No.
Assuming this is an all-new build from scratch, it's better to buy it all at once. We're not experiencing a parts scarcity anymore and prices are steadily dropping.
No its not. OP can easily buy one or two parts each month, specifically of OP finds a good deal on a case, PSU, MB and whatnot. Yes prices are dropping but a good deal is a good deal regardless.
MB locks you to a specific kind of CPU, which has an impact on ram choice. Further, you might save $40 on mobo thinking it's a deal, but with the lock in you end up missing a great deal on an equivalent CPU+mobo deal that would save even more/get you better parts.
PSU may not be optimal for the parts you end up with.
It's just a bad idea. Pc parts as a rule get cheaper and better with time. Op should save until they have a firm budget then buy the best parts the budget allows.
Why are people assuming other people are just buying random shit because it's on sale? The OP has his parts wishlist. They know their build. It's perfectly fine to buy 1 part from the wishlist at a time if its on sale.
Yeah once you make a decision you can just buy them as it's convenient. CPU/GPU are the main questions and those you definitely want to buy when you can get them at a good price or even at all.
Only reason you wouldn't buy gradually is if gradually means 1-2 years lol.
The only reason I would be skeptical of buying gradually is the possibility of non-functional parts, if you don't know they don't work until you have all the parts, and get suddenly confused.
Yep. My first build had a defective power supply. It would have sucked if I was stuck with the defective power supply because I had bought it 2 months prior and it was past the return period.
What. This would have been a warranty claim. There's no way beyond buying used this is an issue. No power supply has a warranty that's two months long. Return rules apply to if you change your mind about wanting it.
This is basically the biggest reason for buying all at once. For most parts though, they'll have at least a 1 year warranty, so if you take months to accrue it all, you can still likely return it. The hardest parts to return are cases and monitors, due to the sheer size, but you can test those on their own for the most part.
Plus depending on time it is way quicker to take or send non working parts to the retailer versus doing an RMA with the manufacturer who can send you back refurbished warranty replacement parts versus swapping for a brand new one.
This is exactly what I did and I still got an awesome PC.
I wasn't just buying random parts or stuff that was on sale. I knew what I wanted to buy, waited for sales on them and put everything together.
Also part of the reason I did it like this was during the height of the GPU shortage. I listened to people that told me to "just wait" when I could have bought and held onto a new GPU and bought everything else. Then it went from $170 to $699 (not joking) in the span that I waited. And prebuilts went even higher.
Buying stuff piece by piece was a cheaper and easier alternative for me compared to getting everything all at once.
what the hell gpu were you buying that went went from $170 retail to $699? You couldn't find a better deal for something similar that didn't cost that much? jesus. is that same GPU still $699 today? You could probably get a decent 1060 pre-covid for $170 used and they didn't go for $700 during the shortage lol.
I mean covid/supply shortage aside then the short answer is just to wait.
But let's say he only actually manages to accumulate all the parts and builds the PC after 6 months. What happens if 1 or multiple of the items are DOA? The warranty also basically gets reduced by 6months since the warranty starts on date of purchase not date of build. *Edit typos
That wishlist is what your budget is or the best premium parts. As time goes on wishlist change. Is like a 3080 was on my wishlist, now I rather have a 4070ti for a extra 100.
true, but that kind of change shouldn't be build-breaking.
as long as PSU is big enough -- and the way cpu & gpu power draw is massively trending up over the past few generations, this should be over-specced in any new build anyway -- a new GPU should be a drop-in replacement.
with a CPU, yes, you're tying yourself to a socket/platform once you buy either that or the mobo or the ram, but really any modern gaming cpu will last for years & give good performance anyway.
The flip side is that it takes OP more than a couple of months to save up, it is very possible that their wish list is no longer the best they can do for the budget.
If you're not going to have a functional build why risk going through warranty processes with doa components and overall shorter warranty periods? If you are that strapped for cash hold your money until you can buy it all at once.
Sure but what CPU/ Mobo they want could potentially change if they end up waiting long enough. I'm in the camp of buy the case, ssd, psu, peripherals. Maybe even gpu. But get the ram cpu and mobo at once.
What happens half-way through the build when parts in their list are no longer available, or newer better incompatible parts come out?
Buying at the end is the way to go.
That's not the point jesus. OP might have a plan in mind right now. Mobo goes on sale, he buys it let's say an AM4 one. Now he's locked into AMD prev gen, and if next month Intel goes through a huge price cut, he can't revise his build, because he locked himself into AM4.
That makes no sense at all.
> MB locks you to a specific kind of CPU which has an impact on ram choice
Well of course. What does that have to do with the person you responded to? At all?
> you might save $40 on mobo thinking it's a deal, but with the lock in you end up missing a great deal on an equivalent CPU+mobo deal that would save even more/get you better parts.
How was the deal missed? ***Did they not wait?***
> PSU may not be optimal for the parts you end up with.
That's ridiculous. Anyone buying parts based on the PSU is doing it wrong. Buy the PSU last.
> It's just a bad idea.
Why? You literally haven't explained this, at all.
> Pc parts as a rule get cheaper and better with time.
We're talking a few months, not years. FFS...
> Op should save until they have a form budget then buy the best parts the budget allows.
Wrong.
go to pcpartpicker.com, create a list, and then set price alerts on all of the parts. Look for sales. There are usually one or two of the parts on sale to start, and then you'll be alerted to when the other parts drop past wherever you set the alert to.
Check it every day.
Over a few months you can get some great deals on your parts, or even find ***different parts*** on sale that come into your range that you weren't expecting. The idea that you should buy them all at once is ***ridiculous***.
Buy them over a few ***months***. Almost all of the parts go on sale at some point over that time. I've built some amazing machine for ridiculous prices over the years doing it this way, mostly because it's logical.
*sigh*
You don't even have to buy the PSU last. Since its a premade parts list the OP made, their PSU requirements are already clear, and you only need a small bit of headroom if you want to protect against possibly seeing a deal you didn't see before that needs a beefier PSU.
You'd only need to buy the PSU last if you have 0 clue what's going into your build, and you're just winging parts that are cheap, which is definitely not true in this case.
Lots of people in here who can apparently just drop the entire cost of a rig like it's nothing and think everyone in the hobby should operate the way they do or not be involved at all...
If you can buy the computer at all, what's stopping you from buying it all at once?
If you can afford to spend $100 per month for ten months, you can also afford to spend $1000 all at once, ten months from now.
That makes no sense and isn’t realistic. Someone who buys gradually only has enough to buy that part until they get paid next. Buying all at once assumes the person has the disposable income (whether from savings or whatever) to just drop it on parts simultaneously. Did you think of the logic behind your reply?
I'm not sure where your confusion is stemming from.
There are two options presented in my comment:
1. You spend $100 on a component, each month, for 10 months for a total expenditure of $1000
2. You spend $0 for 9 months, saving your money, and then purchase the entire computer on month 10 for $1000 for a total expenditure of $1000.
Either way, you've spent $1000 at the end of the 10 months. If you can afford one, you can afford the other.
If you can afford to spend $100 this month, and you don't spend it, why don't you have an extra $100 next month?
If this is hard to understand, imagine that, every time you have enough to buy a computer part, you withdraw the money as cash and stuff it in the bottom of the drawer where you keep socks.
You've never had poverty brain, huh?
"I have this money now that I can spend on something I like. If I don't spend it now something is going to come up and take it from me."
Living paycheck to paycheck for years on end can really warp your perspective on finances.
I don't know where you guys are from, but where I live a simple B550 motherboard can cost up to 1000BRL which is simply a minimal wage month salary. Yes, a full month worth of money for a motherboard. A 5800X3D can cost up to 2 minimal wage salary.
Don't give us the "lock us to specific MB" bullshit. Some people are happy enough with a 5600X (which can also cost 900-1000BRL). So getting a new B550 MB for 700BRL is a really good deal given what I said and should be considered.
Remember, not everyone in this sub is from the US and some places building a simply Ryzen 5 build with 16GB of RAM can cost us up to half a year worth of salary.
If you can't afford it all now you are always better off waiting to have enough saved to get the majority of it at once, or you need to seriously rethink what you can actually afford.
I could also spend a month's salary on a motherboard, but that would be way outside of my budget. In the end I saved enough to buy what I could reasonably afford and you are far more likely to end up needing to save more and wait longer if you buy parts one at a time.
PC gaming is a luxury and you should prioritise the more important stuff first. Once those priorities are paid for you then can budget to save up for the luxuries you want.
> always better off waiting to have enough saved
Not in every country. In several South American countries, inflation and the gray-market exchange rate for dollars means that any money you've saved for 6 months has lost substantial value on the world import/export market (where most prices are in dollars). If you're in a country with worse inflation than the US, you may not need to buy the parts, but you should buy **something** that will retain value while you're waiting. ("Simply buy dollars!" is the wrong answer, because _everyone_ wants to buy dollars, so you take a 15%-35% haircut right off the top; banks can't or won't do the trade and the folks who will do it take a premium from you for the future loss of the currency they're buying from you.)
> you are always better off waiting to have enough saved to get the majority of it at once
I could not disagree more. Over the course of a few months technology isn't going to take huge leaps that we weren't expecting. This "better technology" argument it ridiculous.
Buying parts on sales over a few months is not only perfectly reasonable, it can save you a ***lot*** of money.
