For the first few PCs I used, I didn't have much of a say in the components. I used to shoot for the stars, and my parents used to land a few storeys from the ground, selecting whatever hardware fit the budget. Later, when I started earning, and had full control over my builds for the first time, I started with budget PCs. From using a Pentium 3 pre-built machine to a custom-built Ryzen 7 5700X and RTX 3080 gaming rig, I have a long list of CPUs and GPUs that I wish I had purchased at launch.

Sometimes, I compromised due to limited budgets, while in other instances, I delayed the purchase, hoping for prices to fall or something better to come out. With the benefit of hindsight, however, I can now proclaim that not grabbing these six components when I should have, will remain my biggest PC building regrets.

6 GTX 1060 6GB

Before I built a GTX 1050 Ti PC

The first PC build that was truly my own was a budget build I put together back in mid-2017 — the very first machine I built with my own money. Pairing the GTX 1050 Ti with the Ryzen 5 1600 was one of the PC hardware missteps that I regret the most. The GTX 1050 Ti had no business being in that build, despite my limited funds and the GPU's affordable price point. For $200 more, I could have bought one of the best budget GPUs of all time; the GTX 1060 6GB.

Launched around a year before I decided to build a PC, the GTX 1060 was a GPU I had my eyes on for a long time. It provided unparalleled value at the time, making 1080p AAA gaming a breeze in almost every title. Sometimes, I wish I had built my PC a year earlier, so I wouldn't have had any option but to go with the GTX 1060. It would have lasted me way longer than the two years I spent with the GTX 1050 Ti, and proved to be one of the best hardware purchases of my PC building journey.

5 RTX 2060 Super

Instead of the GTX 1660 Ti

What happened, happened, and I made some good memories with my GTX 1050 Ti. However, two years later in 2019, it was clear I needed an upgrade. I was eyeing the newly launched RTX 2060 Super, which was slightly more than I wanted to pay for a new GPU, and the GTX 1660 Ti, which seemed more enticing in comparison, if only for the lower price. I ended up going for the latter, but not without a pang of regret.

Nvidia's Turing lineup was surrounded by a growing hype of ray tracing and next-gen gaming, and I was swept up by it at the time. I wasn't seeing the limited library of games supporting the new technology; instead, I wanted that shiny new RTX graphics card. The GTX 1660 Ti was a great value card, and one of the last good affordable GPUs from Nvidia. However, I always missed those RT cores. and regret not stretching my budget by about $100 to grab that RTX 2060 Super.

4 RTX 3060 Ti

I could have gotten it for around MSRP

2019 came and went, and Nvidia readied the launch of its RTX 30 series GPUs — what could have been one of the best launches in GPU history. As it turned out, however, the Ampere lineup landed at the worst possible time. The silicon shortage and supply chain crisis coincided with the crypto boom and unprecedented demand to create a perfect storm that resulted in scarce stock and sky-high prices.

I was hoping to finally upgrade to an RTX graphics card, and was impressed by the claims of the RTX 3060 Ti beating the RTX 2080 Super. For a handful of weeks in December 2019 and January 2020, the RTX 3060 Ti was available for a reasonable price (considering the market conditions) at my local retailer, and I had almost thrown in the towel. I ended up waiting, however, for prices to fall to MSRP, which never happened.

The RTX 3060 Ti would have been a massive upgrade over my GTX 1660 Ti, and I would have been able to play all the ray tracing titles that I wanted to experience for a long time. Fate, however, had other plans.

3 Ryzen 7 5800X3D

The best of AM4

From 2019 to mid-2022, I didn't make any upgrades to my PC. The PC hardware market was still reeling from the GPU pricing crisis, so my dream RTX upgrade had to wait. Then, out of the blue, I won a virtual PC building competition organized by WD and Nvidia, and the first prize was the very RTX 3080 gaming PC I had submitted to the competition. I was ecstatic, but I also had a set budget to choose the rest of the components, which meant I couldn't pick the CPU I really wanted: the Ryzen 7 5800X3D.

The 5800X3D was a turning point for PC gamers. AMD had cracked the code for pushing FPS higher than any other CPU on the market, and finally gained gaming leadership over Intel. An upgrade from the Ryzen 5 1600 to the Ryzen 7 5800X3D (before I won the PC) would have been phenomenal, and the best part was that my B350 motherboard actually supported the first-gen Ryzen X3D CPU.

If I hadn't won the PC in that competition, I would have upgraded to the Ryzen 7 5800X3D earlier that year. A GPU upgrade was not on the cards anyway, since the market still had a few more months before it would stabilize.

2 Ryzen 7 7800X3D

It was within reach for a long time

A year after the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, AMD launched the iconic Ryzen 7 7800X3D, the next best gaming CPU in the world. My new AM4 gaming PC was only around half a year old at the time, but I was already thinking about upgrading to AM5. With the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, AMD solidified its lead in gaming over Intel's Core i9-14900K, and it was clear that the 7800X3D was the CPU for gaming enthusiasts.

Moving to AM5 was pretty expensive in 2023, but a year later, both AM5 motherboards and DDR5 RAM had become affordable. And the Ryzen 7 7800X3D was widely available for around $349 for a long time. I let the best chance at scoring a fantastic gaming GPU slip through my fingers. Months later, just before the launch of the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, the 7800X3D stock disappeared, and it only returned with a substantial price hike.

The 9800X3D was faster than the 7800X3D, but it was significantly pricier too. Plus, my priorities had shifted toward upgrading my GPU, considering the RTX 40 series finally had a few cards worth the price.

1 RTX 4080 Super

Genuinely impressive for $999

Nvidia's RTX 4080 was a terrible product for $1,200. Prices across the RTX 40 series were far from digestible, and the RTX 4080 was so bad that people refused to buy it, and some retailers even stopped renewing stock for months. So, when Nvidia announced the RTX 4080 Super at $999, I was finally ready to hope again. Spending a grand on a GPU seemed insane, but the jump from the RTX 3080 to the RTX 4080 Super wasn't small.

Besides, on account of winning my last PC, I hadn't spent anything on PC hardware in years. So, the investment almost seemed "not crazy." After hunting for the best deal for months, I was about to drop the cash, but a large unexpected expense came out of nowhere, and I decided to delay my GPU upgrade. Soon after, however, the stock for most of the RTX 40 series cards vanished, and whatever was available, was marked up way too much.

The opportunity had once again eluded me, and I set my sights on upgrading to the RTX 5080, but you can guess how that turned out. Now, after all the chaos created by the new tariffs and no decent high-end GPUs in sight, I'm stuck waiting for the next great opportunity to knock on my doors.

Sometimes, you just gotta pull the trigger

What this series of events has taught me is that if you truly want a particular PC upgrade, and you can justify the investment to yourself, it's worth getting it despite the timing not being "right." Procrastination and hunting for the best deal can often make you miss the opportunity forever, considering the unpredictable PC hardware market we're living in. Of course, overpaying for PC components isn't recommended, but at times when something great is priced reasonably, it's better to grab it if you really want it.