what are people's thoughts about building PCs at the moment? I don't play anything demanding, only major gripe with my current one is the fan noise. I just want something that can run old games quietly (FF11/14, WOW, emulators etc).
this is what I'm working with, from Ibuypower a couple of years ago
Processor AMD Ryzen 7 7700X 8-Core Processor 4.50 GHz
Installed RAM 32.0 GB (31.2 GB usable)
Storage 932 GB SSD KINGSTON SNV2S1000G
Graphics Card AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT (16 GB), AMD Radeon(TM) Graphics (486 MB)
I was looking forward to Steam Machine but no telling when that is gonna come out now.
Steam Machine will absolutely be less power than you listed here.
If that's your system, I would recommend jumping to a 9800X3D and getting the best GPU you can afford. Used is certainly the way, but the system you listed is pretty dang new. Going to be hard to find newer components for used prices.
In regards to your fan noise complaint... This is the cost of using a system that pulls 600w under a load. It's possible to have a quiet powerful PC, but it's expensive. It will require either a custom water-cooling loop or a very gnarly case.
I had a full EKWB setup on my 7900k/980ti build from like 10 years ago. I absolutely loved it, but it was a lot of work to build and maintain. Ultimately when my GPU died and I would have had to redo all my hard lines to work with a new GPU with another $300 block... I said screw it. It was nice having a PC that was nearly always at ambient temp and barely made any noise.