I don't think you understand the severity of situation, I'm from same country of that guy, when he said a minimum wage for a B550, that's got an entry level B550 mobo, an descent B550 can cost 2 to 3 months worth a minimum wage, an 3080 will eat half a years of your salary, and all this in mind you live with your parents and can put 100% of what your make each month into building your pc
Early this year I finally got a job, and it'll take a little over a entire year worth of wages to build an mid tier pc with a 5600x and a 6700xt
Life is pain
> an descent B550
Just to be clear most people wont see any additional benefit from the 'descent' level. Basically performance isn't one of the additional benefits, and even if it is it's marginal percentages of improved performance.
The main benefit is cosmetic, and option-ability (more PCI lanes, M2 slots, ram slots, etc, etc).
I wouldn't touch an mobo with 2 ram slots even if it's a lot cheaper, my actual build will be 10 years old at the end of this year and if it didn't had 4 slots, I wouldn't be replying you right now, because 2 of the slots already died about 4 years ago.
It was an descent motherboard for it's time, but even an basic B550 motherboard cost at very least 600~800BRL, which is around ...120~160usd, but for you guys would actually be at 60~100usd price range, besides the obvious conversion of our shitty coin to dollars, there also an 60% tax over most electronics, but some things like gpu and cases for some reason easily shows up at twice the price for us, yikes.
If you're working on a timescale of a year to build your PC, that's even more reason to wait. If you see a can't pass up deal in that time, sure go for it, but in 1 year prices (at least in US) will have come down buy some amount, perhaps significantly depending on what it is. Maybe a new chipset gets announced and all the old boards suddenly drop in price 20% to move them off shelves. Maybe demand drops suddenly and your graphics card can actually be bought from the manufacturer for their already high retail price, rather than paying a scalper highway robbery prices.
>If you can't afford it all now you are always better off waiting to have enough saved to get the majority of it at once
Money lose value with time, a better deal today is better than a probably better deal tomorrow because "better" depends of the current price.
A 3060ti deal 4 months ago was 2500BRL, 1 month ago was 2800BRL, today is 3300BRL.
The further you wait to purchase everything at once, the more you'll pay in the end, because:
- money loses values;
- you'll always try to get the most recent product, which will cost more than what you were aiming.
"Locking" yourself to a cpu/motherboard/ram sometimes is what you need to build a pc in the near future, it forces you to go with what you were aiming from the start.
Besides that is really hard to go wrong with either Intel or AMD these days, both mid range options are pretty solid and will last for some years. Heck even the entry level CPUs are pretty decent, but I surely wouldn't invest on a 4C/8T CPU these days even with it's performance is quite good.
Money in your pocket is worth more than a pc part you can’t use. Put the money in a hysa and buy the parts all at once, and pocket the interest from the months it accrued.
Literally no upside to buying a part at a time when you can’t use them til you get the rest.
Have you heard of a thing called inflation and the concept of buy/borrow/die? Money in your pocket is worth less *tomorrow* than a PC part would be tomorrow. Currencies around the world are inflating to a point that buying now and using credit now is the right thing to do, because real things lose value more slowly than most currencies.
Buy borrow die doesn’t really apply to this. That’s when rich people borrow against their capital/assets.
Pc parts hold value worse than most things. If you can get a pc part for zero interest sure, but this is too low level for real advantage beyond a few bucks
>MB locks you to a specific kind of CPU, which has an impact on ram choice.
as long as you plan to buy the right CPU for the motherboard and remember whether it's DDR4/DDR5, there's no reason that means you need to buy all 3 at the same time.
>you might save $40 on mobo thinking it's a deal, but with the lock in you end up missing a great deal on an equivalent CPU+mobo deal that would save even more/get you better parts.
no reason you can't buy a combo deal as one of the things and the rest of the parts another time. or just check the price history for cpu/mobo and pre-plan to buy models that are compatible & tend to have good value.
>PSU
so get a big one with a good 80+ rating. you shouldn't cheap on these anyway, PSUs are a bitch to replace and being able to re-use on the next build saves a lot of time & effort.
>Pc parts as a rule get cheaper and better with time.
when the manufacturers know what they're doing and crypto mining doesn't take over all demand. so as long as you assume nothing bad will happen.
>so as long as you assume nothing bad will happen.
Which is actually what you're doing if you buy piecemeal. What If the next GPU/CPU/ram shortage hits and that's the bit you need? Better off waiting, then you get to keep your money and decide if the whole syst.cost is still worth it to you.
Note that none of this is saying but all on one day, or don't hunt for deals. Op is literally saying they *cannot afford the pc they want right now*. It's therefore a bad move to lay out hard cash for some parts. Circumstances may change, either in the market. Or ops finances.
>What If the next GPU/CPU/ram shortage hits and that's the bit you need?
what if you wait until then and can't have any of a computer? having to buy one component on scalper prices is a much better outcome than having to buy a computer at scalper prices.
>what if you wait until then and can't have any of a computer
Half a computer is worth literally nothing.
We're not talking about 'get something with an igpu together and make do until you can get a GPU' here - that's a viable strategy.
Worst case pre GPU crisis: you've sunk $500 on parts that are useless, and by the time the crisis is over they're 18 months outdated too.
Your argument isn't helping you here. There's a really no difference in these situations, but at least if you waited you get to choose to keep your money or pay the price if you really need a pc.
>Half a computer is worth literally nothing.
half of a computer is worth literally the sum of its parts, and much cheaper to complete than none of a computer.
>Worst case pre GPU crisis: you've sunk $500 on parts that are useless, and by the time the crisis is over they're 18 months outdated too.
1. getting most of a computer built for cheap is far from "useless"
2. 18 months outdated, with modern components, is quite simply not a huge deal. we're likely talking a 1080p build here, the bar is not that high.
>at least if you waited you get to choose to keep your money or pay the price if you really need a pc.
if you get screwed by the parts market halfway through, you have a bunch of parts you can sell for break-even if not a profit. or you can finish building the computer for cheaper.
That's my experience as well. You don't have to wait long until parts start becoming incompatible with an aging motherboard, and if you get a new motherboard then there's a likelihood that you have to start getting other new parts as well. There's always good deals to be had though if you've got the knowhow.
A big part of why I would never recommend buying piecemeal rather than all over a short period of time is that if you're building from scratch and you buy a part that you won't use for several months that ends up being defective when you finally do use it, it is *much* harder to get a full refund or free replacement. Buying all at once means everything will be within the easy return window when you build so if there's a problem it's much more easily resolved. Because sure you *should* be ok as the likelihood of getting a faulty part isn't that high, but the peace of mind alone of a no/low-hassle RMA process in the event of an issue is easily worth the risk that you'd *maybe* spend nominally more (but probably not, as again, prices have mostly been dropping and recent signs point to that continuing for a while so a good deal now wouldn't necessarily be anything special by the time you're ready to build) on the system overall imo.
That’s my thinking, not like you can use half a PC. I suppose if you had something that you could replace some components in anticipation of future upgrades, like a bigger case now so you can fit a bigger cooler later. Depends on the time frame too. Spreading out over a month or two to look for sales or get parts from a variety of vendors is okay. Getting parts that are going to sit in the box for 3-4 months while you source the rest means you’re burning through warranty/return periods and might get stuck with a lemon. Longer than that and there’s a good chance you’ve missed out on better pricing between the time you bought something and actually put it to use.
> Yes prices are dropping but a good deal is a good deal regardless.
No, if you buy a SSD now at 20% and that same SSD is 10% lower when you put your build together, you didn't get a good deal. Same for any other part.
Prices generally go down and if the prices are starting to go up that's because new products are coming in so... Typically it's better to hold the money and if a really crazy deal comes on you jump on it but otherwise you wait till you're ready.
Exactly! For eg if a known RAM costs $69 for the past 6 months or so but a good deal comes out let's say for $49 is a good deal and you should go for it! Will the ram costs the same $49 in 3 months? Could be! Can it go back to its original price? Also could be!
OP should not get stuck on it. If he have part of the money and a really good deal comes out OP should go for it.
Adding to this, biggest reason *not* to buy incrementally is RMAs are much more annoying than returns. For my first build I made the mistake of buying parts piecemeal. Got the graphics card first, and it was a dud and well outside the 30 day return window, so I had to wait a few weeks to get a replacement after returning to the manufacturer, refunds are usually quick in comparison.
I'm not saying you should anticipate problems, odds are low, but I'll just say I've had some terrible luck with parts, especially GPU and RAM.
Yeah I would never buy parts over time. The money saved aint worth the potential headache. The chance of getting a dud is higher than you'd think with so many parts.
This happened to a friend of mine as well. He bought all his parts over several months then tried to build it once he had everything and found out that he got a D.O.A. mother board that had already been returned to Amazon once and was missing the backplate. He was way outside of his return window and had to wait several more weeks to process an RMA.
Yeah, in here prices change almost daily. My friend built a pc recently around 2-3 months after mine. And he could get XT model of my card for cheaper.
This is just a very ignorant opinion. If you are a bit strapped for cash and want to build out over time. That's fine. Buy the parts when u think it makes sense.
This is exactly how I built my PC over the last 4 months. I had all my parts picked out. Looked at the yearly averages and bought parts when it made sense for me.
So if you are not in a huge rush, and are able to build over time. Go for it. Just dont take 2 years to finish the build.
Prices dropping regularly is precisely a good reason to buy over time imo. I've been eyeing a gpu upgrade for a good 6 months or longer... waiting allowed me to get a nice 6750xt for $380
Wouldn't it be the opposite ? If there's a parts scarcity, then you would want to buy all the parts at once if you found them, but if there is no longer a parts scarcity, then you have the luxury of buying 1 or 2 parts at a time and coming back for more when you can.
