Best time to buy

[EvanJackPenn]

Hey guys,

I wasn't too certain where to post this, but I guess it's hardware

I'm wondering - when is the "best" time to buy components, in terms of pricing? Are there generally sales around Christmas or January time? It could save me a fortune! I understand that the price of "old-gen" components will drop as the next generation is released (e.g., GTX 400s dropping when the 600s were released), but I am one of those who wants the "best" so that isn't too relevant.

Thanks for your help and experience!

[ed^chigliak]

The best time to buy has little to do with cost for me at least. Buy kit when you have reasonable confidence it won't suck due to immaturity of hardware, firmware, bios or drivers and you will find prices are also somewhat less by this stage. You can pick up some bargains if you persist in hunting but they are easily missed. The normal practice for retailers is to try shift old stuff at the original prices on the special offers pages. Pre Christmas the prices are slightly higher and post Xmas they will go back to normal. This creates the illusion of a January sale.

The best time to buy is the midpoint between generations. For price and for sanity.

[kookjobs]

you mean the finatial crisis coming?

[pooley]

The best time to buy is the midpoint between generations. For price and for sanity.

This about sums it up

[kalniel]

Hey guys,

I wasn't too certain where to post this, but I guess it's hardware

I'm wondering - when is the "best" time to buy components, in terms of pricing? Are there generally sales around Christmas or January time? It could save me a fortune! I understand that the price of "old-gen" components will drop as the next generation is released (e.g., GTX 400s dropping when the 600s were released), but I am one of those who wants the "best" so that isn't too relevant.

Thanks for your help and experience!

When you need it. Not before, not after

[Noxvayl]

With kalniel on this one. You buy what you can afford when you need it.

Having said that if you don't need it right away and have a larger window to purchase in these are the things I look for before purchasing upgrades:

• New sockets released, will you be able to do a drop in upgrade in 2 years time?
• Memory trends, is there buzz surrounding new memory technology and how long will current gen remain competitive?
• Architecture roadmaps, is there likely to be significant change in the near future?
• Application support and the best guesses for where things are headed. No point buying a CPU that is good now if it ages quickly and within 2 years is unable to cope with newer code.
• And most importantly how easy will it be for you to add other components around your setup? If you want to try crossfire/SLI you need lots of PCI-E Lanes, if you see yourself using USB hard drives for backup you'd need good USB 3 or external SATA support.

If you provide a time-frame for your proposed purchase I could give my opinion of what you should be considering.

[Saracen]

When you need it. Not before, not after

That .... though if you wait for a new model and grab the old one when prices have dropped but before stock is exhausted, you can get a bargain.

Also, having bought, do not keep looking at prices, because whatever you bought and almost irrespective of how good a deal you got, sooner or later there'll be something better, cheaper or worse yet, both.


In answer to the original question, my answer is that I buy what I want, when I want it and when I'm happy I'm getting what to me is decent value for money.

For instance, I refused to buy a Kindle until the price dropped to around the £100 mark, I've refused to buy an SSD so far, but it's getting pretty close, and I'm not buying an iPhone until they knock about £400 (or maybe more) off the current price .... so I presume I'm not buying one ever.

So, EvanJackPenn, only one person can really tell you the right time to buy and that's you.

[EvanJackPenn]

If you provide a time-frame for your proposed purchase I could give my opinion of what you should be considering.

I am looking to buy as soon after Christmas as possible. It'll be a gaming build.

I know that, inevitably, I'll buy something and then within a month there'll be a "breakthrough" to make a 1000x better component. I know it...

Thanks!