Question Best time to buy components?

[goatfarmer]

I have recently decided to upgrade a very old system. Unfortunately it was after Black Friday and the Holidays that I decided this. I have noticed some of the components I have looked at over the past several weeks have increased in price. Will there be any good sales around President's Day? Is it better to just wait at this point, as some new releases will be coming out in the first quarter and older components may drop in price? Or should I buy now, because prices may increase more. Looking at purchasing CPU, Motherboard, Memory, Power Supply, and possibly low end graphics card for a workstation.

 

[USAFRet]

There is no "best time to buy".

Buy what you want, when it is available, and you have the money for it.

 

[Bob.B]

I have recently decided to upgrade a very old system. Unfortunately it was after Black Friday and the Holidays that I decided this. I have noticed some of the components I have looked at over the past several weeks have increased in price. Will there be any good sales around President's Day? Is it better to just wait at this point, as some new releases will be coming out in the first quarter and older components may drop in price? Or should I buy now, because prices may increase more. Looking at purchasing CPU, Motherboard, Memory, Power Supply, and possibly low end graphics card for a workstation.

Whatever you buy today will be on sale tomorrow......fact of life.

 

[geofelt]

The time to buy is when you have the need and the funds.

Yes, future products will have better price/performance, at least so far as list prices go.
But, if such products are truly a bargain, the sellers will simply charge more.

And.. plan on buying it all at once. That way you can verify that the parts work so a defective part can be returned within the seller warranty period.

 

[Gururu]

After following prices over 2023, realized nothing is worth waiting for. The chipmakers just arent doing anything monumental these days, at least in my view for gaming. So many variations covering every $10 step, it just doesnt make any sense to nitpick. Look for a recommended cpu under MSRP and build around it.

 

[General_Cool]

Like others have been saying, the best time is when you need the parts. Time marches on and penny pinching is certainly not going to save you time.

Now for the actual answer, the weeks coming up to and after a new CPU/GPU generation old prices will go down or go on sale. If you wanna be smart about this, you can shop around different websites that are selling out old stock or going out of business and trying to offload stuff at a loss so they don't have to pay someone to remove it. Be sure to check Microcenter for bundle deals too.

Other than that, download Honey to track prices (only use it if you don't mind the invasive data privacy practices). Be sure to check major Hindu, Chinese, etc. holidays and search for parts during that time on Indian and Chinese websites that do shipping to the US, since many companies will be running sales. Lunar new year is around the corner...

 

[Lucky_SLS]

So, whats your budget and location to buy the parts?

Can you elaborate on "low end graphics card for a workstation"?