Terrible Time to Build a PC

[CreepinDeth]

Rounding back on this, seems like prices are more reasonable now. I started pricing things out and the main component that still seems overpriced is RAM. I've seen GTX 1080 GPUs go for as low as $500.

My mindset has changed quite a bit this last month. My PC is 7 1/2 years old now and even though I can't run everything at 60FPS, I can still max out all of my games and keep the most demanding ones at a locked 30FPS at 1080p. Now, I just want to build a budget rig and tinker around with parts. I think the thrill of the hunt is something that's more satisfying for me than just buying top of the line and being done with it.

I recently upgraded my PC to 16GB of DDR3 RAM and my PC feels snappier. Might just be placebo but I'm certain I noticed a difference. Especially in web browsing. Chrome and Firefox cache a good amount of the sites I frequent the most.

[BLUEVOODU]

I'm still under the mindset of not upgrading.  With that... I ended up purchasing a Dell G5 15" laptop for gaming on the go and a few other reasons right now.  It's working out pretty well.  I definitely have the building bug.

So you think prices are coming down well?  Maybe I jumped the gun and should've waited.

You should post your build - when you decide to do one.  And yes, adding Ram (up to 16GB) should be noticed with newer operating systems and Chrome / Firefox.  Chrome is especially eats a lot if you use many tabs.  Really.. 8GB should be the LOWEST you would go on a work PC (64Bit)... and standard should now be set at 16GB.

[Polygon]

Prices are getting close to where they were about two years ago. Hell, I got a new case for one of my systems and decided to upgrade because prices on RAM are pretty damn good.

[targetrasp]

Holy cow, I was talking about doing this in 2018 saying it was terrible.. It's so much worse now!

I finally broke down and built after I squeezed every ounce of life I could out of my HP 8200 (proliant, reliant? I forget), and I kinda regret it. I had to settle for a parts bin graphics card, 200 series r9 (anything good is still held by scalpers or backordered). It'll run VR but anything from the last 5 years eat its lunch. Motherboards ran the gamut, but I was able to get away with a reasonable one for 140 because I wasn't needing the 400 dollar boards' features. A lot stuff share bandwidth on my board but (at least with this board) as long as i didn't use both m2 and  both pci e 16x slots I could still have a 4 drive raid array, installing os on m2 and get full 16 x on pcie without having any bandwidth bottle necks. There was only two ram slots but my old ram wasn't nearly as fast as the board could handle so i just bought two 16 gig sticks... almost 400 bucks after tax. I'd wanted to build something in a white fractal designs case every since I laid eyes on one, so i spent 80 on it. I consider myself lucky for getting out in the $1300 range considering splurging for the case, tons of drives, a ryzen 7, etc. When I factor in not having to buy a video card though it seems excessive. I would have kept my early gen i5 another 5 years if there was a small form factor graphics card worth a flip.

I'd love to get in the 2020's video card wise at some point if these prices ever ease up, but who knows. it'll take another 7 years for TSM and Intel to get their factories built here so I don't have tons of faith, and even then who knows what the market will look like.

[Grindspine]

My main PC has an RTX2060, but it is bottlenecked by my older Core i5.  My Ryzen-based gaming laptop with a GTX 1660 Super outperforms it.  I sold off several graphics cards from old builds, going back to PCI and AGP.  Retro gamers snagged those for more than I thought they'd sell.  I held onto my GTX 960 just in case though.  Since my RTX is bottlenecked, maybe I should ebay that off and reinstall my 960 for the time being.

[targetrasp]

@Grindspine "retro gamers snagged those for more than I thought they'd sell. " ---

I dont believe it... or didn't until i pulled up ebay. There's a listing for an all in wonder 9700 pro - boxed for 30 bucks less than I paid for mine when i bought it when it first came out... holy crap, used is over 100 bucks... thats nuts, we've all prolly thrown away thousands of dollars worth of old video cards...

[Grindspine]

In May of 2020, I paid $342 for an EVGA GeForce RTX 2060 KO Ultra 6 GB dual fan graphics card.

As of today, in May 2021, the EVGA GeForce RTX 2060 KO Ultra 6GB card is listed on Newegg at $1240 and out of stock.

WHAT?!

[Grindspine]

@Grindspine "retro gamers snagged those for more than I thought they'd sell. " ---

I dont believe it... or didn't until i pulled up ebay. There's a listing for an all in wonder 9700 pro - boxed for 30 bucks less than I paid for mine when i bought it when it first came out... holy crap, used is over 100 bucks... thats nuts, we've all prolly thrown away thousands of dollars worth of old video cards...

I had an old PCI Voodoo 3 and an AGP nVidia 6800.  I got a few hundred for those two card on eBay last year.

[Grindspine]

It was June 2020, I had an old Voodoo 3 PCI card by 3dfx.  Since I found the driver CD-ROM for it, I was able to sell the two together for $99.99.  I guess that the good thing now is that my core i5 bottleneck and 60 hz monitor make needing a better graphics card a null point. 

[targetrasp]

it may be a good time to thin out the parts bin

[Grindspine]

[targetrasp]

lol