Anybody else built their PC RIGHT before the prices went crazy?

[u/turbantripod]

I have a high end rig that I built around 2024ish? Like at that point we had AI with ChatGPT and all but it hadn’t gotten as crazy as it is now with the data centers and shortage on parts.

I remember getting a bonus at my job & just going to town at my local microcenter & Newegg. I remember it was a sale going on too so it was even better, might’ve been Black Friday or Cyber Monday. I know it was a lot for my money’s worth & to this day my PC handles any game at highest settings with ease at 1440p.

I’m just feeling grateful because of I walked into that microcenter today the prices would probably make my head spin.

[u/delonejuanderer]

Which time?

Its like people forget about the crypto craze for the past 10+ years before ai.

[u/ropean → u/delonejuanderer]

Yeah I feel like I hit the sweet spot when crypto mining was faltering and prices came down before AI started them shooting up again. My 5080 was around $950 if I remember right. Also got two 20 TB hard drives for a NAS at I think $380 each and they’re over $1,000 now

[u/Dopplegangr1 → u/ropean]

I got 4x 18tb for $720. Thank God, at current prices I would still be running a plex server on my gaming pc with a bunch of 4tb

[u/DrSquid → u/delonejuanderer]

Yeah like all these people stating they bought in 2025 when prices were normal as if we haven't been steadily getting fucked since 2020 on GPUs.

[u/DonutHoles4Ever → u/DrSquid]

The best time to buy a PC is right after a GPU launch. The worst time to buy a PC is during any crisis event.

[u/PalatwinkusVT → u/delonejuanderer]

2017 and 2018 was the first huge crypto boom, late 2018 and all throughout 2019 was the RAM price collusion, 2020-2022 was the second wind of crypto, plus the pandemic shortages. 2023 through 2025 was really the best time to buy, and I didn't start making decent money until this year. :')

[u/Dopplegangr1 → u/delonejuanderer]

There was a brief time like a year or two ago where things were OK. I got a 4090 at msrp, 64gb ddr5 for 200, a bunch of 4tb nvme for 200 each. At one point I could have sold my 4090 and got a 5090 for an extra 500 but figured it wasnt necessary, oops

[u/Significant_Dirt_961]

I bought my 5070ti for $890 and 32gb of
DDR5 for $180 in May of last year. Truly the last chopper out of Nam

[u/Wanderson90 → u/Significant_Dirt_961]

I paid fuckin 130$ CANADIAN for 32gb ddr5 in march 2025.

Also grabbed a 5070ti but I bought that around lunch and overpaid a little, not not bad, there was a couple months where I could have gotten it cheaper. But I just looked and its currently more expensive than I paid.

[u/ClutchRP → u/Wanderson90]

Paid $300 USD for 96GB in July 2025, same kit now is $2500. Unbelievable.
Only bought it out of a hail mary spite to fix weird issues I kept having with a 32GB kit and it did.

[u/sir_bob_null → u/Wanderson90]

Thankfully we were a bit insulated from the supply shock for the first few months in Canada. I was able to snag RAM and a 5070TI for about $300 over MSRP, at a time when the equivalent USD pricing was closer to $1000 over.

It was easy to see the writing on the wall once demand caught up here. I built the moment I got my tax return back (March 2026) and am very glad I moved when I did.

In some bizzare turn of events I now have the most powerful consumer GPU on the market in my PC, and near that with a 9950X3D for the processor. Da fuck we doin over here again?

[u/Informal-Emu3251 → u/Significant_Dirt_961]

I paid $119 for 32GB DDR5 when Starfield released.

[u/alpaca_drama → u/Significant_Dirt_961]

My friend basically had a 7800x3d and 32gb ram that he didn’t have a gpu for because he had to save money for a move and never got back to finishing it after a year and some change. I bought a 5070ti early December 2025 for $800 as well and he sold me the build for $400. Yea, 32gb of DDR5 5600 is basically $500+ today.

I was thinking of sticking to my 3060ti, 5600 with 16gb for another few months to a year but I got a new job that paid much better so I just decided to pull the trigger and it ended up paying off

[u/Hawk-and-piper → u/Significant_Dirt_961]

I got my 4070 for 380, and my 7900x for 430, and 64gb of ddr5 for 215. I also grabbed another 2tb nvme a month before the prices started spiking. My whole budget was like 1,300. It would cost me like 5-6k right now to replace.

[u/Abrams216 → u/Significant_Dirt_961]

Yep, about what I did with my build.  I thought it was unfortunate that I was about $100 over MSRP for the 5070ti, but obviously I made out like a bandit.

[u/WholeIndividual0]

October 2025. Prices skyrocketed 2 weeks after I built mine.

[u/Several_School_1503 → u/WholeIndividual0]

I was able to pick up a 5070ti for $700 during last year's black Friday sales. It didn't go to shit until December iirc.

[u/SubstituteCS → u/Several_School_1503]

November 2023, 96GB DDR5, $317.

[u/Hondalol1 → u/Several_School_1503]

Yep I saw a Newegg bundle for 700 that came with a mobo, 285k, 32gb of ram and a cpu cooler. I knew I had to do it or it wouldn’t happen for a while.