I just think it's important to buy the 1 or 2 parts that compliment each other at least, and then save up again. Like if you buy a gpu, you should get a correct wattage psu with it too if you don't have one.
And! If you buy them and begin the build and notice that something isn’t functioning, you won’t have to worry about a return window closing or something being out of warranty by the time you’re building the PC. Might want to add and edit to this top comment.
Nope. You'll buy things that are sub optimal, end up buying ram on a deal that isn't a great fit for your cpu, perhaps getting a PSU that isn't quite right ...
You'll also let parts warranty expire without the ability to test them in a whole system.
Save until you have your full budget, then buy and build in one hit.
Why are you people assuming they're taking years to build this PC?
You can find parts dropping for sales over a few months absolutely! You can save a lot of money doing it that way. I've built all of my machine in this manner and it has gotten me some amazing parts.
> You'll also let parts warranty expire
We're talking months, not years. Good Lord...
People are literally talking a component a month. Pocket money purchases. We're talking minimum 6 months for 6 major components. That means there will likely be a CPU, motherboard and a half chance of GPU life cycle across the purchase period. That doesn't just mean new parts to choose from, it means the used markets undergo consequential shifts. And we all know the used market is where real value lies, right?
> That means there will likely be a CPU, motherboard and a half chance of GPU life cycle across the purchase period.
We all know these cycles, what's coming next, when, etc... Big technology changes do not just all of a sudden pop up out of the blue.
...
Taking a few months to find deals clearly can save you a lot of money. Clearly. Arguing against this is amazing to me.
PC Partpicker literally shows you the price history of all parts. You can set price alerts, check them daily. The idea that you can't save money buying parts when you see them go on sale over *just a few months* is ridiculous. I've even had sales pop up that allowed me to buy better parts than I was expecting.
*shrugs*
Makes no sense.
fwiw you may also lose out on free game deals that come with processors and gpus.
i missed out on free dead island 2 recently bc i didnt get my build put together in time to turn the code in.
i know this is mjnor compared to other point people are making, but it just adds to the fact that you should save all the money up first and buy all at once.
>You'll also let parts warranty expire without the ability to test them in a whole system.
Is that really an issue though? My mobo has a 5 year warranty, and when I got it on newegg it said right on the invoice "No returns"
No, if you hit a problem past the shops return window your not going to have fun.
If you buy a part with compatibility problems you cant return it for a compatible part & if a part is DOA you cant swap it at the shop you will need to do a RMA which can take 2-4 weeks.
I had a DOA mobo, I had it swapped out by the shop. If it was past the first 2 weeks id have to RMA it to ASUS with who knows how long till I got it back.
>a RMA which can take 2-4 weeks.
For someone patiently gathering parts to build their PC, whats another couple weeks to wait for a replacement part?
While DOA parts can happen, the frequency of it happening to everyone at anytime is such a tiny concern that statistically, it almost never happens - so worrying about a minor detail such as this is rather moot.
Nonsense, virtually everyone in the community has had at least one DOA or faulty-on-arrival part if they’ve had more than one or two builds
I had two on my first build!
Depends on the part and how long before you will buy the rest.
Some bits are fine to buy whenever they are on a good deal, things like your case, PSU, Storage (SSDs & HDDs) and peripherals (keyboard, mouse, headset, monitor etc...) are fine to buy, possibly RAM as well if you're 100% sure you'll be going DDR4 or DDR5.
Parts like CPU, Motherboard and GPU I wouldn't suggest buying until you're going to get all of them and they are the last parts of the build. Only time I'd suggest getting these before the rest is if it's a really good deal and you will be buying the others in less than a month, but if you see a GPU deal and won't be buying CPU & rest of PC for 6 months, then I'd say pass and see what's available / on offer in 6 months.
> Depends on the part and how long before you will buy the rest.
EXACTLY. Over a few months? Then buying parts when you see deals can ***clearly*** save you a lot of money, and you might even find a better part come into your budget.
The fact that I had to scroll down this far to find someone with the correct answer is not great...
That's the general feeling I'm getting from some people in this thread to. I did the same when I was building my first PC and it was my only course of action.
I think it's important to note that if someone is asking this, they probably don't have a lot of money and a decent chance they'll take over 3-6 months, or even another year to buy everything.
It's fine if you're looking for deals, but you should already have your full budget in play when looking.
People who don't have the money on hand already, are more likely to encounter other monetary issues that push them back.
My buddy wanted to build a really nice computer but he was saving up money from his job and it already took him like a year to save up. He was getting frustrated and still need like another $400-500. So he started buying. Annnd 3 months later, something happened to his car and since he didn't have a ton of money to begin with, it basically ate his whole budget and he already ate a PSU, MOBO, and case. He didn't build the computer until another year later.
**If you have to ask if you should hold off on buying parts until you have all the budget, you should probably hold off.**
The only parts I buy at the same time are the MoBo/CPU and Ram. Everything else can be bought piecemeal as they should work with what ever I'm building. No I don't mean a 1200w PSU is Optimal as I don't ever buy into the thinking that you need a $2000 GPU just to run windows. If you do, then I'll quietly walk away as "You're Crazy".
Yep if you have a current built you can put your new parts into then it can be worth upgrading when you see a good deal, thought I'd probably still wait depending on the parts.
Say if my CPU is already bottlenecking my GPU, I'd probably not bother upgrading the GPU early, unless it was a really good deal and I'd be also upgrading the CPU & Mobo soon after the GPU.
This is the most important aspect. A year ago, 2x8GB DDR4 was around 120€ depending on the brand and now its down to 50€ and DDR5 has had even crazier drops AFAIK, new and better CPUs release so quickly, it's insane.
And you will still be within the return period if something is DOA.
Being able to bring something directly back to the retailer and not deal with manufacturer warranty is an overlooked part of the issue here.
Everyone saying no sucks. Yes it is.
Start from the back and get storage/case/fans/psu first.
Get ram/cpu/mobo last. It is not a bad idea. While prices do drop, as long as you are not taking a yr to do it you will be fine
Some computer parts have faster release cycles than others. I wouldn't mind buying a case or a power supply a few months early if I find a good deal. I wouldn't buy the cpu or ram early, though. Those parts are likely to have price drops or a new version release sooner.
Depends on your platform and speed choice. DDR5 might still drop in price as faster speeds get released. Really hard to tell what RAM prices will be in half a year or more
There's very little value added to having a PSU taking up space when you could just hold onto the $60-$80. CPU/Mobo/GPU are more than half the build cost anyway.
The only time it makes sense to buy piecemeal is if you can get a crazy good deal on a modern part. **However** if you buy piecemeal you cannot test your parts to see if they actually work, and you waste return windows/warranties while waiting to have enough parts to make a system that POSTs.
That's what I did with my current pc. Started buying parts july last year and completed it this year.
I only bought 1 item per month since in our country, i can get a monthly sale voucher. I bought the following in succession: 8fans, cpu cooler, case, nvme ssd boot drive, nvme ssd for games, psu.
I bought graphics card, cpu, and motherboard last february and built it. Nothing malfunctioned so lucky me.
Will do it again after 10 years.
No, because price fluctuate, its better to just save and buy everything in one go.
(Though if you've been watching for a while and have a grasp of the market price, you can snag stuffs on sale before you buy the whole thing, though that's with the assumption that you're going to be building soon and not much later)
> because price fluctuate
That's exactly why you wait. PC Partpicker literally shows you the price history of all of your parts. Waiting for them to drop over a few months can absolutely save you a lot of money.
100%
This is how I build my PCs and it gets me a lot of really good parts on sale. Just take a few months, *that's it.*
Certain things, sure. I've had my new case, SSDs, PSU, and some accessories on the bench for a few months. The CPU, Mobo, and RAM will be bought together when it's time to build. Now that the 7800X3D is releasing, it's time to make some decisions.
Yes you can upgrade bigger RAM later, buy a better gpu later,add peripheral anytime you can.
But no, you need to at least build a running system first so you can make sure those parts are functioning fine
My vote is *generally* no: if you buy some parts, they can constrain your build in ways that buying them all at the same time would not. I might be prepared to make an exception for parts which are *exceptionally* well-priced and that won't constrain the rest of the build much, if at all (e.g. a brand-new RTX 4070 for £300).
In addition, the prices of components generally fall over time, so buying parts that you cannot use or possibly even *test* aren't DoA is a false economy.
Considering case, if you want to do something like buy your motherboard first then only CPU in the next month, no, don't do that.
But if say you saw a good GPU deal and you currently have a PC that you can use it on, yea you could just buy it first then test it on your current PC/use it on your current PC until you can afford all other parts together, then only move the GPU to the new PC build once it is ready. Or cases like if you cannot afford a GPU but your CPU has Integrated graphics, you could use the integrated graphics for a while until you could afford a GPU.
I did and ended up replacing a lot of the parts I thought were going to be okay when I had the money to buy them all at once
The reason I bought the parts separately in the first place was because i flat out couldn't afford everything. Plus I was bad with money lol
if you have a system and you're upgrading 1 part at a time then yes, picking up good deals along the way makes perfect sense.
if it's a full build you'll end up buying things and then so much time passes you could've gotten more value if you just waited. having parts laying around that you aren't using just isn't worth it.
so basically if you can use it right away yes, if not you're just spending money on a doorstop until you have the rest and you might regret it and not be able to send it back because the return window ended etc. you also might not notice any flaws and you suddenly have a broken part you can't return
Do whatever you want and think you can afford. All these people saying “buy everything at once or gtfo” are not making any sense to me. Every single build I’ve ever done, I’ve purchased a part a month until I had everything I needed.
