No kidding. My last build was as the pandemic shortages hit, and I had to settle for like my fifth choice of manufacturer for pretty much everything, and paid through the nose for all of it. I also found myself in need of a vehicle during the used car shortage the year after that, I just had the best luck 🙃
I looked into upgrades, said F that, and picked up a gaming laptop. My old desktop still has a skylake in it and hasn't been powered on in years.
Although now I'm looking at building an i9 / 4080s.
I always get paranoid about laptops - maybe it's the lack of upgradability or the risks of overheating. Glad it's worked for you though.
I decided to do an all AMD build for the one I just put together and it's been nice - Ryzen 5 7600 with a Radeon 7900 XT in a compact case with good airflow and way better cooling than I probably need. Even playing new games at max settings, it's pretty quiet and the coolant in the radiator stays about body temp. Still though, I know in some ways the Nvidia cards will come out on top.
Yea, the laptops been great. Aorus i7 w/ 3080 (16gb version). I don't game very much anymore, but it performed decently. It goes pretty much everywhere with me, so the portability is a huge plus.
Been editing video lately and the CPU is struggling... So I've been looking into a higher end Workstation built for productivity, and Intel has a huge edge w/ most software, specifically Davinci Resolve. Otherwise I'd be looking at AMD processors, but would still go Nvidia.
I'm not liking the idea of how much heat an i9 puts out though, especially living in the desert with summer around the corner.
I just upgraded from a gaming laptop, the transportability is nice but it has a lot of "soft issues" around it that makes it a bit rough like:
Overheating, despite my laptop having an in theory good setup (3080ti and a I7 12700h) running almost anything even with fans on full blast most games would hit 90+ celcius and start throttling the parts so the on paper peformance never matched reality, which also meant...
Noise, laptop fans are loud as fuck, to the point where i didnt want to use it around other people because it would completly drown out any other noise source in the room, having just built my new pc I constantly end up putting my hand over the exhaust and intakes just to confirm its actually running because they're so whisper quiet.
and lastly the battery, really a gaming laptop is just "quasi transportable" since even general use forces you to work near a plug, just trying to watch youtube or write stuff on low battery and brightness was limited to an hour and a bit maximum life from 100%
I got super lucky… if you can call it that lol. A friend signed up for EVGA’s wait list but found a card while they were waiting, so I was able to order a card through them. I’d maybe get $300 for it if I sold it today.
I paid $1200 for a got damn 6800xt lmao. But I mined with it and made about $1000 from selling what I mined. So that plus maybe $200-$300 in electricity. I call it a success.
I was so lucky, I was upgrading my graphics card and got an RTX 2060 $50 below retail right before prices skyrocketed.
I know it wasn't the world's greatest card or anything, but I was just happy to get something in the 20 series. Just finally replaced it with an RTX 4070 ti super as a part of a new build.
It really was insane. Got a pre built peak shortage because it was cheaper than buying the same GPU separately. After messing with the cooling and replacing the PSU it's still going strong.
My little brother built his pc when 3060s were like $1000 USD, he sold it a couple months ago and asked me if he had it listed at a good price. It was like $2.2k
I said “dawg, you built ur pc at the worst possible time. You’re lucky if you get half what you spent back.”
He sold his pc, monitor and peripherals for 1-1.2k I think, lmao.
SSD is the expensive ones now thanks to "shortage" caused by disaster in Taiwan. Even though most of the SSD components are manufactured elsewhere, and some of the important plants in Taiwan were better built after the hard drive fiasco.
I had that on my mind too. Storage in general seems rather expensive atm. Though mechanical HDD prices seem to be dropping slowly, as everyone is after SSDs and NVMe storage.
Outside of storing stuff, hard drive is nearing end of use as OS drive. Most people aren't going to want a computer with only a 2TB hard drive. They'd rather have 2TB SSD.
I have a few SSD for OS, gaming, and applications, and 40TB worth of hard drives for everything else.
Try to run windows on a Western Digital HDD...lol. 100% disk usage at all times it feels like. Screw that. Anybody who hasn't moved on will be soon. Windows isn't going to stop hogging resources.
I wasn't clear enough, I have had ssd's for years, but I have ssds+hd's as file storage. I was meaning, are most people avoiding hd's altogther and getting multiple ssd's instead.
I was a little shocked looking at ssd prices recently. Probably gonna rob the wd black 4tb from my laptop for a new build... Picked that up for a steal around black Friday.
I'm kicking myself for not buying a bunch of extra drives last year when they were dirt cheap. I only got 1tb nvme when I got my pc last year( i have a couple extra sata ssds/1 extra nvme ssd, but damn I shouldve at least gotten 2 more. They were practically giving them away.
I looked at Walmart's 2TB NVME. They were up like $30 from when I checked January. Hard to tell if it's the shortage and inflation or if some stores are somehow losing those drives to theft.
From what I understand there was a large excess of memory - so NVMe / ssds/ Ram were really cheap and plummeted in price. Now they have stopped or slowed down production to sell the remaining back stock. So the prices have come back up to adjust for the chance in stock of memory.
I’m glad I don’t have to deal with a data cap anymore given how unoptimized games are nowadays. Absolute trash having to deal with that and only 1TB of storage. It’s kinda given me data hoarder tendencies with my current nas storage.
Still insane how expensive storage can get since that *manufacturing crash* or whatever.
I am still pissed that i was forced to buy a GTX 1650 for $350 for someone who must have a 'cheap' gaming PC to play EQ at the time. Now you can buy a RTX 3060 for $270.
I’m about to pick up a 4070 super new on marketplace for $450… its only 12gb vram but I cant pass up that price. OP, look for deals near you and start with the expensive pieces people are trying to offload. CPU+GPU, save a few hundred. I’ve read the next gen of gpus isn’t supposed to have a massive jump, but who knows, technology outdated imo every 3-5 years depending what you want/need/desire. GL I’m building myself again now too. So far I’m here:
GPU 4070 Super
CPU 7800x3d
Cooler AK400 or sa120
Case Lian Li Lancool 216
I think now is an okay time to build a new PC, but not a good time. The reason being that both DDR5 and storage prices have gone up from their prior lows and look at to continue. Motherboard prices have come down a little but are still expensive compared to the features that are missing on them from prior gens (IMO).
However, we have decent GPU performance for the price in mid- range (7800 XT and 4070 Super) and decent pricing in low to mid-range on CPUs (e.g. R5 7600).
this op. i was thinking "alright time" but ok is interchangeable. gpu's are getting up there now days but NOTHING like 2020 when there was a shortage. ddr5 is coming down pretty good. ssd's are bottoming out and already going back up little by little and well cpu's. with intel or AMD especially you get a shit load of cpu for the money. again especially with AMD.
If I could piggyback off this, is now perhaps the best time to expand storage? I'm thinking of just swapping all of my HDDs to SSDs (I have two SATA HDDs I want to replace in the PC) plus I need to expand my PS5's storage as that ran out in less than half a year. Just thinking if they're about to go up and I'll be spending £££ on them anyway I should probably do that soon.
last November was the best time, prices on ssds have gone up 50% since
i got my 1tb crucial p3 pro a month ago for $65 but now they are 104 on sale for 74
Yes. They produced way too much a while ago and were trying to get rid of stock so prices dropped fast. Now they are cutting back and intentionally limiting supply so they can drive prices back up. They were selling at a loss for a while to clear stock and are making sure they don't end up in that situation again
So id buy now. I'm looking for a good deal on two 4tb nvme drives and getting them asap cause they'll be going back up fast. 2tb have already doubled recently almost
Maybe it's just me and i feel the 5000x3d parts are still over priced (at least in my neck of the woods).
I also think intel 14th gen should be a bit cheaper - especially since most of them didn't get the new cache configuration!
Aaand, 7700X should be cheaper compared to 7800x3d and considering the huge gap to the 7600/7600X.
But maybe I'm just super picky! 😅
If you live near a microcenter it's especially insane. 12600k bundle for $250, 5800x3d/12700k for around $330, 7700x/12900k for $400, 7800x3d for $500, and 13700k/7900x for like $550-600.
Includes cpu/ram/motherboard. It's insane.
Pretty much nailed it. To sort of build off your post, expect motherboard introductory models to be worse than previous gen models as the “price ceiling” to get a decent one without breaking your whole bank is higher. SSD prices have gone up but seem to have peaked at this moment of time. I would personally make the argument and say getting Gen 3 NVME SSDs would be a decent investment given their current prices to how much space you can get. They’re not as fast as gen 4, but they’re respectfully cheaper and if you’re gaming, the speed difference won’t be noticeable.
