Best time for a new build?

[Stochastic]

I'm planning on making a new midrange build ($1200-$1400) in the next few months. Of course as with many others I've been waiting for Ivy Bridge and the 28nm graphics refresh. However, I'm concerned that it could be a while before midrange GPUs are released and become affordable. It also looks like IVB will be a bit pricier than Sandy Bridge CPUs. Moreover, SSD prices have largely resisted falling. Combined, these factors mean that it might be hard to build a cutting edge PC and stay within my budget.

This having been said, do you think summer 2012 will be a good time to build? I've waited long enough that I'm willing to make some sacrifices in terms of price/performance, but I'm also able to hold out a bit longer if necessary.

 

[DSF]

Do you need monitor/keyboard/mouse/OS?

If not (or if all you need is the OS), you should still be fine with $1400. You can build a pretty kicking system for $1000 right now, so $1400 should do you just fine, even if IVB is a little pricier.

 

[Slugbait]

This having been said, do you think summer 2012 will be a good time to build? I've waited long enough that I'm willing to make some sacrifices in terms of price/performance, but I'm also able to hold out a bit longer if necessary.

I did the same damn thing a few years ago...I waited. This was back when AMD was about to release their first video cards after buying ATi, and I thought, "Why buy a 8600GTS now? Wait a few more months for AMD, and force the competition to drop prices." My machine was mostly built except for the video card, so I bought a cheap-n-crappy PCI-E card just to get the OS installed, get the machine configured to my liking, and await the card for the price I hoped.

Sounds logical, right? But AMD's best first release were designed NOT to compete with the 8800GTX. They went straight for the mediocre. Prices for nVidia cards actually went up about 5% across the board.

So I paid a bit more for my card. I had waited long enough.

In short...yeah, summer 2012 sounds great.

 

[LgFriess]

If you're anything like me... use the PC for games and web surfing... the console generation has really helped define when I'll upgrade. I'm still running my 2008 build q9550@3.4, gtx280, and can honestly play just about everything fine. Of course I'm starting to run into some difficulties and will be upgrading my GPU soon. Something midrange, and hopefully it'll last until the new consoles hit next year.

It's been an odd change for me. Upgrading use to be part of PC gaming. Something I just accepted. A MUST do. Now the MUST part is over. Recommended requirements for Diablo3 for example:

Windows® Vista/7 (latest service packs)

Intel® Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz or AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 5600+ 2.8 GHz

2 GB RAM

NVIDIA® GeForce® 260 or ATI Radeon™ HD 4870 or better

Not minimum, recommended. So I'll wait. Not for the typical next PC part just about to release, but for software actually designed to push my system out of the game completely.

Edit: Just read this today as well,

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/...nals-a-sea-change-in-the-console-industry.ars

 

[mfenn]

The best time to upgrade is when you decide that you're current PC isn't doing what you want it to do. It really doesn't have much to do with what is just over the horizon.