Is this the worst time to build a gaming PC?

[FernandoRocker]

I know, I know. There is always something new coming out, and if I keep thinking like this, I will never build my PC.

I have a $1000 budget, and I was planning on getting a laptop with an RTX 2060 but Era convinced me not to (because it was a laptop). So, I decided to build my own. But it really feels like this is the worst time to build my own system.

• RTX cards these days are still in its infancy, and it would be better to wait for next gen
• HDMI 2.1 is going to be very important
• PCI 5.0/6.0 is coming out very soon
• USB 4.0 is also coming out very soon
• DDR5 is also coming out very soon

As far as I know, we are at the end of many specs. It feels like building a system right now would be like purchasing an Xbox One X or PS4 Pro now, when the Series X and PS5 are coming out very soon.

 

[PowerThroughLov]

Its a very poor time in terms of GPU's. Nvidias new cards will likely have very significant performance increases due to 7nm switchover.

PCI 5.0/6.0 / USB 4 / DDR5 are less important. In terms oof DDR5, consumer products are not really begging for the increase, and PCI 5.0/USB4 will take years to reach the point you need them.

Other than GPU its a fine time to buy. But for GPU's yeah, its very sub-optimal.

 

[Jessie]

I'm in the same boat. But realistically, the 2000 series was half baked, and the 3000 series is coming in a few short months. Even if you go for 2000 in the end, it'll be cheaper this summer.

 

[alienups]

Its a very poor time in terms of GPU's. Nvidias new cards will likely have very significant performance increases due to 7nm switchover.

PCI 5.0/6.0 / USB 4 / DDR5 are less important. In terms oof DDR5, consumer products are not really begging for the increase, and PCI 5.0/USB4 will take years to reach the point you need them.

Other than GPU its a fine time to buy. But for GPU's yeah, its very sub-optimal.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, i bought a new pc last week with a cheap 2060 for this reason. Will upgrade when ampere/big navi hits

 

[FernandoRocker]

I even wanted to start with a case and PSU, just to at least feel like I was started the building process, but even most cases do not even have USB Type C ports. What the heck?

 

[packy17]

HDMI 2.1 is not going to be that important in the PC space. DisplayPort is faster and already here.

RTX cards are only a bad value if you really care about ray tracing technology right now or are upgrading from something like a 1080ti. Buying one for a brand new build and using it as a traditional card is fine.

 

[ILikeFeet]

it's really just gpu. cpus last much longer. Big Navi and Ampere are on the verge of releasing so wait for that

 

[Vibbon]

Its a very poor time in terms of GPU's. Nvidias new cards will likely have very significant performance increases due to 7nm switchover.

PCI 5.0/6.0 / USB 4 / DDR5 are less important. In terms oof DDR5, consumer products are not really begging for the increase, and PCI 5.0/USB4 will take years to reach the point you need them.

Other than GPU its a fine time to buy. But for GPU's yeah, its very sub-optimal.

Click to shrink...

I just built a PC last month and decided to skimp on my GPU for this exact reason.

 

[Amir]

 

[Cloud-Hidden]

I'd actually say screw what Era told you. I love my gaming laptop. I love being able to play AAA games at 60+ fps in bed, on the couch, or whenever I travel in my hotel room or home away from home.

I spent $1100 at Costco and got an amazing lenovo with a 1660ti, brand new i9 cpu, and 16gb of RAM. HDD and SSD both built-in. It's fast, it's comparatively slim, it has a 144hz display, and it plays everything I want to play at great settings.

If you want a gaming laptop, OP, then go for it. I'm glad I did. You're going to get slightly beefier components by building, but if the portability of the laptop appeals to you, don't concede that just because a bunch of people told you to.

 

[FernandoRocker]

So, now that we are discussing this... is there an upcoming AMD GPU that I should wait?

I mean, I would prefer a Ryzen CPU over an Intel one, but I would also love get an AMD GPU instead of an NVIDIA one, but I know NVIDIA has the winning cards now.

 

[smuf]

Kinda depends on how long you plan to keep the PC as is. Personally I'd hold out for HDMI 2.1 cards, the other stuff I don't care about.

 

[Sarcastico]

I agree with the posters saying wait for the next wave of GPUs; the other components are fine.

 

[FernandoRocker]

I'd actually say screw what Era told you. I love my gaming laptop. I love being able to play AAA games at 60+ fps in bed, on the couch, or whenever I travel in my hotel room or home away from home.

I spent $1100 at Costco and got an amazing lenovo with a 1660ti, brand new i9 cpu, and 16gb of RAM. HDD and SSD both built-in. It's fast, it's comparatively slim, it has a 144hz display, and it plays everything I want to play at great settings.

If you want a gaming laptop, OP, then go for it. I'm glad I did. You're going to get slightly beefier components by building, but if the portability of the laptop appeals to you, don't concede that just because a bunch of people told you to.

Click to shrink...

Problem is, the laptop I wanted is $1200 now, because I didn't buy it on time. I need to wait for a sale.

 

[packy17]

Kinda depends on how long you plan to keep the PC as is. Personally I'd hold out for HDMI 2.1 cards, the other stuff I don't care about.

