When would be a good time to upgrade my system?

[Cougar7]

TLDR: Do you think early 2019 would be a good time to upgrade GPU/CPU/RAM, or would a little earlier/later be better?

Detail:

This forum helped me purchase the parts for my current build almost 4 years ago (spring 2014), and I'm thinking of upgrading at some point on the horizon.

My build (core components):
i5 4430 CPU
GTX 760 GPU
8 GB DDR3 RAM

Looking to upgrade/replace:
CPU
Motherboard (for new CPU and RAM)
GPU
RAM (up to 16 GB)

My thoughts:
I'll be leaving for a few months but I should return by the end of summer/beginning of fall. I was thinking of upgrading around the 5-year mark (which will be about spring of 2019), but I'm willing to push that sooner or postpone it for better timing with prices and new tech (I know, new tech comes every year or two, but I probably wouldn't want to buy right before the new generation is released).

I'm looking to spend about what I paid for for the original parts (i5 4430 was ~$180, 760 was ~$250, mobo was ~$100 or so), mainly for a newer replacement to keep up with things. Right now GPU prices are crazy high (RAM looks high at the moment as well), not to mention the new generation will be coming out soon, am I right?

Core question:
So, considering upcoming technology, when do you think would be the best time to upgrade, price-wise? Shortly after new graphics card series is released? Whenever the GPU market stabilizes (thanks, crypto-miners)? Or do you think roughly a year from now is good?

 

[captaincharisma]

if this was a question you would of asked this time last year i would say wait but with AMD ryzen and intel 8th gen CPU's out now and how much of an improvement they are over previews CPU's now would be a good time to upgrade. the only problem right now is the bitcoin craze has made prices for computer parts crazy expensive.

 

[Cougar7]

if this was a question you would of asked this time last year i would say wait but with AMD ryzen and intel 8th gen CPU's out now and how much of an improvement they are over previews CPU's now would be a good time to upgrade. the only problem right now is the bitcoin craze has made prices for computer parts crazy expensive.

Yeah, the thing is the GPU is the priority upgrade (and the most expensive of the upgrades), followed by the RAM (actually, immediately the RAM upgrade is a big one too). I probably could get away with only upgrading the RAM and GPU without swapping out the motherboard and CPU, but I figured that would be silly because it's only a matter of time until I would be swapping out the mobo anyway, and the sticks I have now probably wouldn't be compatible or ideal with the new mobo, so I might as well do them all at once in about a year.

Do you think the prices will have stabilized by then from the bitcoin craze?

 

[geofelt]

The time to upgrade is when your current rig no longer does what you want it to do, and you have the budget for the upgrade.

There are always new parts coming out, and they have better price/performance than the previous gen.
If you wait for the next best thing, you will wait forever.

Yes, graphics card prices are high(boo! to miners)

To counter this, some sellers are offering bundles which include a more modestly priced graphics card along with a motherboard.

On the cpu side, you may find that a used I7-4790K represents a good cpu upgrade even if your motherboard does not support overclocking.

Otherwise, plan on an 8th gen intel processor. Perhaps a 6 core I5-8400 or better.

On the graphics side, a GTX1060 would be a nice upgrade. Note that the 6gb versions are stronger(and pricier) than the 3gb versions. To hedge your bet, buy a EVGA card, they have a 90 day trade up program if the new card is not as strong as you want.

On ram, a caveat... adding 8gb of ddr3 to your current rig is not guaranteed to work. Perhaps 90%

My guess is that the mining craze bubble will burst, sooner than later.
When it does, the market will be flooded with used mining cards. But, nobody should buy one that was so heavily used.

 

[Cougar7]

The time to upgrade is when your current rig no longer does what you want it to do, and you have the budget for the upgrade.

There are always new parts coming out, and they have better price/performance than the previous gen.
If you wait for the next best thing, you will wait forever.

I realize that, but like I said it would be silly to buy something when literally a month or two away the next generation is out and that new generation is a significant improvement. I replaced my laptop last year, and was looking in the price range that could only afford a 960M graphics card (this was late 2016). However, I decided to wait a few months for Pascal, and ended up getting a good laptop with a 1050 Ti in it, which I do not regret.

On the cpu side, you may find that a used I7-4790K represents a good cpu upgrade even if your motherboard does not support overclocking.

Otherwise, plan on an 8th gen intel processor. Perhaps a 6 core I5-8400 or better.

I was leaning towards the 8th gen i5, perhaps i7 if I really want to splurge, but that i5-8400 did look like a good one (my short semi-uneducated browsing also lead me to look at the 8600 as well, but that's a debate for when I'm actually choosing the parts to upgrade).

On the graphics side, a GTX1060 would be a nice upgrade. Note that the 6gb versions are stronger(and pricier) than the 3gb versions. To hedge your bet, buy a EVGA card, they have a 90 day trade up program if the new card is not as strong as you want.

The 1060 is what I was thinking (although in today's market, price-wise the 1050 Ti is a better match). Of course, by this time next year they could have the 1160 (or 2060, as rumors suggest it might be called), which would probably be my target GPU, assuming prices have normalized.

On ram, a caveat... adding 8gb of ddr3 to your current rig is not guaranteed to work. Perhaps 90%

Yeah, I heard that, which was another reason to upgrade the motherboard, CPU, GPU, and memory all at once.

My guess is that the mining craze bubble will burst, sooner than later.
When it does, the market will be flooded with used mining cards. But, nobody should buy one that was so heavily used.

I hesitate to buy used computer parts anyway. I'm thinking (completely uneducated guess here) that the prices will start to decline back to "normal" price ranges in about 8-10 months. Does that sound about right? That, combined with a recently released [whatever nVidia's new series will be called for the *60] card, leads me to think that would be a good time to buy. But I don't follow these things much, only when I'm looking to buy (and even then it's not very deep digging), so I figured it would be good to get more expert opinion on the matter.