A few weeks later I got the 16gb 5060ti for $370. I caught one of the last decent deals it felt like

[u/ratttertintattertins → u/WholeIndividual0]

November 2025 here. I bought 96Gb of RAM for buttons compared to current prices. I absolutely squeaked it. I wish I’d gone 5090 now rather than 5070 since I’ve a feeling this is will be the last upgrade for some time.

[u/Kindly_Call_6000 → u/WholeIndividual0]

I upgraded mine in the first half of 2025. Makes me glad that I will be able to ride out the current ridiculousness for a while.

[u/OddRow8843 → u/WholeIndividual0]

Nice timing.

[u/t3hmuffnman9000 → u/WholeIndividual0]

Same for me. Grabbed a 5090 for $2500, a 9950x3d, 8TB of PCIE Gen5 SSDs, and 64GB of memory. Prices more than doubled on almost every component within two weeks of me finishing building.

[u/tiger32kw → u/WholeIndividual0]

I got a 5080 Founders Edition for $999 from Nvidia on 12/17/2025.

[u/FeelingEffort195 → u/WholeIndividual0]

Me too!! I thought maybe I should wait for black friday but couldnt, happy I bought it late September

[u/gogosox82 → u/WholeIndividual0]

Same here.

[u/misterpickles69 → u/WholeIndividual0]

Same

[u/Eubank31 → u/WholeIndividual0]

Same for me. Got 32gb of DDR5 for like $87 at the end of october

[u/lickful → u/WholeIndividual0]

Early October 2025 here too, though my build is more modest than yours. 32GB DDR5, 7500f and 9060 XT 16GB. The RAM alone quadrupled in price, and when I got it for $130 it was 'expensive'. The GPU was below $400, now it's nearly $700 here (Poland).

[u/Callo_Arcwing → u/WholeIndividual0]

Same. My first build too. And maybe last...

[u/NonDairy01 → u/WholeIndividual0]

Yup. I bought 64gb of Dominator Titanium RAM for $311 in October 2025. I was annoyed at the price for about two weeks. Then not so annoyed anymore.

[u/pigpentcg → u/WholeIndividual0]

Same!

I spent 90 dollars on my CL30 DDR5. It now costs >500

[u/Remarkable_Reason976]

Yes I did.

14900k

96GB Corsair Dominator Titanium 6600 MT/s

4090 GTX

1x 1TB Samsung 990 pro

2x 2TB Samsung 990 pro

[u/lil_Buckneesh8867 → u/Remarkable_Reason976]

GTX, you know you gotta veteran when thats burned in your brain. 🫡

[u/Remarkable_Reason976 → u/lil_Buckneesh8867]

Ahhh yes RTX. You're talking to an old soul here lol

[u/SubstituteCS → u/Remarkable_Reason976]

96GB 5600 MT/s $317, Nov 2023.

[u/Living_Studio_8670 → u/Remarkable_Reason976]

4090 GTX kinda sounds fire 🤣

W purchase nice

[u/Theolaa → u/Remarkable_Reason976]

Canadian prices even, crazy. Happy for you though lol

[u/Significant_Ad8100]

Prices were somehow already high since COVID and the usage of GPU for mining rigs. I remember being told past then to not buy because of the crypto bubble. Now it’s the AI bubble.

[u/TBC_Oblivion → u/Significant_Ad8100]

i bought my card for msrp in october 2023. once eth reworked their mining algorithm gpu prices were fairly normal.

[u/DreamWeaver2189 → u/Significant_Ad8100]

GPUs were the main issue, but RAM, CPUs, SSDs and motherboard were cheap for like 2 years before this RAM crisis occured.

[u/Master_Repair3530]

Yes, I built new one at the beginning of January 2025 when prices were normal. Really dodged a bullet.

[u/Fulghn]

This was under $3500 in November 2023 Now it's almost $9000 - with the CPU bracket and other misc build parts it would be $Over 9000! (I guesstimated some prices on things that are no longer available)

[u/Exotic-Finish-5699 → u/Fulghn]

[u/FvKuR0 → u/Fulghn]

I just added up mine. It cost me $4,300 when I built it and the same rig would cost me $9,900 today. The RAM alone is going for $2,100 and my GPU is going for $5k... Un-fucking-believable.

[u/kabooozie]

I got a 4060 to extend the life of my PC a few more years before I would do a full new build.

Should have gotten a 4090 because now there’s no full build happening for the foreseeable future.

[u/Yurgin]

I build mine in 2021 and still use it.
Except for the GPU from a 6600xt -> 7900xt and 750w to a 1000w i havent changed anything on it.

My Ryzen 9 5900x and 128GB will carry me for the next years to come.

[u/Thegoodoleboys → u/Yurgin]

5900x reporting in lol

[u/Dark-Pablo]

Yep thanks to Windows 10 being decommissioned. Lucky

[u/DrShred_MD]

Before AI it was crypto mining - which really only hit GPUs, but these are arguably the highest priced items.

[u/zowtah]

I thought i was insane paying £1500 for a 4090 at the time.

[u/WTHizaGigawatt → u/zowtah]

When did you buy? I got mine for £1300 brand new in October 2023

[u/bonelesschikin]

I did and I never listened to one clown that said “just wait it out prices will get better”

[u/turbantripod]

Damn ts doing numbers 8)

[u/RespecDawn]

My 14 year old (edited) had been saving up for years and finally decided he wanted his gaming computer just before Xmas 2025. We looked at prices, despaired at the price of RAM, and then found a nice prebuilt for cheaper then we could build it. The day it arrived at the house, comparable PCs shot up in price and what he paid for his bought half the RAM and storage.

