) 
Other: RX 480 ($199.99)
Other: Dell Precision T1600 ($159.00)
Total: $495.94
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-06-02 18:50 EDT-0400

 

Basically similar idea as what you've got but on a more modern platform with better CPU performance.

The XFX XT is the only bad model from XFX. Instead you can find a S12II or even a new CXM for cheap.

[Energycore]

1 minute ago, Mr.Meerkat said:

Drop the case for a cardboard box and ez, <$500 VR capable machine  

 

Well it's a completely new PC plus it has 4 threads...which is close enough to being a quad  

Both Vive and Rift list i5-4690 as minimum CPU to be fair. Altough I'd rather look at benchmarks with hyperthreaded 2cores on both headsets, I haven't found any.

[CircleTech]

2 minutes ago, Suika said:

Why rely on socket LGA 1366 when you can get something more modern in the LGA 1150  socket?

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Precision-T1600-Intel-Xeon-E3-1245-3-30-GHz-504F-/191882100218?hash=item2cad107dfa:g:a3EAAOSwoJZXR0R9

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Memory: Mushkin Essentials 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1066 Memory  ($24.98 @ Newegg) 
Storage: A-Data Premier SP550 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($57.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: XFX XT 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($53.98 @ Newegg) 
Other: RX 480 ($199.99)
Other: Dell Precision T1600 ($159.00)
Total: $495.94
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-06-02 18:50 EDT-0400

 

Basically similar idea as what you've got but on a more modern platform with better CPU performance.

I had actually thought about that. The problem is that not every one of those machines is going to come with a xeon in it (not to mention a different PSU would be in order as the one that comes with those machines is only 300w). By buying an old workstation likt the T3500 I could assume that every one would at least have a minimum of a mobo, CPU cooler, Case and PSU. Yes, that machine would be a better deal, but only assuming you can get one that already has a xeon in it.

[Suika]

8 minutes ago, CUDA_Cores said:

I had actually thought about that. The problem is that not every one of those machines is going to come with a xeon in it (not to mention a different PSU would be in order as the one that comes with those machines is only 300w).

The one I linked includes the E3-1245 (4 core, 8 thread) @3.3GHz (3.7 boost) and included a new power supply in the budget. I mean, as long as you verify that it actually includes a CPU, it's the better solution. And typically what I do to find these machines is just do a search for "Dell workstation xeon e3" and looks at what comes up.

 

Plus the machine I linked includes a Quadro you could probably sell off for a buck.

[LienusLateTips]

BTX isn't proprietary

[Baumibert]

And now I just need a VR-Headset for Lees than 200$