pctiers.com

No — treat them as reference points, not current market prices. PC Tiers itself warns that memory (RAM) and SSD prices have risen to roughly 5–7x their late-2025 levels because AI companies are buying up supply, and the site says it will not be updating builds much while pricing stays this volatile. The build lists were last updated March 2nd, 2026, so any RAM or SSD figure you see should be checked against a live retailer before you budget around it.

What the site says about its own pricing

The notice at the top of the page is unusually direct: "This is a VERY bad time to be building a new PC," with the recommendation to wait until the shortage blows over. That statement applies to the whole build list, not just one tier. It also explains why the builds are frozen — volatile pricing "throws off a lot" of the tier structure the site is built around.

The practical takeaway: the dollar figures attached to each part are the prices the site used when assembling the tier, not a quote you can rely on today.

Which parts are most affected

The GPU price ceilings are the most usable part

Some entries carry an explicit "do not pay more than" instruction, which is more durable advice than a raw price. For the Tier 1 budget build, the site lists the Intel Arc B580 12GB at $250 and states: "Do not buy Arc B580 above MSRP… Do not pay more than $260 for this GPU." It also notes the card is often out of stock because of its popularity.

That kind of ceiling tells you the value threshold the tier depends on. If a GPU is only a good deal at its listed price, paying well above it breaks the logic of the build — you would be better off moving up a tier or waiting.

How to use the lists without being misled

1. Read the tier's target first (for example, Tier 1 is described as 1080p mid-high, around $650 total; Tier 2 as 1440p mid / 1080p high, around $930).
2. Check the update date at the top of the page — currently March 2nd, 2026.
3. Price the RAM and SSD at a live retailer before anything else, since those are the components the site says are most distorted.
4. Apply any stated maximum (like the $260 Arc B580 limit) as a hard cutoff rather than a suggestion.
5. If the live total lands far above the tier's stated budget, the site's own advice applies: wait rather than overpay.

When the prices are still useful

The tier structure — which CPU pairs with which GPU, what resolution and settings each tier targets, and where the value ceilings sit — remains informative even while the numbers drift. Use the lists to decide what to buy and what not to overpay for, then source current prices yourself. The site's own framing supports this: it presents "builds that make sense" as logical tier steps, and a tier only makes sense at the price it was designed around.

PC Tiers (pctiers.com) is a gaming PC build reference site that organizes complete parts lists into logical performance tiers, from extreme budget to high-end. It's aimed at people who want a ready-made build recipe rather than assembling a parts list from scratch. The site currently covers gaming PC builds, workstation builds, laptops, and monitors, and it pairs each build with a target resolution, an approximate total price, and a component-by-component breakdown.

What the site actually provides

The core offering is tiered build lists. Each tier is a full parts list with specific models, key specs, and a price for every component, plus a note on what performance to expect.

From the page evidence, the tiers are structured like this:

Each build entry includes the same component categories: CPU, GPU, motherboard, RAM, SSD, PSU, cooler, and case, with model names, specs, and individual prices. That consistency is the point — you can compare tiers line by line instead of guessing what changed between them.

Beyond gaming builds

The site's navigation lists four main sections:

• Gaming PC Builds — the tiered builds described above
• GPUs and Market Prices — GPU pricing context, which matters because the builds are price-sensitive
• Workstation Builds — builds oriented toward non-gaming workloads
• Laptops and Monitors — separate categories for those who aren't building a desktop

So it isn't only a build list. It also tries to give market context for the parts that swing most in price.

The current caveat: memory and SSD pricing

The site's own notice is worth reading before you use any build. It states that memory (RAM) and SSD prices have risen sharply — described as 5–7x more expensive than toward the end of 2025 — because AI companies are buying up memory supply. The author recommends waiting until it settles and says the builds won't be updated much during this period because the volatile pricing throws off the totals.

Practical implication: treat the listed prices as a snapshot, not a quote. The build structure (which CPU pairs with which GPU, what wattage PSU, etc.) is still usable, but the totals may not reflect what you'd pay today.

How to use it

1. Pick the tier matching your target resolution and budget.
2. Read the notes under each build — they flag realistic expectations. For example, the Tier 1 note says "next-gen" titles like Starfield or Unreal Engine 5 games should be expected at 1080p low/medium, not high.
3. Check the price guidance. The Tier 1 note explicitly says not to buy the Arc B580 above MSRP, and not to pay more than $260 for it.
4. Cross-check current prices yourself, given the pricing notice.

