The R/relationship_advice subbreddit is an endless source of entertainment. Take, for instance, this incredible post: A distressed woman’s fiancé spent all $8,000 of their honeymoon savings on a gaming PC, and she’s looking for advice on what to do. My natural instinct was to shout, “DUMP HIS ASS!” There are many, many red flags in this relationship, the least of which is, uh, $8,000 is a lot to spend on a gaming PC. Even some of the most extreme DIY builds only amount to around $5,000. Taking peripherals into account, that still doesn’t total $8,000...unless he also bought a new chair and desk. This is a mystery I need to solve, and due to my steady 25-year diet of Unsolved Mysteries, Cold Case Files, and Forensic Files, I absolutely cannot rest until the case is cracked.
Did this guy buy an ultrawide, 4K monitor with G-Sync? Dual RTX 2080 Tis? A custom liquid cooling system? A few key facts provided by the original poster give us clues into what parts he most likely bought, what he didn’t, and how much of that $8,000 went toward miscellaneous costs like sales tax and shipping fees.
First, the Reddit post was made yesterday, July 9, and OP said her fiancé was asking for a PC last month, so that means he purchased the PC between June 1, 2020 and June 30, 2020. OP said her fiancé had been doing nothing but gaming for the last two weeks, and she said it took one week for the PC to arrive, so that means he would have ordered the PC around June 12, plus or minus a few days due to covid-19-related delays. Build time can take anywhere from 5-10 days, so that would actually put his order closer to the beginning of June. By knowing when he placed the order, we can extrapolate what he bought based on component availability at the time and the release of specific parts. We also know that it’s likely he didn’t build it himself, so there are shipping fees and labor fees to take into account, which will vary based on where he lives and what company built his PC for him.
One Redditor created a potential list of parts on PC Part Picker, which is a good starting point to help us figure out what exactly this man bought.
It’s likely that he bought a $419 Ryzen 9 3900X than another processor, except maybe an Intel Core i9-9900K, for two main reasons: AMD just released its Ryzen XT versions on July 7, so the Ryzen 9 3900XT wasn’t even on the market yet. Intel’s Core i9-10900K has been hard to find since its release, so it’s unlikely he bought that.
Let’s move onto the GPU: At $1,280, the RTX 2080 Ti would likely be the priciest item on his shopping list. GPU stock has been plentiful, so it’s likely that he bought this graphics card.
Let’s tackle the power supply next, because this part is interesting. There’s a Corsair RM 750W 80+ Gold PSU on the part picker list. For a build of this caliber, I would have gone higher on the wattage just to be on the safe side, however, there was a PSU shortage from May until June. More PSUs were supposed to be put on shelves in June, but all I know is when I tried to buy a 1000W PSU from my local Micro Center at the beginning of June, they were cleaned out of everything except for 550W and 650W units. 750W is just enough to power all the components on the list, and would have saved the guy a couple hundred bucks, since 1000W supplies tend to go for more than $300.
Speaking of component shortages, next on the list is two Samsung 970 Evo 1TB M.2 SSDs. When I went to Micro Center for that PSU, I also noticed that they were cleaned out of the same SSD as well. If he ordered his PC from a boutique builder, it’s possible they had stock, though, so he might have been able to get two of the same SSD, one as primary storage and one as secondary.
The motherboard, RAM and AIO liquid cooler are all models that have been around for a while, and have been in stock recently, so he could have easily gone with those choices, or a different brand at the same price. He wouldn’t have been able to get an AMD motherboard with a B550 chipest though, since those were released after he likely ordered the PC.
Now, here’s why I don’t think he built it himself. One, his fiancée didn’t mention anything about him building the PC himself, and insinuated that the entire thing arrived pre-build in the mail. Two, there’s an NZXT case on the list. We don’t know if he actually used that case, as you can buy their cases separately, but its boutique building service uses its own cases only.
So, of course, I went to the NZXT website and tried to make a similar build as what the intrepid Redditor selected on the PC Part Picker list.
NZXT doesn’t currently seem to offer AMD processors for custom builds, so that’s out. Maingear does have AMD options, as do Digital Storm, Origin PC, and Falcon Northwest. But without an actual spec list from the OP, it’s gonna be hard to pinpoint. However, build fees can add on anywhere from $100-$300 to the total price.
Lastly, shipping costs! I plugged in a few numbers on the USPS website, and the cost to ship a 50-pound PC would be roughly $320-$420.
The plot thickens: The OP left a follow-up comment specifying that her man (current? ex?) also bought three 4K monitors, an RGB keyboard, wireless mouse and keyboard, and a standalone mic. Dude didn’t just buy a PC! He bought an entire streaming set-up! She didn’t mention a webcam, but perhaps he already owned one. It kind of sounds like he quit his job to try to go hard as a full-time streamer, and that’s why he spent their entire honeymoon savings. There are definitely people who turn streaming into a career, but, come on, man.
Taking into account all the PC components, build fees, shipping fees, taxes, and the fact that this dude also threw down on three 4K monitors and new peripherals...yeah, I can see how he could easily spend $8,000.
But this woman should not only dump this guy for spending all their honeymoon money. Her fiancé could have easily built a solid rig with mid-range parts and one 27-inch 1080p HD monitor with a 120Hz refresh rate and saved thousands of dollars. Hell, he could have gone with an Intel Core i5-10600K and still gotten the RTX 2080 Ti because the CPU becomes much less of a differentiating factor in games the higher your resolution setting. Or he could’ve gone with an RTX 2060 and gotten well over 60 frames per second in most games. That’s about $1,000 saved.
All that to say: Girl, fill his PC with beans and run far, far away.