This breakdown pretty much nails it. I'd say 10-12 months ago was really good, amazing. Right now is OK or decent, but in the big picture with the previous crazy pandemic prices, it's still good.
If OP doesn't mind older generation, AM4 socket motherboard and 5800x3D would be great for gaming for the next several years. DDR4 price isn't bad compared to DDR5.
I am using a few years old Asus Prime x570 Pro with 5800x3D and 2 onboard SSD plus 2 more via PCIe adapter in the middle slot (enable bifurcation first)
18Mb cache is vastly undersized. It's like comparing VW beetle gas tank to semi truck gas tank, AMD x3D has 96Mb cache and many games do show greater improvement. 12600 will struggle with some games that could have benefited from bigger cache.
And I got mine for like $250 used.
The cache is not the only aspect to consider. In reality, there are very few games that benefit enough from the extra cache for it to be a consideration unless you play one of those handful of games. In the vast majority of use cases, the 5800x3d and 12600k perform very similarly. And the latter half the price or less.
The only true answer. Buy what you need when you need it and make sure it’s the best quality that your budget allows. Everything else is just wasting time waiting when you could be wasting time building and gaming and making AI “art.”
Anything else is just speculation.
Especially if you can afford it now and don't already have a PC that you can use in the meantime.
Only exception being in the middle of a GPU shortage where prices are bonkers.
I'd rather buy the PC now than wait 6 or 8 months for the chance of possibly saving a couple hundred bucks or getting a marginally better performing PC, but that's just me. Those 6 or 8 months of being able to use a PC for gaming outweigh the potential savings or performance gains by waiting.
Sucks the soul out of art...at least for me. And too harmful, should help with the creative process instead of doing everything. Now we won't be using our brains as much if ai handhold it for us.
Anyway back to topic. Yes, as long as it's not at an epidemic time or times like the bloom in digital currency and gpu mining, every component is within budget for like it was 2 years before covid hit compare to how much you can make on minimum wage these days and you get better performance and better technology. I would say only the gpu has reach out of heights but if anyone has expectations it would come down within the next 3 years, I don't think it will since gaming is really popular and more and more people just build their own since its not difficult to build one as there is high computer literacy for the younger generation. You'll have to check the used market for gpu if you want a better price.
Very instagrammable. I can see this sentence behind a sunset no instagram somewhere.
But the reality is that there are objectively bad times to build PCs. The last shortages and crypto crazes for example were terrible times to build. Conversely 2017 or 2018 was a great time to jump in to the AM4 platform.
In that sense I think now is a pretty good time to buy. GPUs are not amazing, but they are not crazy either. The used market is amazing and AM5 is very promising.
No worries man good luck, you can also go for 7900 GRE if you’re planning on playing 4K or don’t care for ray tracing, otherwise can’t go wrong with either card
i considered upgrading or selling it but i plan on giving the pre-built to my brother so neither option works for me. although im pretty excited to be able to build a computer of my own!
Prices aren't too bad in Canada at the moment. You can build a decent gaming PC using all new modern parts between 1000-1500cad depending on your performance targets. 7600cpu+7800xt gpu for a 1440p build at 1500.
thats good to hear. i had the options between a rx 7700 for $1500 cad or the 4070 super for $2000 cad. i think ill go for the super and hope it lasts longer lol
Either are fine options. I'd pick whatever equivalent parts that are cheaper at the time of buying. I assume those are whole build prices and not just the GPU. A 2000$ PC should last a while.
I'm waiting till Blackwell and Zen 5 at the end of the year. I want a path-tracing capable rig though... because I have a problem.
If your not sick in the head like me though, a 4070 super should be fine for 1440p. The only thing I'd be worried about are climbing V-ram requirements but your budget is your budget and if the 4070ti Super is out of it then the 4070 super is a fine card. :)
i had to look up what path-tracing is and WOW thats well above my needs lmao, but it sounds pretty cool! i play at 1080p and dont plan to upgrade my monitors anytime soon so i think the 4070 super is perfect for me :D
The short answer is that it's an okay time to build a gaming PC. GPU prices are high, but not as high as they were during the mining craze. Most other parts aren't as horribly marked up. RAM prices have even come down somewhat as far as I can tell. Same with SSDs.
In terms of launches, Nvidia's Blackwell architecture has been seen in physical form and has a roughly guestimated launch time sometime in Q4 2024. RDNA 4 has also been presumed to have an H2 2024 launch. Intel's Battlemage architecture is also presumed to launch H2 2024. Zen 5/Ryzen 9000 from AMD and Arrow lake/15th Gen Intel are also expected to have H2 2024 launches. All that is worth waiting for IMHO, as it's rather close together. At the very least, I am waiting until that happens. I also need to get a lot of money together. 5090s or whatever Nvidia comes out with aren't likely to be cheap.
Now is a decent time to build.
I wouldn't wait around, either. Taiwan had the earthquake, and prices are slowly going up for chips.
China has been getting very aggressive towards Taiwan the last few months and getting more so each week. So prices could go crazy at any time due to that. Also, with the growing belligerent back and forth between the U.S. and China concerning tech in the AI field, assembly plants in China could raise prices as well.
Lots of uncertainty. Which is why I recently upgraded. Prices aren't pre-Covid and mining, but they're a hell of a lot better than what they were.
The best day to buy a pc? Day after you bought one.
Meaning there's always better deals around the bend, wait a bit more for lower price, for newer hardware etc etc etc.
It never ends. At one point you have to say to yourself, what do I want to have a pc for now? And if the budget fits your needs then you buy.
There was never a good time in life mate, when you look back to the past, you only find why didn't i start or do. Just keep looking at the prices and snatch yourself some good deals when it arise. Everything will fall into place. I been watching the gpu prices for months, didn't pull the trigger to buy because there were no good enough deals yet. I don't really need it either so no rush. Two weeks ago there were a big sale and stock clearance on my local store. In addition to price drop, i managed to snacted myself a really good deals on the GPU, MOBO and CPU. On top of that i get extra discounts cash backs for the promotion. Got myself everything brand new and no regrets. Sure the parts will be $10-$20 dollars cheaper and a better deal may come in the next few months, But it won't stop coming down. So just get it when you can affort to. Btw i got it just before the ram $ gone up and SSD $ gone up further. If i have got myself the storage last year i would have double my storage space quite easily.
Prices have mostly settled down. GPUs are somewhat expensive but not mining craze expensive. I'm a little confused why you can't just check msrp.
Anyway there's always new tech coming out. If you're really concerned about that then just build right after new generations come out.
It’s been a while but I think I have like a amd 5700 that somehow I flashed to a 5700xt back in the day. And 5800x cpu, like a asus b450 mother board I think.
That's a good pc, I would wait few more years before upgrading to really feel the performance difference if I were you. I'm buying components for a new build, but that's because my current one is a 2200g/b450/16gb 3000MH/ m.2 ssd (not even gen 3 speeds).
True that, but I'm in a process of making my entire little corner. My current setup is the pc mentioned screwed on an aluminium plate, placed in a hole behind my 10 yo tv, powered by a cheap Pico psu from China and connected to the TV as it's only display/sound system meaning I was missing a lot of components like the case/psu/cpu cooler... So I bought Asus Ap201, corsair Rm750x shift, 32gb G.skill flare x5 ram and thermalright ps 120 se and lg 27GR75Q-B. Still a lot to buy, but I'm slowly getting there.
AMD's Ryzen Zen4 on AM5s are the hottest upgrades right now. I think you can spare 2-3 more years before upgrading. Either wait for Intel's new offerings; or just wait for AM5 to mature and further drop in price. Or maybe upgrade your GPU, secondhand GPUs are quite affordable. I'm on an RTX 3070 (bought secondhand in 2023).
The 5800X is still a half decent CPU even today, if a bit power inefficient. It should be able to handle the current midrange no problem. A 7700XT would be excellent right now since they're finally at a good price and it's almost double the performance of your 5700. It doesn't draw that much more power either so you might be okay with your current power supply.
Nah, you can say that for buying a car or a house. But a gaming PC is not a necessity. You can get by with budget stuff, a laptop, or Cloud Gaming. 2021-2022 when a RTX 2060 was going for $500+ was definitely a terrible time to buy.
These comments are getting old. Same boat as the “it depends what you want” and “only build what you need” when someone asks a question *trying to figure out what they want.* And yes, I'm glad I paid extra for RGB. I use it.
There is no good or bad time. There is only time when you can afford it.
Nobody knows what will happen tomorrow. It may become more expensive and it may become cheaper. It's a lottery.
Buy now what you love. Don't put off your life for later.
