6 PC-building hot takes you're going to hate me for

Published Nov 13, 2026, 2:30 PM EST Monica J. White is a journalist with over a decade of experience in covering technology. She built her first PC nearly 20 years ago, and she has since built and tested dozens of PCs. PC hardware is her main beat, and graphics cards and the GPU market at large are her main area of interest, but she has written thousands of articles covering everything related to PCs, laptops, handhelds, and peripherals. From GPUs and CPUs to headsets and software, Monica's always willing to geek out over all things related to computing. Outside of her work with How-To Geek, Monica contributes to TechRadar, PC Gamer, Tom's Guide, Laptop Mag, SlashGear, Whop, and Digital Trends, among others. Her ultimate goal is to make PC gaming and computing approachable and fun to any audience. Monica spends a lot of time elbow-deep in her PC case, as she's always making upgrades, testing something, or plotting out her next build. She's the go-to tech support person in her immediate circle, so she's never out of things to do. Whenever she has spare time, you'll find her gaming until the early hours and hanging out with her dog. I've been building PCs for 20 years, and I've dealt with a lot of PCs in that time. I stand by the opinion (to me, it's almost a fact) that a PC you build yourself is always better than a prebuilt. (I still bought a prebuilt this year, though, but that's a reflection on the state of the market.) However, having been doing this for so long, I can also tell you that it's not all peachy. It's not all sunshine and rainbows. And, let's face it, I probably have a bunch of opinions you're going to disagree with. Building your own PC isn't always the smartest choice Yes, I really just said that GEEKOM IT13 2026 mini PCGEEKOM IT13 2026 mini PC Have you looked at the prices of hardware lately? If not, please don't. They're downright scary, and no one needs to know that the RTX 5090 now sells for $7,000 to $10,000. (I suppose I spoiled the big reveal.) Unfortunately, prices such as these make building your own PC from scratch super impractical. I'm a builder through and through, but I bought my mom a prebuilt this year, and somehow, it ended up being the best purchasing decision I made all year. I initially wanted to build her a PC from scratch the way I've done for a long time, but adding up the cost of components vs. her needs and what a prebuilts could provide just didn't result in a price that would make sense. I cited the RTX 5090 as one major reason, but obviously, my mom doesn't need an RTX 5090. Unfortunately, all RAM, SSDs, and GPUs have been hit by the devastating effects of the RAM-pocalypse, which means that you can't build a PC on the cheap anymore. Prebuilts, however, haven't carried over the increase in costs just yet, at least not all of them, and that's because OEMs buy parts in bulk. The RAM you get in prebuilts now has been installed a long time ago; new prebuilts, made now, already carry that cost over to the customer. So, buying an older prebuilt is actually a way better deal. An 8GB graphics card isn't automatically e-waste Although more is better (duh) The complaints about VRAM, or lack thereof, never seem to end. I get it, and I agree. It's 2026: a graphics card with 8GB VRAM has no business being sold to gamers. And yet, both Nvidia and AMD quite persistently push those cards in front of our faces, much the way our parents used to try to get us to eat another spoon of porridge by pretending it was an airplane. Hot take, though: These GPUs are nowhere near as garbage as the internet will have you believe. With prices the way they are, and no new GPUs coming in the near future, we've gotta learn to love what we can get. An 8GB graphics card, especially when equipped with frame generation and upscaling, is still sufficient for most gamers, especially when tied with the following point. Ultra graphics settings are a terrible goal for a gaming build You're spending hundreds to admire slightly better shadows Can we please stop building PCs that have to run everything on ultra? And I mean everything, even games that haven't come out yet? I've done it myself, and I'll tell you this: if this is how you're planning your build, you're shooting yourself in the foot. This kind of mindset is what leads to going over budget, by a lot. I like to offer advice in PC building communities and I see it all the time. To truly get ultra settings in every AAA game, you need top-tier gear, including a high-end GPU, CPU, lots of RAM, and great cooling. All of that costs a fortune right now. Instead of aiming for 100% ultra, aim for high settings with frame generation enabled, and it'll save you hundreds of dollars. You're unlikely to notice much of a visual difference once you're actually playing. Tell XDB what you want the PC to do and how much you want to spend. We'll find parts that fit, with current prices. What will you use it for? Pick any Games or apps Optional Budget Plan my build Opens XDB, XDA's free PC builder, in a new tab. Most gaming PCs don't need liquid cooling That expensive AIO is doing more for aesthetics than performance I'm a sucker for a fancy gaming build, and my own PC has an AIO, but I do feel like the PC hardware enthusiast market as a whole has developed a bit of an over-obsession with liquid cooling. You probably don't need it in your PC. Modern air coolers are fantastic, and they can run your gaming CPU comfortably without costing a fortune. I'd only consider AIOs for CPUs that are infamous for how hot they run and that consume a lot of power. Expensive motherboards are a pointless money sink For most people Similarly, expensive motherboards are a waste of money for most users, and I've had to stop a good number of my friends from buying one for their build over the years. I genuinely don't understand the eagerness to spend $500 on a motherboard when you're never going to use all the extra features that can provide. Premium motherboards do come with a lot of cool stuff. Beefier VRMs, more M.2 slots, better connectivity, and all sorts of fancy features. But how many of them are you actually going to use? If all you need is a regular gaming PC with a GPU and a couple of SSDs plus Wi-Fi, you can get away with something that sells for $85 to $200, not $500+. PCIe 5.0 SSDs are pointless for gaming Congratulations on your benchmark score, I guess It's 2026; all SSDs are expensive, period. But adding even more strain to your wallet by shopping for a PCIe 5.0 SSD simply because it's faster is, you guessed it, a money sink that you can easily avoid. At those speeds, the difference in gaming performance is nearly imperceptible (or scratch the nearly, it is imperceptible). Unless you have a very specific workload in mind that genuinely benefits from such an SSD, please stick to older gens of PCIe right now. None of this means your opinion is wrong So, any thoughts on my hot takes? If you disagree, let me know. I don't think your opinion is wrong if it differs from mine, by the way. I tend to look at these things from a value-based standpoint, so something that's objectively best may still seem like a waste of money to me when I know the gains don't justify the expense.