Turns out that it is still possible to activate Windows 7 in 2025.

The built-in activation no longer works but if you call the number on screen they'll send you a link to activate your license online and produce a series of numbers that can be typed into Windows to activate it.

I bought a used Lenovo Thinkstation off eBay and my plan is to upgrade it with 4gb of RAM, a quad-core CPU, and a GeForce 210 GPU.

Currently installing Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit because it's the last version of Windows to support 16-bit applications.

I bought a used Lenovo Thinkstation off eBay and my plan is to upgrade it with 4gb of RAM, a quad-core CPU, and a GeForce 210 GPU.

Currently install Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit because it's the last version of Windows to support 16-bit applications.

Intel launch the 486 processor in 1990 with a minimum clock speed of just 20mhz and just over a decade later they launched the Pentium 4 which started at 1400mhz.

Every year the new processors that came out felt like a significant step from what had come before.

Also, this list was constructed with some haste so I could probably find better parts and/or deals if I shopped around and looked at a wider range of components but this gives a rough idea of the value proposition on offer.

All that we need now is an actual retail price from Valve to compare it to.

I doubled the memory and storage from the base model because the upgrade these are the sweet spots for value on the consumer market but obviously Valve won't be buying their parts from Amazon.

CiT Mentor Micro-ATX Case - £27.60
MSI MAG A650BN 650W Power Supply - £49.99
MSI PRO A620M-B Motherboard - £74.99
AMD Ryzen 5 7600 - £157.97
Crucial P310 1TB SSD - £69.99
Crucial Pro DDR5 32GB (2x16GB) 6000MHz - £128.99