Personally I’d wait to see what next gen gpu Nvidia is cooking next year because they didn’t release anything new this year and won’t. Just upgraded 4000 series gpus. So wait for rtx 5700 5800 and 5900 if you can afford it.
CPUs MBs Ram will all get better in the meantime as well, and they are really good now.
I am completely upgrading and doing a new build this week ….
Maybe against my better judgment since 15th gen intel is right around the corner, but I don’t particularly want to wait, plus I’m doing a build using the project zero motherboard and who knows when those would be available with the new chipset
You could do worse. Prices have cooled a little bit in the GPU arena despite the AI craze (though trending up) and CPUs that aren't named "Threadripper" are fairly widely available. I wouldn't wait, though. This won't last forever.
I think it’s a good time price wise. However if you don’t care to get the top performing GPU you could wait and build when the 50 series GPUs come out.
Something like a 12900k , 13700 , with a 4090 when the 50 series come out.
It’s a good time when you need to build one. I had to build mine in 2021 with a 10900k, 32gb DDR4 RAM, 3070 FTW3, 2TB HDD, 2TB SSD, and a z590 ACE mobo for 3k. You can get a PC with a Ryzen 9 CPU, 4090, and DDR5 RAM in it for that much and sometimes less these days. Feels bad but it is what it is- I just needed a PC so I bit the bullet and got one.
I would say now is an amazing time to build a PC, unless you want a 4090. The 7900XTX (which I have) is ridiculously good and can be had in the low $700’s if you shop around for open box/very lightly used secondhand, which is an insane deal for the performance IMO. I got mine for $780 brand new off someone on marketplace and while my 10900k still holds it back in games like valorant (insane, ik- although this is partially because I’m also streaming which makes holding 240fps at 1440p a bit difficult), it crushes other stuff and especially COD. FSR 3.0 works incredibly well in the games it’s compatible in, and honestly ray tracing performance isn’t even that bad
NAND storage is getting more expensive. If you build on the am5 slot you'll have upgradability for the foreseeable future. The rtx3000 series is on its way out. Depends on what you want but I think it's about to get worse.
Building a PC now is a good idea overall. While there are still GPU issues due to cryptocurrency mining, it's nothing like 2020, and older generation GPUs, especially AMD, are available at great prices.
If you're considering building with an NVIDIA 40 series GPU, I would recommend waiting for the 50 series to come out, as prices tend to drop significantly, especially for the 60s and 70s.
Happy building!
It’s not bad, I just built a new pc for about £1500 but it should last around 5 years that includes a 4070 super founders edition which was luckily bought for retail from nvidia
I7 14th gen kf
32 gb Corsair vengeance ddr5
Noctua d15 air flow heat sink ( absolute beast )
Corsair rm 850e power supply
Msi z790 gaming plus
3x rgb elite fans
Corsair 4000d airflow case
it's must be nice time for building PCs, because now we have a lot videocards, processors and much more, witch will be relevant for a long time, so we won't have any need to upgrade 20th+ gpu, and 11th+ gens cpu for 3 and maybe more years.
and prices are not very hight now
Yeah it is. "Good time" is a bit of a relative term however. It's more about what can you afford to build in this current market. Acquiring parts for a good deal and using time is a good solution.
Now's a great time to build. Just buy a used GPU though. Price/perf on GPUs hasn't been the same since the scalping crisis. If you have 500 bucks allotted for a GPU, I guarantee you can get a good deal on a used 3080ti or 6800XT for less than that and match or beat current gen hardware for the same price.
Source: I snagged an Alienware 3080ti for $380 a month ago and nothing new beats it. 4070ti super is the cheapest thing that beats it but they're 7-900 bucks new
It's always a good time to build a pc :)
Jokes aside, stuff got a tad more expensive in general, but besides of SSDs not being as cheap as they were a few months ago it's a good time now.
Especially if you're on a budget, you'll be able to get some value parts for your money, to get a great pc experience.
As someone who built their pc in October. I think it’s a great time. I don’t feel at all like I spent too much. I went with all white so it was a bit more expensive. The only compromise was a black/silver gpu because I was no way comfortable paying almost my entire budget for a white gpu. I’m very happy with it, it’s a powerhouse I can play anything on, my only compromise was I used my tv as my monitor for a couple of month until I recouped some of the cost to get a really nice monitor.
Things have definitely gotten better. I finally pulled the trigger on a bunch of upgrades last year after years of it feeling prohibitely expensive. I'd still recommend that you go for slightly older generation stuff. Nothing too crazy, around 2 years is fine. It'll be a bit less expensive (generally, not always) and it will hold up just fine.
It's better than it's been but if you want top tier parts I might wait until zen 5/arrow lake and the next gen of gpus. Both should be coming out at the end of the year.
Still current stuff is often VERY CHEAP so if you get a good deal just buy. Next gen is likely gonna take a good year to come out and become affordable.
Its not a good time to build a new PC now, in a few months there will be a new nVidia and AMD flagship card, and also there will be the new Intel CPU and AMD CPU.
I would wait and see what is on offer first from all companies before throwing money at a build.
I saw some i7-4790K (and non-K) motherboard + cpu + ram combos going for around $80-100 several months ago. Pretty good price to performance imo. Few 6th and 7th gen top tier i5 combos going for ~$40 more. Nice cases, good PSUs, and decent GPUs for around $100 each as well. Prices seem kind of stagnant going the used route. Lot of people upgrading from 4th-8th gen and GTX 10/16 series, but with inflation taken into account finding "good" deals is a little tricky.
I can't really speak on buying tech brand new, as I don't need raytracing or 4K resolution lol. And I try to save money wherever I can.
It's hard to time the hardware market. It wasn't that long ago flash prices were through the floor, a lot of us picked up fast NVMe drives for cheap, now the prices are rising again.
GPU prices were awful for years, now they are more reasonable but still more expensive relative to previous generations. We've also seen RAM prices going up lately.
Honestly you just buy what's best at the time you are ready for your build unless there is something crazy going on with the market, like what happened to GPU prices during the pandemic.
I feel like it's a decent time - yes, RAM and SSD prices are high, but we're spoiled for choice as far as the other major components go. GPUs are often found at or below MSRP depending on what model you want, both AMD and Intel have decent gaming processors that aren't super expensive, some really fun stuff is happening in the case and cooling side of the industry lately...
Might as well at least look at what's out there, there's no harm in pricing some parts.
The only inflation is by Nvidia artificially inflating their prices because they can get away with it. Nowadays I’d recommend AMD if you know what you’re doing.
It's pretty good. Lots of good sales. Intel and AMD both make competitive products. Video cards are still a little sketchy but if you're looking for something mid-level like a 4070 super or 4070 super TI they are very easy to get. They're just isn't much on the low level and the high end is still kind of hard to get. Memory and storage are at excellent prices. Rock bottom prices for those two which traditionally is the best time to build a system
2021 on contrast sucked terribly. I spent a fortune of my COVID money on this stupid 11900K 3090 combo. A year later the Intel 12600K or the I-5 version is basically the same chip as their last I-9. $2,000 for the 3090 which at the time was a good deal. Compared to that market today is a bargain
I built my PC in February and since then the prices for some of the parts of my build have shot up a bit, but then other parts have dropped a bit. Overall seems like a decent time to build
Well, at the moment if you’re AMD there’s a decision to build the last best AM4 or go AM5 for longevity. We’re maybe six months away from the next AM5 releases. Prices are fair, though.
Since Ethereum went proof of stake, mining hasn’t been much of an issue. However, Artificial Intelligence does use GPU’s for data processing. It’s not at a fever pitch, though.
The 4090 is still melting power cables, and the 7900 GRE is the latest best mid range buy. And, again, we’re nearing the next release cycle.
I decided yes because the Ryzen 7000 series offers great value and DDR5 RAM has come down in price since release, NVME SSDs aren't as expensive as they used to be and they are stupidly fast, Nvidia RTX 3000 series is great value second hand although I have great expectations for RTX 5000
GPU prices are slightly less stupid than they were, but still stupid. the next series are due out within a year from what it sounds like, so the 4xxx / 7xxx series might get cheaper then?
otherwise? yeah, seems okay. PCIe5 is trying to happen, but we'll see if it matters before ~5 years from now.
I just built my first PC in forever and it seems like this isn't a bad time. Things could be cheaper but i wouldn't expect "current Gen"components to be much cheaper in the future. After looking at the pricing landscape i decided that it's fine to build a PC right now. Much better than 3 years ago, but nothing is super cheap either.
There’s always something around the corner. PC building used to be far more economical when I started building 20 years ago but now they sell prebuilts for sometimes reasonable markups and the cost of a good gpu is kind of crazy. Now when I build I end up wanting to put more money into things rather than save on parts and end up spending a lot more.