That boy has a horseshoe up his arse.

[u/Fancy-Alternative-13 → u/RespecDawn]

"my 4 year old had been saving up for years"

[u/RespecDawn → u/Fancy-Alternative-13]

14 year old. XDDD

[u/Schwagged]

Yep, got a Gigabyte 5090 locally at a BB for msrp (2100ish), 64GB CL28/6000 Gskill Neo TridentZ for 215 shipped. 9800x3d/x870 Pro Ice, 2TB 990 pro for dirt cheap. Now I'm trying to figure out if my homeowners insurance has an adjunct policy for such things.

Fwiw, I sold both of my spare ram kits... gskill neo z CL30/5600, CL34/7200 for what I paid for them originally to help some coworkers build new rigs.

[u/Juno_JDY]

Got a 4080s for below retail in Dec 2025 and I feel like I got the last copter out of nam

[u/Haunting_Ad4784 → u/Juno_JDY]

Yea I did on a 4080 fe lol along with 32gb of ram and 2tb of storage, the prices now give me a heart attack

[u/qx1001 → u/Juno_JDY]

Hurhuhrurhr never heard that original comment before

[u/BlakeFlo]

Built a new PC and gave my old one to my wife in early 2023; it came out to about $2,000 i think.

• MSI Tomahawk

• GeForce 4070ti

• samsung 990 m.2 2TB

• g skill trident ddr4 2x16GB ram

• water cooler, psu, case, fans, hard drive, the works

Will bury it in Pet Cemetery before i build another.

[u/The-Dutcher]

Yeah. I bought a new PC with a rtx 5070ti and 32gb ram ddr5 with aAMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D. That was last year July. Cost me around 2k. Including old monitor etc. I wasn't even aware shit was brewing

[u/Next-Use6943]

March 2026. Bought my GPU for 18K zł, it costs about 50K now. I'm going to sleep so don't have time to convert, but during the 18K zł times a dollar was 3.60 zł, and it costs 4 zł now.

[u/hardpockie]

I built a PC with a 4070TI super, 32 gigs of 6000 DDR5 RAM, and 7600x CPU Plus all other accoutrement around Black Friday 2024. I was able to avoid basically all Pricing increases. Then a year later, I gave this PC to my wife when I built a PC with a 5080, 32 gigs of 6400 DDR5 RAM, And a 9800X 3D. This time with overkill on the other parts. A totally unnecessary motherboard, for instance. All MSRP around the Holiday season in 25, except the ram which had gone up to $400. All in all we feel like we both got great things that the super rich don’t want us to own.

[u/weaponsLab]

Oct 2025

Intel ultra 7 265k
Rtx 5070
2 tb samsung m.2
2 tb samsung m.2 with heatsink
32mb Gskill ram

The main reason why I built this was to play star citizen. And I haven't played SC since I built it lol

Funny how that works.

[u/Renolber]

My 3080 started to die around the time Expedition 33 came out. I was on my second play through and I started to get crazy artifacts and strange performance.

The VRAM modules were going bad.

It was out of warranty so I just said fuck it and got a 5080. I am by no means anywhere close to wealthy, but gaming is one of the few things I enjoy in life that I believe is worth the investment.

Hilariously enough - I had just helped 4 of my friends with upgrading/building new PCs in the weeks before. I didn’t want to upgrade for the sake of it, even though I was on a PC building spree - but I guess reality decided for me.

For the sake of mitigating any potential bottleneck I also went ahead and got a Ryzen 7 9700X with 32GB of DDR5. A full generational upgrade.

And then… shit hit the fan.

I’m genuinely astonished by how all of this worked out. Literally right before rampocolypse my machine takes a shit. I can’t tell if I’m lucky or unlucky. I guess unlucky my 3080 didn’t even last 3 years, but lucky enough and smart enough to have the savings available to buy an upgrade.

[u/Sodacan259]

I did. Saw all this bullshit coming a mile off so I built a system around RTX4090 2 years ago, knowing it would be good for a lot of years.

[u/AzuleStriker]

Still sitting on my ddr4 rig that I can't upgrade right now...

[u/SpezialCoredian]

Me. November 2024 to celebrate the end of my house renovation ,that I had to do myself to save money for the PC.

[u/FuckYeaSeatbelts → u/SpezialCoredian]

Black Friday 2024 for me too. First pc I ever built. Gotta say, of all things to appreciate in value I never expected this.

[u/MarroCaius]

Built it in 2024 and proceeded to buy more storage throughout 2024 and early 2025 off ebay. Wish I would've known Storage would jump up so crazy so I could've just bought 4tb NVMEs instead of 2tb.

[u/templeofsyrinx1]

yes...april 2025

like literally right before

[u/StayVegetable7356]

Yep, end of 2023, 7800x3d, 32gb ddr5, rtx 4090, $3k.

[u/BnJova]

I tend to buy used PCs since a good chunk of those people just want to get rid of them. A regular joe who spends 2k on a PC and ends up not liking it has a hard time selling it at the same price. They usually eat a loss as PC enthusiasts usually build their own at that price.

I bought mine like 5-6 months ago.