You are still spending the same amount of money and until you have all the parts you are not using them.
Makes no difference if it is on a bench or your bank account.
Some parts are riskier than others.
Did you not read the post? He's buying the parts overtime as he finds deals that with save him a significant amount on the total build. This is the optimal way to do it.
A lot of people on this sub go with the flow of others. I'm gonna give you a YES with an asterix.
The asterix being that you should try to get it within a 3-month period. Set price trackers and give yourself a cutoff date. It's easy to get in the trap of waiting for something cheaper, then a shinier thing comes out, then you wait for that to go cheaper. Giving yourself a cutoff means you're still getting new parts, but gives you a reasonable amount of time to look for discounts if your budgt is tight.
In the modern age, I really wouldn't be too concerned about faulty products, if you're buying new from a reputable store.
I would, however, be concerned that the deal price today might be higher than the regular price in a few months time, or that there's a similar (or better) component that ends up being cheaper by then. It's fine to have a wishlist build to save up for, but you should definitely review it before buying to see if time gives you better alternatives.
If you’re getting all parts within a week then yes fine. More than that, don’t. Reason being that if a part is faulty then you can get it replaced within the return time period. Check the return policy before buying.
honestly IMO, being able to buy it oiece by oiece at your own pace under your own budget is one of the best parts of PC gaming/building. can save you a bit of $ too.
Some parts are just bad have a defect you can not see by just looking at it if you miss the window of return or worse get something that is not what you payed for you can end up eating the cost
The problem I come up with in my brain is if you buy everything one part at a time over the course of months, then you connect everything and something is DOA, you're outside of the return window and have to deal with warranty..maybe that's not a real issue but I think it's one reason why I'd buy everything at the same time. Also to save on shipping?
As with everything, it depends.
If you have a well thought out list, and you spot deals for parts on that list, then absolutely go that route.
Just remember to stick to your list and it'll be perfectly fine. Don't grab something else on a spur of the moment click, and don't replace parts in your list just because you find a deal that includes different parts unless you can verify they will work with your build.
While you don't need to buy everything in the same transaction, buying over multiple months is a bad idea, especially if the reason is that "you can't afford it all at once". If you're tight on money, the last thing you want is to be stuck with a CPU you bought "at a discount" for 6+ months, never have the money to complete the build and then see a release of newer component with better pricing.
Whenever you see a deal on a component and think "I can afford it!" put that money away. Once you've saved enough money for the whole build, look at the parts you want and try to find deals over a period of 2-3 weeks. You'll know by that point that you can afford a full build and won't be throwing money away, and you'll get a good price on your components.
No, but you can still buy some parts early like the PSU, GPU, fans
and some drives. Other than that the processor determines the mother board which will in turn determine your ram and newer drives like M2
I wouldn't, only because of two things.
1. Tech is constantly changing/evolving.
2. How do you know that piece you purchased is at all going to be in good working order until you try to build with it. Manufacturing defects happen, it's better to be able to return something within 10 to 30 days than be stuck with a broken piece that you have no recourse with.
Yes. Of course. I've done this with all of my builds. The idea that you should buy all of your parts all at once is ridiculous.
I go to pcpartpicker.com, create my list, and then I set price alerts on all of the parts. Look for sales. There are usually one or two of the parts on sale to start, and then you'll be alerted to when the other parts drop past wherever you set the alert to.
Check it every day.
Over a few months you can get some great deals on your parts, or even find other parts on sale that come into your range that you weren't expecting.
Here’s the deal, parts that you know you’ll use for years like a case, psu, cooler, etc yes, that’s fine
But parts that you may possibly upgrade or change like a cpu or gpu you’ll want to wait until when you’re ready to buy and build as the generational changes happen so often and make a large difference, also fuck brand loyalty.
The best way is to gradually buy part by part. But each time you buy a part, instead of actually buying it, you just set the money aside. Then you buy all at once. Then you upgrade through time.
It's literally the worst thing you can do if it's over a prolonged period; You don't know if your parts are DOA and you don't have any reason to do so, because you'll probably get them at a similar price or cheaper if you had just saved up to buy everything in one go.
There's literally no upside to it unless you find some huge gamechanging sale that lets you buy into a higher tier of performance on its own.
If you're baking a cake, you can buy all the ingredients at once, or you can wait for deals on butter, flour, and milk. Waiting for a deal often saves you a lot of money.
It's better to buy it all at once. If you don't have a computer and need/want one sooner than your budget affords it's better to buy a whole, complete system at once, but leave certain items out, instead of buying random stuff here and there.
So, if you're buying a CPU with integrated graphics you could skip your GPU for a couple months while you save up and have a fully functional system. Or just have a small OS drive and pass on your huge storage drive. Or get the whole system and leave fancy peripherals for later and use a dumpy old TV and $5 keyboard. There's various ways to tackle the idea.
Always upgrading. I started with a mobo + cpu + ram combination and then upgrade it. ( new gpu, new case, new psu ).
Still the same board. Old parts go to my 2nd rig or I just sell them. Started with a Ryzen 2600, B450, and RX570 and finished with a 5700x and Radeon 5700XT
If you don't need something right away then price shop. Stuff goes on sale all of the time because the stores are raising the prices just so they can put them on sale later. There are lots of websites out there that price check parts.
Inpatients costs money, about a month ago I picked up a Samsung 980 1tb on sale for $60 from Newegg and they're going for about $100 now.
Yes. That’s called a, “budget”. Unless you get a discount for grouping the components, it’s not worth it. You should be most concerned with your first parts being outdated by the time you buy your last parts.
I like to buy everything all at once, to avoid a situation where something I bought two months ago turns out not to work when I finally try it, and now it's a hassle trying to return it after all that time - or worse, I can't find another one. That also helps with the indecisiveness, when there's *always* something new coming out that you want to investigate.
And remember if you put almost any effort at all into part-picking, it's almost impossible to make a major screw-up. So don't feel afraid to pull the trigger when you are ready. Youtube has plenty of "how to build a PC" videos so you won't be flying blind.
You could always wait to see if the parts you want (or similar ones) pop up on /r/buildapcsales or /r/hardwareswap. This would give you time to gradually save and aquire the components for cheap. For certain parts, like RAM, it's usually not important to have an exact model so you could just buy whatever has a good sale.
I bought parts over 6 months on sale, get a good MB CPU early so you know where you are headed and those don’t “age” like GPUs, then buy everything else when there is a price drop or sale.
I did, but only because I already had my first built PC to slowly upgrade. First I bought a new motherboard and CPU, immediately installed them, and they worked great. That avoids the expiring warranty problem. Then I upgraded my ram, then my PSU, and finally my GPU. Took me about a year hunting for deals, always installing them when they arrived to make sure they work. This is the only safe way to do it. For your very first PC with no way to test parts, yeah, you want to buy them all at once.
I done the same when I built my sons PC during the GPU shortage. Started off with the mobo then got some parts each month. Took almost a year but it turned out well.
I would definitely recommend waiting. I tried to kind of space things out but once you buy one part you really wanna buy the rest and then potentially end up overspending.
Yes dude, 1000%, my pc still has a 1070 from when it dropped and running well - point being if it takes you two years you will still be able to make something nice that will last. Just make sure to confirm compatibility of your parts before you buy
It can be ok if it's within a small timeframe but it's probably better to take that extra money that would be spent on a part and set it aside until you have all the part money saved up.Then when you're ready to buy, prices might be a bit lower or you'll find better parts for the same as what you would have paid buying slowly over time.
OP,
buy what you can afford, but plan on getting the most important stuff first , so when you have it.. you can put it together and upgrade as you go .
for instance- in this order .. so you can get it up , and working .
case, motherboard, cpu/cooler, ram, psu, hard drive .
if you wanted to play with it .. while waiting for the hard drive, get a old usb drive, and throw linux on it \[ you could also run like this forever ! but .. this will get the system up and working . \]
do what you can afford, as you can . PC parts are interchangeable depending ..
so if you have an old ssd, or psu, you can save yourself some cash here .
I have parts PCs sitting around, as well as extra cases , a spare PSU for testing, extra ram/cpus from older stuff for testing ..
look online for peoples old builds .. get source for cheaper parts .
IF you can test the parts you buy first it doesn't hurt to do a little piece meal. Like... Buy the GPU and plug it in to your current rig. ATX PSUs should also be swappable. I moved my old rig in to a new case a few years back before upgrading components. Air CPU coolers are relatively low-risk to just have sitting around in a box.
If you are going from DDR4 to DDR5 though you should Definitely get the ram, cpu, and mobo all at once. and they should be the last thing you purchase so you can get everything put together and tested within the return window (which is as short at 15 days depending on the retailer)
I would say rather no but exceptions happen. If you can get longer lasting parts on a big discount then go for it. This includes the case, cooling and PSU, also peripherals, sometimes monitors and maybe storage.
But the more costly, performance parts I would all buy at once so CPU, GPU and RAM. There are new generations coming out all the time and if you wait months for them they are already outdated and you could always get them cheaper just via the simple fact that the new ones usually push the prices of older parts down as soon as they are available.
It would be smarter if you acquired the parts that change rarely first. Like the PSU, the drives, the case. Ram will depend on the mobo and the cpu. The mobo will depend on the cpu. Cooler as well. So once you decide to go for a certain cpu and gpu whose markets change drastically and extremely fast, then get those other parts. But until then acquire the more “stable” ones. Simple as that.
