Why is Building a PC so Expensive Right Now?

[Alexander H]

2 hours ago, Thermosman said:

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/Vys8TW/asrock-z370m-pro4-micro-atx-lga1151-motherboard-z370m-pro4

No rgb, but not overpriced

All black. Thanks! 

[SandalsWarrior]

18 hours ago, Alexander H said:

So I tried to build a budget gaming PC on PC Part Picker and I manged to do it. A GTX 1060 3GB, i3-8100, and 8GB of DDR4 ram. It should be cheap, right? NOPE! I summed up the total and it was over $1200! Why is it so expensive if a build like this should be under $650? Can someone please explain this to me?

 

Link to Build List Here: https://pcpartpicker.com/user/AlexanderH/saved/#view=wjHZ8d

GPUs are expensive as hell right now, should be back to normal in a few months when nVidia releases the new architecture. Solid State memory is also expensive as hell (RAM and SSD) because Samsung is the main producer and they might have had some problems with producing it, regardless, this year they should introduce GDDR6 and DDR5 for RAM i think, so that might fix the memory shortage as I imagine the supply will be huge when they release it.

 

Here are 2 excelent videos on this topic from Gamers Nexus: 

 

EDIT: would not recommend buying/building a PC right now because it is the worst time to buy/build a pc(I think buying a whole pc is cheaper than buying parts)

[jtmoseley]

20 hours ago, Alexander H said:

So I tried to build a budget gaming PC on PC Part Picker and I manged to do it. A GTX 1060 3GB, i3-8100, and 8GB of DDR4 ram. It should be cheap, right? NOPE! I summed up the total and it was over $1200! Why is it so expensive if a build like this should be under $650? Can someone please explain this to me?

 

Link to Build List Here: https://pcpartpicker.com/user/AlexanderH/saved/#view=wjHZ8d

You don't need a liquid cooler for the 8100. It shouldn't run that hot, and isn't overclockable. Leave it with a cheaper cooler. Don't spend almost 200 dollars on a z370 board, you can pick one up for around 120. GPU prices are through the roof due to stock issues, so try to pick one out in stock. A 1060 3GB should be around 200, but that one is 440. 1050ti's are around 200 ish if you want to downgrade to that. If you want budget you should not get an expensive case, get like a cheap corsair carbide for budget ones. Do not waste performance for aesthetics. Also, make sure to look more on RAM, but you might never get an 8 gig stick for under 85. Get windows 10 from kinguin, and you can probably get a 450 watt power supply for cheaper. Don't accidently get high end parts for a low end build.

[Alexander H]

4 minutes ago, jtmoseley said:

You don't need a liquid cooler for the 8100. It shouldn't run that hot, and isn't overclockable. Leave it with a cheaper cooler. Don't spend almost 200 dollars on a z370 board, you can pick one up for around 120. GPU prices are through the roof due to stock issues, so try to pick one out in stock. A 1060 3GB should be around 200, but that one is 440. 1050ti's are around 200 ish if you want to downgrade to that. If you want budget you should not get an expensive case, get like a cheap corsair carbide for budget ones. Do not waste performance for aesthetics. Also, make sure to look more on RAM, but you might never get an 8 gig stick for under 85. Get windows 10 from kinguin, and you can probably get a 450 watt power supply for cheaper. Don't accidently get high end parts for a low end build.

Made a better build for only $40. Tell me what you think! And what is the best fans for the case and a good website to get Windows 10 (Pro) for cheap. Thanks! Link Here: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/smdjjc

[jtmoseley]

2 minutes ago, Alexander H said:

Made a better build for only $40. Tell me what you think! And what is the best fans for the case and a good website to get Windows 10 (Pro) for cheap. Thanks! Link Here: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/smdjjc

You don't need windows 10 pro. The only difference between that and home is the 128 GB of ram possibility, which is 1500 dollars of RAM. For windows 10, check kinguin. Here is a windows 10 pro https://www.kinguin.net/category/19429/windows-10-professional-oem-key/ .  You really won't need a huge amount of fans either... Cooling should be fine. You don't need nearly 750 watts of power, especially with the 100 dollar price tag. 500-550 should be fine for that. The NZXT kraken is a great cooler, but I don't think that I would recommend it. You can custom build a loop with EKWB's kits for only like 30 dollars more... So I wouldn't recommend it. If I were you I would just get a founders edition 1060 6GB and then buy this kit: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=37B-000B-001G8 so that you can liquidcool both you gpu and cpu, for not much money. You would also not need to buy fans, since the liquid cooling covers both of your main heat producers. You can also get cheaper RAM if you look for it. With this kind of market, do not settle with a parts list based on the stock issues and prices, just look around on every site you can for cheap stuff. I got a 1080 for 530 from looking. 

