"What a lot of zoomers in this sub don't realize..." Ew, aight grandpa. 21 now, and was 15/16yo when I built my 1070, i5-6600k, 16gb ram, 2gb sata ssd (m.2 was more new/expensive in 2016). Using some grandma money (died), Christmas for the $280 gpu, and half my lawn mowing savings, total came out to be $1.1k for the PC itself. Peripherals (1080p 144hz monitor, k55 keyboard still use, a $30 mouse I upgraded to the naga Trinity a year or two ago, and decent hyperx headset) set me back another couple hundred but I bought those before and we'll after initially building.

Still runs alright but acting like even that low-mid range level wasn't achievable before the huge crypto mining boom is just not true. I'm getting absolutely shafted because after 6.5 years, I'd like an upgrade but I can't really upgrade one part (the i5-6600k/mobo socket bottlenecking any stronger gpu so if I replace one expensive thing, it ALL has to/should be replaced.) I said I'd build a new PC with better/the latest parts by about now and thanks to $900 3060s that is simply unachievable and not worth it. Pisses me off bc I would totally build a mid-low for $1.5k but there is no wiggle room.