Dell OptiPlex 2015, Core i5-7500, 16GB, 256GB SSD + 1TB HDD, GTX 1050 Ti

It's a budget office PC in a gaming costume. Buy it for spreadsheets and YouTube, not for your Steam library.

The biggest surprise here is how confusing the specs are. The listing highlights 16GB of DDR4 RAM and a 512GB SSD, but our database shows 8GB of DDR3 and a 256GB SSD plus a 1TB HDD. That's a massive difference. If you actually get the 16GB DDR4 config, it'll handle a dozen Chrome tabs and a Zoom call without breaking a sweat, which is solid for the price. But the GT 1030 is the real bottleneck. It's fine for pushing pixels to a second monitor or watching 4K video, but it's a dead end for modern gaming. We're talking maybe 30fps in older titles at 720p. It's a display adapter, not a gaming card.

Stack this up against a new HP OmniDesk or Lenovo IdeaCentre, and you'll get a more modern CPU and integrated graphics that are honestly on par with the GT 1030, plus an actual warranty. Those are safer bets for a pure office PC. The real kicker is the Apple Mac mini M4. It's more expensive and you need your own peripherals, but its performance makes this Dell look like a relic from another decade. Even a used office PC with a cheap used GPU slapped in would run circles around this for the same money if you're willing to get your hands dirty.

For around $400, you're getting a complete setup, which is the only thing that saves this from being a total miss. If you need a PC, a screen, and a keyboard for a dorm room or a spare home office and your expectations are set to "web browsing and spreadsheets," it's an okay deal. But if you're spending this money hoping to play anything more demanding than Minecraft, you're setting yourself up for disappointment. The value evaporates the second you try to use it as an actual gaming rig.

Let's be real: this isn't a gaming PC. The listing calls it a "Dell Gaming Tower," but with a GeForce GT 1030 and a 6th-gen Intel Core i5, you're looking at a basic office machine with some RGB lights glued on. The one thing to know is that it's a functional, renewed desktop for web browsing, Office apps, and maybe some very light esports titles, but the "gaming" label is a stretch. The included monitor and peripherals make it a convenient all-in-one box for a student or a home office on a tight budget, but you need to know exactly what you're getting into.

If you're looking for a machine that can handle even casual gaming at 1080p, this isn't it. Go find a used tower with a GTX 1050 Ti or GTX 1650 instead. You'll get a real gaming experience for similar money without the misleading marketing.

Skip this if you saw the word "gaming" and got excited. This is a basic office PC with a fancy light show. It's only worth considering if you need the absolute cheapest all-in-one setup for email, homework, and streaming Netflix, and you're okay with rolling the dice on which exact specs show up at your door. For everyone else, save your cash or look for a used system with a GTX 1050 Ti or better.