[jtmoseley]

3 minutes ago, jtmoseley said:

You don't need windows 10 pro. The only difference between that and home is the 128 GB of ram possibility, which is 1500 dollars of RAM. For windows 10, check kinguin. Here is a windows 10 pro https://www.kinguin.net/category/19429/windows-10-professional-oem-key/ .  You really won't need a huge amount of fans either... Cooling should be fine. You don't need nearly 750 watts of power, especially with the 100 dollar price tag. 500-550 should be fine for that. The NZXT kraken is a great cooler, but I don't think that I would recommend it. You can custom build a loop with EKWB's kits for only like 30 dollars more... So I wouldn't recommend it. If I were you I would just get a founders edition 1060 6GB and then buy this kit: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=37B-000B-001G8 so that you can liquidcool both you gpu and cpu, for not much money. You would also not need to buy fans, since the liquid cooling covers both of your main heat producers. You can also get cheaper RAM if you look for it. With this kind of market, do not settle with a parts list based on the stock issues and prices, just look around on every site you can for cheap stuff. I got a 1080 for 530 from looking. 

If you really want budget, then buy a prebuilt from NZXT or something. NZXT only charges 99 dollars for the build fee, everything else is actually MSRP. Building your own just isn't as easy in this market.

[Eduard the weeb]

 

20 hours ago, Enderman said:

Because GPUs and ram are expensive right now.

Also you're buying an overly expensive case, PSU, cooler, etc.

also buying full windows and not using Kinguin 

[Donut417]

6 hours ago, SandalsWarrior said:

GPUs are expensive as hell right now, should be back to normal in a few months when nVidia releases the new architecture. Solid State memory is also expensive as hell (RAM and SSD) because Samsung is the main producer and they might have had some problems with producing it, regardless, this year they should introduce GDDR6 and DDR5 for RAM i think, so that might fix the memory shortage as I imagine the supply will be huge when they release it.

 

Here are 2 excelent videos on this topic from Gamers Nexus: 

 

EDIT: would not recommend buying/building a PC right now because it is the worst time to buy/build a pc(I think buying a whole pc is cheaper than buying parts)

I have to disagree. While 10 serries cards will drop when the new cards are released, thats due to the miners, no longer wanting those cards. The new cards will be driven up to $1500. The used market will explode with ex mining cards. The issue is, mining runs the cards hard, so they will have less of a life span. The fact is just because something new is coming out, doesnt mean the production issues will be fix. Its simple. A factory can product X amount. While Nvida or AMD could get better yeilds, I expect there to still be shortage. They need more production plants, but thats not likley to happen. TSMC recently is breaking ground on a new FAB, they staid something like 2021 before its up to full production, and many people dont feel they can achieve it in that little amount of time. This leads me to believe that this will go on for years and years, until the power that be figure out how to deal with the shortages. 

[SandalsWarrior]

14 hours ago, Donut417 said:

I have to disagree. While 10 serries cards will drop when the new cards are released, thats due to the miners, no longer wanting those cards. The new cards will be driven up to $1500. The used market will explode with ex mining cards. The issue is, mining runs the cards hard, so they will have less of a life span. The fact is just because something new is coming out, doesnt mean the production issues will be fix. Its simple. A factory can product X amount. While Nvida or AMD could get better yeilds, I expect there to still be shortage. They need more production plants, but thats not likley to happen. TSMC recently is breaking ground on a new FAB, they staid something like 2021 before its up to full production, and many people dont feel they can achieve it in that little amount of time. This leads me to believe that this will go on for years and years, until the power that be figure out how to deal with the shortages. 

I get what you're saying, but I was talking about buying the cards from the new architecture not hoping that the old ones will go down in price because the new ones will be close to msrp and if you are fast enough, you can snatch one up before the mining shitstorm starts again with the new architecture

[Tcrumpen]

On 2/4/2018 at 10:06 PM, Alexander H said:

So I tried to build a budget gaming PC on PC Part Picker and I manged to do it. A GTX 1060 3GB, i3-8100, and 8GB of DDR4 ram. It should be cheap, right? NOPE! I summed up the total and it was over $1200! Why is it so expensive if a build like this should be under $650? Can someone please explain this to me?

 

Link to Build List Here: https://pcpartpicker.com/user/AlexanderH/saved/#view=wjHZ8d

GPU prices are really high due to the Crytomining bubble and there is a global shortage of DDR4 RAM (not sure if also a knock-on affect of the cryocurrency mining bubble) thus driving up the price of RAM

 

My suggestion if you must get a new machine right now is to buy pre-built; for the most part they stay reasonable prices for the gear they have inside

[GoldenLag]

2 minutes ago, Tcrumpen said:

GPU prices are really high due to the Crytomining bubble and there is a global shortage of DDR4 RAM (not sure if also a knock-on affect of the cryocurrency mining bubble) thus driving up the price of RAM

 

My suggestion if you must get a new machine right now is to buy pre-built; for the most part they stay reasonable prices for the gear they have inside

I believe i can get a i5 8400/7400 with gtx 1070 for around 1200 in a prebuilt. And thats Norwegian prices. 