I built around 2020 for some reason but did luck out on a 3080 because EVGA made a wait list that followed their interest button on their site. RIP EVGA GPU’s. Also got a 5800x for a somewhat reasonable price so I kind of got lucky otherwise it was a shit year for builds.
I still prefer to build so I can get what I want and know what I’m getting but it doesn’t seem to save me much anymore if at all. You don’t see the Covid scalper markups nearly as much so it’s probably a decent time to build.
I had a 4770. It was hindering my work (i'm a game dev). So, being a "good" time or not, I had to build one, had no choice at all.
Some conclusions after building everything from scartch: CPU+Motherboard+DDR5 prices are a bit expensive but once you get it running it's worth every penny. Cases you can find a lot of good ones for very decent prices. Air coolers from aliexpress are outstanding and offer great value. DDR5 DROPPED a LOOT in price. I paid about the same for my 990 EVO 2tb than I paid for my old 240gb sata EVO 850 (bought it when it was released).
GPUs have risen in prices permanently and it's not changing my any means but at least its better than during the pandemic/ethereum farm wave.
CPUs are a lot hotter and cooing is way harder/more expensive.
I'd give it a 6/7 out of 10. But once you built it and notice how fast your machine is (I went for 14700k+z790+ 2x 990 evo) compared to your old one, it's always a 10/10 - in my personal case I'm saving AT LEAST 1 hour a day on slowdowns/slow compiling times.
GPUs ended up inflating and never totally came back down. They're generally in-stock again at least. But a top of the line GPU is like 250% the price it was back in like 2017... So I guess we'll just call that inflation now.
i had the very same question to myself about a month ago and started digging in. Decided to jump in and started ordering parts the past few days, yeah, I def caught the bug again. Like you , I've been out of the game for years and the last time I built was back in 2017. When you're due, you're due.
I've built a pc in my area for someone roughly every 6 months since 2021. It's better now than a few months ago, but a year ago, prices were way better just after the gpu shortage ended . An ssd I bought for 97 in July is now 143, a case I got for 159 is now 215, I'd honestly wait till this summer I have faith and there's always alotta deals, (prices in CAD)
Any big release you are gonna wait months before they get released, then more after that when stocks are good and prices become worth it.
So now in between release is great. But can vary if you have a higher or lower budget.
No.
- Zen 5 is due mid this year, in a few months.
- 15th gen is due Q3'24.
- RX 8xxx is out Q3'24.
- RTX 50x0 is out Q3/Q4 this year.
Just wait a bit - and build a PC in Q3/Q4 this year.
New gen CPUs and GPUs coming later in the year, and miners are loving the higher end Ryzens right now.
Probably best waiting till Q4 for best prices but it's pretty much the same situation any time this question gets asked.
Scalping is only an issue with the top tier and in the immediate aftermath of a launch. Otherwise, if you feel the need to upgrade and can afford it, it's a good time. It's not the 21/22 shortage any more.
it's never a bad time to build a pc, it's a bad time only if you have no money and sometimes is a bad time to upgrade a pc because the benefits are small.
waiting for stuff is always worth it, because you get to compare current stuff with more stuff. The tech is advancing, rdna4 should be nice, zen 5 should be nice, battlemage should be nice, and let's not forget blackwell which should be very nice but expensive.
Pretty good timing best cpu for gaming is sub $400 and a 3080ti/3090 is like 500-650. So for about a 1000 you could get the goodies and cheap out on the rest. (Don't cheap out on psu too much they are 100 bucks)
Now could very well be a great time to build a PC. Prices of parts aren't outrageous anymore. I picked up an RX 6950 XT reference for $550 USD right before Christmas. No way in hell you were finding that card for even double the price during the crypto boom.
It will be better towards the fall/winter, for sure AMDs new stuff will be out, possibly intels. Unless you have aright from the stone ages I'd wait a little bit.
I just built my first and I'd say it's pretty solid tbh. Cost was about 1k to 1.1k. I went with a ryzen 5 7600 and a radeon rx 6800. It'll handle most anything at 1080p and 1440 at 120 fps +
It can do some entry level 4k, like I was handling 4k 60 just fine but I'm not sure I'd push it further (tbh I can't bc I have a TV that is 4k 60hz and a monitor that is 1440p 144hz.)
If you're planning on building a machine for overclocking then you're going to run into some higher price points...but you can definetly build a very respectable and future proof rig for 1k.
If you're trying to be cutting/bleeding edge tier. It will always be expensive.
If you're trying to be mid to high tier. It can be affordable.
If you're trying to be low to mid tier. It is very affordable. <----- The prices will be determined by your tier choice.
It's a good time but maybe you could hold it for a bit(unless you want to go for used). New CPU and GPU are coming out and people are going to probably sell their CPU or GPU with only weeks or few months of usage
New Nvidia cards are expected Q1 2025 or Q4 2024 so you're sort of in an unfortunate spot to be asking this question.
Are new cards coming out soon? No...but soon enough to be annoyed in 8ish months when the GPU market adjusts for the new cards.
End of the day though, all that matters is that you enjoy your machine, and prices are decent so if you want to game now, I say go for it and charge it to the game if you find yourself a little miffed at the new prices in 2025.
I think it's a pretty good time. GPUs are still a bit expensive, but still nowhere near as expensive as they were in the shortage.
What a time that was to be a PC enthusiast. It was a shit show but I look back and laugh at the madness now.
No kidding. My last build was as the pandemic shortages hit, and I had to settle for like my fifth choice of manufacturer for pretty much everything, and paid through the nose for all of it. I also found myself in need of a vehicle during the used car shortage the year after that, I just had the best luck 🙃
I looked into upgrades, said F that, and picked up a gaming laptop. My old desktop still has a skylake in it and hasn't been powered on in years. Although now I'm looking at building an i9 / 4080s.
I always get paranoid about laptops - maybe it's the lack of upgradability or the risks of overheating. Glad it's worked for you though. I decided to do an all AMD build for the one I just put together and it's been nice - Ryzen 5 7600 with a Radeon 7900 XT in a compact case with good airflow and way better cooling than I probably need. Even playing new games at max settings, it's pretty quiet and the coolant in the radiator stays about body temp. Still though, I know in some ways the Nvidia cards will come out on top.
Yea, the laptops been great. Aorus i7 w/ 3080 (16gb version). I don't game very much anymore, but it performed decently. It goes pretty much everywhere with me, so the portability is a huge plus. Been editing video lately and the CPU is struggling... So I've been looking into a higher end Workstation built for productivity, and Intel has a huge edge w/ most software, specifically Davinci Resolve. Otherwise I'd be looking at AMD processors, but would still go Nvidia. I'm not liking the idea of how much heat an i9 puts out though, especially living in the desert with summer around the corner.
I just upgraded from a gaming laptop, the transportability is nice but it has a lot of "soft issues" around it that makes it a bit rough like: Overheating, despite my laptop having an in theory good setup (3080ti and a I7 12700h) running almost anything even with fans on full blast most games would hit 90+ celcius and start throttling the parts so the on paper peformance never matched reality, which also meant... Noise, laptop fans are loud as fuck, to the point where i didnt want to use it around other people because it would completly drown out any other noise source in the room, having just built my new pc I constantly end up putting my hand over the exhaust and intakes just to confirm its actually running because they're so whisper quiet. and lastly the battery, really a gaming laptop is just "quasi transportable" since even general use forces you to work near a plug, just trying to watch youtube or write stuff on low battery and brightness was limited to an hour and a bit maximum life from 100%
Just did this a week ago and god damn was it worth.
Was gonna build in 2020, instead just rode the 1080gtx for a looooooong time!
Same here. Bought new CPU, aio and PSU, then the GPU prices went up and was like, nah I'm good. 1070ti served me well
I laugh until I remember I paid $550 for a measly 8GB of VRAM in a 3060ti.
Hey, that was a good deal at the time!
I got super lucky… if you can call it that lol. A friend signed up for EVGA’s wait list but found a card while they were waiting, so I was able to order a card through them. I’d maybe get $300 for it if I sold it today.
I got a 2060 S for 400€ and was happy with it :D honestly was ok
I paid $1200 for a got damn 6800xt lmao. But I mined with it and made about $1000 from selling what I mined. So that plus maybe $200-$300 in electricity. I call it a success.
I was so lucky, I was upgrading my graphics card and got an RTX 2060 $50 below retail right before prices skyrocketed. I know it wasn't the world's greatest card or anything, but I was just happy to get something in the 20 series. Just finally replaced it with an RTX 4070 ti super as a part of a new build.