Click to shrink...

DisplayPort is faster than HDMI 2.1

 

[Thecrunked]

may want to consider buying a used gpu. i bought a used 1080ti about 1.5 years ago for ~$500. was totally worth it then, and at that price point or alittle less, its still worth it depending on what you are shooting for. you're not going to get a steady 4k @ 60fps even with a 2080ti in most cases. if you want 1440p @60+ fps the 1080ti is great. if you want 1080p @120+ fps, the 1080ti is great. maybe even a 2060 would cover your needs and then upgrade later on to whatever card you need to hit your desired resolution/fps

 

[Vimto]

Yes

 

[Fjordson]

You can almost always look to something on the horizon with gaming PC's, though it does feel like that's a little more true right now with GPU's.

Other than that, you should be fine.

 

[Shake Appeal]

The end of last year was a good time. Now is a much less good time. But ultimately your current need is more important than future hardware releases.

 

[laxu]

PCIe 4/5, USB 4 or DDR5 are not going to be relevant to a gamer anytime soon.

However this is not a good time to build a PC because Ryzen 4000 series is coming later this year, new GPUs are coming with hopefully DP 2.0 and HDMI 2.1 support for future display tech. By the time those are out, you can either choose to spend less money on currently available stuff or buy the new thing.

 

[Cloud-Hidden]

Problem is, the laptop I wanted is $1200 now, because I didn't buy it on time. I need to wait for a sale.

Click to shrink...

If you're a costco member I highly recommend checking them out. You can also look at Facebook marketplace for local pre-owned options. M any of them will still have a valid warranty. In my area (there is a lot of tech around me) I saw a bunch of really nice gaming laptops a year old or less that were being sold so that their owners could upgrade to the latest and greatest.

 

[SunBroDave]

There will always be something better just around the corner. If games are coming out soon that you wanna have a great experience playing, then go ahead and buy. If you can wait though, even just a few months would be a better time to buy

 

[Jobbs]

It's a bad time to buy a top end gpu because we're on the cusp of a new top end coming out.

As for the rest, ryzen CPUs are fantastic and hardware prices in general seem good. Build a new rig if you need one but maybe use a midrange gpu to hold you over then sell it when the new top end stuff comes out. The 2070 super is great bang for the buck.

 

[JudgmentJay]

DisplayPort is faster than HDMI 2.1

Click to shrink...

I can't hook my PC up to my home theater with DP. Without adapters anyway, which defeats the purpose.

 

[Trieu]

I am a person that says "buy when you need", but if I were to be close to buying a PC right now I'd wait atleast for 4000er Zen chips and the next AMD and Nvidia GPUs.

All of those are definitely coming out this year and should seriously shake up the price/performance ratio (especially for GPUs).

Building your own at 1000$ in 4-5 months should give you an amazing gaming PC

 

[GhostTrick]

It's a bad time for many reasons:
- New consoles are coming, which means there might be some different needs in term of hardware
- New Navi and Ampere GPU are coming

Building your PC the year before console release isn't always a good idea.

 

[Duxxy3]

In terms of pricing? Absolutely not. The only parts that are abnormally priced right now are power supplies. Everything else is low priced, or at worse normally priced.

Maybe the technology around the corner will be better value, and maybe it won't. You can wait forever to make a new PC. But in terms of sheer value, PC building is in a good spot right now.

 

[Kingpin Rogers]

I would think waiting until closer to the end of this year is probably a better idea. That's what I'm planning on doing at least.

 

[PeskyToaster]

If you have the money I would just do it. There's always some new shiny around the corner so if you wait, you'll just end up waiting forever imo. Best to get it built so you can then upgrade certain parts in a few years.

 

[gogosox82]

If you need a pc now, I would say just build it. If you can wait a few months, I'd say do that since we don't know how powerful the new consoles will be.

 

[Thecrunked]

OP, what type of display will you be playing on, gaming monitor? tv? if a tv, what are the supported resolutions and Hz for said tv

 

[Serif]

I've actually been considering a more "future-proof" eGPU setup and grabbing a Razer Core X with a cheaper / used GPU and plugging that into my XPS 9370. I'm more than willing to wait for another XPS 2021 refresh and a better GPU, and all I'd have to do is swap out the GPU in the Razer Core and eventually upgrading the XPS 13. I need an ultrabook anyway so I'm pretty fine with this setup and don't have a desire to build a full desktop at the moment.

 

[Kaiken]

I figure it's the best time to build a last gen for a great price.

 

[RealDealRusty]

I've been wanting to upgrade my CPU and Graphics card for like a year now. Everything feels absurdly expensive so I've been sticking with my 1070. Hopefully with the new cards we see a shift in prices.

 

[Lobster Roll]

I built when the 1080Ti was the top card on the market, crypto mining was causing people to buy every GPU in sight within literal minutes of being available at MSRP, and RAM was close to $200 for 16 GB.