[cluelessgenius]

On 4.2.2018 at 11:11 PM, wii8cookies said:

The demand for parts is high right now due to crypto miners, driving up the prices, but I'm predicting in a few months all the miners will realize it won't make them as rich as they think, and sell their rigs, flooding the market with more parts driving the price back down, to maybe even lower than they were before.

 

So more or less, wait a couple months, and then the prices should be reasonable again. Then buy your rig.

i wonder whatll happen to the used market price if that happens. 1080 ti for 300 or so ? really interesting

[Tcrumpen]

2 minutes ago, GoldenLag said:

I believe i can get a i5 8400/7400 with gtx 1070 for around 1200 in a prebuilt. And thats Norwegian prices. 

From Cyperpower the below system is £1300

 

INFINITY X66 GTX PRO GAMING PC

• Intel® Core™ Processor i5-8600K
• 16GB DDR4 2400mhz Memory
• MSI GeForce® GTX 1070Ti 8GB Video Card
• ASUS Prime Z370-P Motherboard
• Samsung 250GB SSD
• Cooler Master Seidon 240V WC CPU Cooler
• Thermaltake Core G21 Gaming Case

[GilmourD]

1 minute ago, cluelessgenius said:

i wonder whatll happen to the used market price if that happens. 1080 ti for 300 or so ? really interesting

Probably not that low but we'll probably get some discounts off MSRP.

[Tcrumpen]

@GoldenLag That system was without any customisation as well; you could decrease it's price by changing the PSU for example or dialing down the graphics card to say a 1060

[GoldenLag]

1 minute ago, Tcrumpen said:

@GoldenLag That system was without any customisation as well; you could decrease it's price by changing the PSU for example or dialing down the graphics card to say a 1060

Its great to see pre-builds staying mostly unchanged by this mining graze

[SpaceGhostC2C]

On 2/4/2018 at 11:27 PM, Alexander H said:

Eh. More of an Intel guy

Well, you start to see then: it's not "building a PC" that's expensive, it's just that you want something much more specific than that. Like a particular brand, or 1060-3G that's $100 more expensive than a 1060-6G, or one of the most expensive motherboard  that supports your (locked) CPU, or an after-market CPU cooler...

 

So, considering a 1060-6G is not what I'd call entry (if you're going for low cost, may as well consider RX 560 and 1050, 1050ti), and that you can shave more than $250 off that build while actually improving the GPU...

 

At the end of the day, a quad-core, 1060 build with SSD boot drive and HDD for storage is around $900 (EUR 750 in Germany, some part swaps needed when taking the build to US - but it's also ~$930 just by modifying yours). You can go cheaper without the SSD, maybe replacing all storage with an SSHD. You can go even cheaper for an "entry gaming build", while rounding up closer to 1,000 with a better CPU or 16GB of RAM.

 

Despite all the complaints, I don't think it's that bad a time, not by (relatively recent) historical standards. It's just that we had better not so long ago, and it's hard to see that vanish.

Basically, we are sad that a 970 is almos as much as it used to be  

[Jihakuz]

-You're buying the latest generation of CPU's, so the price is going to be jacked up.

-The MoBo that you have chosen is ridiculous for the CPU. It's more expensive than the actual CPU the begin with. It's also Z370 which is unnecessary as you physically can not over clock that CPU, which would be the entire point in buying a Z370 board. I also honestly don't understand you bias toward Intel, at the lower end (which is where you're rig would be headed) their prices make much more sense. Also every single Ryzen chip can be overclocked, which is a major bonus.

-The cooler is unnecessary, that i3 inst going to run hot plus you can't overclock it. Go with an air cooler, like a hyper 212 evo.

-RAM is in short supply at the moment, so it is more expensive. You've gone with top of the line RAM, that's also going to be more expensive.

-2TB of storage is slightly excessive if you are just gaming, and if you do for some reason need all that room, again, you can downgrade.

-The case can also be downgraded but that's a reasonable one.

-You are also paying £89.99 for Windows 10, that's always going to be expensive unless you decide to just use it in trial mode.

 

Here's a more reasonable system:

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/fmPscY

This one comes to $593.99 or ~$670 with Windows included

 

[Seefer]

On 2/4/2018 at 8:15 PM, Donut417 said:

yeah but according to them they do it for the "research". Not the money. /sarcasm 

Yeah research how much money they can make LMAO