Who it's for

It suits first-time builders or anyone who wants a sanity-checked starting point and is willing to verify prices before buying. It's less suited to someone who wants live, always-current pricing, since the site itself says it's holding off on updates during the memory pricing situation.

PC Tiers currently advises against building a new PC because memory (RAM) and SSD prices have spiked dramatically. The site cites supply shortages caused by AI companies buying up as much memory as possible, and states that RAM and SSD prices are now 5–7x more expensive than they were toward the end of 2025. Its recommendation is to wait until the situation settles, and it notes it will not be updating its builds much during this period because the volatile pricing throws off the numbers.

What triggered the warning

The notice on PC Tiers is titled "Memory and SSD Pricing Crisis" and opens with a blunt assessment: "This is a VERY bad time to be building a new PC."

The stated cause is demand-side, not a manufacturing failure:

• AI companies are buying as much memory as they can, creating supply shortages.
• Those shortages have pushed RAM and SSD prices up sharply.
• The site puts the increase at 5–7x compared with late 2025 pricing.

This matters for builders because RAM and storage are two components every build needs, and they are usually among the cheaper line items. When both multiply in price at once, the total cost of a build rises even if the CPU, GPU, motherboard, and power supply stay at normal prices.

Why the site paused its build updates

PC Tiers publishes tiered gaming PC builds with itemized prices — for example, a Tier 1 budget entry build listed at roughly $650 and a Tier 2 performance entry build at roughly $930, each broken down by CPU, GPU, motherboard, RAM, SSD, PSU, cooler, and case.

That format depends on prices being reasonably stable. The site explains that the memory pricing situation "throws off a lot" and that "the pricing is very volatile," which is why it says it will not be updating the builds much for now. In other words, the builds themselves aren't necessarily wrong — the price tags attached to them would go stale quickly, and a build guide whose totals swing week to week stops being a reliable reference.

The page carries an update date of March 2nd, 2026, so the warning reflects conditions as of that point rather than a permanent policy.

What this means if you're planning a build

The advice is conditional, not absolute. A few practical implications:

• If you can wait, the site's position is to hold off until memory and SSD pricing comes back down.
• If you need a PC now, expect RAM and SSD to take up a much larger share of your budget than the tiered builds assume, and treat any listed total as a floor rather than a firm estimate.
• If you're comparing builds, check component prices yourself rather than relying on the site's itemized figures during this window, since those are the numbers the site says it isn't maintaining.

The site also flags a separate, build-specific caution unrelated to the memory situation: for the Arc B580 GPU in its Tier 1 build, it says not to buy above MSRP, that the card should be around $250, and not to pay more than $260. That's a reminder that even outside the RAM/SSD spike, individual components can be priced above what a build guide considers reasonable.

The short version

PC Tiers recommends waiting because AI-driven memory demand has driven RAM and SSD prices to 5–7x their late-2025 levels, and that volatility makes its price-based build guides unreliable to maintain. The builds still exist as reference configurations; what's on hold is the pricing confidence behind them.

PC Tiers groups its gaming builds into logical tier steps that run from extreme budget up to Tier 1, and each tier is defined by a target resolution and quality level rather than by raw price alone. That means you pick a tier by asking what you want to play and at what settings, then check whether the listed parts and reference prices fit your budget. The site currently warns that memory and SSD prices are unusually high, so the build lists are not being updated much and the pricing is volatile — treat the numbers as reference points, not fixed quotes.

The tier ladder at a glance

The builds are ordered as a progression, with each step buying a specific jump in capability:

• Tier 1 – Budget Entry: 1080p mid-high, with 1440p low-medium possible in many games. Reference total around $650.
• Tier 2 – Performance Entry: 1440p mid, 1080p high. Reference total around $930.
• Higher tiers continue upward toward the best Tier 1 builds, with the same pattern of naming the resolution and quality target first.

The naming convention matters more than the numbers. A tier tells you the experience it is built for, so you can compare your monitor and the games you actually play against the tier's stated target instead of guessing from the price.

What each tier entry contains

Every build lists the same component categories with a specific part, key specs, and a reference price:

Tier 2 follows the same layout with a Ryzen 5 7600X on AM5, a Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB, an ASRock B850M-X WiFi board, 32GB DDR5-6000, a 2TB NVMe SSD, and the same 550W PSU, at roughly $930 total.

Because the format is consistent, you can scan down a tier and see exactly where the money goes, then compare two tiers category by category to see what the extra spend actually buys.

