I'm an Ubuntu user and not much of a gamer (besides the rare splurge on a steam for linux game) so I tend to be perfectly happy with last-year's tech. I used t

I'm an Ubuntu user and not much of a gamer (besides the rare splurge on a steam for linux game) so I tend to be perfectly happy with last-year's tech. I used to stay very up to date with system specs and prices, but I can't be bothered anymore. Now I'll generally rely upon "Build Guides", Reddit, and PC Part Picker. I built my current desktop about 5 years ago, but the parts inside are about 1-3 years old. To start, I'll generally look up Build Guides from the previous year, or a couple "Budget Build"s from this year, enter all the parts into PC Part Picker and then mix and match until I find something that can handle what I need for under $600. And then every year or so, I'll fire up the previous year's build guides or present year's "budget build" and see if there's anything worth upgrading to without spending too much. Building your own can be a pain, but the annoyance is short-lived, and it's a hell of a lot less expensive. Just as well, I like to know what's in the box, so I can upgrade / tweak it as needed. As my needs change and I find I need my system to handle disk writes more efficiently, or need more memory, or if it's too loud, I can take care of all of that myself with a bit of googling and a couple hundred bucks.