When is the best time of year to build a PC?

[RebekaM1]

I imagine either right at the introduction of new CPUs and GPUs? Maybe right before if you want to save money? I'm starting to look into building myself as best of a future proof machine for ~$1000 USD (only need tower hardware, no OS or accessories needed) and I was hoping to get some advice on timing, as this is a passion project that can wait until the time is right.

[Chris Kawa]

Having built a lot of systems I think there's just never a good time. There's always something just around the corner.
Just recently you had a new line of CPUs come out, new line of GPU's, PCIe 4.0 motherboards and SSDs. All of those few months apart so there's always something new you'd wish you waited just a little bit more for. There are also new lineups already announced.

PC parts life cycle is getting shorter and shorter, kinda like with phones. Top of the line PC is gonna be an average machine next year and a current middle one is gonna be the low end so it's really hard to make PCs future proof. You can upgrade GPU quite easily (unless you need to change power supply too), but usually when you want to change CPU it comes with new motherboard (because they keep changing sockets), cooling solution and often a higher clocked RAM to not create bottlenecks.

You need to accept that whatever best setup you make here and now you're gonna wish you waited probably already a month or two later. Either a new part will come out or the one you got will be discounted in some store. IMO You might as well do it whenever.

[Kent-Dorfman]

I NEVER buy cutting edge. Since I only run Linux, and before that BSD-UNIX, I've never gambled on waiting for newer chipset to be fully supported on a platform. Look for middle of the road tech that has gathered a large enough following not fade into obscurity when the the next gen cpu or bus architecture comes along. I need to be able to get RAM and peripherals for up to ten years after a workstation purchase.

Currently on a 2cpu Westmere supermicro mobo with ten SATA channels across two controllers done as software raid 5. It's been running for nearly ten years and has only gone thru a new power supply and GPU upgrades. also did upgrade to 2tbyte disks in the raid array last year. With 16 cores and 24mbyte RAM it's still plenty powerful enough for real development.

[JonB]

I never buy "cutting edge" because I can't afford it! Wait a year and it gets a lot cheaper! :) Nothing wrong with 5 year old hardware, it's slower than top-of-the-range now but not that much slower ;-)

[fcarney]

@Kent-Dorfman said in When is the best time of year to build a PC?:

24mbyte RAM
Hardcore man, hardcore. Running DOS on that baby? ;-)

I stopped building desktops. Last computer was a 6 core intel based lappy. Does what I need. Gonna wait until I can get a sizable upgrade for my next comp. Might consider a desktop, but lappys are so useful. My computer before my lappy was a desktop that I never really upgraded.

[Kent-Dorfman]

cannot stand laptops. ... also cannot keep my m,g,t straight either, apparently. LOL

[AnneRanch]

@RebekaM1 said in When is the best time of year to build a PC?:

I imagine either right at the introduction of new CPUs and GPUs? Maybe right before if you want to save money? I'm starting to look into building myself as best of a future proof machine for ~$1000 USD (only need tower hardware, no OS or accessories needed) and I was hoping to get some advice on timing, as this is a passion project that can wait until the time is right.

wait for full moon and if you are a believer , does not matter what you believe in , pray a lot. Sacrificial offering to your chosen deity is also recommended.

Seriously - gut you tower and buy / install Intel® Celeron(R) CPU J1900 @ 1.99GHz × 4

No CPU fan to disturb your thoughts.
But NO IDE without additional hardware.

Yes, I got tons of money for advertising here...