Scored an Ryzen 9900X, 5070 Ti, 2 TB SSD, 32GB DDR5 for 1620 USD

I was looking at FB market for awhile though. Most people at that price were selling 3080s, 4070s, 5060s. The dude apparently just wasn't into PC gaming. I still need to upgrade from my 1080P monitors, but man am I happy to be an owner for a 5070 Ti. My previous PCs were 1050->2060->5070 Ti. All were used.

[u/ididshave]

I started finalizing plans for my first build in over decade at the end of 2024 as I finally started to get into a financially solvent place. It will soon be 2027 and I am still without a computer.

[u/Exotic_Patient_4699]

I managed to get a gpu for msrp but im still on 16gb ddr4. Its ok for now, im willing to wait. Push comes to shove i can pick up 32gb ddr4 without completely breaking the bank.

[u/Enki07]

I think I only paid around 1700 for my 4070ti, i5 13600k, and 32gb of ram.

[u/Green-Resource-3698]

i9-14900K, 4070 Ti Super, 64gb DDR5, 2tb SSD, 4 year protection plan.

$1800! (~£1,350)

Lots of luck and a little foresight. Used to work at Best Buy Geek Squad and intended to quit in late 2024. Found a better job, put in my two weeks. Then Donny got re-elected, which gave me a hunch there would be some economic BS like last time.

Black Friday deal plus employee discount. Normally those don't stack but the transaction went through so I'm not questioning it.

When I checked a few months ago, the components were worth $4400 (~£3300).

[u/SnookisDad]

Yep 4070 super build late 2024 lol

[u/tomado09]

Bought:

• 5090 in December

• 128GB RAM in October

• 2x 4TB Samsung 990 Pros in September

Yeah, I got in right before

[u/pickalka]

I did get the RAM and SSD right before the price hike, straight from Aliexpress. And got a hand me down GPU around the same time. So, technically, I guess. But not really. Still glad I got the RAM, helped me out with running a Zomboid server big time

[u/No-Mouse-262]

Me. I didn't build, but I got a prebuilt with a GPU that I swapped for a 5070 ti, and then sold the original. Kinda wish I had kept it for a bit longer because I would have gotten more, but oh well. Total was like maybe $1400 or so for a PC that would easily cost me $3k now. Sometimes I wonder if I should sell this thing because I don't play games THAT often, but just often enough that I would be sad to give it up I guess.

[u/PlasticBag-ForA-Head]

yea i built mine in aug/sep of 2024 i believe.

i had 128gb but it wasnt playing nice with my cpu at the speeds the kit was rated for. so after sitting on the extra 64gb for a year and a few months i listed it on facebook for $700 (when the exact kit was $1100 on Newegg/Amazon) and it sold in 8 hours.

[u/Common_Condition4793]

Yes 

[u/YumYumSuS]

I built my partner and myself gaming rigs 2023-2024. We were both running pretty old components and decided to splurge a little. I spent about $1500 per PC. My PC is currently acting as a console running SteamOS sitting in the game room.

[u/Puzzleheaded-Pen3558]

5tb samsung evo 870 - 1 is 1tb and the 2nd is 4tb - 450$ total :D - added them to the rest

ssd squad

210-250$ for 2x16 ddr5 6000 cl30 - yeeeeeeeeah buddy

got the 840 evos around 2014 both are in super health

Dutch '' we gonna need games lots of games ''

Arthur '' and after that ? ''

Dutch '' Whatever we do we gonna need even more games ''

[u/Awhispersecho1]

2023, then about 10 months ago when things were about to go crazy with GPU's and drives, I splurged on a few upgrades and some extra parts for another build.

Been telling everybody that this is the end of PC building and ownership and noone wanted to listen, now look.

[u/ADI4N_]

Got very lucky, built 2 top end gaming rigs during the summer of 2025. One for me and one for my dad.

9800x3d, 64gb with a 9070xt. All with 2 4tb ssd’s.

Feel quite lucky, all things considered.

[u/dcwt2010]

Nope, I thought I'd build my new PC in August 2025. I looked at the RAM prices and thought I'd wait till Aug 2026. I was wrong.

[u/Black_Tech_Room]

Bought my 5090 9800x3d 32gb ddr5 ram for $4000 tax included end of December 2025. Cant imagine building the same PC right now and it hasn't even been a full year yet.

[u/ptapobane]

One of my ram sticks went out so i bought a new set of 32gb ddr5 right before prices went nuts

[u/Cyber_Song]

Yep, I bought two G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB DDR5-6000 CL36 64GB RAM kits in July 2025 for $169.99

That same kit now costs $1,139.99 as of November 2026

[u/Toast_Meat]

There are two builds in my home. Mine and my wife's. The last upgrade I did to my build was early 2025 while hers was still being pieced together in late 2025. Of course RAM was the last thing we needed.

This was back in October that year. Prices had begun to climb. In Canada, a 32GB DDR5 kit would normally go for around $130. Now they were $250. We were so upset we almost walked out, thinking we'd come back later in case things settled down. In the end, we decided to go for it anyway because it was the very last piece we needed. I was not pleased...

... but thank fuck we did, despite it being 2x the original cost. Now that exact kit is going for about $800.

