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Terrible Time to Build a PC

Started by targetrasp, January 30, 2018, 07:24:17 AM

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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

Quote from: targetrasp on May 20, 2021, 08:42:53 PM
@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.  :D

targetrasp

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

Grindspine


targetrasp