An old Xeon CPU can be the cheapest start to your gaming PC

There are budget PCs, and then there are budget PCs. If you're on a mission to grab the cheapest gaming PC possible, you might want to look at old Xeon workstations. Intel's Xeon CPUs might not be relevant in the enterprise space anymore, but they're quite popular with hobbyists and home lab users. For gaming, they might seem an odd choice due to the outdated single-core performance, but they're surprisingly capable when compared to, say, 5-year-old consumer chips, such as the Ryzen 5 3600 or Core i5-12600K.

If you can't stretch your budget and want a dirt-cheap PC for some 1080p gaming, don't look at used DDR4 gaming PCs. Grab an old Intel Xeon workstation instead, slap a modern pre-owned GPU, and you've got yourself a more-than-capable gaming rig for under $200 — that runs Cyberpunk 2077 at 60+ FPS.

3 You can save hundreds in platform cost

Even compared to pre-owned DDR4 hardware

The biggest appeal of foregoing consumer chips in favor of enterprise ones for a gaming rig is the price. While you can save a significant amount of money by getting a used DDR4 build on eBay, Xeon workstations are on a whole different (cheaper) level. For instance, I found the cheapest Ryzen 5 3600 PC for around $260 on eBay, whereas a Dell Precision Tower 5810 with a Xeon E5-1650 v4 (6-core) was available for just $125 — half as cheap.

You can find many different pre-owned and refurbished listings for Xeon workstations with chips like the E5-1660 v4 (8-core) or E5-2680 v4 (14-core). The $125 listing I found included 16GB of DDR4 RAM, a 240GB SSD, an 825W PSU, and Windows 10. It even had an RX 460 GPU that you can replace with another pre-owned card to create your dirt-cheap battlestation.

If you want to buy everything separately, Xeon listings on eBay can go as low as $10 for the 14-core E5-2680 v4. You can also check out AliExpress for combo listings including the CPU, motherboard, and RAM for around $60–$80. It's all about assessing what components you already have lying around your house. If you have nothing with you, listings like the $125 one can be a great start for your ultra-budget gaming PC. Old Xeon CPUs can get you a lot of value compared to buying used consumer chips, as you'll see below.

2 You might be surprised by the performance

60+ FPS at High settings in modern titles

Coming to the heart of the matter, is an old Xeon chip any good for gaming? Well, if you pair an E5-1660 v4 or E5-2680 v4 with, say, a used RTX 3070, you can easily cross 60 FPS in Cyberpunk 2077 at High settings. Even the Xeon E5-1650 v4 will allow you to get this level of performance in games like Red Dead Redemption 2 and Doom Eternal.

For reference, the Xeon E5-1660 v4 performs just 5–10% slower than the Core i5-12600K in gaming. If you just want to play your favorites like GTA V, Apex Legends, Valorant, and Minecraft, you'll have no problems with your ultra-budget Xeon rig. Of course, the maximum memory speed supported by many Xeon CPUs is 2,400MT/s, but you get quad-channel support that you can leverage by adding some extra RAM for cheap.

You might see low 1% FPS on some occasions, but nothing too noticeable, unless you're playing at a competitive level. Xeon CPUs do consume a lot more power than your average 6-core consumer CPU, but many pre-owned workstations come with a sufficient cooler. And unless you're running a home lab with a Xeon chip 24/7, the power bills will probably not be a huge concern.

1 You can invest more in the GPU

And upgrade to a modern CPU later

The whole point of going ultra-budget with the CPU, motherboard, RAM, and the rest of the components is to spend more on a more powerful GPU. While I can easily recommend going for a $250 RTX 4060 Ti or a $200 RTX 4060 on eBay, the idea here is to save every penny possible while still being able to enjoy modern titles at decent settings. So, I'd recommend getting a used RTX 3070 for around $75 or a GTX 1660 Super for around $50 — again, on eBay.

This will bring your grand total for the entire PC to $200 at the maximum, or $175 at the minimum. And it'll still be more powerful than the $250 Ryzen 5 3600 PC I mentioned earlier — it had an RX 580. So, for the price of an Intel Arc B570, you can build a pretty decent Xeon-based gaming PC. You can keep saving for a future upgrade, but this $200 build can last you for years if you mostly play older titles and less-demanding esports games.

How cheap can you build a gaming PC?

This question might keep many of you awake at night. Well, now you know. You can build a reasonably powerful gaming PC with a used Xeon workstation combined with a pre-owned graphics card — all for under $200. And it can easily provide you with 60+ FPS performance in games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Doom Eternal. There are no upgradability or esthetic considerations on such a build, but that's not what you're looking for on an extreme budget rig.