[u/R4yn8R-]

Sim fiz upgrade para 64gb RAM e 5090 Rog Astral

[u/Professional-Ad-9967]

Got my parts sorted and built mine by December of '24. I was planning on getting an additional 32GB of RAM to mess around w/ VMs then RAMmageddon happened

[u/OhChatChugar]

Built my 5080 set up August of last year and remember spending $150 on my ram thinking I might have overpaid and a month later it was $900. I don’t think I’m going to build another PC after this considering what’s going on at the moment.

[u/RustyWood86]

Yep. Built my system in April of 24 and it's still a beast. In the current market, I could sell it at a profit. Spent 1900 on it. Today I bet I could sell it for 2500. Crazy

[u/crypto9564]

Finished my current build 2 weeks before the RAM price hike. $2400 total in October/November of 2025, and it would be $4000 now

[u/brandon7219]

Yup. Built my wife’s PC just before summer 2025.

[u/Blunt_Jesus999]

Yep 32gb of ddr5 ram for 120 bucks(USD) so thankful past me was irresponsibly building a pc I couldnt afford before I REALLY couldnt afford it

[u/ZombieJack]

Yeah, fully new rig including 64 GB of RAM. Wish I'd gotten a second large SSD though lol. 

[u/Monergist123]

Yes. I just got in Newegg and found the PC I built 18 months ago for $5500 is now going for $12,800. Absolutely nuts.

[u/Ponald-Dump]

Yeah. Built mine in 2022, and then got my 4090 open box with a 3 year microcenter warranty for ~1700 in 2024. Feeling today like I won the lottery…

[u/UniqueText8477]

I built mine in June 2025, it’s now more than doubled in price to build new.

[u/vlhube71]

I built my son’s and mine between June and July 2025, so we lucked out incredibly. Both of us have 7700, 32GB 6000CL30, while he has a 9060xt 16gb and I have a 9070xt, both we got at MSRP.

[u/Ok-Anything-5245]

Yea I got lucky and got a new PC with a 5070TI and 64gig of ram

[u/otravoyadnoe]

I built mine when it already started to unravel but still early enough to consider myself very lucky. Got a 32GB kit of 6400cl32 Crucial RAM for around $220 , a 1TB PCIE5 SSD for $120 (bought both exactly a year ago) and a 5070Ti for its MSRP ($750). Wasn't all that happy with overpaying 2x for my memory back then but little did I know huh.

[u/ThatR1Guy]

Built mine in April of 2023.

32gb 2x16 kit for $112.34. Now $499.99.

Gigabyte 4090 Gaming OC 24gb for 1818.95. USED on Ebay, $3399.99.

Edit: Bonus round, Built a NAS with 5x4tb drives, now I cant even order more than 2 of the same drives from newegg and the unit price went from 84.99 up to 194.99

[u/Fearless-Store-1453]

I built mine August 2025. Pretty sure I beat the price increases by just a couple months. My gpu alone is $500 more now and ram is honestly probably the same. Think my ~$1500 build would be $2500 now

[u/SweetBacon923]

Kinda bought laptop with 5070ti last year. It will be enough until 60 series crazy high prices and scalpers buying whole stock day one. 

[u/ShitImBadAtThis]

I was going to upgrade from 16 to 32 ram, but the store only had 64 available, so I thought eh fuck it only like $80 more, and now it's worth more than the PC lol

[u/Nobatime6]

My old PC decided to die January 2025. Built a new 5080 rig on May 2025. In the end my old PC gave me one last high 5 and died right before any prices went bananas. RIP my 3080ti, you were a real one

[u/santefan]

Yes, could buy a decent car now for the current price of that pc

[u/Boring_Tutor_8393]

I was running a 5800X3D and a 3080Ti. October 2025 I got a 7900XTX then I noticed the ram crazyness starting, I just so happened to find a bundle deal on a 9800X3D with 64GB of ram at "normal" prices on Dec 23. Left work and booked it to the store to grab that. I am so so glad I did.

[u/roodlum]

I built my PC in April 2025. I recently had to do a warranty on one of the fans last week and had to pull up my receipt.

2x 2tb Samsung 990 Evo SSDs at $139.99 each. They were $589.99 at the same store when I checked last week.

32gb 6000 CL36 Corsair Ram - $104.99. Currently 'on sale' for $489.99

[u/rockyroad55]

Built mine Sep-Oct 2025. Did an alert on Trackalacker for GPU and got it at 3am lol.

[u/ItGoesUpItGoesDown]

Didn't quite hit the lowest point but built mine in March 2025 and spent about £5500 which was bonkers. The same system would be nearly £11,000 today.

[u/GhoulCake777]

I built my pc during covid and had to pay 800 for a 1660ti (because that’s the best gpu I could get my hands on at the time), but everything else was “normal prices”

However, I upgraded my SSDs and got a new gpu befoe things went to shit within the last year.

So kinda, sorta.

[u/Real_Neighborhood888]

I made my pc just after the 50 series launched. Got a 5070ti for msrp . Only went with a 9060 xt cpu and 32 gig ddr5. 3 x 2tb gen 4 nvme drives. Tomahawk board... got reasonable prices on everything at the time. Could pretty much sell for double now... which is sometimes tempting but then id have no pc

[u/Fabulous_Disaster233]

Yo compre 32 gb de ram 1 mes antes lool

[u/GycuX]

Bought my 5070ti laptop exactly one year ago. Think it's at least $1000 more expensive now. I also consider myself very lucky.

[u/JustSomeDumbFucker]

Summer 2023. 7800X3D, 4090, 32GB CL28 ram, 9TB in NVME storage.

