I ask two questions actually. Obviously one being, what was your first complete gaming PC? How much did it cost, what was in it, what was it capable of? And the second question being, what was/is your best Price/Performance ratio gaming PC? I ask the second question because while I know my personal first gaming PC I built two years ago was affordable, everyone else I get into debates with still swear up and down that a decent system will cost around $1,000.
My very first gaming PC rig was in 2009, being a dell PC I bought used online for about $240, and placed in a $120 graphics card and I was able to play F.E.A.R. at around 40-60 FPS and Crysis at around 30 FPS.
My best Price/Performance ratio gaming PC cost about $750 altogether, being a HP p7-1020 with 8GB of RAM, a quad core 3.0Ghz CPU, 1.5TB hard drive, and a GTX 480 graphics card.