[KSUowls]

There is a lack of information for that game and pc requirements (from users), but I did find a few more posts that give me a bit more confidence in the system you originally posted. As long as you don't go too crazy with breaking the universe then I think it will be fine, but I understand the fear of spending hundreds of dollars on something and then it not doing what you want.

I wouldn't worry about brands too much with pre-built pc's. Unless you're talking about a major increase to your budget then pre-builts will largely be the same. Customer service might be better with something like a Dell, but the systems themselves will be pretty similar, and imo you're better off buying better components than a better name (as long as it's from a reputable retail shop). Pre-builts will typically use the lower end of components. By that I mean, you're getting DDR 4 ram, but you're getting it at the lowest clock speed and some off brand. You're probably not getting much in the way of powersupply to support upgrades down the road, a cheaper mobo, and a bare bones cooling system. If you're looking to max out frames on Call of Duty then these things matter. For your purposes just trying to play an 8 year old game (well I guess Sandbox 2 is newer), then these things will matter less. Cooling might be an issue if you start putting the cpu under major stress by re-creating the big bang lol, but you're not going to get all 10's on a budget.

Building a pc is almost always the cheapest option, but sometimes the savings aren't as much as you would think (especially when you factor in Windows). I would recommend first building all the components and everything you want on something like pcpartpicker and then shop around to see if you can find something similar for cheaper.

I'm assuming you found pc part picker. That's a great resource. There are a ton of completed builds on there, so you don't go through the daunting task of going through the full list of options for each component. You can set a price range and see what other people have built in that range .