Had to pick between a used Dell and building my own for a client's budget build

Guy came in last week with $400 to spend on a PC for his kid to do schoolwork and light gaming. I was torn between grabbing a refurbed Optiplex off eBay or piecing together a new Ryzen build from scratch. Ended up going with a used Dell Precision from a local recycler for $150 and threw in a GTX 1650 I had laying around. Booted up first try but the kid's already asking about upgrading the PSU. Anyone else deal with clients who want more performance than their budget allows?

2 comments

2 Comments

brian_coleman8d ago

Is it really that serious though? Kid gets a working PC that boots up fine and can play some games. Sounds like a win to me. People act like a budget build is supposed to be some kind of lifetime commitment. You gave him exactly what the $400 called for, a basic machine that does what it needs to do. Maybe the PSU upgrade is two years down the road, maybe not. Either way, he's got a computer now instead of nothing.

tessa_hill868d ago

Oh man, classic. $400 budget but wants PSU upgrades and god knows what else next week. Like asking for a full restaurant meal with vending machine money.