If it was strictly for playing old games, then budget hardware is good. I got a P4 machine with the lame PC133 memory, a GF2MX and SB Live - a budget system even when it was new, but it runs most Win9x and late DOS games just fine.

But another part of this hobby is hardware appreciation, and there's nothing exciting about that budget system, compared to something that was high end and expensive when it was new, like a Geforce 8800gtx or a Core2 X6800.

One exception is overclocking and/or unlocking a budget component. A budget Celeron that overclocks by 50% or an AMD Athlon dual core that unlocks to a quad core Phenom II is impressive even for budget hardware.

pixel_workbench wrote on 2023-04-04, 13:40:

and there's nothing exciting about that budget system, compared to something that was high end and expensive when it was new

Wholeheartedly disagree. The parts on their own are not exciting, but as a system... Budget parts can have qualities that are impossible to high-end or enthusiast level hardware. You can build some pretty quirky rigs with them. Like an 8800GTX might be exciting for being high-end, but it's a 30cm long dual slot monster constantly on the verge of boiling itself. At the same time a GT640 has over all about the same gaming performance, while it can be cooled passively, it can be low profile, it often still has VGA output. With a GTX750 Ti, you get the same qualities (maybe not passive cooling) plus Shadow Play support with GTX295 level gaming performance.

pixel_workbench wrote on 2023-04-04, 13:40:

If it was strictly for playing old games, then budget hardware is good. I got a P4 machine with the lame PC133 memory, a GF2MX and SB Live - a budget system even when it was new, but it runs most Win9x and late DOS games just fine.

But another part of this hobby is hardware appreciation, and there's nothing exciting about that budget system, compared to something that was high end and expensive when it was new, like a Geforce 8800gtx or a Core2 X6800.

One exception is overclocking and/or unlocking a budget component. A budget Celeron that overclocks by 50% or an AMD Athlon dual core that unlocks to a quad core Phenom II is impressive even for budget hardware.

One thing I enjoy about budget hardware is working to its limitations. getting dos sound from a PCI only P3, or graphics on a board missing AGP. Forces you to look at other hardware options then the standard goto list. A different form of hardware appreciation if you like.

On the other hand I just don't understand the point of overclocking old hardware. As you say I could overclock that Celeron, or just get a cheap P4 like in your first sentence, but hey I still enjoy reading other peoples posts detailing the build even if it's not for me.