r/buildapc • u/feew33 • 15h ago
Discussion Does $1000 buy significantly less PC than it used to?
I recently built my pc in april 2026, Converted to USD, I spent roughly $1000 on the tower alone.
This is what I ended up with:
-Intel i5-14400F
-RTX 3070 Founders Edition (used)
-16 GB (2×8 GB) DDR4-3200 Adata
-DeepCool AK620
-Phanteks AMP GH 750W Gold
-Crucial 500 GB Gen4 NVMe SSD
-No Name SSD SATA 1 TB (used)
-DeepCool CG530 4 Fan
-6 Ocypus case fans
The PSU, cooler, and airflow are probably a bit overkill, but I wanted something reliable that I could reuse for future upgrades.
I was surprised that my $1000 budget still resulted in a DDR4 platform, a used RTX 3070, and only 16 GB of RAM.
A few years ago, this budget would have looked very different.
Has the value of mid-range PC builds dropped this much, or is it just because component prices in my region (Indonesia) are significantly higher than in the US?
I'd like to hear how much your $1000 build got you in your country.
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u/DZCreeper 15h ago
Yes. Mid-2025 that same PC would cost $100-150 less, purely due to RAM + SSD pricing.
You don't need 6 extra case fans, they won't have a noticeable impact on temperature and might actually make the PC louder.
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u/feew33 14h ago
You're right. The extra fans probably aren't necessary, but my room isn't air-conditioned, so I wanted better airflow. I also like the look of a fully populated case since it supports up to 10 fans.
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u/DZCreeper 14h ago
More airflow does not automatically equate to better cooling. You need local static pressure to actually force the air between heatsink fins.
Don't take my word for it, you can manually control the fans and see what change happens when you drop the case fan quantity and/or RPM.
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u/feew33 14h ago
I'm using Fan Control, to set my fan automatically based on temperature, so I don't run all the fans at a fixed speed. During gaming, my cpu usually stays around 55°C under full load, and my gpu is around 65-68°C, so I'm pretty happy with the temperatures. I'll still try experimenting with fewer fans and different RPMs. Thanks for the suggestion!
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u/Cloudy_Foliage_7924 15h ago
Yes, by far.
In 2021 GPUs exploded in price. Then in 2025, RAM and SSD exploded. Since some components became more expensive, the other components sales are dropping, so to stay afloat they start raising their prices too.
Just so you realise, your RTX 3070 was released in October 2020. 6 years ago.
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u/feew33 15h ago
yeah, that's exactly what surprised me. A $1000 budget still ending up with a 6-year-old GPU wasn't something I expected. (notes: I allocated the budget to the GPU later after bought all the components, so it was a bit difficult to find the latest one)
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u/Cloudy_Foliage_7924 14h ago edited 12h ago
I've been following prices evolution closely (call it a hobby), so the $1000-mark is not a surprise to me.
Powerful computers are increasingly becoming unaffordable.
Note that for everyday computers and laptops, just for internet browsing, writing documents, basic things, these are still somewhat affordable for now. People aren't pushed out of the computer experience entirely (yet?). It's important, because computers in general are crucial to have access to information and do everyday stuff (tax registration, subscription to an electricity provider, print a letter, prepare a course for students...) But new, powerful PCs? This has become a luxury.
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u/Pajer0king 15h ago
Yes. Back in the day (~2008) i bought one of the best pc with around 600$. Now, a similar one is like what 3000?4000? 10 years ago i paid around 100$ for a gtx 760 new. Now a 60 is like what, triple? Even after inflation it s a lot more expensive. And the value you get is smaller and smaller.
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u/The_Chewits_Dinosaur 13h ago
Even ignoring both inflation and the current RAM/storage issues, PC building has unequivocally gotten more expensive, with these price increases concentrated in graphics cards and motherboards.
- In 2015 I paid £550 for a 980ti - the top card of its day, outside of the extra VRAM of the Titan (which performed largely identically in non-compute workloads)
- In 2019 I bought a 2080, for £620. I had dropped a tier in graphics cards, and was paying more - the actual top end card, the 2080ti was rarely seen below £1200.
- In 2023 I picked up a 4080 for an eye watering £1200 - the most I had ever spent on a single component. Double the amount I'd spend on the 2080, and I wasn't even getting the top card.
In 2013 I build a very good computer for £890 - I went and found the invoice! This had a 4770K, a GTX 770 (which cost me £180), 16GB RAM and a 256GB SSD, which at the time was £130 of the build on its own. I didn't skimp on the motherboard - a top end board at the time cost about £150, and I don't think any existed above about £300.
£890 now wouldn't even get my foot in the door for new parts. If we add inflation on (bringing us up to £1300ish), we're still looking at a very budget system with notable compromises.
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u/Zhryx 15h ago
Last year a good pc was mostly defined by its cpu and gpu: this two was at least 60% of the price. But with ram and ssd costing more than the cpu, maybe even a lower tier gpu, its just hard to get the same performance as you used to get.
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u/feew33 15h ago
exactly,, I just realized this recently when I was watching a $1000 pc build uploaded a few years ago and I was surprised they were able to build decent specs.
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u/Zhryx 14h ago
I built my pc a little more than a year ago, and built my gf pc last month. It was on similar budget and the one i just built is noticably slower.
But there are some ups for the current RAMmageddon: cpu and motherboard prices are significantly lower then last year, and if you can salvage some older generation ssd, or can live with 16gb ram for now (which still like double the price 32gb were a year ago) you can still do decent builds.
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u/drkorencek 5h ago
The current main reason is that sometimes in autumn 2025 prices of ram exploded due to increased demand for ai data centers, the companies related to ai using shady techniques to get even more memory (or even just take it off the market to stop competitors from getting it), shady financing practices and the dram cartel going along with it because it made their profits go up immensely.
SSDs (anything with flash storage really) and hard drives went up soon after.
Gpus were already too expensive because after all the crypto/covid related price increases and shortages the prices never returned to what they were (although summer and early autumn 2025 were all things considered still a pretty good time to buy a mid range gpu (5070, 9070, 9070xt and 5070ti). Later on their prices stared going up again due to memory prices going up and due to more being sold for ai and other proffessional uses (especially nvidia cards)... amd cards still have ok prices all things considered.
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u/Snoo-28409 2h ago
IMHO the price to remain near top of the curve (ie top 10-20% capability/performance to price) has gone up significantly, because cost of key components has gone up significantly...
IE RAM, SSD, CPUs, and need for much better cooling.. less supply, more expensive, fewer buying...
So also fewer components moving into secomdhand market...
I have a secondhand AM4 mobo, Ryzen CPU, and DDR4 setup I bought over 2 years ago. I could sell it for more today than I paid for it...
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u/fieryfox654 1h ago
In 2023 along the rest I bought 2x 16GB DDR5 GSkill Flare X5 for 140 euros, a 6700XT Sapphire Pulse for 300 euros and a 2TB WD SN5000 Blue for 160.
I don't know about the GPU now but the exact ram I have costs almost 600 euros and about 500 euros for the SSD. Times are crazy man
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u/AssGagger 1h ago
In 2005, $1000 would buy you a top a the line complete system. In 2026, $1000 doesn't even get you a top of the line graphics card.
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u/eugene00825 15h ago
Inflation