Originally Posted by
LandGreen2
For those of you who have built a pc lately???
As others have said it seems impossible to buy the latest graphic cards without spending 3x retail.
To build a PC to last 3-4 years what components do you recommend that are avail today at retail prices? When building a PC what kind of ground school did you use? I know there are some good YouTube’s but wondering if there was a specific Jedi out there you guys are being mentored by?
thanks!
btw thanks mod for dedicating new thread
If you happen to have a Micro Center in your town, you could try stopping by early in the morning before open to see if you can get a voucher for that day's graphics card deliveries. They're pretty good about letting anyone in line know the status as soon as possible. That's how I was able to get a Radeon RX 6800 and Ryzen 5600X at MSRP with minimal effort.
Components depend greatly on budget and what you want to do with the system. There are some build guides arranged by budget on
pcpartspicker.com and
logicalincrements.com that might give you a starting point. I've been burned trying to future proof with bleeding edge stuff before, so I tend to look for good deals on upper mid-range to lower high-end components. You won't be finding deals on graphics cards right now, but deals are out there for motherboards, RAM, PSU, etc.
For building tips, the university of YouTube is likely all you need. There are plenty of build videos by popular channels such as JayzTwoCents, Linus Tech Tips, Bitwit, etc. I'd recommend watching a couple to get a general idea for build sequence, then RTFM for your specific components. It is usually a straightforward and fun project if you do the research and don't rush the build.