- Nov 2, 2021
- 27
- 0
- 4,540
UGH
The Black Friday deals, such as they were, sunset fast and are indeed almost all behind us (there are still multiple Micro Center Powercooler 7900XT models retailing for $620-50 if you can find them in-stock, as well as a $25 sitewide coupon for "new" customers). It's the time investment that stings most.
The good news is I have in fact succeeded in becoming the owner of a 9800X3D for chump change, by taking advantage of the Micro Center $750 bundle with the stock AMD 7900XT for any CPU (for the unethical scalping type this would be an insane deal to run multiple times with current and last-gen Ryzen 9s that MSRP for $5-600 or more). Now, I don't want that card, for that price, but I should be able to resell it over the winter for enough to recoup up to 90% of those costs. But even if the net CPU cpst for the 9800X3D rises to $200 or something, that's still way better than any of the alternatives on price alone, other than the fact that the same build using the Microcenter 9700X-MB-RAM bundle I initially set upon would be about the same total price, due to my spending a bit more on RAM/MB otherwise.
But a powerful CPU, combined with budget headroom, demands a more powerful GPU. I have been able to secure an borderline-tolerable Amazon deal for the Galax 4070 Super for $630 with tax, which comes in and out of stock by the hour if you're interested. That's my backup.
I would prefer a 4070 Ti Super above all for its balance of features, performance, and power consumption. But paying anywhere close to $800 pre-tax for a 4070 Ti S is unconscionable, when the Micro Center Powercolor 7900XT Hellhound - a good submodel - is $650 with tax and coupon. An AsRock submodel is also offered for $5 more. I could even get a 7900XTX for $820 retail, and that model has seen sales far below $800 as well. So if we were talking $700 retail, sure that's worth a look....
I'm not even sure if I shouldn't cancel the 4070 S in favor of one of those 7900XT if they come back into stock in the near future. I don't know if I should prefer a 4070 S over a 7900XT at around the same price. At any rate, even if I wound up stuck with a Micro Center card due to the 15-day return policy amid my travels over the holidays, I could also resell them over the winter. Charging just $750 or so, which I think the market would bear, would be enough to net out the cost.
MSI is selling two 4070 Ti S - Aero & Expert - for $720 and $730 respectively, and there is a current 5% coupon, but I've heard bad things about blowers (Aero), and these are also very intermittently in stock. I'll get an email alert if it ever returns to stock.
Nevertheless, $755 with tax for a 4070 Ti S (Expert) is still hard to swallow. And now there's another MSI, a Ventus 3X, on sale for the genuinely-great price of $600 on Amazon. I am preemptively securing the order just in case. But then again, MSI Ventus seems to be one of the very least-good submodels of any graphics card, and the Amazon vendor MSI is selling through is a no-name account (official MSI storefront, using a no-name partner). But I can expect an easy return if it comes to it, since it's Amazon.
So to recap:
My CPU will be 9800X3D.
My safety is a Galax 4070 Super for $630 w/ tax.
I have a Powercolor 7900XT Hellhound reserved at Micro Center for expected $650 w/ tax+coupon.
I just twitch-bought a MSI 4070 Ti Super Ventus 3X for $650 w/ tax off Amazon, but the submodel is suboptimal and it seems a bit of a gamble as to whether I'll actually get what I ordered.
Should I just hold out for good deals in January? "Settle" with the Galax 4070 S? Nix the Galax and get an almost-price-matched MC 7900XT? Or should I wait on the advent of a $600 RTX 5080 or Radeon 8900XT with 50% improvement over the current options?
To think, when I started researching this build last month, I would have immediately settled for this $480 7900GRE... So remember, I'm already paying a $100 premium for the 4070 S over the 7900 GRE, and that's a lot of agitation. It's all well within my budget due to the CPU savings, but I wouldn't take a flagship 4090 offered for $1000, because I just don't need to spend that money.
The Black Friday deals, such as they were, sunset fast and are indeed almost all behind us (there are still multiple Micro Center Powercooler 7900XT models retailing for $620-50 if you can find them in-stock, as well as a $25 sitewide coupon for "new" customers). It's the time investment that stings most.
The good news is I have in fact succeeded in becoming the owner of a 9800X3D for chump change, by taking advantage of the Micro Center $750 bundle with the stock AMD 7900XT for any CPU (for the unethical scalping type this would be an insane deal to run multiple times with current and last-gen Ryzen 9s that MSRP for $5-600 or more). Now, I don't want that card, for that price, but I should be able to resell it over the winter for enough to recoup up to 90% of those costs. But even if the net CPU cpst for the 9800X3D rises to $200 or something, that's still way better than any of the alternatives on price alone, other than the fact that the same build using the Microcenter 9700X-MB-RAM bundle I initially set upon would be about the same total price, due to my spending a bit more on RAM/MB otherwise.
But a powerful CPU, combined with budget headroom, demands a more powerful GPU. I have been able to secure an borderline-tolerable Amazon deal for the Galax 4070 Super for $630 with tax, which comes in and out of stock by the hour if you're interested. That's my backup.
I would prefer a 4070 Ti Super above all for its balance of features, performance, and power consumption. But paying anywhere close to $800 pre-tax for a 4070 Ti S is unconscionable, when the Micro Center Powercolor 7900XT Hellhound - a good submodel - is $650 with tax and coupon. An AsRock submodel is also offered for $5 more. I could even get a 7900XTX for $820 retail, and that model has seen sales far below $800 as well. So if we were talking $700 retail, sure that's worth a look....
I'm not even sure if I shouldn't cancel the 4070 S in favor of one of those 7900XT if they come back into stock in the near future. I don't know if I should prefer a 4070 S over a 7900XT at around the same price. At any rate, even if I wound up stuck with a Micro Center card due to the 15-day return policy amid my travels over the holidays, I could also resell them over the winter. Charging just $750 or so, which I think the market would bear, would be enough to net out the cost.
MSI is selling two 4070 Ti S - Aero & Expert - for $720 and $730 respectively, and there is a current 5% coupon, but I've heard bad things about blowers (Aero), and these are also very intermittently in stock. I'll get an email alert if it ever returns to stock.
Nevertheless, $755 with tax for a 4070 Ti S (Expert) is still hard to swallow. And now there's another MSI, a Ventus 3X, on sale for the genuinely-great price of $600 on Amazon. I am preemptively securing the order just in case. But then again, MSI Ventus seems to be one of the very least-good submodels of any graphics card, and the Amazon vendor MSI is selling through is a no-name account (official MSI storefront, using a no-name partner). But I can expect an easy return if it comes to it, since it's Amazon.
So to recap:
My CPU will be 9800X3D.
My safety is a Galax 4070 Super for $630 w/ tax.
I have a Powercolor 7900XT Hellhound reserved at Micro Center for expected $650 w/ tax+coupon.
I just twitch-bought a MSI 4070 Ti Super Ventus 3X for $650 w/ tax off Amazon, but the submodel is suboptimal and it seems a bit of a gamble as to whether I'll actually get what I ordered.
Should I just hold out for good deals in January? "Settle" with the Galax 4070 S? Nix the Galax and get an almost-price-matched MC 7900XT? Or should I wait on the advent of a $600 RTX 5080 or Radeon 8900XT with 50% improvement over the current options?
To think, when I started researching this build last month, I would have immediately settled for this $480 7900GRE... So remember, I'm already paying a $100 premium for the 4070 S over the 7900 GRE, and that's a lot of agitation. It's all well within my budget due to the CPU savings, but I wouldn't take a flagship 4090 offered for $1000, because I just don't need to spend that money.
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