I first built a PC in 2011 to help with university as well still be able to play games. Even though I played on consoles young, I quite preferred PC gaming more before I was a teenager.
Building my first PC wasn't quite difficult for me, it took a few hours, but it was exciting and I wasn't nervous about it like I thought it would be.
When I got to university, some people were perplexed that I had a PC in university, but I preferred it over a PS3 or laptop.
It was later after my intermittent year of university I upgraded it with a better case and components. The PC was still using an AMD processor at the time.
The case wasn't bad it was an NXZT case that I thought looked much more modern than my first PC case. But I needed to switch to an Intel processor requiring a complete rebuild.
Eventually I sold that PC. But now in 2026 I built a great PC again, using that for work and leisure. It's more than powerful enough right now to play games at 4K60 at ultra graphics.
To be honest I've never really been good at wire management so don't really focus on it too much.
I like building my own PC because it's cheaper than pre built PCs but also more customisable by selectively budgeting on certain components to get better more important components that overall work better for me.
But I also budget that knowing I'll upgrade certain components later.