I wasn't a PC gamer but I bought a Dell in late nineties for near $3k. I think that was just the going rates for anything near max on RAM or CPU, even going big on disk space could drastically up the cost back then. I think I ended up adding a upgraded GPU to that PC that cost a good deal extra, and I wasn't even a gamer! I think I just wanted to edit or watch a certain video format/quality/etc and the stock GPU card wasn't able to handle it.

I don't remember exactly, but I do remember I used to collect videos of live performances from a handful of my favorite bands back then so think it might have been related to that hobby. As a side note, I had dozens of the 100 pack CD-R stacks full of these burned videos because HDD cost too much and I didn't need them to be available on demand.