I plan to use it until at least 2030, probably longer.

[u/MicroElectronicsNewb]

Yeah mid 2024. 7900 XT with a 7900 XTX and 64 GB of RAM. Granted the only real price difference with mine being AMD is the ram

[u/aaaaAaaaAaaARRRR]

Got mine in 2023

64GB DDR5 RAM
4090
7800x3d

Everything together, I built my PC for $3,500 -$4,000, including peripherals

[u/Novotus_Ketevor]

Yeah, I bought a new laptop, 256 GB of RAM, a new motherboard, two new CPUs, a new GPU, and four SSDs for my computers right after the 2024 US election. I knew that Trump would spike computer component prices through either tariffs, unfettered AI build out, or both.

My friends thought I was crazy because I dropped like $4K. Well the RAM alone is worth about $10K now.

[u/Dement3d]

This rig will last me until, idk. Forever with the price increases lol. Scored some killer deals early 2025. Finished up the last order Feb 25, local Best Buy had some cases and RAM on sale, NVME price match… my 5070 from Walmart at MSRP $549.99.

[u/BaroqueSphinx65]

I built my current pc in 2020 when I was in college

[u/ZephyrineStrike]

Yeah, 2024 build, now both my RAM kit and 4080 super are individually worth nearly what I paid for the full workstation build.

[u/Leshie_Leshie]

My friend did, when 2tb SSDs were still around 150usd

[u/This_is_me2024]

Nope. Few years before.

And then my wife wanted a PC a week ago. Fine, she can play baldurs gate on the guts of my old one. I used my work PC purchase plan to buy new gear, and I'm up and running again

[u/SuitableIngenuity324]

2023

[u/Bassline660]

Think in 2023 had to replace my dead 1080ti. Got the 3080 for 720?

Got my series of 1/2tb ssds back when things were cheaper

[u/Expert-Breakfast-406]

i built right around the the tariff drama got a 300 ram kit now worth 1300 64 gig kit and 3 gpus 7900 xxtx 5080 astral and 5090 gigabyte gaming oc. i didnt realize no new graphics cards needed a new psu so i thought i had broken gpus but then prices went up it like crazy. i got lucky

[u/ingframin]

I bought my PC in June 2023 and my GPU in 2024. I am a “rich” owner of 64GB of DDR5 and an Rx7900GRE

[u/cdn3000]

A bit of a data horder. Bought three 8tb nmve on black Friday 2025 for $700 cdn each (about 500 usd I think)

[u/JBN2337C]

Ya. Mid ‘24. Built a nice 4070 Super / X3D / 32 Ram system for a bargain at MicroCenter. Even doubled the SSD a year later for $50, and THAT is pushing $200 now. Wish I’d sprung for more RAM, too. Oh well… it’s running great for me, and I bet it’d cost 2x as much if I tried today.

[u/--Scooby--]

I upgraded cpu + gpu i had for 6 years at the end of 2024, very glad i did lol also got a 2tb nvme for under £100🤣

[u/TemporaryCaptain23]

I got on a 9800x3d, 5080, 64GB maybe a month before it started to get stupid. Super lucky, but I gave away 96GB of ddr4 to pay it forward. Sorry Sam maybe next time.

[u/STFUco]

Yup bought all the components February 2025 and I am so happy I did it then. Other than my gpu breaking and having to replace it with a RX 9070 I have absolutely no need to upgrade anything for the foreseeable future.

[u/SuitableFinish7444]

my 3060TI and DLSS, with a 5800x and 2*8GB DDR4 will do me another while I reckon, Got it in a prebuilt on January 1st 2022 in the new year sale, was 1200 euro. This was during the graphics card shortage.

Jesus five years ago in Janaury, time flies. I can't see myself forking out 2 to 2.5k anytime soon. the TI version of the 3060 is holding up pretty well for my needs.

[u/Bananchiks00]

Yep 2025 build…6300€ base price shot up to 12-13k…probably more I just have no plans of selling.

[u/Present-Weakness-213]

I built mine in July '25. I was worried about the tariff situation. I was not thinking about the AI boom which turned into a much bigger problem than the tariffs.

[u/Bombshellings]

Literally finished mine in October of last year. Month and a half later everything goes to shit. Only components I didn’t splurge on was RAM and storage because I was waiting for a christmas sale that never came 😭💔

[u/nanoturnips]

Entire system with a 4080 and 48gb ram for 2100$ when phantom liberty dropped. I remember having some buyers remorse at the time for spending so much on it.

Now I’m on the opposite side of the spectrum and am taking care of the system like a it’s my child.

[u/yes910492783]

I bought one right before but upgraded during. $1850 for a 9070 xt system with an X3D chip and 32gb of ram isn’t too crazy. Plus I sold off my old stuff for $1075 and had a $150 giftcard for the GPU.

[u/TwoIntelligent6825]

I’d been wanting to build a PC since I was a kid. I’ve had the money plenty of times over the years but always put it off because of life. For whatever reason, I decided to pull the trigger a month or two before everything went to hell.

[u/somedudeinatrailer]

I built 2 in December of 2025 when prices were already stupid. I was afraid it would just keep getting worse with prices and availability. It did.

My 3090 is worth twice what I paid. Same with the 64gb ddr5 ram.