You can find 1TB SSDs under $99 right now, RAM prices have normalized, the 2060 / 2070 / SUPER cards are all acceptable for pricing and if you don't care about RTX, are excellent cards. Ryzen has completely disrupted the CPU market and is offering low prices for amazing performance.

Right now isn't the historically "best" time, I wouldn't say, but it's a great time to build.

 

[Isayas]

Don't remind me. I gotta change my RTX 2080 Super next February.

 

[Tagyhag]

In general, no, but definitely with GPU's.

 

[tenderbrew]

Put me in there "if you wait on the next big thing you'll wait forever" camp.

 

[Mr.Deadshot]

It's always a bad time. If you have enough games to play that you can't play on your old hardware or if you want to upgrade technology (go 4k, 144hz, VR, whatever) then buy new hardware now and enjoy your time with it. You can always upgrade later.
I bought a new PC (pre-build) and Oculus Quest just three weeks ago and I am super happy with my purchase.

 

[snausages]

Yeah, i bought a new pc last week with a cheap 2060 for this reason. Will upgrade when ampere/big navi hits

Click to shrink...

Literally just did this and rationalised to myself that I will probably be replacing the 2060 soon. Still, at least I can hold onto it for a christmas present this year or next.

I am slightly worried about new CPU sockets but I'm betting I won't suffer too badly for a while, unlike GPU which will def need replacing in next gen

 

[Futabaisthebest<3]

I hope my 18 years old PC survive a little more cuz I can't afford a new one in Canada anymore.... :<

 

[Dakkon]

I think it's a great time honestly.

Assuming you already have the monitor and OS taken care of (and depending on what your expected gaming performance/FPS is) you can run something like this:

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/VmTqPn

(tho I'd recommend grabbing a 2TB SSD, it puts you a lil bit over $1000 tho)

Then down the road you can ez upgrade to 32 GB of RAM and pick up an RTX 3000 series. :)

The last 4 things you mentioned are nice, but they are not going to be essential, whereas you are going to want to get an NVMe SSD & a high amount of RAM as the prices for those are very likely to go up when the next gen of consoles really gets going, especially the SSD.

 

[Kudo]

Ryzen 3 is absolute steal at this moment, who knows if they are even trying to compete with the 4th Gen that should come later this year.
I'd say it's "the worst time to buy GPU", AMD cannot just find the performance needed and Nvidia GPUs are starting to show their age, if I were in need of Gaming PC right now I'd probably get good setup other than cheap GPU and upgrade that later this year when RTX 3000-series comes out.

 

[Aramon]

I just upgraded to Ryzen 7 3700X. It was necessary because my almost 7 years old i7 4770K bite the dust.

Cost about 900€ for processor, motherboard, memory and NVMe PCIe SSD.

My 1070 GTX will last at least this year before I upgrade.

 

[Duxxy3]

I'll add the only real bad to build a PC was when the mining boom was happening at the same time as the memory price hikes. Other than that, build what you can when you can. Otherwise you'll be waiting forever on the next big thing, instead of actually enjoying your PC games.

 

[Bomblord]

Just build a cheap PC using last gen or older components. Business PC's are always going for rock bottom prices and honestly if you're not intending to do 4K at 120+hz there's no reason to dip into extreme high end hardware... I game fine on a 1650 + Core i5-4570 medium settings 1080p-4K 60fps. Also prices are fairly low right now across the board memory and GPU prices used to be so inflated that it was laughable especially during the mining craze.

Here's how high end component purchases work. Take it from me I used to be trying to keep up with it

The worst time to buy is 3 months before a new release because there's something better around the corner
The worst time to buy is 3 months after a new release because drivers are unfinished, hardware has unforeseen issues, and problems are rampant.

New hardware (CPU/GPU) releases roughly every 6 months so simple math shows us the best time to build is never!

 

[myojinsoga]

I'm looking to get myself up and running with a solid system sporting an inexpensive GPU for top 1080p performance. Then I'll upgrade the GPU in like a year or so. I won't be saving money, but I'll have had a year of pretty good gaming in the mean time, and pick up on the improvements of next gen cards later without having been gouged.

Is my plan at least.

 

[denverchickennuggets]

Not sure if this helps you, but here's where I'm at:

I've got a desktop built in 2013 that I've upgraded a bunch over the years—got a Haswell CPU (still great!) and a 1060 6 GB for graphics card.

My plan is to buy a Series X or PS5 (or both) and then do a totally new PC build in 2-3 years.

Of course some of this is based on my recent realization that I prefer the console for couch based gaming. (I know about steam link and all but I just prefer a console for couch games, that's just me.) So I use my PC for some FPSes and strategy games, not as often as my consoles.

 

[Liam Allen-Miller]

I think you should wait until next-gen consoles come out so you can properly look over what newer games will need to run well on your new PC!

 

[psilocybe]

Since the GTX 9XX series, NVIDIA has been releasing a new generation every two years during the second half of the year.
I expect the 30XX series between june-november. That is it. It is usually best to upgrade GPUs near launch (at MSPR, not inflated prices though).

I say "upgrade" because if you are buying a new system, just get the best as possible now. There might be more than 6 months until new cards are released. It is too long to wait imho.