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Play Super Tux 2 on anything for free.

If you spec it out right with used parts you can get really great performance for relatively cheap.

Here's a list I put together for fun about half a year ago, prices have probably changed a bit though (Ebay) 13900k: $475, (Ebay) 3090: $630, mobo: $100, (Ebay) 64gb RAM: $100, case: $40, 850w PSU: $130, AG620 cooler: $50, 2tb SSD: $67, fans: $20, (Ebay) 4k monitor: $200, total: $1812

Or you can look at that chromebook I got on ebay for $40 that I played Celeste, Half Life, and Half Life 2 from start to finish for the first time on after swapping its operating system out with linux (which is actually pretty easy). You can also find old mini pcs with a lot higher performance for similar prices used if you don't need a laptop.

Obviously neither of those are very directly comparable but they do show you can get great price to performance in a PC, if you know what to look for.

I just added water-cooling and a larger PSU, $200 later lol.

When I think about it I realize I could spend my money on other things but hey, having dual 32 inch screens is better than outside.

Really, I'm just thrilled when I can run a game on my PC, at all. Specifically: Getting a game to accept a left-handed configuration and run on a 3840x1600 window on a 4096x2160 screen can often be a challenge. A lot of games don't like running in a window, and they like custom configured window sizes even less.

That said, since I play single-player and co-op games, want my crew operating with the best speed and comfort they can manage. It's not a competition.

It used to be that you could legit build a PC for fairly cheap, but those days are long gone. Yet another hobby that got gentrified.