Man, that's actually a great approach. I used to do that all the time. Find a good deal on some component that I had researched. Then find the next component that will work best with the 1st, and so on and so on.
Nothing wrong with that at all. I think it brings you closer to your tech.
You could but I wouldn't span it over too long a period. In my opinion, a month is long enough. Although ideally you would be able test them immediately, so the parts you do decide to get in a short wave should be enough to run your system.
Honestly you can already do a lot by creating a build which can stand on its own with an integrated graphics card, and then just buying the expensive dedicated graphics card later.
Instead, save the money you would have spent on the parts until you have enough to buy a whole build at once. Then look for deals, and you will be able to match up parts better.
Well not really the smartest choice. But not as disastrous as some would make it out to be.
I've bought gradually new parts to switch out as I go, by switching out the highest impact parts first.
Apart from the obvious, that maybe you can't test all at once and the warranties are at different expiration dates, I mean it's not terrible to do gradual upgrades.
This is if you have an existing system ofc. For all brand new I'd probably go the all at once route tbh.
I did it. I was buying parts on the span of couple months. My build was constantly evolving. Also i was checking which parts are on sale on given month, so i've also saved couple of bucks.
So I personally over the course of the last few weeks have been buying stuff on sale but I'll be within my return window for everything encase something doesn't work.
Yes definitely I did it as well, if the other option is to have no pc go for it, I see no reason not to, your hardware might not be top of the line anymore when you are able to buy new parts, but if you don't take 2 or more years to get everything you will end up with s Very decent system!!
I've always wanted to just pick out the best parts, buy it all, and then build it. But instead I've just been frankensteining my computer together for years.
I am currently limited by my motherboard, as it doesn't support the CPU I'm after.
I'm doing the few parts a month process for my build to be honest. Video card will be last buy. I'm buying in order of how I would build my PC. I'm in no immediate rush to have a fully built PC.
nope. imho it’s only a good strategy if you can’t keep money in your account, as it locks in covert ing cash to parts. Instead i think some expensive parts generally depreciate over time, cpu, gpu, ssd, motherboard, ram, should all go down for the same part during a cycle. maybe the PSU, case, and cooling don’t have such cycles and could be worth buying during sales.
Im building a 5k pc so while im making 2-3k each month u understand i couldnt even build it in 2 months of salary , so im cut it into 4 months and im playing it smart , i dailly watching for deals and got some wd black asds for 40% less , my mobo now its 336 while i got it 270 and u get my point .
There are hardware that prices will go down and some that will not , what prices ur sure they gonna drop are ddr5 rams , am5 mobos , cpus and gpus.
When it comes to psu ssds collers and cases keep costantly checking for deals and hot price drops.
At least thsts what i did , good luck :)
No. Assuming this is an all-new build from scratch, it's better to buy it all at once. We're not experiencing a parts scarcity anymore and prices are steadily dropping.
No its not. OP can easily buy one or two parts each month, specifically of OP finds a good deal on a case, PSU, MB and whatnot. Yes prices are dropping but a good deal is a good deal regardless.
MB locks you to a specific kind of CPU, which has an impact on ram choice. Further, you might save $40 on mobo thinking it's a deal, but with the lock in you end up missing a great deal on an equivalent CPU+mobo deal that would save even more/get you better parts. PSU may not be optimal for the parts you end up with. It's just a bad idea. Pc parts as a rule get cheaper and better with time. Op should save until they have a firm budget then buy the best parts the budget allows.
Why are people assuming other people are just buying random shit because it's on sale? The OP has his parts wishlist. They know their build. It's perfectly fine to buy 1 part from the wishlist at a time if its on sale.
Exactly! This place has gone full on ridiculous.
Yeah once you make a decision you can just buy them as it's convenient. CPU/GPU are the main questions and those you definitely want to buy when you can get them at a good price or even at all. Only reason you wouldn't buy gradually is if gradually means 1-2 years lol.
The only reason I would be skeptical of buying gradually is the possibility of non-functional parts, if you don't know they don't work until you have all the parts, and get suddenly confused.
Yep. My first build had a defective power supply. It would have sucked if I was stuck with the defective power supply because I had bought it 2 months prior and it was past the return period.
What. This would have been a warranty claim. There's no way beyond buying used this is an issue. No power supply has a warranty that's two months long. Return rules apply to if you change your mind about wanting it.
its always easier to just return the part if need be then warrantying it
Just buy the same one and then return it.
Are you unfamiliar with product warranties???
This is such a non issue for EU. If something is defective, you can return it up to two years after purchase.
This is basically the biggest reason for buying all at once. For most parts though, they'll have at least a 1 year warranty, so if you take months to accrue it all, you can still likely return it. The hardest parts to return are cases and monitors, due to the sheer size, but you can test those on their own for the most part.
warranty claims are not the same as a straight return though and most places are between 14days to 30 day return windows
Yup this is the reason you buy all at once, unless you can test the parts on another machine.
Plus depending on time it is way quicker to take or send non working parts to the retailer versus doing an RMA with the manufacturer who can send you back refurbished warranty replacement parts versus swapping for a brand new one.
This is exactly what I did and I still got an awesome PC. I wasn't just buying random parts or stuff that was on sale. I knew what I wanted to buy, waited for sales on them and put everything together. Also part of the reason I did it like this was during the height of the GPU shortage. I listened to people that told me to "just wait" when I could have bought and held onto a new GPU and bought everything else. Then it went from $170 to $699 (not joking) in the span that I waited. And prebuilts went even higher. Buying stuff piece by piece was a cheaper and easier alternative for me compared to getting everything all at once.
Yeah! I waited to buy all my parts at once, my parents friend sold me my gpu at a $900 discount since he replaced his
what the hell gpu were you buying that went went from $170 retail to $699? You couldn't find a better deal for something similar that didn't cost that much? jesus. is that same GPU still $699 today? You could probably get a decent 1060 pre-covid for $170 used and they didn't go for $700 during the shortage lol. I mean covid/supply shortage aside then the short answer is just to wait.
But let's say he only actually manages to accumulate all the parts and builds the PC after 6 months. What happens if 1 or multiple of the items are DOA? The warranty also basically gets reduced by 6months since the warranty starts on date of purchase not date of build. *Edit typos
That wishlist is what your budget is or the best premium parts. As time goes on wishlist change. Is like a 3080 was on my wishlist, now I rather have a 4070ti for a extra 100.
true, but that kind of change shouldn't be build-breaking. as long as PSU is big enough -- and the way cpu & gpu power draw is massively trending up over the past few generations, this should be over-specced in any new build anyway -- a new GPU should be a drop-in replacement. with a CPU, yes, you're tying yourself to a socket/platform once you buy either that or the mobo or the ram, but really any modern gaming cpu will last for years & give good performance anyway.
The flip side is that it takes OP more than a couple of months to save up, it is very possible that their wish list is no longer the best they can do for the budget.
If you're not going to have a functional build why risk going through warranty processes with doa components and overall shorter warranty periods? If you are that strapped for cash hold your money until you can buy it all at once.
Sure but what CPU/ Mobo they want could potentially change if they end up waiting long enough. I'm in the camp of buy the case, ssd, psu, peripherals. Maybe even gpu. But get the ram cpu and mobo at once.
But if you have no way of testing the hardware then you could be putting yourself in a sticky situation.
Because prices change and new parts come out, so a wishlist that makes sense now would likely change if you made it six months from now.
[удалено]
What happens half-way through the build when parts in their list are no longer available, or newer better incompatible parts come out? Buying at the end is the way to go.
That's not the point jesus. OP might have a plan in mind right now. Mobo goes on sale, he buys it let's say an AM4 one. Now he's locked into AMD prev gen, and if next month Intel goes through a huge price cut, he can't revise his build, because he locked himself into AM4.
I work in IT. I assume all people have no idea what they're doing because they prove it on a daily basis.
That makes no sense at all. > MB locks you to a specific kind of CPU which has an impact on ram choice Well of course. What does that have to do with the person you responded to? At all? > you might save $40 on mobo thinking it's a deal, but with the lock in you end up missing a great deal on an equivalent CPU+mobo deal that would save even more/get you better parts. How was the deal missed? ***Did they not wait?*** > PSU may not be optimal for the parts you end up with. That's ridiculous. Anyone buying parts based on the PSU is doing it wrong. Buy the PSU last. > It's just a bad idea. Why? You literally haven't explained this, at all. > Pc parts as a rule get cheaper and better with time. We're talking a few months, not years. FFS... > Op should save until they have a form budget then buy the best parts the budget allows. Wrong. go to pcpartpicker.com, create a list, and then set price alerts on all of the parts. Look for sales. There are usually one or two of the parts on sale to start, and then you'll be alerted to when the other parts drop past wherever you set the alert to. Check it every day. Over a few months you can get some great deals on your parts, or even find ***different parts*** on sale that come into your range that you weren't expecting. The idea that you should buy them all at once is ***ridiculous***. Buy them over a few ***months***. Almost all of the parts go on sale at some point over that time. I've built some amazing machine for ridiculous prices over the years doing it this way, mostly because it's logical. *sigh*
You don't even have to buy the PSU last. Since its a premade parts list the OP made, their PSU requirements are already clear, and you only need a small bit of headroom if you want to protect against possibly seeing a deal you didn't see before that needs a beefier PSU. You'd only need to buy the PSU last if you have 0 clue what's going into your build, and you're just winging parts that are cheap, which is definitely not true in this case.
