Help an old man upgrade
I’m not really that old, but I did build my PC in 2007. I did a major upgrade sometime before 2020 when a friend threw away an Alienware and I cannibalized the parts. Then it sat in a closet after the pandemic and I got a Steam Deck. I currently have: Intel…
I’m not really that old, but I did build my PC in 2007. I did a major upgrade sometime before 2020 when a friend threw away an Alienware and I cannibalized the parts. Then it sat in a closet after the pandemic and I got a Steam Deck. I currently have: Intel i7 3770 3.4 ghz 16GB DDR3 GTX 660 Intel DB75EN motherboard A bunch of SSD’s. My budget is around $700. The main goals are to hook it up to our TV in the living room. We also just got a Meta Quest 3S, and I’d like to do some fun stuff like Skyrim VR. I don’t play a lot of new games, and as a budget build person my entire life, I’m used to mid range settings. I’m thinking about switching from windows to Steam OS. I need a new case because the old one from 2007 is breaking and the fans are shot, but what else would give me the best bang for my buck? Upgrade everything with a budget build? Or keep some stuff. Anything worth keeping?
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Nothing worth keeping
Ha, Thats depressing news.
I have the dock actually, but kind of wanted to play Skyrim VR. Can’t get steam VR working on the deck.
Is Steam OS still AMD only?
yes, AMD GPUs, no nvidia
Keep the SSDs, get a used 8th gen intel, motherboard, RAM combo off ebay for around $200 (You'll have to do some looking, but they are there (last week I found a i7-8700, MB, cooler, and 16GB DDR4-3200 for $225), a RX 9060 XT and a Rosewill case+650W PSU for $80ish. If you can get to Microcenter, they have a Ryzen 5 5500/motherboard/16GB bundle for $250.
For "...Skyrim..." or anything else VR, the 3770 is insufficient. A new PC is suggested. Otherwise, the 3770 can become a low end STEAM MACHINE if you replace the 660 with an AMD RX 8GB or higher GPU. Have an E3-1270 v2/RX 470 8GB/16GB DDR3 1600/CachyOS build that can do the following: 2022 Tiny Tina's Wonderlands at 1080p LOW/HIGH/FSR 2 Balance mix and get this: https://imgur.com/a/zuHD7Wm CS2/DUST 2 map on 1080p/LOW gets 120+ FPS avg with 80+ FPS 1% lows Borderlands 3 on 1080p/MED/HIGH/ULTRA textures mix gets 70+ FPS The moment you go above Intel 4th Gen, DDR3 is no longer an option, and 4th Gen would still be failing short of VR.
Not much worth keeping, probably the ssds if those are still good. Pricing is pretty insane right now, so your best option is likely to look for something used. Also why not just get a dock for the steamdeck and use that?
PCPartPicker Part List Type Item Price CPU AMD Ryzen 5 5500 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor $74.00 @ Newegg Motherboard MSI B550M PRO-VDH WIFI Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard $79.98 @ Amazon Memory Silicon Power GAMING 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory $99.97 @ Silicon Power Video Card XFX Swift OC Radeon RX 9060 XT 8 GB Video Card $359.99 @ Newegg Sellers Case Okinos AQUA UNO MicroATX Mini Tower Case $45.75 @ Amazon Power Supply ASRock Challenger CL-750G 750 W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply $49.99 @ Newegg Custom Your SSD Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts Total $709.68 Generated by PCPartPicker 2026-08-03 11:58 EDT-0400 your GPU options are a 9060XT or 5060, both 8GB which is a bit of a shame but there's not budget for a 16gb gpu. if you can save another $100 for a 16GB 9060XT, I recommend doing that. https://www.techpowerup.com/review/powercolor-radeon-rx-9060-xt-reaper-8-gb/31.html https://youtu.be/MG9mFS7lMzU?si=kRZAkfh99tfWZ_Bx&t=245
Go AM5. it has the most upgradable and future proof socket and the x3d chips are the best value for games and handle all types of ddr5 speeds well. I see 7500x3d/7600x3d bundled with mb, ram and a cooler frequently. for a videocard try and score a used 9070xt. with an 850w power supply minimum. If you piece it together slowly with used parts $1200 is possible. Especially if you live by a mucrocenter. The nvme will be a pain but $100 per TB is out there. Just this morning a 4tb nvme was going for $315 on Amazon. check r/buildapcsales daily and pounce on deals. There's a solid one every couple of weeks. Facebookmarketplace comes in clutch often. Ebay takes some luck but ive seen magic happen there. if you have to be cheap then AM4 used builds with 32gb ram and a 9060xt sub $700 would be my personal threshold. But I strongly suggest going AM5 and 9070xt if you can find them cheap. A used 3080 for $300 is also an instant buy and takes you to your $700 budget.
nothing worth keeping. you might use the harddrive as a secondary drive, but thats it. PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/cLxCrG CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5500 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor ($74.00 @ Newegg) Motherboard: Gigabyte B550M K Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($69.98 @ Amazon) Memory: Silicon Power GAMING 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory ($99.97 @ Silicon Power) Storage: Silicon Power P34A60 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($132.97 @ Silicon Power) Video Card: MSI GAMING OC GeForce RTX 5050 8 GB Video Card ($294.99 @ Newegg) Case: Cooler Master MasterBox Q300L MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($39.99 @ Amazon) Power Supply: MSI MAG A550BN 550 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($49.99 @ Amazon) Total: $761.89 Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available Generated by PCPartPicker 2026-08-03 12:27 EDT-0400
You could buy a pack of 3 fans that will work with your psu/mobo and sell the pc as an internet browser for some change As for your new(er) PC I'd probably try to search locally for a used PC with 16gb ram and one of these GPUs 1660 to 3080 and everything in between or better Rx5500 to Rx6900xt or better if you're intent on steamOS, they only run on AMD iirc If you can push up to 800$ this is a decent prebuilt for the price https://www.newegg.com/ylzkix-gaming-desktop-pcs-amd-radeon-rx-6600-amd-ryzen-5-5600-16gb-ddr4-1tb-pcie-ssd-yl06/p/3D5-007H-00008?item=9SIC10UM0T6003 5600 is a good cpu and the 5700xt is an strong gpu for the price bracket Edit: Trekkie's build posted in the thread is good if you can harvest the storage from your current PC for it, ideally a ssd of some sort for the boot drive at least. 9060xt is modern generation and is stronger than 5700xt by like 20-30%