End of Year PC Build

I don't think you understand what I was talking about.

When you see GPUs in stock on online retailers like Best Buy or Newegg, you only have a couple minutes or a couple seconds to buy before they are all out of stock. There is no time to consider which one is the better card or which one is the better value. That's the current situation and that's what I meant by "you buy first and think later."

I bought an RTX 3090 Founders Edition in January this year from Best Buy. It was only in stock for about 5 seconds.

I knew exactly what time Best Buy would release the cards. I even had a bunch of different RTX 3070, 3080, and 3090 cards in different web browser tabs, ready to be added to the cart as soon as Best Buy release them. The second they were dropped, all the 3070 and 3080 cards were sold out instantly. The 3090 Founders Edition was the only transaction that actually went through. After about 5 seconds, everything was sold out.

I managed to get an RTX 3090 Founders Edition for $1500 and I felt like I just won the lottery. That should put things in perspective.

I only tried to add to cart, and the 3090 Founders Edition was the only one that actually went to the cart. I even had to do an email verification before I could check out because Best Buy tried very hard to combat bots.

You just can't be too picky if you want to buy a GPU in today's market.

Best Buy restocks about once a month and when the GPUs are in stock, they are sold out immediately.

Newegg is still doing the Newegg Shuffle, which is basically a lottery. So only selected winners are allowed to buy GPUs and they're usually bundled with other things like motherboards. Newegg used to bundle Gigabyte GPUs with Gigabyte's exploding PSUs. That got them into big troubles.

No one seems to be able to buy any video cards from Amazon. The only way to do it is to use bots which are hated by everyone, and even bots can't guarantee to get you a GPU.

Microcenter doesn't sell GPUs online. The only way to buy them is to line up in front of your local Microcenter store. They seem to restock once a week, so good luck with that.

Even if you ever manage to find one at your local PC store, it is most likely marked up by a couple hundred dollars. So currently the easiest way to get you a GPU is to buy a used GPU from a scalper or a new GPU also from a scalper.

They don't dare interrupt traffic during business hours and long weekends are perfect for maintenance. Not my doing, but sorry for the inconvenience.

What kind of all mesh case is that and who made it? I'm really interested.

A lot of new PC cases are basically just mesh cages like that. So unless it's in a rough shape, I'd definitely try to keep the case and reuse it in a different project.

I have a very similar monitor. Mine is the LG 27GL850-B. It is basically the same IPS monitor with USB ports and wide color gamut. They both support G-Sync and Freesync. If you can pick one of them up for cheap, definitely do it. They are not 4K but they do support 144hz @ 1440p (2K or 2560x1440). The difference between 144hz/144FPS and 60hz/60FPS will blow your mind. Once you've tried gaming with a high refresh rate monitor, you can't really go back to your 60hz monitors.

I still recommend trying out the onboard audio on the B550 Aorus Pro when you finish your new build, because odds are it is better than the CM6206 in that Vantec.

As for the speakers, I don't really know what 5.1 system to recommend. Personally, I'm still using my Logitech Z-5500 5.1 system that I bought from Dell for $180 almost 15 years ago.