Custom Dell gaming tower, upgrades?

There will be strict limits on the CPU upgrade (nothing newer than the sixth-generation processor), and there will be limits on the GPU depending on the model system, size of the case, and the capacity of the power supply.

If you're buying a used system with an eye toward upgrading it,

1.  Start with something newer -- this one dates from about 2016.

2.  Start with something other than a brand-name (Dell, HP, etc.) system -- you'll face fewer proprietary parts to worry about.

This is a used Dell computer I am looking to purchase, I do not have the service tag.

Thank you for your reply. I’m looking to run GSPro golf simulator, they recommend i7 with 16GB ram, RTB 2070 and 500 GB HDD. It runs on my Dell Latitude E7470 i7 laptop but not great, some courses will not run and want a dedicated machine. My first thought was to buy a new gaming PC but these get expensive quickly. My second thought was to build one with an MSI Mag b660m Mortar and RTX 3060 Ti but by the time I’m adding chassis, PS, RAM, SSD, keyboard, mouse, Win 10 it starts adding up. So then I thought buy an old PC and upgrade if needed, at least I’d have the box, OS and peripherals. This custom Dell would probably work but it is hard to buy a used 2016 computer.

Would you have any recommendations?

Welcome to Dell Social Media Support.

Could you private message us the Service Tag, so we can look into this for you right away? You could refer to the below link to find the Service Tag: https://dell.to/3THBlkl

With just about any of the "brand-name" system, you're going to be limited with upgrades due to the proprietary mainboard, case and power supply designs.  If you're planning to upgrade an older system, look for one from one of the "boutique" builders like Falcon Northwest, AVA, OriginPC, etc. that use off-the-shelf cases, power supplies and system boards.

Your gaming aspirations are toward the higher end of things, and if Windows 11 is in the future, a bare minimum would be an eighth-generation Intel (or corresponding AMD) CPU -- once you go earlier than that, you won't have certified support for Windows 11 (yes, you can install it, but for how long it'll run is something only Microsoft's future plans for Windows 11 can speak to).

Two more thoughts, the GPU is probably doing the heavy lifting in this application, could I install the rtx 3070 ti in the custom Dell tower or would their be a fitment / hardware issue? My other though was a gaming laptop like the Gigabyte Aero 16 with 16" 4K/UHD+ Samsung AMOLED - Intel Core i7-12700H - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Laptop GPU 8GB GDDR6 - 16GB DDR5 RAM - 1TB SSD - Win11. It’s about triple the price, won’t be upgradeable, but has a good compliment of the newer hardware/software. A touch screen would be nice for this setup which you don’t find by default on many desktop setups.

I will check out some of the older systems from the boutiques mfg’s.