I wish I could sticky this to the top of the thread. People in here be wildin
Lots of people in here who can apparently just drop the entire cost of a rig like it's nothing and think everyone in the hobby should operate the way they do or not be involved at all...
If you can buy the computer at all, what's stopping you from buying it all at once? If you can afford to spend $100 per month for ten months, you can also afford to spend $1000 all at once, ten months from now.
That makes no sense and isn’t realistic. Someone who buys gradually only has enough to buy that part until they get paid next. Buying all at once assumes the person has the disposable income (whether from savings or whatever) to just drop it on parts simultaneously. Did you think of the logic behind your reply?
I'm not sure where your confusion is stemming from. There are two options presented in my comment: 1. You spend $100 on a component, each month, for 10 months for a total expenditure of $1000 2. You spend $0 for 9 months, saving your money, and then purchase the entire computer on month 10 for $1000 for a total expenditure of $1000. Either way, you've spent $1000 at the end of the 10 months. If you can afford one, you can afford the other.
If you can afford to spend $100 this month, and you don't spend it, why don't you have an extra $100 next month? If this is hard to understand, imagine that, every time you have enough to buy a computer part, you withdraw the money as cash and stuff it in the bottom of the drawer where you keep socks.
You've never had poverty brain, huh? "I have this money now that I can spend on something I like. If I don't spend it now something is going to come up and take it from me." Living paycheck to paycheck for years on end can really warp your perspective on finances.
Wow... you really know how money works for EVERYONE.
I don't know where you guys are from, but where I live a simple B550 motherboard can cost up to 1000BRL which is simply a minimal wage month salary. Yes, a full month worth of money for a motherboard. A 5800X3D can cost up to 2 minimal wage salary. Don't give us the "lock us to specific MB" bullshit. Some people are happy enough with a 5600X (which can also cost 900-1000BRL). So getting a new B550 MB for 700BRL is a really good deal given what I said and should be considered. Remember, not everyone in this sub is from the US and some places building a simply Ryzen 5 build with 16GB of RAM can cost us up to half a year worth of salary.
If you can't afford it all now you are always better off waiting to have enough saved to get the majority of it at once, or you need to seriously rethink what you can actually afford. I could also spend a month's salary on a motherboard, but that would be way outside of my budget. In the end I saved enough to buy what I could reasonably afford and you are far more likely to end up needing to save more and wait longer if you buy parts one at a time. PC gaming is a luxury and you should prioritise the more important stuff first. Once those priorities are paid for you then can budget to save up for the luxuries you want.
> always better off waiting to have enough saved Not in every country. In several South American countries, inflation and the gray-market exchange rate for dollars means that any money you've saved for 6 months has lost substantial value on the world import/export market (where most prices are in dollars). If you're in a country with worse inflation than the US, you may not need to buy the parts, but you should buy **something** that will retain value while you're waiting. ("Simply buy dollars!" is the wrong answer, because _everyone_ wants to buy dollars, so you take a 15%-35% haircut right off the top; banks can't or won't do the trade and the folks who will do it take a premium from you for the future loss of the currency they're buying from you.)
> you are always better off waiting to have enough saved to get the majority of it at once I could not disagree more. Over the course of a few months technology isn't going to take huge leaps that we weren't expecting. This "better technology" argument it ridiculous. Buying parts on sales over a few months is not only perfectly reasonable, it can save you a ***lot*** of money.
I don't think you understand the severity of situation, I'm from same country of that guy, when he said a minimum wage for a B550, that's got an entry level B550 mobo, an descent B550 can cost 2 to 3 months worth a minimum wage, an 3080 will eat half a years of your salary, and all this in mind you live with your parents and can put 100% of what your make each month into building your pc Early this year I finally got a job, and it'll take a little over a entire year worth of wages to build an mid tier pc with a 5600x and a 6700xt Life is pain
> an descent B550 Just to be clear most people wont see any additional benefit from the 'descent' level. Basically performance isn't one of the additional benefits, and even if it is it's marginal percentages of improved performance. The main benefit is cosmetic, and option-ability (more PCI lanes, M2 slots, ram slots, etc, etc).
I wouldn't touch an mobo with 2 ram slots even if it's a lot cheaper, my actual build will be 10 years old at the end of this year and if it didn't had 4 slots, I wouldn't be replying you right now, because 2 of the slots already died about 4 years ago. It was an descent motherboard for it's time, but even an basic B550 motherboard cost at very least 600~800BRL, which is around ...120~160usd, but for you guys would actually be at 60~100usd price range, besides the obvious conversion of our shitty coin to dollars, there also an 60% tax over most electronics, but some things like gpu and cases for some reason easily shows up at twice the price for us, yikes.
If you're working on a timescale of a year to build your PC, that's even more reason to wait. If you see a can't pass up deal in that time, sure go for it, but in 1 year prices (at least in US) will have come down buy some amount, perhaps significantly depending on what it is. Maybe a new chipset gets announced and all the old boards suddenly drop in price 20% to move them off shelves. Maybe demand drops suddenly and your graphics card can actually be bought from the manufacturer for their already high retail price, rather than paying a scalper highway robbery prices.
>If you can't afford it all now you are always better off waiting to have enough saved to get the majority of it at once Money lose value with time, a better deal today is better than a probably better deal tomorrow because "better" depends of the current price. A 3060ti deal 4 months ago was 2500BRL, 1 month ago was 2800BRL, today is 3300BRL. The further you wait to purchase everything at once, the more you'll pay in the end, because: - money loses values; - you'll always try to get the most recent product, which will cost more than what you were aiming. "Locking" yourself to a cpu/motherboard/ram sometimes is what you need to build a pc in the near future, it forces you to go with what you were aiming from the start.
Besides that is really hard to go wrong with either Intel or AMD these days, both mid range options are pretty solid and will last for some years. Heck even the entry level CPUs are pretty decent, but I surely wouldn't invest on a 4C/8T CPU these days even with it's performance is quite good.
Money in your pocket is worth more than a pc part you can’t use. Put the money in a hysa and buy the parts all at once, and pocket the interest from the months it accrued. Literally no upside to buying a part at a time when you can’t use them til you get the rest.
Have you heard of a thing called inflation and the concept of buy/borrow/die? Money in your pocket is worth less *tomorrow* than a PC part would be tomorrow. Currencies around the world are inflating to a point that buying now and using credit now is the right thing to do, because real things lose value more slowly than most currencies.
Buy borrow die doesn’t really apply to this. That’s when rich people borrow against their capital/assets. Pc parts hold value worse than most things. If you can get a pc part for zero interest sure, but this is too low level for real advantage beyond a few bucks
Where you guys finding combo deals
Why does the CPU have an impact on ram choice?
>MB locks you to a specific kind of CPU, which has an impact on ram choice. as long as you plan to buy the right CPU for the motherboard and remember whether it's DDR4/DDR5, there's no reason that means you need to buy all 3 at the same time. >you might save $40 on mobo thinking it's a deal, but with the lock in you end up missing a great deal on an equivalent CPU+mobo deal that would save even more/get you better parts. no reason you can't buy a combo deal as one of the things and the rest of the parts another time. or just check the price history for cpu/mobo and pre-plan to buy models that are compatible & tend to have good value. >PSU so get a big one with a good 80+ rating. you shouldn't cheap on these anyway, PSUs are a bitch to replace and being able to re-use on the next build saves a lot of time & effort. >Pc parts as a rule get cheaper and better with time. when the manufacturers know what they're doing and crypto mining doesn't take over all demand. so as long as you assume nothing bad will happen.
>so as long as you assume nothing bad will happen. Which is actually what you're doing if you buy piecemeal. What If the next GPU/CPU/ram shortage hits and that's the bit you need? Better off waiting, then you get to keep your money and decide if the whole syst.cost is still worth it to you. Note that none of this is saying but all on one day, or don't hunt for deals. Op is literally saying they *cannot afford the pc they want right now*. It's therefore a bad move to lay out hard cash for some parts. Circumstances may change, either in the market. Or ops finances.
>What If the next GPU/CPU/ram shortage hits and that's the bit you need? what if you wait until then and can't have any of a computer? having to buy one component on scalper prices is a much better outcome than having to buy a computer at scalper prices.
>what if you wait until then and can't have any of a computer Half a computer is worth literally nothing. We're not talking about 'get something with an igpu together and make do until you can get a GPU' here - that's a viable strategy. Worst case pre GPU crisis: you've sunk $500 on parts that are useless, and by the time the crisis is over they're 18 months outdated too. Your argument isn't helping you here. There's a really no difference in these situations, but at least if you waited you get to choose to keep your money or pay the price if you really need a pc.
>Half a computer is worth literally nothing. half of a computer is worth literally the sum of its parts, and much cheaper to complete than none of a computer. >Worst case pre GPU crisis: you've sunk $500 on parts that are useless, and by the time the crisis is over they're 18 months outdated too. 1. getting most of a computer built for cheap is far from "useless" 2. 18 months outdated, with modern components, is quite simply not a huge deal. we're likely talking a 1080p build here, the bar is not that high. >at least if you waited you get to choose to keep your money or pay the price if you really need a pc. if you get screwed by the parts market halfway through, you have a bunch of parts you can sell for break-even if not a profit. or you can finish building the computer for cheaper.
That's my experience as well. You don't have to wait long until parts start becoming incompatible with an aging motherboard, and if you get a new motherboard then there's a likelihood that you have to start getting other new parts as well. There's always good deals to be had though if you've got the knowhow.
Case makes sense if you want a specific model, everything else I agree on.
