Rebuild

[greenknight]

So let's say someone had a tower they bought in 2008-ish and wanted to upgrade it into a gaming rig rather than buy something pre-made from BesyBuy loaded with malbloatware. What would they need to look at acquiring, hard- and wetware wise?

[cincinnatus]

The main thing I can really say, is to perhaps wait a nonce for the AMD 7000 series Ryzen chips to land, specifically the G series with integrated graphics.  It'll probably be RDNA2 like the 6000 mobile CPUs, and while it won't match a top end GPU, it'll get the job done for 1080p.  Note that you will be an early adopter of AM5, and will probably pay more for the MB, and you may (probably?) need DDR5 memory, which is also pricey.

That is, unless you have a decent GPU lying around.

If you don't want to wait, a Ryzen 5 5600G goes for about $200-$300, and pair it with a decent B550 MB and about 16 GB of DDR4-3200.  That setup with get you going with the best integrated Graphics you can get right now.  If you want to splurge, go for the Ryzen 7 5700G with 8 cores instead of 6.

The only other caveat I would mention is make sure the case you have has decent airflow; CPUs nowadays need to breath a bit more than they did in the 00's.  Also, I would spend the $$$ for a new power supply as soon as you can stand.

As far as software, it's hard to go wrong with Windows 10 (you don't need 11 yet) since you'll have the largest library to choose from.  But if you want to save the $100, linux is getting better, with Steam's proton.

[greenknight]

Not fond of the Windows 11 samples I've seen on display, but that's only because of the interface. All of the things are in the wrong place again.

Will Linux run PC games? Will it connect to an XBOX controller? These are threshold qualities the operating system must have.

Oh, and I'll probably need a Bluetooth transceiver, natch. Recommendations? Just get a USB bit?

[Vekseid]

Your tower will have specifications for what sort of motherboards it can hold. ATX or eATX are likely. You buy a motherboard and power supply (don't go over 900 watts) to fit, a cpu and ram to fit the motherboard, a cooler for the cpu, and probably an ssd hard drive. You can sign up to EVGA's waitlist to get a high-end graphics card at near MSRP, or get a cheap 2gb/3gb card for now.

Some motherboards come with bluetooth. A few that don't will have card slots for them, otherwise yes, just get a usb for it.

Linux can support xbox controllers (xpad kernel mod), but proton's status isn't guaranteed yet as far as I am aware. If Steam Deck succeeds this may not be a meaningful issue for much longer, but right now it is supply limited and probably will be for a couple years.

[NightLux]

Your tower will have specifications for what sort of motherboards it can hold. ATX or eATX are likely. You buy a motherboard and power supply (don't go over 900 watts) to fit, a cpu and ram to fit the motherboard, a cooler for the cpu, and probably an ssd hard drive. You can sign up to EVGA's waitlist to get a high-end graphics card at near MSRP, or get a cheap 2gb/3gb card for now.

This exactly.  Figure out what you might want in the end and look at the Motherboard and power supply that can accomodate it.  The difference in a middle-of-the-line motherboard and a higher end is something like $50-75 unless you go crazy high end.  Same can be said for a power supply too.

Everything else (mostly) can be replaced/upgraded.