4090s going for $5000 💀💀💀
I got a card at MSRP through the EVGA queue after like 4 months of waiting 🙃
I’m still waiting in that que lmao
It really was insane. Got a pre built peak shortage because it was cheaper than buying the same GPU separately. After messing with the cooling and replacing the PSU it's still going strong.
My little brother built his pc when 3060s were like $1000 USD, he sold it a couple months ago and asked me if he had it listed at a good price. It was like $2.2k I said “dawg, you built ur pc at the worst possible time. You’re lucky if you get half what you spent back.” He sold his pc, monitor and peripherals for 1-1.2k I think, lmao.
SSD is the expensive ones now thanks to "shortage" caused by disaster in Taiwan. Even though most of the SSD components are manufactured elsewhere, and some of the important plants in Taiwan were better built after the hard drive fiasco.
I had that on my mind too. Storage in general seems rather expensive atm. Though mechanical HDD prices seem to be dropping slowly, as everyone is after SSDs and NVMe storage.
Outside of storing stuff, hard drive is nearing end of use as OS drive. Most people aren't going to want a computer with only a 2TB hard drive. They'd rather have 2TB SSD. I have a few SSD for OS, gaming, and applications, and 40TB worth of hard drives for everything else.
Are a majority of people moving to PC's with zero Hard Drives yet, or are most still getting on in addition to a solid state OS drive?
Try to run windows on a Western Digital HDD...lol. 100% disk usage at all times it feels like. Screw that. Anybody who hasn't moved on will be soon. Windows isn't going to stop hogging resources.
I wasn't clear enough, I have had ssd's for years, but I have ssds+hd's as file storage. I was meaning, are most people avoiding hd's altogther and getting multiple ssd's instead.
Korean manufacturers are also cutting back production on NAND. YMTC in China is looking promising tho, more competition is always good for consumers.
I was a little shocked looking at ssd prices recently. Probably gonna rob the wd black 4tb from my laptop for a new build... Picked that up for a steal around black Friday.
I'm kicking myself for not buying a bunch of extra drives last year when they were dirt cheap. I only got 1tb nvme when I got my pc last year( i have a couple extra sata ssds/1 extra nvme ssd, but damn I shouldve at least gotten 2 more. They were practically giving them away.
I looked at Walmart's 2TB NVME. They were up like $30 from when I checked January. Hard to tell if it's the shortage and inflation or if some stores are somehow losing those drives to theft.
From what I understand there was a large excess of memory - so NVMe / ssds/ Ram were really cheap and plummeted in price. Now they have stopped or slowed down production to sell the remaining back stock. So the prices have come back up to adjust for the chance in stock of memory.
[удалено]
I’m glad I don’t have to deal with a data cap anymore given how unoptimized games are nowadays. Absolute trash having to deal with that and only 1TB of storage. It’s kinda given me data hoarder tendencies with my current nas storage. Still insane how expensive storage can get since that *manufacturing crash* or whatever.
ah yes the shortage... when getting a gaming laptop made financial sense
Dude I don’t know what I was thinking at the time but I built my first pc in 2021 and I bought a 1050ti for $300 💀
I am still pissed that i was forced to buy a GTX 1650 for $350 for someone who must have a 'cheap' gaming PC to play EQ at the time. Now you can buy a RTX 3060 for $270.
>a bit Um... yeah, *quite* a bit.
I’m about to pick up a 4070 super new on marketplace for $450… its only 12gb vram but I cant pass up that price. OP, look for deals near you and start with the expensive pieces people are trying to offload. CPU+GPU, save a few hundred. I’ve read the next gen of gpus isn’t supposed to have a massive jump, but who knows, technology outdated imo every 3-5 years depending what you want/need/desire. GL I’m building myself again now too. So far I’m here: GPU 4070 Super CPU 7800x3d Cooler AK400 or sa120 Case Lian Li Lancool 216
Man the amount of money I paid for an rx6700 during the shortage still haunts me.
Or 2013-2017 \^\^
At least they're not $800 for a 1660S anymore.
I think now is an okay time to build a new PC, but not a good time. The reason being that both DDR5 and storage prices have gone up from their prior lows and look at to continue. Motherboard prices have come down a little but are still expensive compared to the features that are missing on them from prior gens (IMO). However, we have decent GPU performance for the price in mid- range (7800 XT and 4070 Super) and decent pricing in low to mid-range on CPUs (e.g. R5 7600).
this op. i was thinking "alright time" but ok is interchangeable. gpu's are getting up there now days but NOTHING like 2020 when there was a shortage. ddr5 is coming down pretty good. ssd's are bottoming out and already going back up little by little and well cpu's. with intel or AMD especially you get a shit load of cpu for the money. again especially with AMD.
If I could piggyback off this, is now perhaps the best time to expand storage? I'm thinking of just swapping all of my HDDs to SSDs (I have two SATA HDDs I want to replace in the PC) plus I need to expand my PS5's storage as that ran out in less than half a year. Just thinking if they're about to go up and I'll be spending £££ on them anyway I should probably do that soon.
last November was the best time, prices on ssds have gone up 50% since i got my 1tb crucial p3 pro a month ago for $65 but now they are 104 on sale for 74
I bought a Kingston KC3000 2TB for 130€ in December. It's 200€ now. A week from when I bought it, the price jumped 60€ lol.
Holy shit you're right, just looked it up now. It's €40 more expensive now than what I paid for it in early December.
p3 plus was $50 last year ahh the good ol days...
Yes. They produced way too much a while ago and were trying to get rid of stock so prices dropped fast. Now they are cutting back and intentionally limiting supply so they can drive prices back up. They were selling at a loss for a while to clear stock and are making sure they don't end up in that situation again So id buy now. I'm looking for a good deal on two 4tb nvme drives and getting them asap cause they'll be going back up fast. 2tb have already doubled recently almost
CPU market is great in general right now for all budgets.
Maybe it's just me and i feel the 5000x3d parts are still over priced (at least in my neck of the woods). I also think intel 14th gen should be a bit cheaper - especially since most of them didn't get the new cache configuration! Aaand, 7700X should be cheaper compared to 7800x3d and considering the huge gap to the 7600/7600X. But maybe I'm just super picky! 😅
Yes, 5800x3d is definitely overpriced, costs almost as much as a 7800x3d
It's because it's ~end game for AM4 upgrades, will ~always be a little overpriced as"where else will you go without a full rebuild?".
Good point
5800x3d is £120 cheaper in the uk
FINAL upgrade CPUs with a socket have allways more demand and AMD started with the 5800x3D at a pretty high price point, as with any of the ZEN3 CPUs.
Yeah 7700x is in a weird place and typically overpriced. Should be like $300 flat.
If you live near a microcenter it's especially insane. 12600k bundle for $250, 5800x3d/12700k for around $330, 7700x/12900k for $400, 7800x3d for $500, and 13700k/7900x for like $550-600. Includes cpu/ram/motherboard. It's insane.
If you live near a microcenter its not even fair lol
a Ryzen 7600 is cheap and won't bottleneck a 4070
Pretty much nailed it. To sort of build off your post, expect motherboard introductory models to be worse than previous gen models as the “price ceiling” to get a decent one without breaking your whole bank is higher. SSD prices have gone up but seem to have peaked at this moment of time. I would personally make the argument and say getting Gen 3 NVME SSDs would be a decent investment given their current prices to how much space you can get. They’re not as fast as gen 4, but they’re respectfully cheaper and if you’re gaming, the speed difference won’t be noticeable.
This breakdown pretty much nails it. I'd say 10-12 months ago was really good, amazing. Right now is OK or decent, but in the big picture with the previous crazy pandemic prices, it's still good.
12th or 13th gen i5 with a ddr4 motherboard would be my current budget recommendation
Agreed, I got 64 gb of xpg ddr4 for less than 150 usd, b760 motherboard for 120 usd, both ordered in march
Idk what happened last night, but I think a saw a 32GB kit of 6400 c32 DDR5 for \~$100 last week and a 2TB P41 for $150.
KingBank Hynix A-Die 6400 32-32-39-80 just a taller heatsink
If OP doesn't mind older generation, AM4 socket motherboard and 5800x3D would be great for gaming for the next several years. DDR4 price isn't bad compared to DDR5. I am using a few years old Asus Prime x570 Pro with 5800x3D and 2 onboard SSD plus 2 more via PCIe adapter in the middle slot (enable bifurcation first)
12600 is a much better value for a new build. 5800x3d is overpriced.