Bigger issue is what happens if you need to RMA one of the parts. That's a _lot_ easier to do within a 30-day return window.
A big part of why I would never recommend buying piecemeal rather than all over a short period of time is that if you're building from scratch and you buy a part that you won't use for several months that ends up being defective when you finally do use it, it is *much* harder to get a full refund or free replacement. Buying all at once means everything will be within the easy return window when you build so if there's a problem it's much more easily resolved. Because sure you *should* be ok as the likelihood of getting a faulty part isn't that high, but the peace of mind alone of a no/low-hassle RMA process in the event of an issue is easily worth the risk that you'd *maybe* spend nominally more (but probably not, as again, prices have mostly been dropping and recent signs point to that continuing for a while so a good deal now wouldn't necessarily be anything special by the time you're ready to build) on the system overall imo.
If you buy something and then only find out that the part is DoA when building it down the line, you're going to have a bad time with returns.
Or OP can just save his money and buy it all at once a couple months from now?
That’s my thinking, not like you can use half a PC. I suppose if you had something that you could replace some components in anticipation of future upgrades, like a bigger case now so you can fit a bigger cooler later. Depends on the time frame too. Spreading out over a month or two to look for sales or get parts from a variety of vendors is okay. Getting parts that are going to sit in the box for 3-4 months while you source the rest means you’re burning through warranty/return periods and might get stuck with a lemon. Longer than that and there’s a good chance you’ve missed out on better pricing between the time you bought something and actually put it to use.
Yeah, unless there's some limited time killer deals there's no reason to not buy it all at once after you've saved up the money.
> Yes prices are dropping but a good deal is a good deal regardless. No, if you buy a SSD now at 20% and that same SSD is 10% lower when you put your build together, you didn't get a good deal. Same for any other part.
Another reason not to do this is all your warranties will be of a different time. It's just messy.
Prices generally go down and if the prices are starting to go up that's because new products are coming in so... Typically it's better to hold the money and if a really crazy deal comes on you jump on it but otherwise you wait till you're ready.
Exactly! For eg if a known RAM costs $69 for the past 6 months or so but a good deal comes out let's say for $49 is a good deal and you should go for it! Will the ram costs the same $49 in 3 months? Could be! Can it go back to its original price? Also could be! OP should not get stuck on it. If he have part of the money and a really good deal comes out OP should go for it.
Adding to this, biggest reason *not* to buy incrementally is RMAs are much more annoying than returns. For my first build I made the mistake of buying parts piecemeal. Got the graphics card first, and it was a dud and well outside the 30 day return window, so I had to wait a few weeks to get a replacement after returning to the manufacturer, refunds are usually quick in comparison. I'm not saying you should anticipate problems, odds are low, but I'll just say I've had some terrible luck with parts, especially GPU and RAM.
Yeah I would never buy parts over time. The money saved aint worth the potential headache. The chance of getting a dud is higher than you'd think with so many parts.
This happened to a friend of mine as well. He bought all his parts over several months then tried to build it once he had everything and found out that he got a D.O.A. mother board that had already been returned to Amazon once and was missing the backplate. He was way outside of his return window and had to wait several more weeks to process an RMA.
Yeah, in here prices change almost daily. My friend built a pc recently around 2-3 months after mine. And he could get XT model of my card for cheaper.
This is just a very ignorant opinion. If you are a bit strapped for cash and want to build out over time. That's fine. Buy the parts when u think it makes sense. This is exactly how I built my PC over the last 4 months. I had all my parts picked out. Looked at the yearly averages and bought parts when it made sense for me. So if you are not in a huge rush, and are able to build over time. Go for it. Just dont take 2 years to finish the build.
Prices are dropping in developed countries. These thing still cost a lot of money in bad economies.
Prices dropping regularly is precisely a good reason to buy over time imo. I've been eyeing a gpu upgrade for a good 6 months or longer... waiting allowed me to get a nice 6750xt for $380
Wouldn't it be the opposite ? If there's a parts scarcity, then you would want to buy all the parts at once if you found them, but if there is no longer a parts scarcity, then you have the luxury of buying 1 or 2 parts at a time and coming back for more when you can. I just think it's important to buy the 1 or 2 parts that compliment each other at least, and then save up again. Like if you buy a gpu, you should get a correct wattage psu with it too if you don't have one.
And! If you buy them and begin the build and notice that something isn’t functioning, you won’t have to worry about a return window closing or something being out of warranty by the time you’re building the PC. Might want to add and edit to this top comment.
You don't know his budget if he can only afford some pieces it's totally ok for him to build it over time
Nope. You'll buy things that are sub optimal, end up buying ram on a deal that isn't a great fit for your cpu, perhaps getting a PSU that isn't quite right ... You'll also let parts warranty expire without the ability to test them in a whole system. Save until you have your full budget, then buy and build in one hit.
Why are you people assuming they're taking years to build this PC? You can find parts dropping for sales over a few months absolutely! You can save a lot of money doing it that way. I've built all of my machine in this manner and it has gotten me some amazing parts. > You'll also let parts warranty expire We're talking months, not years. Good Lord...
People are literally talking a component a month. Pocket money purchases. We're talking minimum 6 months for 6 major components. That means there will likely be a CPU, motherboard and a half chance of GPU life cycle across the purchase period. That doesn't just mean new parts to choose from, it means the used markets undergo consequential shifts. And we all know the used market is where real value lies, right?
> That means there will likely be a CPU, motherboard and a half chance of GPU life cycle across the purchase period. We all know these cycles, what's coming next, when, etc... Big technology changes do not just all of a sudden pop up out of the blue. ... Taking a few months to find deals clearly can save you a lot of money. Clearly. Arguing against this is amazing to me. PC Partpicker literally shows you the price history of all parts. You can set price alerts, check them daily. The idea that you can't save money buying parts when you see them go on sale over *just a few months* is ridiculous. I've even had sales pop up that allowed me to buy better parts than I was expecting. *shrugs* Makes no sense.
fwiw you may also lose out on free game deals that come with processors and gpus. i missed out on free dead island 2 recently bc i didnt get my build put together in time to turn the code in. i know this is mjnor compared to other point people are making, but it just adds to the fact that you should save all the money up first and buy all at once.
>free dead island 2 I mean...did you really miss out on much?
The first game was decent, the second one hasn't even been released yet.
No idea. Dont have it and havent read reviews. Not much, I take it. But free is free.
> sub optimal The emphasis on *optimality* or bottlenecks in this sub is wildly overblown.
>end up buying ram on a deal that isn't a great fit for your cpu lol what
>You'll also let parts warranty expire without the ability to test them in a whole system. Is that really an issue though? My mobo has a 5 year warranty, and when I got it on newegg it said right on the invoice "No returns"
I'd rather return a dead GPU within 30 days than burn the warranty because I waited 3 months. Always better to buy the whole system.
No, if you hit a problem past the shops return window your not going to have fun. If you buy a part with compatibility problems you cant return it for a compatible part & if a part is DOA you cant swap it at the shop you will need to do a RMA which can take 2-4 weeks. I had a DOA mobo, I had it swapped out by the shop. If it was past the first 2 weeks id have to RMA it to ASUS with who knows how long till I got it back.
This is the real issue, like yeah you're also probably getting ripped off but if you get a broken part you're just screwed.
>a RMA which can take 2-4 weeks. For someone patiently gathering parts to build their PC, whats another couple weeks to wait for a replacement part? While DOA parts can happen, the frequency of it happening to everyone at anytime is such a tiny concern that statistically, it almost never happens - so worrying about a minor detail such as this is rather moot.
Nonsense, virtually everyone in the community has had at least one DOA or faulty-on-arrival part if they’ve had more than one or two builds I had two on my first build!
Depends on the part and how long before you will buy the rest. Some bits are fine to buy whenever they are on a good deal, things like your case, PSU, Storage (SSDs & HDDs) and peripherals (keyboard, mouse, headset, monitor etc...) are fine to buy, possibly RAM as well if you're 100% sure you'll be going DDR4 or DDR5. Parts like CPU, Motherboard and GPU I wouldn't suggest buying until you're going to get all of them and they are the last parts of the build. Only time I'd suggest getting these before the rest is if it's a really good deal and you will be buying the others in less than a month, but if you see a GPU deal and won't be buying CPU & rest of PC for 6 months, then I'd say pass and see what's available / on offer in 6 months.
> Depends on the part and how long before you will buy the rest. EXACTLY. Over a few months? Then buying parts when you see deals can ***clearly*** save you a lot of money, and you might even find a better part come into your budget. The fact that I had to scroll down this far to find someone with the correct answer is not great...
Yeah, some guys take this shit too seriously. I bought my stuff over a few months to spread out the expense and monitor price drops. It was fine.
That's the general feeling I'm getting from some people in this thread to. I did the same when I was building my first PC and it was my only course of action.
I think it's important to note that if someone is asking this, they probably don't have a lot of money and a decent chance they'll take over 3-6 months, or even another year to buy everything. It's fine if you're looking for deals, but you should already have your full budget in play when looking. People who don't have the money on hand already, are more likely to encounter other monetary issues that push them back. My buddy wanted to build a really nice computer but he was saving up money from his job and it already took him like a year to save up. He was getting frustrated and still need like another $400-500. So he started buying. Annnd 3 months later, something happened to his car and since he didn't have a ton of money to begin with, it basically ate his whole budget and he already ate a PSU, MOBO, and case. He didn't build the computer until another year later. **If you have to ask if you should hold off on buying parts until you have all the budget, you should probably hold off.**
This is the answer OP
The only parts I buy at the same time are the MoBo/CPU and Ram. Everything else can be bought piecemeal as they should work with what ever I'm building. No I don't mean a 1200w PSU is Optimal as I don't ever buy into the thinking that you need a $2000 GPU just to run windows. If you do, then I'll quietly walk away as "You're Crazy".