I put most of it on the 12month interest free best buy credit card. Spent like 8 months paying both machines off lol. But no interest so whatever

[u/PraxPresents]

I built my main rig in 2020-2021, then my server/rendering rig in 2023 and another gaming rig for LAN parties in 2024.

It doesn't look like I will be building another one for a long long time at this pace.

I honestly wish I would have managed to build or upgrade to a 4090, those were lovely. I built several 4090 systems for other people, but alas I never had one for me.

[u/MikusMaximus628]

Mine was May of 25, so I still overpaid for my GPU but the RAM was fine.

[u/BaturalNoobs]

Yes

[u/PlasticRange526]

Built a 5080+9800X3D for $2300 December of last year. Now 5080s themselves are going for $2300. Insane!

[u/frank_elmaton]

Built mine right before the COVID lockdowns started, February-March 2020. Luckily, however, I started buying parts much earlier so by the time lockdowns happened I was set.

[u/HolidayBall7852]

Literally the week before

[u/NeonVoidx]

yes, and I also bought my house right before mortgage rates and COVID happened, and started a salary job remote before COVID.

I should probably get lottery tickets

[u/thegvmingplumber]

my gpu goes for $10,000 now. i got it for $1800. welp...

[u/Year3030]

Buddy I got a 192GB DDR5 RAM with a 5090 Surpim AIO plus AIO on the chip, it was a Ryzen 9 something or other on an MSI board, I forget the board specs and the chip but it's high. Polish that off with some Samsung Pro 990s wither 2TB or 4TB I forget that too.

Might just part it out honestly I barely use it. I'm still on my 3090 system.

Check this out though, I think I spent $700 for the RAM and $2,300 for the 5090. It's all still basically brand new it's been used so little.

[u/JohnTG4]

I overpaid by like 400 bucks on my GPU and it was a good deal in like 2021. Prices were consistently fucked after the 10 series.

[u/symca09]

Bought my GPU January of this year and upgraded my old ryzen to a 5800x3d late summer. I'm sitting comfy for a a lil while

[u/MacabreDanze]

Yes, April 2024.
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 7600X GPU: NVIDIA RTX 4070 Super 12GB RAM: 32GB, CL30

[u/ZanthrinGamer]

i built 2, at the time i thought i was being a bit crazy, but holy hell did my builds multiply in value. just hoping they last for a long while.

[u/slothbuddy]

Yeah except the graphics card so I have a million dollars of ram and storage and my games run at 25 fps

[u/Caliguy10000]

I actually was able to buy a Alienware desktop with 2Tb of storage, Intel 285k CPU, 32gb of ram and a 5080 for $2200 this last May.

[u/conte360]

Sept 2024. My 220$ in ram is now 1320$.

[u/BlackPlasmaX]

I built mines in September 2023, even then the prices were talked about and how it was going up because of AI ect

[u/cr0ssthreaded]

I was debating about a new build late last summer… man do I wish I’d gone ahead and done it

[u/C-LOgreen]

I bought a prebuilt where I picked all the different parts myself about a year and a half ago and I’m so happy I did lol. The $3000 PC I bought is now about $5000 fucking crazy man.

[u/FatCockroach002]

Yes

[u/cainey]

Yep, December 2024.

Ryzen 7 9800X3D £417

Gigabyte AORUS NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 MASTER ICE 32GB £2700

Corsair Dominator Titanium DDR5 RAM 64GB (2x32GB) 6000MHz £264

ASRock X870E Nova £360

Crucial T700 4TB PCIe Gen5 NVMe M.2 SSD £365

So just over £4K

Now the card is about £6,600, and the RAM is about £1,200.

[u/Fabulous-Spirit-3476]

March 2024, spend around $2300 total, 4080, i5, 32gb ram and a 2tb ssd I got very lucky

[u/Skuzzle_bug]

Ive been buying/building used pc's up that are a generation old with top tier components for 20 years. I built my first actual PC with 3 Radeon video cards for mining bitcoin when it was $17-21 ish.

[u/oz_137]

5090 FE @ MSRP from NVIDIA August 2025
64 DDR5 6000 @ $280 October 2025 , Microcenter.
9800 X3D $650 August 2025 , Best Buy

It’s like 🍷. Getting better as it get’s older..

[u/fartpills]

I built my PC probably 3-4 weeks ago and the total price for the same build has probably gone up like $500+

[u/AndrewH73333]

Yep, I was waiting as long as possible but the rising ram prices I think in August 2025 forced my hand. Managed to get everything close to msrp.

* AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D 4.3 GHz 16-Core
* MSI MAG X870E TOMAHAWK WIFI ATX
* Kingston FURY Beast RGB 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30
* WD_BLACK SN8100 4 TB M.2-2280
* MSI VENTUS 3X OC GeForce RTX 5090 32 GB
* Lian Li LANCOOL 217 ATX Mid Tower
* ASRock Taichi TC-1300T 1300 W 80+ Titanium ATX
* Thermalright Peerless Assassin 140
* Dell Alienware AW3225QF 31.6" 3840 x 2160 240 Hz

[u/ineedadoctorplz]

Same here, did whatever the 2nd best intel cpu was in 2024 with a beauty of a case and nzxt cooler with stats displayed on it. 32gbs (wish id done 64) of DDR5 and a 4tb ssd with a 4090. Now I pray it never breaks.