How to choose your tier

Work backward from your display and your games:

1. Check your monitor's resolution and refresh rate. A 1080p 60Hz panel does not need a 1440p-tier build.
2. Check the games you play most. The Tier 1 notes are explicit that most games run at 1080p high or 1440p low-medium, but "next gen" titles like Starfield or any Unreal Engine 5 game should be expected at 1080p low/medium.
3. Match the tier's stated target to that reality. If your library is mostly demanding modern titles, the budget entry tier's ceiling is lower than its headline suggests.
4. Sanity-check the total against your budget, remembering that the site's prices are reference values during a volatile market.

Notes and cautions the site attaches to builds

The build notes carry practical warnings that are part of the tier logic, not fine print:

• Do not buy the Arc B580 above MSRP. The site states it should be around $250 and says not to pay more than $260. It is often out of stock because of its popularity.
• Memory and SSD pricing is the current wildcard. The site reports RAM and SSD prices at 5–7x what they were toward the end of 2025, driven by AI companies buying up memory supply, and suggests waiting for it to blow over. It also says the builds will not be updated much during this situation because the volatile pricing throws off the numbers.
• The last update noted is March 2nd, 2026, so any price you see should be re-checked before you buy.

Other sections on the site

Beyond gaming builds, the navigation covers GPUs and Market Prices, Workstation Builds, Laptops, and Monitors. If your goal is not gaming — or you need a machine for a different workload — those sections are the relevant starting points rather than the gaming tier ladder.

The short version: PC Tiers answers "what should I build?" by fixing the resolution and quality target first, then listing parts and reference prices to hit it. Use the tier targets to filter, use the component tables to compare, and treat every price as something to verify yourself while the memory market is unsettled.

PC Tiers covers four main categories beyond its gaming PC builds: Workstation Builds, Laptops, and Monitors, alongside the GPU and market price tracking that runs through the whole site. The site organizes everything around the same idea it applies to gaming PCs — logical tier steps and practical buying advice rather than raw spec dumps. If you're building or buying for productivity, mobile use, or a display to pair with a machine, those sections are where the site extends past gaming.

Workstation Builds

This category targets productivity and professional workloads rather than gaming. The site frames its whole build philosophy as "PC Builds that make sense," and the workstation section follows the same tiered approach — builds grouped by capability level so you can match a machine to the kind of work you actually do.

The practical value here is the same as in the gaming lists: each build pairs a specific CPU, GPU, memory, storage, PSU, cooler, and case with notes on who it's for and what to expect. That structure lets you compare a workstation tier against a gaming tier on equal footing instead of guessing whether a "creator PC" is just a gaming build with more RAM.

Laptops

The Laptops category provides buying guidance for people who need a portable machine rather than a desktop. It sits alongside the desktop builds as an alternative form factor, not a replacement — useful if your workload or budget points to a single portable system instead of a tower.

As with the desktop lists, the value is in the selection logic: which models or configurations make sense at a given tier, rather than an exhaustive catalog.

Monitors

The Monitors category helps you pair a display with the rest of a build. This matters because a monitor choice can undercut or unlock what a GPU tier can actually deliver — a 1440p-class build paired with a 1080p panel wastes headroom, while a budget build paired with a high-refresh 1440p panel won't hit the frame rates the display can show.

Treat this section as the last piece of a build decision rather than a standalone purchase: pick the monitor tier that matches the resolution and refresh rate your GPU tier is aimed at.

How the categories fit together

The through-line is the same across all of them: tiered options with notes on who each one suits, plus warnings where a part is commonly overpriced or out of stock. The GPU and market price section feeds into every other category, since pricing volatility affects what any given tier actually costs.

A caveat that applies across all categories

The site's own front page carries a prominent warning: memory (RAM) and SSD prices have risen sharply — described as 5–7x more expensive than toward the end of 2025 — due to supply shortages driven by AI companies buying up memory. The site explicitly suggests waiting until the situation settles and notes it won't be updating builds much during this period because the pricing is too volatile.

That warning matters for every category here. Workstation builds lean heavily on RAM and fast storage, so they're hit hardest. Laptop and monitor recommendations are less directly affected, but any desktop build list — gaming or workstation — should be read with current RAM and SSD prices checked separately before you commit. The build notes themselves (like "do not buy this GPU above MSRP") are the site's way of flagging where a listed price may not reflect what you'll actually pay.