For example, we all find ourselves relying on certain material goods these days that were not particularly useful back in February. We're not just talking about face masks and hand sanitizer; webcams, for example, are really important now. Even ordering a popular model from Logitech's website can be a long wait. [I'm really glad I took the plunge and built my own gaming PC last year. While my friends were ditching their PlayStations and Xboxes to play games on their PCs, I had been mulling over the decision for years. I didn't use my gaming consoles nearly enough to justify owning them, and I needed an even more expensive box to not play games.

What I didn't realize was how a gaming PC would improve everything else I personally needed a PC for, from writing articles to editing images to recording podcasts.

Before the pandemic, I quickly came to realize that gaming was just one of the potential uses for a gaming PC. I worked from home only once or twice every other week, and when I did, I was content to have a fully functional workstation in my home. But of course, I still had my office PC, so I did not rely solely on it.

But since the pandemic, my home gaming rig has gone from a nice-to-have luxury to an absolute necessity, and with all due respect to my colleagues in the IT department, I truly feel that my company-issued laptop cannot compete with the freedom, versatility, and performance of a PC, and I can do my best work on my machine I truly feel that I can do my best work on my own machine. But it goes deeper than that.

My PC has, in these isolated months, transformed into the center of my life. I am well aware of how depressing this sounds, but the fact of the matter is that without my PC, I would just be trying to do all the same things, albeit with far less comfort and efficiency.

My games would be scattered across countless platforms. I would have to work on a laptop with a tiny display and a cramped keyboard. It would be difficult to keep in touch with friends, family, and colleagues.

I know much of this is common sense, but again, I didn't realize how much value I could extract from a PC until I started using one for a variety of reasons. Back to gaming, this machine allows me to take a wait-and-see approach to the Xbox Series X and PS5, rather than running out to buy a system and potentially underwhelming launch titles on day one. (But all joking aside, deep down I know I'll just wait to pick up Sony's next console until "Gran Turismo 7" is released.)

Anyway, I still enjoy racing on my PC, and Project CARS 3 is currently filling the Gran Turismo/Forza Motorsport-sized hole in my life, and doing an admirable job. F1 2020 and WRC 9 are each annual Great updates to the franchise, and both Hotshot Racing and DIRT 5 seem to have enough features to stimulate my old-school arcade gaming instincts.

My build is far from perfect. I was able to get my hands on a friend's old GTX 1070 Mini. A very solid card, but with the generational shift about to shake up the entire industry, I'm already seeing that 1070 strained on new titles; speaking of DIRT 5, for example, the beta version I tested earlier this summer was unplayable on anything above low settings.

Of course, the reason I'm holding off on upgrading my card is probably the same reason many people interested in building their own PCs haven't done so yet.

If you have no idea at all what you will get out of owning a PC, it is certainly more than a rational person would be willing to spend on a whim. Big purchases can make one feel bad, and ordering all the components of a PC certainly had that effect.

But today I am so glad I did. This is a rabbit hole and will not appeal to everyone. If you don't do most of your work on a computer, it would be difficult to put more than a four-figure sum into a computer. I understand your hesitation.

But if you've decided you want to build a PC, the biggest question today is probably "when." [Recently, Nvidia announced the Ampere-powered GeForce RTX 3090, RTX 3080, and RTX 3070 graphics cards. In particular, the RTX 3080, at $699, is said to offer twice the performance of the RTX 2080 Ti; the $499 RTX 3070 is also estimated to be faster than this card, though not by the same margin. If, like me, you are using a 1440p monitor and don't plan to upgrade to 4K anytime soon, the 3070 is likely to be sufficient.

Personally, I have never subscribed to the philosophy of waiting just because "something new" is on the horizon. However, the value these new cards will bring is already causing regret among my friends who upgraded last year. I will take this as a cautionary cue to hold out a little longer.

With this in mind, I would wait to pre-order the new Nvidia cards until they are available. Of course, the game will be great. But if you look to the long future of telecommuting, as I have discovered, the benefits are far more than that.