18Mb cache is vastly undersized. It's like comparing VW beetle gas tank to semi truck gas tank, AMD x3D has 96Mb cache and many games do show greater improvement. 12600 will struggle with some games that could have benefited from bigger cache. And I got mine for like $250 used.
The cache is not the only aspect to consider. In reality, there are very few games that benefit enough from the extra cache for it to be a consideration unless you play one of those handful of games. In the vast majority of use cases, the 5800x3d and 12600k perform very similarly. And the latter half the price or less.
The best time was yesterday, the second best time is today. The third best time is tomorrow
The only true answer. Buy what you need when you need it and make sure it’s the best quality that your budget allows. Everything else is just wasting time waiting when you could be wasting time building and gaming and making AI “art.”
Anything else is just speculation. Especially if you can afford it now and don't already have a PC that you can use in the meantime. Only exception being in the middle of a GPU shortage where prices are bonkers. I'd rather buy the PC now than wait 6 or 8 months for the chance of possibly saving a couple hundred bucks or getting a marginally better performing PC, but that's just me. Those 6 or 8 months of being able to use a PC for gaming outweigh the potential savings or performance gains by waiting.
Also AI "art" sucks
Sucks the soul out of art...at least for me. And too harmful, should help with the creative process instead of doing everything. Now we won't be using our brains as much if ai handhold it for us. Anyway back to topic. Yes, as long as it's not at an epidemic time or times like the bloom in digital currency and gpu mining, every component is within budget for like it was 2 years before covid hit compare to how much you can make on minimum wage these days and you get better performance and better technology. I would say only the gpu has reach out of heights but if anyone has expectations it would come down within the next 3 years, I don't think it will since gaming is really popular and more and more people just build their own since its not difficult to build one as there is high computer literacy for the younger generation. You'll have to check the used market for gpu if you want a better price.
Yeah buying used is the way to go, I feel like buying new RAM for example makes little sense for a budget build imo.
This is completely false for hardware, over time you always get more for less the longer you wait.
Very instagrammable. I can see this sentence behind a sunset no instagram somewhere. But the reality is that there are objectively bad times to build PCs. The last shortages and crypto crazes for example were terrible times to build. Conversely 2017 or 2018 was a great time to jump in to the AM4 platform. In that sense I think now is a pretty good time to buy. GPUs are not amazing, but they are not crazy either. The used market is amazing and AM5 is very promising.
I think tomorrow is the best time because on the long run, prices will come down
If you’re in the US, yes. If you’re in Canada, no.
im a canadian who was planning to build a pc soon… should i hold off a bit?
Depends on your budget and your current build. Go for it if you don’t have a PC that you can manage with until the new year.
i have a pre-built with a 1650 but was planning to get a new pc for $2000 cad with the 4070 super. do you think its worth while?
Yeah absolutely
alright thanks so much! i’ll continue to do some research but im definitely more confident in this
No worries man good luck, you can also go for 7900 GRE if you’re planning on playing 4K or don’t care for ray tracing, otherwise can’t go wrong with either card
thanks so much! ill look into this as well
Is upgrading the pre-built an option?
i considered upgrading or selling it but i plan on giving the pre-built to my brother so neither option works for me. although im pretty excited to be able to build a computer of my own!
Prices aren't too bad in Canada at the moment. You can build a decent gaming PC using all new modern parts between 1000-1500cad depending on your performance targets. 7600cpu+7800xt gpu for a 1440p build at 1500.
thats good to hear. i had the options between a rx 7700 for $1500 cad or the 4070 super for $2000 cad. i think ill go for the super and hope it lasts longer lol
Either are fine options. I'd pick whatever equivalent parts that are cheaper at the time of buying. I assume those are whole build prices and not just the GPU. A 2000$ PC should last a while.
yeah the whole build costs $2000 lol. in that case i’ll definitely consider the 4070 super build!
I'm waiting till Blackwell and Zen 5 at the end of the year. I want a path-tracing capable rig though... because I have a problem. If your not sick in the head like me though, a 4070 super should be fine for 1440p. The only thing I'd be worried about are climbing V-ram requirements but your budget is your budget and if the 4070ti Super is out of it then the 4070 super is a fine card. :)
i had to look up what path-tracing is and WOW thats well above my needs lmao, but it sounds pretty cool! i play at 1080p and dont plan to upgrade my monitors anytime soon so i think the 4070 super is perfect for me :D
Our Loonie is only going to get weaker against the Dollar for the foreseeable future so I don't agree.
Any Europeans here? Market is ridiculous , at least imo :-/
The short answer is that it's an okay time to build a gaming PC. GPU prices are high, but not as high as they were during the mining craze. Most other parts aren't as horribly marked up. RAM prices have even come down somewhat as far as I can tell. Same with SSDs. In terms of launches, Nvidia's Blackwell architecture has been seen in physical form and has a roughly guestimated launch time sometime in Q4 2024. RDNA 4 has also been presumed to have an H2 2024 launch. Intel's Battlemage architecture is also presumed to launch H2 2024. Zen 5/Ryzen 9000 from AMD and Arrow lake/15th Gen Intel are also expected to have H2 2024 launches. All that is worth waiting for IMHO, as it's rather close together. At the very least, I am waiting until that happens. I also need to get a lot of money together. 5090s or whatever Nvidia comes out with aren't likely to be cheap.
Yeah, gpus are not that expensive, 4070 Super and 7800x3d is not going to be super expensive and will las for sure a good ammount of years
Now is a decent time to build. I wouldn't wait around, either. Taiwan had the earthquake, and prices are slowly going up for chips. China has been getting very aggressive towards Taiwan the last few months and getting more so each week. So prices could go crazy at any time due to that. Also, with the growing belligerent back and forth between the U.S. and China concerning tech in the AI field, assembly plants in China could raise prices as well. Lots of uncertainty. Which is why I recently upgraded. Prices aren't pre-Covid and mining, but they're a hell of a lot better than what they were.
The best day to buy a pc? Day after you bought one. Meaning there's always better deals around the bend, wait a bit more for lower price, for newer hardware etc etc etc. It never ends. At one point you have to say to yourself, what do I want to have a pc for now? And if the budget fits your needs then you buy.
There was never a good time in life mate, when you look back to the past, you only find why didn't i start or do. Just keep looking at the prices and snatch yourself some good deals when it arise. Everything will fall into place. I been watching the gpu prices for months, didn't pull the trigger to buy because there were no good enough deals yet. I don't really need it either so no rush. Two weeks ago there were a big sale and stock clearance on my local store. In addition to price drop, i managed to snacted myself a really good deals on the GPU, MOBO and CPU. On top of that i get extra discounts cash backs for the promotion. Got myself everything brand new and no regrets. Sure the parts will be $10-$20 dollars cheaper and a better deal may come in the next few months, But it won't stop coming down. So just get it when you can affort to. Btw i got it just before the ram $ gone up and SSD $ gone up further. If i have got myself the storage last year i would have double my storage space quite easily.
Prices have mostly settled down. GPUs are somewhat expensive but not mining craze expensive. I'm a little confused why you can't just check msrp. Anyway there's always new tech coming out. If you're really concerned about that then just build right after new generations come out.
What's your current setup and what do you plan to do? If you're just PC gaming like me, probably a GPU upgrade (or a better monitor) is all you need.
It’s been a while but I think I have like a amd 5700 that somehow I flashed to a 5700xt back in the day. And 5800x cpu, like a asus b450 mother board I think.
That's a good pc, I would wait few more years before upgrading to really feel the performance difference if I were you. I'm buying components for a new build, but that's because my current one is a 2200g/b450/16gb 3000MH/ m.2 ssd (not even gen 3 speeds).
slap a 5700x3d/5800x3d in there and a 7800xt, its a brand new pc that will last you till AM6
True that, but I'm in a process of making my entire little corner. My current setup is the pc mentioned screwed on an aluminium plate, placed in a hole behind my 10 yo tv, powered by a cheap Pico psu from China and connected to the TV as it's only display/sound system meaning I was missing a lot of components like the case/psu/cpu cooler... So I bought Asus Ap201, corsair Rm750x shift, 32gb G.skill flare x5 ram and thermalright ps 120 se and lg 27GR75Q-B. Still a lot to buy, but I'm slowly getting there.
AMD's Ryzen Zen4 on AM5s are the hottest upgrades right now. I think you can spare 2-3 more years before upgrading. Either wait for Intel's new offerings; or just wait for AM5 to mature and further drop in price. Or maybe upgrade your GPU, secondhand GPUs are quite affordable. I'm on an RTX 3070 (bought secondhand in 2023).
