I have been building PCs since 2007, and have used everything from a Pentium III (in my first pre-built) to the Ryzen 7 5700X. The first time I built a PC with my own money, however, was in 2017. I was living away from home and desperately wanted a gaming desktop — my old university laptop wasn't cutting it anymore. So, I put together a budget build that remained my primary rig till 2022, before I got my current gaming PC. From a lopsided, affordable rig to a relatively high-end one, it's been a journey fraught with mistakes and pleasant surprises.

Building the first PC with my own money

Working on a tight budget

Ever since I decided to retire my first-ever PC — an HP pre-built with an Intel Pentium III — I needed my parents to fund each of my builds. I didn't start earning till 2016, so I never had the luxury of buying what I really wanted until 8 years ago. The twist in the tale is that when I finally got the freedom that I had desired so much, I concluded that I would only spend around $850 on the core components, which was most of my monthly salary. It turns out it's not so easy to go all out when you realize the value of your hard-earned money.

Anyway, I finalized the Ryzen 5 1600, which was fairly new at the time. Unfortunately, I cheaped out on the graphics card, picking the entry-level GTX 1050 Ti instead of the GTX 1060. I had imposed a strict budget on myself, but I could have gone with a more modest CPU, using the extra budget on the GPU instead. Given the budget constraints, I also bought a cheap case, only a single 8GB stick of RAM, and a hard drive instead of an SSD.

Despite a weaker GPU paired with a stronger CPU, I enjoyed the build for around two years before swapping the GTX 1050 Ti for the GTX 1660 Ti. And that card was powerful enough for the 1440p display that I later upgraded to. In 2022, I won a PC building competition, so I didn't have to spend anything on my current build, but I still had to work with the conditions set by WD and Nvidia when it came to choosing the components. This meant I couldn't change the RTX 3080 FE and WD Black SN770 that I had used in my competition entry.

Now that I had around $1,000 to play with, I picked the Ryzen 7 5700X, 32GB of 3,600MT/s RGB RAM, an 850W EVGA PSU, the Lancool II Mesh, and a 240mm AIO liquid cooler. Needless to say, it was a big upgrade from my Ryzen 5 1600 and GTX 1660 Ti build, and I'm still not in a hurry to upgrade to AM5 or a new GPU anytime soon.

Esthetics weren't high on my list back then

I did better on my current build, though

When you're trying to spend most of the budget on the CPU and GPU, balancing performance and looks takes a backseat. I was trying to buy the cheapest case possible without touching unknown brands, so I got a Corsair Carbide SPEC IV. The problem was that it lacked a PSU shroud, and the hard drive cage stood awkwardly on one side, ruining the looks of the build. The design of my B350 motherboard did no favors either, and the lack of a unifying color theme meant this machine wasn't a looker.

There was virtually no RGB, no aftermarket cooler, and a non-modular PSU holding it all together, so when I had the opportunity to configure my current build, I vowed to do better. I tried to craft the best white-themed PC I could, given the constraints I was working with. Picking a white GPU was out of the question, since I had to work with the RTX 3080 FE. And a white motherboard and white RAM were expensive, so I went with the B550 Aorus Elite AX V2 and G.Skill Trident Z in black.

At least the case and liquid cooler were white, so I still managed to create a dual-tone build that still felt like a white build without exceeding the allotted prize money. My current build can still do with a rear exhaust fan, some replacement power cables, and maybe some bottom intake fans for more RGB, but I'm happy with my setup for now.

I made some pretty big mistakes

Live and learn

Pairing the GTX 1050 Ti with the Ryzen 5 1600 wasn't the only mistake I made with my older PC. Going with a 520W power supply meant that I didn't have enough buffer to upgrade to a more powerful GPU later. That was part of the reason I settled on the GTX 1660 Ti two years later instead of buying an RTX 2060 or something even better. Even the 8GB RAM purchase was a misfire, since I lost out on dual-channel benefits for a few years, and had to buy a second 8GB stick, spending more overall.

I also bought a 250GB SATA SSD a year after building the PC. If I had waited slightly longer, I could have bought a 500GB or 1TB SSD instead, saving me the cost of the 250GB SSD, which was significant at the time. Each of these mistakes that saved me money in the short run cost me more in the long run. And it's not as if my next PC was free of bad component choices.

I picked the 8-core Ryzen 7 5700X just because I could, not because it was the best choice for the build. Choosing the Ryzen 5 5600X would have allowed me to spend more on the CPU cooler or get a secondary SSD. Fortunately, the mistake this time around wasn't too severe, so I can rest assured that I've done better. And when the time comes to build a new PC a year or two down the line, I'll hopefully build my best PC yet.

What will my next PC look like?

My next build is at least a year away, but I'm excited about the configuration and esthetics I'll choose. It'll have to be an AM5 build unless Intel comes out with something truly revolutionary. For the graphics card, I'll probably pick one of the RTX 50 Super or RTX 60 series cards, depending on when I choose to build the PC. I'm most conflicted about the case choice — should I pick a dual-chamber fish tank or something that stands out? It's a dilemma that I'm happy to ignore for now.