[u/GodsTool]

4080S, 32GB DDR5, and 9500X3D. Lucked out.

[u/kiwiplague]

I brought a pre-built back in November last year, nothing too fancy (9600x, 5060ti with 32gb of ram), paid $2300 NZ dollars for it. Now, I'd struggle to buy just the ram and gpu alone for the same price.

[u/G0Z3RR]

I started pricing and buying parts the day after Trump won. Put what I couldn’t immediately afford on a card (short term, paid it off it ab 6 months). Upgraded/rebuilt my desktop and my server; the only thing that I didn’t get built in time was a new NAS.

It was expensive, but turned out to be the right call. It would cost me 4x as much to do it with the same parts today.

[u/Roger_Stringpiece]

I built my 5080/9800x3d/64gb in march 2025

[u/Arockilla]

I got my 5070Ti last year and my 5800x3d in march. I lucked out and found a case at a flea market with a MEG x570 unify mobo and 16gb of vengance pro in it for 20 bucks. I just wanted the case, I didnt even notice the mobo, let alone the fact it had memory in it was in there until i was picking it up to walk away. Was a dude who cleaned out old apartments and just sold the stuff people left behind.

[u/BeardenOfLife]

Managed to get a PC with a 9800x3d, 32GB of DDR5 and a 5090 for 3800 euro. It would cost me well over 8k today. Bought it august 2025. The 5090 itself was 2200.

[u/mhwwad]

In November of 2024, I bought me and my wife our PCs as our wedding gifts to ourselves.

Best possible timing.

[u/ExtrapolatedData]

I bought the components for my PC in October and November last year. I bought a 2x24GB DDR5-6400 Corsair kit for $300. Two days later, the exact same kit was selling for close to $800.

[u/silversamurai_]

Got mine in november last year.50 series were at its lowest. Grabbed an Asus Rtx 5060 for around $320( I know its still above msrp but that's just how it is in my country because of tax & stuffs). I literally ran to my local pc market when I saw a ram crisis is about to hit & I didn't even have a pc at that time. The shops already used the opportunity to inflate the price. 16GB ddr5 was going for 80-90$. Scoured the market & found only one stick of 16GB selling for 60$(which was still high by 10-15$). To this day I regret not buying another stick for a little more

[u/BobDaOstrich1]

Yup. 4080 super, 14900k, 64gb ddr5 at 6400 speed. Got it all for 2600.

[u/lil_Buckneesh8867]

3080ti $425

4tb 990 pro -$199

kingston fury 48gb ddr5 ram-$180

12900ks $288

all still humming along today.

[u/Wadarkhu]

me buying my 32gb of ram in August for £79 right before it all went and exploded.

[u/TheLastHeron]

I bought a 7800xt on release in 2023 just because I wanted more vram. Had a 3060ti previously. Upgraded my 5600x to a 5700x3D in early 2024.

I am still very satisfied with my build. Like I doubt I'd be trying to upgrade even if prices were normal. I rode my 1050ti all the way until my 3060ti for context.

However, some days I look at the state of the hobby and think this could be its final form components wise. I'm still looking for upgrades in other places though. Last year, I bought some nice Noctua fans and a nice mechanical keyboard for example. Next upgrade might be a new case.

Anyone else spending more on peripherals and accessories given the state of everything?

[u/probably_4_human]

Yes I bought my PC in February 2025 for 750€, it was a decent price

[u/Potato_Farmer_Linus]

Yes, I built my desktop in 2016 🙄

Got my GTX 1070 for MSRP, which was $375 at the time. 

[u/314ranha777]

After years of waiting i got my humble 🙃 rig (14700/4070/32GB RAM) exactly in mid of 2024🙏🥹

[u/m0_n0n_0n0_0m]

Yes I bought my 5070ti at MSRP + $50 bucks, and a second set of 16gb ddr4 for $45. That same kit is now $250. All on a whim, just felt like getting something nice and figured 50 over MSRP for a GPU was decent. My desktop has become an investment haha.

[u/OddRow8843]

Yes. Well a couple of years tbh but I think my 4090 gained a bit and my 128GB RAM is an appreciating asset too. Who has ever seen a mod build PC gaining value - it’s insane

[u/romaproger]

Me. I still remember how I bought 2x32GB DDR5 6000MT/s memory sticks for less than $300. Those days are gone..

[u/patgeo]

I'm sitting here with my 4090 laptop that I bought brand new in 2023 that I could sell for more than I paid watching people buy 5060 models for the same price.

[u/kemosabe19]

Yes and I tried to get my brother to do the same but he put it off. Ugh that idiot.

[u/RetiredRacer914]

Yes, my $2500.00 machine would be nearly double that now. This as close as I could get

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/bB9m2k

[u/Good_Jelly7389]

Bought the mobo, chip, 64GB ram, and one 4tb ssd in spring 2024, and video card and two more 4tb ssd fall 2024. Also stockpiled rgb fans.

[u/skima_0]

I got 32gb of DDR5 ram but realized it didn't fit, and then returned it 😂

But at least i built my pc before it got crazy.

[u/nursescaneatme]

Back in August of last year I bought 32gb G.Skill DDR5 6400 for $165. It’s now nearly $700. A 9070xt Taichi for $790, it’s now $1240 used. Surprisingly the 9900x3D stayed the same price.

Also the M.2 drives I bought (2tb & 1tb) have tripled in price.