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.