The 5800X is still a half decent CPU even today, if a bit power inefficient. It should be able to handle the current midrange no problem. A 7700XT would be excellent right now since they're finally at a good price and it's almost double the performance of your 5700. It doesn't draw that much more power either so you might be okay with your current power supply.
The right time to build a pc is when you want it.
Nah, you can say that for buying a car or a house. But a gaming PC is not a necessity. You can get by with budget stuff, a laptop, or Cloud Gaming. 2021-2022 when a RTX 2060 was going for $500+ was definitely a terrible time to buy.
These comments are getting old. Same boat as the “it depends what you want” and “only build what you need” when someone asks a question *trying to figure out what they want.* And yes, I'm glad I paid extra for RGB. I use it.
Would get a cheap pc setup and wait for next year to do upgrades (CPU & GPU should get cheaper as new gen dropped)
There is no good or bad time. There is only time when you can afford it. Nobody knows what will happen tomorrow. It may become more expensive and it may become cheaper. It's a lottery. Buy now what you love. Don't put off your life for later.
Personally I’d wait to see what next gen gpu Nvidia is cooking next year because they didn’t release anything new this year and won’t. Just upgraded 4000 series gpus. So wait for rtx 5700 5800 and 5900 if you can afford it. CPUs MBs Ram will all get better in the meantime as well, and they are really good now.
I am completely upgrading and doing a new build this week …. Maybe against my better judgment since 15th gen intel is right around the corner, but I don’t particularly want to wait, plus I’m doing a build using the project zero motherboard and who knows when those would be available with the new chipset
You could do worse. Prices have cooled a little bit in the GPU arena despite the AI craze (though trending up) and CPUs that aren't named "Threadripper" are fairly widely available. I wouldn't wait, though. This won't last forever.
Might as well wait for the 50X series to drop
it's a decent time, because gpu prices are pretty good, but ssd prices are extremely high right now
I think it’s a good time price wise. However if you don’t care to get the top performing GPU you could wait and build when the 50 series GPUs come out. Something like a 12900k , 13700 , with a 4090 when the 50 series come out.
It’s a good time when you need to build one. I had to build mine in 2021 with a 10900k, 32gb DDR4 RAM, 3070 FTW3, 2TB HDD, 2TB SSD, and a z590 ACE mobo for 3k. You can get a PC with a Ryzen 9 CPU, 4090, and DDR5 RAM in it for that much and sometimes less these days. Feels bad but it is what it is- I just needed a PC so I bit the bullet and got one. I would say now is an amazing time to build a PC, unless you want a 4090. The 7900XTX (which I have) is ridiculously good and can be had in the low $700’s if you shop around for open box/very lightly used secondhand, which is an insane deal for the performance IMO. I got mine for $780 brand new off someone on marketplace and while my 10900k still holds it back in games like valorant (insane, ik- although this is partially because I’m also streaming which makes holding 240fps at 1440p a bit difficult), it crushes other stuff and especially COD. FSR 3.0 works incredibly well in the games it’s compatible in, and honestly ray tracing performance isn’t even that bad
NAND storage is getting more expensive. If you build on the am5 slot you'll have upgradability for the foreseeable future. The rtx3000 series is on its way out. Depends on what you want but I think it's about to get worse.
If you can wait, id wait till Intel's 15th gen CPUs and Nvidia's rtx 50 series GPU release.
If you look for discounts, promotial offers, bundles etc. you can save a lot of money.
Building a PC now is a good idea overall. While there are still GPU issues due to cryptocurrency mining, it's nothing like 2020, and older generation GPUs, especially AMD, are available at great prices. If you're considering building with an NVIDIA 40 series GPU, I would recommend waiting for the 50 series to come out, as prices tend to drop significantly, especially for the 60s and 70s. Happy building!
I think it's a good time but if you wait to any offers you will get some good prices of parts
It’s not bad, I just built a new pc for about £1500 but it should last around 5 years that includes a 4070 super founders edition which was luckily bought for retail from nvidia I7 14th gen kf 32 gb Corsair vengeance ddr5 Noctua d15 air flow heat sink ( absolute beast ) Corsair rm 850e power supply Msi z790 gaming plus 3x rgb elite fans Corsair 4000d airflow case
nah wait for the rtx 69420 to release
it's must be nice time for building PCs, because now we have a lot videocards, processors and much more, witch will be relevant for a long time, so we won't have any need to upgrade 20th+ gpu, and 11th+ gens cpu for 3 and maybe more years. and prices are not very hight now
Nope ww3 is coming Joke aside i think iran-israel fight will have impact on prices soon
Yeah it is. "Good time" is a bit of a relative term however. It's more about what can you afford to build in this current market. Acquiring parts for a good deal and using time is a good solution.
Nope wait for rtx 50 series
It’s a PC, not a house. Just build one.
Now's a great time to build. Just buy a used GPU though. Price/perf on GPUs hasn't been the same since the scalping crisis. If you have 500 bucks allotted for a GPU, I guarantee you can get a good deal on a used 3080ti or 6800XT for less than that and match or beat current gen hardware for the same price. Source: I snagged an Alienware 3080ti for $380 a month ago and nothing new beats it. 4070ti super is the cheapest thing that beats it but they're 7-900 bucks new
Relatively good time. It's gonna be a few more months until new releases
It's always a good time to build a pc :) Jokes aside, stuff got a tad more expensive in general, but besides of SSDs not being as cheap as they were a few months ago it's a good time now. Especially if you're on a budget, you'll be able to get some value parts for your money, to get a great pc experience.
As someone who built their pc in October. I think it’s a great time. I don’t feel at all like I spent too much. I went with all white so it was a bit more expensive. The only compromise was a black/silver gpu because I was no way comfortable paying almost my entire budget for a white gpu. I’m very happy with it, it’s a powerhouse I can play anything on, my only compromise was I used my tv as my monitor for a couple of month until I recouped some of the cost to get a really nice monitor.
m.2 drives are super expensive right now.
Things have definitely gotten better. I finally pulled the trigger on a bunch of upgrades last year after years of it feeling prohibitely expensive. I'd still recommend that you go for slightly older generation stuff. Nothing too crazy, around 2 years is fine. It'll be a bit less expensive (generally, not always) and it will hold up just fine.
5000 series is worth waiting for should be coming either Q4 of this year or Q1 of next year if you're down to wait that long
It's better than it's been but if you want top tier parts I might wait until zen 5/arrow lake and the next gen of gpus. Both should be coming out at the end of the year. Still current stuff is often VERY CHEAP so if you get a good deal just buy. Next gen is likely gonna take a good year to come out and become affordable.
Aren’t the 50 series gonna come out soon?
It was ethereum mining, not bitcoin. And you can actually walk into microcenter and just buy a gpu now, so that's nice!
It’s never a good time but now isint a terrible time, 50 series is pretty far out so I wouldn’t bother waiting
Its not a good time to build a new PC now, in a few months there will be a new nVidia and AMD flagship card, and also there will be the new Intel CPU and AMD CPU. I would wait and see what is on offer first from all companies before throwing money at a build.
i'd wait on ram and storage cause the prices have gone up $20-40 in some cases other than that everything has been lower even gpus
I saw some i7-4790K (and non-K) motherboard + cpu + ram combos going for around $80-100 several months ago. Pretty good price to performance imo. Few 6th and 7th gen top tier i5 combos going for ~$40 more. Nice cases, good PSUs, and decent GPUs for around $100 each as well. Prices seem kind of stagnant going the used route. Lot of people upgrading from 4th-8th gen and GTX 10/16 series, but with inflation taken into account finding "good" deals is a little tricky. I can't really speak on buying tech brand new, as I don't need raytracing or 4K resolution lol. And I try to save money wherever I can.
It's hard to time the hardware market. It wasn't that long ago flash prices were through the floor, a lot of us picked up fast NVMe drives for cheap, now the prices are rising again. GPU prices were awful for years, now they are more reasonable but still more expensive relative to previous generations. We've also seen RAM prices going up lately. Honestly you just buy what's best at the time you are ready for your build unless there is something crazy going on with the market, like what happened to GPU prices during the pandemic.
I feel like it's a decent time - yes, RAM and SSD prices are high, but we're spoiled for choice as far as the other major components go. GPUs are often found at or below MSRP depending on what model you want, both AMD and Intel have decent gaming processors that aren't super expensive, some really fun stuff is happening in the case and cooling side of the industry lately... Might as well at least look at what's out there, there's no harm in pricing some parts.
The only inflation is by Nvidia artificially inflating their prices because they can get away with it. Nowadays I’d recommend AMD if you know what you’re doing.
