I was preparing to build my first computer (which I didn't do till September), and I was researching as early as April. Being your typical naive 13-year-old, I had been reading crap like Maximum PC for information, thinking that in order to game with any sort of acceptable frame rates (which I haven't done yet, actually) there was no way around spending $400 (at the time) for a 9800XT. (Of course, I failed to read--in mice type--that they conducted all their tests at 16x12.)
Anyway, I was researching online when I finally stumbled upon AnandTech. I checked periodically for new developments, because it looked like a good site for information on this kind of stuff. I read various things on here, and I actually got right information on this stuff, for once. I finally signed up for the forums in June, and I've been learning through here ever since.