My friend's present system is: Cpu: The venerable i7 860 running at 2.80ghz ( He's not very computer savvy so overclocking the cpu isn't really an option). MB: Gigabyte GA-H55M-S2V Ram: DDR3 16gb @1600MHz HD: Ancient 500gb mechanical 7200rpm drive Graphics Card: GTX 950 OS: Win10 OS OEM Monitor: 24" Resolution of 1920 X 1080 @60Hz It's important to note that his system has been acting up lately which I believe is being caused by the power supplyl FIRST THE CHEAPEST OPTION which allows him to use some components from his present system such as: Monitor: 24" Resolution of 1920 X 1080 @60Hz Ram DVD player I can give him the following items at no cost. Xeon E3 1240 V3 cpu @ 3.40GHz - Turbo of 3.80GHz (Can you run such a cpu at turbo all the time with proper cooling? I've never really checked into the possibility of doing OC to a Xeon cpu). GTX 970 4gb Graphics card (I'm upgrading) So his only out of cost expenses would be: $50.00 ? 1150 Motherboard $79.99 EVGA 750Watt B3, 80+ Bronze PS $89.99 Inland Professional 1TB SSD $72.00 Windows 10 OS OEM Total $291.98 The question is just how long would the cheapest option be considered usable - especially given the possible future requirements of Star Citizen. FOR A NEW BUILD I'm looking at the following: Yes cost is important! He would still be using his monitor $125.99 Gigabyte Z390 UD 1151 motherboard (upward compatible to the 9th gen) $149.99 Intel Core I5-9400F 2.90GHz but turbos to 4.1GHz $269.99 EVGA Geforce GTX 1660 Ti 6gb Graphics Card $79.99 EVGA 750Watt B3, 80+ Bronze PS $89.99 Inland Professional 1TB SSD $72.00 Win10 OS OEM $72.90 16GB DDR4 Ram Corsair Vengence LPX (2X8gb) @ 3000 MHz Or $129.99 32GB DDR4 Ram Patriot Viper (2X16gb) @ 2666 MHz Total $860.85 for 16gb version Total $917.94 for 32gb version Would the New build listed above be viable for a few years? I know some will say upgrade this or that, but the problem with that is " It Makes the Cost Go Up ", which is not really an option.