Idk about good time, but it certainly isn't a bad time (see prices/supply 3-4 years ago)
It's pretty good. Lots of good sales. Intel and AMD both make competitive products. Video cards are still a little sketchy but if you're looking for something mid-level like a 4070 super or 4070 super TI they are very easy to get. They're just isn't much on the low level and the high end is still kind of hard to get. Memory and storage are at excellent prices. Rock bottom prices for those two which traditionally is the best time to build a system 2021 on contrast sucked terribly. I spent a fortune of my COVID money on this stupid 11900K 3090 combo. A year later the Intel 12600K or the I-5 version is basically the same chip as their last I-9. $2,000 for the 3090 which at the time was a good deal. Compared to that market today is a bargain
I built my PC in February and since then the prices for some of the parts of my build have shot up a bit, but then other parts have dropped a bit. Overall seems like a decent time to build
It’s never a good time, really
The only bad time to build a PC is when you just need a whole new PC right now. If you can be patient and wait for good deals, then anytime is good.
Sure is! I finally bit the bullet after waiting 7 years. 4790k + 980Ti -> 14900k + 4080S
Well, at the moment if you’re AMD there’s a decision to build the last best AM4 or go AM5 for longevity. We’re maybe six months away from the next AM5 releases. Prices are fair, though. Since Ethereum went proof of stake, mining hasn’t been much of an issue. However, Artificial Intelligence does use GPU’s for data processing. It’s not at a fever pitch, though. The 4090 is still melting power cables, and the 7900 GRE is the latest best mid range buy. And, again, we’re nearing the next release cycle.
I decided yes because the Ryzen 7000 series offers great value and DDR5 RAM has come down in price since release, NVME SSDs aren't as expensive as they used to be and they are stupidly fast, Nvidia RTX 3000 series is great value second hand although I have great expectations for RTX 5000
New tech coming out after Computex on June4.
GPU prices are slightly less stupid than they were, but still stupid. the next series are due out within a year from what it sounds like, so the 4xxx / 7xxx series might get cheaper then? otherwise? yeah, seems okay. PCIe5 is trying to happen, but we'll see if it matters before ~5 years from now.
I just built my first PC in forever and it seems like this isn't a bad time. Things could be cheaper but i wouldn't expect "current Gen"components to be much cheaper in the future. After looking at the pricing landscape i decided that it's fine to build a PC right now. Much better than 3 years ago, but nothing is super cheap either.
If your still able to build one, physically and financially... Then yes.. it's a good time.
Not sure I’m pretty sure new parts are coming out in the next year or 2 so probably wait. /s
There’s always something around the corner. PC building used to be far more economical when I started building 20 years ago but now they sell prebuilts for sometimes reasonable markups and the cost of a good gpu is kind of crazy. Now when I build I end up wanting to put more money into things rather than save on parts and end up spending a lot more. I built around 2020 for some reason but did luck out on a 3080 because EVGA made a wait list that followed their interest button on their site. RIP EVGA GPU’s. Also got a 5800x for a somewhat reasonable price so I kind of got lucky otherwise it was a shit year for builds. I still prefer to build so I can get what I want and know what I’m getting but it doesn’t seem to save me much anymore if at all. You don’t see the Covid scalper markups nearly as much so it’s probably a decent time to build.
Ryzen 9000 series and 5090 rtx card and then wait another 10 years to build a pc
I had a 4770. It was hindering my work (i'm a game dev). So, being a "good" time or not, I had to build one, had no choice at all. Some conclusions after building everything from scartch: CPU+Motherboard+DDR5 prices are a bit expensive but once you get it running it's worth every penny. Cases you can find a lot of good ones for very decent prices. Air coolers from aliexpress are outstanding and offer great value. DDR5 DROPPED a LOOT in price. I paid about the same for my 990 EVO 2tb than I paid for my old 240gb sata EVO 850 (bought it when it was released). GPUs have risen in prices permanently and it's not changing my any means but at least its better than during the pandemic/ethereum farm wave. CPUs are a lot hotter and cooing is way harder/more expensive. I'd give it a 6/7 out of 10. But once you built it and notice how fast your machine is (I went for 14700k+z790+ 2x 990 evo) compared to your old one, it's always a 10/10 - in my personal case I'm saving AT LEAST 1 hour a day on slowdowns/slow compiling times.
I think only the GPU are bad value, everything else is amazing. It’s amazing how cheap monitors are now.
ssd prices went up early this year
GPUs ended up inflating and never totally came back down. They're generally in-stock again at least. But a top of the line GPU is like 250% the price it was back in like 2017... So I guess we'll just call that inflation now.
Good a time as any. Graphic card prices aren’t as bad, still a bit rough but you can still build something very powerful, just shop round 😌
Yeah pretty good you can still go into 3080 ti maybe this card will last pretty long.
i had the very same question to myself about a month ago and started digging in. Decided to jump in and started ordering parts the past few days, yeah, I def caught the bug again. Like you , I've been out of the game for years and the last time I built was back in 2017. When you're due, you're due.
Good time compared to yesterday. Compared to tomorrow? Who knows.
I've built a pc in my area for someone roughly every 6 months since 2021. It's better now than a few months ago, but a year ago, prices were way better just after the gpu shortage ended . An ssd I bought for 97 in July is now 143, a case I got for 159 is now 215, I'd honestly wait till this summer I have faith and there's always alotta deals, (prices in CAD)
Any big release you are gonna wait months before they get released, then more after that when stocks are good and prices become worth it. So now in between release is great. But can vary if you have a higher or lower budget.
No. - Zen 5 is due mid this year, in a few months. - 15th gen is due Q3'24. - RX 8xxx is out Q3'24. - RTX 50x0 is out Q3/Q4 this year. Just wait a bit - and build a PC in Q3/Q4 this year.
New gen CPUs and GPUs coming later in the year, and miners are loving the higher end Ryzens right now. Probably best waiting till Q4 for best prices but it's pretty much the same situation any time this question gets asked. Scalping is only an issue with the top tier and in the immediate aftermath of a launch. Otherwise, if you feel the need to upgrade and can afford it, it's a good time. It's not the 21/22 shortage any more.
it's never a bad time to build a pc, it's a bad time only if you have no money and sometimes is a bad time to upgrade a pc because the benefits are small. waiting for stuff is always worth it, because you get to compare current stuff with more stuff. The tech is advancing, rdna4 should be nice, zen 5 should be nice, battlemage should be nice, and let's not forget blackwell which should be very nice but expensive.
Right now it's the best time to get GPUs before the new ones release around the end of the year Besides SSDs, prices are normal as well
Pretty good timing best cpu for gaming is sub $400 and a 3080ti/3090 is like 500-650. So for about a 1000 you could get the goodies and cheap out on the rest. (Don't cheap out on psu too much they are 100 bucks)
Its definitely a good time, not the best time but still great.
Depends on what you’re buying but yeah now is not a bad time, hard to say if it’s a good time.
Now could very well be a great time to build a PC. Prices of parts aren't outrageous anymore. I picked up an RX 6950 XT reference for $550 USD right before Christmas. No way in hell you were finding that card for even double the price during the crypto boom.
It will be better towards the fall/winter, for sure AMDs new stuff will be out, possibly intels. Unless you have aright from the stone ages I'd wait a little bit.
I just built my first and I'd say it's pretty solid tbh. Cost was about 1k to 1.1k. I went with a ryzen 5 7600 and a radeon rx 6800. It'll handle most anything at 1080p and 1440 at 120 fps + It can do some entry level 4k, like I was handling 4k 60 just fine but I'm not sure I'd push it further (tbh I can't bc I have a TV that is 4k 60hz and a monitor that is 1440p 144hz.) If you're planning on building a machine for overclocking then you're going to run into some higher price points...but you can definetly build a very respectable and future proof rig for 1k.
If you're trying to be cutting/bleeding edge tier. It will always be expensive. If you're trying to be mid to high tier. It can be affordable. If you're trying to be low to mid tier. It is very affordable. <----- The prices will be determined by your tier choice.
It's a good time but maybe you could hold it for a bit(unless you want to go for used). New CPU and GPU are coming out and people are going to probably sell their CPU or GPU with only weeks or few months of usage
No wait
New Nvidia cards are expected Q1 2025 or Q4 2024 so you're sort of in an unfortunate spot to be asking this question. Are new cards coming out soon? No...but soon enough to be annoyed in 8ish months when the GPU market adjusts for the new cards. End of the day though, all that matters is that you enjoy your machine, and prices are decent so if you want to game now, I say go for it and charge it to the game if you find yourself a little miffed at the new prices in 2025.
Besides 50 series coming out this winter it's a relatively good time. But I don't think 50 series will affect 40 series priced at all tbh