On the first computer I ever built with parts bought with my own money (around 2006 or 2007) I chose one of the best mainboards available at the time (ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe lol).

It cost about 160€ back then. That is about 250€ in todays money. There was a slightly more expensive “crosshair” version of this board, but really nothing more expensive than that.

The last mainboard I bought was “low-end” one that cost about 200€ (around two years ago).

Back then (~2006) you could get a “okay” mainboard for 50€ (~90€ today).

To me all but the lowest-end stuff seems a lot more expensive today.

For my first PC I bought an Nvidia Geforce 8800 GTS, which was the second-best GPU at the time. The GTX model cost around 500€ (~770€ today) if I remember correctly.

My first self-bought computer cost me about 1300€ and was pretty close to top of the line.

vote with your wallet

This is kind of non-sensical, in this context.

The “huge bands” that the previous commenter was talking about are huge, because people already voted for them with their wallets. The smaller bands get “less votes”.