For many people looking to get into PC gaming, building their PC may seem like an obvious choice. The satisfaction you get by completing your PC build and seeing it turn on for the first time is unmatched. Whether you are an occasional PC builder, swapping your parts to upgrade the RIG or a hobbyist building PC yourself is equally satisfying.
When building your own PC, you gain knowledge about each, and every part of your PC, and this knowledge pays dividends later on when you are tasked with troubleshooting and fixing any issue that occurs with your machine.
Most seasoned PC gamers that you will question will answer that they build their own PC, and you should do the same. While I am also an advocate of this approach, things these days have gotten a little rough in the PC hardware industry.
Fueled by global shortages the prices of PC components are on the rise too if you are lucky enough to find the item in stock. Therefore, before building a PC these days it is recommended that you reconsider your decision. Let’s take a look as to why conditions have worsened to the point where I want you to not build a PC in 2022.
Why Is the Price of PC Components Extremely High?
The spike in PC hardware prices was sparked by the global shortages in semiconductor chip supply. In the last year, more people than ever have been remotely working from home with students also attending online lectures. The high demand coupled with the closure of semiconductors plants impacted the supply of these semiconductor chips.
This was also the time when cryptocurrency mining was on the rise and the release of the newer generation consoles is also just around the corner further exhausting the already bleak state of the semiconductor chip industry.
The high consumer demand and low production of PC hardware gave rise to these components being sold at prices way higher than their rated MSRP. Sometimes the price hike is even more than 200%. Just take the Nvidia RTX 3070 as an example. The graphics card has an MSRP of $500 but it is being sold at over $1000 at popular retailers like Newegg and Amazon.
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When Will the Prices of PC Components Stabilize?
As much as I want the prices of PC components to stabilize quickly, the fact is that no one can predict when we will get to see PC components return to their original MSRP price.
The worst affected component of this price hike is the graphics card and although prices have come down a tad bit still you are paying a premium over the MSRP of the graphics card to get it as soon as possible. Otherwise, you have to resort to waiting until you find a card somewhere or enroll in Newegg’s Shuffle program if you are lucky enough that you will win the draw of the dice.
The graphics card however is not the only affected item on the list. The latest Intel and AMD Ryzen processors also often suffer from stock availability. RAM and storage drives also demand increased prices and even the price of computer cases is on the rise.
Everything is not grim though and we have seen prices slowly start to decrease. If I have to predict, I believe it will take a while before we see products selling at their manufacturer’s stated price tag with the product prices slowly decreasing over time until MSRP is reached.
What to Do if You Want a Computer Now?
As stated in the aforementioned sections, building a PC in 2022 is a no-go unless you want to spend 2x or 3x the amount of money on PC hardware that you would have spent otherwise. In these times when everything is shifting to online consumption, a PC is needed more than ever. But I don’t want you to fork a ridiculous amount of money into building a PC when better options exist.
Get a Prebuilt PC
If you really want a PC, then have a look at prebuilt PCs. These are PCs that come assembled from popular brands like Dell, CyberPower, NZXT, iBUYPOWER, and other similar vendors. In times like these, vendors of prebuilt PCs are able to procure PC hardware at a reasonable cost because they order in bulk directly from manufacturers. This is the reason prebuilt PCs are not as overpriced as buying separate parts and building a PC yourself.
In the prebuilt PCs market, you can get a gaming PC under $1000 that will come equipped with at least a GeForce GTX 1660 Ti or higher and an Intel Core i5-10400F. These are bare minimum specs for a Prebuilt PC at around the $1000 price tag. PCs like the HP Pavilion TG01-1183w which is used by many professional players like TenZ and comes with a GeForce RTX 3060 making it a very compelling buy at this price.
Conclusion
This wraps up the article on why I don’t want you to build a gaming PC in 2022. As you have seen, prices of PC components have skyrocketed making building PCs not viable anymore. Until the cryptocurrency mining dust settles, and global shortages end it is better to opt for a prebuilt PC.