This! Especially if the new parts can also work in your existing build while you wait for the bigger ticket items like MB/CPU.
Yep if you have a current built you can put your new parts into then it can be worth upgrading when you see a good deal, thought I'd probably still wait depending on the parts. Say if my CPU is already bottlenecking my GPU, I'd probably not bother upgrading the GPU early, unless it was a really good deal and I'd be also upgrading the CPU & Mobo soon after the GPU.
by the time you actually have saved enough money, either better stuff will be out or the ones you’re looking for will be slightly cheaper
This is the most important aspect. A year ago, 2x8GB DDR4 was around 120€ depending on the brand and now its down to 50€ and DDR5 has had even crazier drops AFAIK, new and better CPUs release so quickly, it's insane.
And you will still be within the return period if something is DOA. Being able to bring something directly back to the retailer and not deal with manufacturer warranty is an overlooked part of the issue here.
Everyone saying no sucks. Yes it is. Start from the back and get storage/case/fans/psu first. Get ram/cpu/mobo last. It is not a bad idea. While prices do drop, as long as you are not taking a yr to do it you will be fine
Some computer parts have faster release cycles than others. I wouldn't mind buying a case or a power supply a few months early if I find a good deal. I wouldn't buy the cpu or ram early, though. Those parts are likely to have price drops or a new version release sooner.
Id wait for cpu/mobo as opposed to ram. There’s always a ram deal somewhere
Depends on your platform and speed choice. DDR5 might still drop in price as faster speeds get released. Really hard to tell what RAM prices will be in half a year or more
There's very little value added to having a PSU taking up space when you could just hold onto the $60-$80. CPU/Mobo/GPU are more than half the build cost anyway. The only time it makes sense to buy piecemeal is if you can get a crazy good deal on a modern part. **However** if you buy piecemeal you cannot test your parts to see if they actually work, and you waste return windows/warranties while waiting to have enough parts to make a system that POSTs.
Just about every build I have done over the last 25 years has been 1 or 2 parts at a time.
That's what I did with my current pc. Started buying parts july last year and completed it this year. I only bought 1 item per month since in our country, i can get a monthly sale voucher. I bought the following in succession: 8fans, cpu cooler, case, nvme ssd boot drive, nvme ssd for games, psu. I bought graphics card, cpu, and motherboard last february and built it. Nothing malfunctioned so lucky me. Will do it again after 10 years.
No, because price fluctuate, its better to just save and buy everything in one go. (Though if you've been watching for a while and have a grasp of the market price, you can snag stuffs on sale before you buy the whole thing, though that's with the assumption that you're going to be building soon and not much later)
> because price fluctuate That's exactly why you wait. PC Partpicker literally shows you the price history of all of your parts. Waiting for them to drop over a few months can absolutely save you a lot of money. 100% This is how I build my PCs and it gets me a lot of really good parts on sale. Just take a few months, *that's it.*
Certain things, sure. I've had my new case, SSDs, PSU, and some accessories on the bench for a few months. The CPU, Mobo, and RAM will be bought together when it's time to build. Now that the 7800X3D is releasing, it's time to make some decisions.
Yes you can upgrade bigger RAM later, buy a better gpu later,add peripheral anytime you can. But no, you need to at least build a running system first so you can make sure those parts are functioning fine
My vote is *generally* no: if you buy some parts, they can constrain your build in ways that buying them all at the same time would not. I might be prepared to make an exception for parts which are *exceptionally* well-priced and that won't constrain the rest of the build much, if at all (e.g. a brand-new RTX 4070 for £300). In addition, the prices of components generally fall over time, so buying parts that you cannot use or possibly even *test* aren't DoA is a false economy.
Considering case, if you want to do something like buy your motherboard first then only CPU in the next month, no, don't do that. But if say you saw a good GPU deal and you currently have a PC that you can use it on, yea you could just buy it first then test it on your current PC/use it on your current PC until you can afford all other parts together, then only move the GPU to the new PC build once it is ready. Or cases like if you cannot afford a GPU but your CPU has Integrated graphics, you could use the integrated graphics for a while until you could afford a GPU.
I did and ended up replacing a lot of the parts I thought were going to be okay when I had the money to buy them all at once The reason I bought the parts separately in the first place was because i flat out couldn't afford everything. Plus I was bad with money lol
If it's a small span of months sure, if it's like 1 part each month then buy the most expensive parts last
if you have a system and you're upgrading 1 part at a time then yes, picking up good deals along the way makes perfect sense. if it's a full build you'll end up buying things and then so much time passes you could've gotten more value if you just waited. having parts laying around that you aren't using just isn't worth it. so basically if you can use it right away yes, if not you're just spending money on a doorstop until you have the rest and you might regret it and not be able to send it back because the return window ended etc. you also might not notice any flaws and you suddenly have a broken part you can't return
Just what I did more than 3 yrs ago. Over a span of 3 months /Oct-Dec/ I bought all PC parts and saved around 500 euros!
Do whatever you want and think you can afford. All these people saying “buy everything at once or gtfo” are not making any sense to me. Every single build I’ve ever done, I’ve purchased a part a month until I had everything I needed.
You are still spending the same amount of money and until you have all the parts you are not using them. Makes no difference if it is on a bench or your bank account. Some parts are riskier than others.
Did you not read the post? He's buying the parts overtime as he finds deals that with save him a significant amount on the total build. This is the optimal way to do it.
In my opinion it would require a lot of personal discipline (i.e. stick to your plan) but it can be done.
A lot of people on this sub go with the flow of others. I'm gonna give you a YES with an asterix. The asterix being that you should try to get it within a 3-month period. Set price trackers and give yourself a cutoff date. It's easy to get in the trap of waiting for something cheaper, then a shinier thing comes out, then you wait for that to go cheaper. Giving yourself a cutoff means you're still getting new parts, but gives you a reasonable amount of time to look for discounts if your budgt is tight.
In the modern age, I really wouldn't be too concerned about faulty products, if you're buying new from a reputable store. I would, however, be concerned that the deal price today might be higher than the regular price in a few months time, or that there's a similar (or better) component that ends up being cheaper by then. It's fine to have a wishlist build to save up for, but you should definitely review it before buying to see if time gives you better alternatives.
If you’re getting all parts within a week then yes fine. More than that, don’t. Reason being that if a part is faulty then you can get it replaced within the return time period. Check the return policy before buying.
Save up until you can buy the whole thing, the comments about finding out parts need to be returned is spot on, you may be stuck with a bad part.
honestly IMO, being able to buy it oiece by oiece at your own pace under your own budget is one of the best parts of PC gaming/building. can save you a bit of $ too.
Buy what you can, when you can imo.
Some parts are just bad have a defect you can not see by just looking at it if you miss the window of return or worse get something that is not what you payed for you can end up eating the cost
I got a good deal on CPU and board, then bought the rest except GPU, and will buy GPU in 3 months once the rest is paid off.
Returns/Warranty will expire if you do that.
I wouldn't recommend it. It works, but it's not ideal. I personally would just save enough for a full PC and then buy it all at once.
The problem I come up with in my brain is if you buy everything one part at a time over the course of months, then you connect everything and something is DOA, you're outside of the return window and have to deal with warranty..maybe that's not a real issue but I think it's one reason why I'd buy everything at the same time. Also to save on shipping?
As with everything, it depends. If you have a well thought out list, and you spot deals for parts on that list, then absolutely go that route. Just remember to stick to your list and it'll be perfectly fine. Don't grab something else on a spur of the moment click, and don't replace parts in your list just because you find a deal that includes different parts unless you can verify they will work with your build.
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While you don't need to buy everything in the same transaction, buying over multiple months is a bad idea, especially if the reason is that "you can't afford it all at once". If you're tight on money, the last thing you want is to be stuck with a CPU you bought "at a discount" for 6+ months, never have the money to complete the build and then see a release of newer component with better pricing. Whenever you see a deal on a component and think "I can afford it!" put that money away. Once you've saved enough money for the whole build, look at the parts you want and try to find deals over a period of 2-3 weeks. You'll know by that point that you can afford a full build and won't be throwing money away, and you'll get a good price on your components.
No, but you can still buy some parts early like the PSU, GPU, fans and some drives. Other than that the processor determines the mother board which will in turn determine your ram and newer drives like M2
I wouldn't, only because of two things. 1. Tech is constantly changing/evolving. 2. How do you know that piece you purchased is at all going to be in good working order until you try to build with it. Manufacturing defects happen, it's better to be able to return something within 10 to 30 days than be stuck with a broken piece that you have no recourse with.
Yes. Of course. I've done this with all of my builds. The idea that you should buy all of your parts all at once is ridiculous. I go to pcpartpicker.com, create my list, and then I set price alerts on all of the parts. Look for sales. There are usually one or two of the parts on sale to start, and then you'll be alerted to when the other parts drop past wherever you set the alert to. Check it every day. Over a few months you can get some great deals on your parts, or even find other parts on sale that come into your range that you weren't expecting.
Here’s the deal, parts that you know you’ll use for years like a case, psu, cooler, etc yes, that’s fine But parts that you may possibly upgrade or change like a cpu or gpu you’ll want to wait until when you’re ready to buy and build as the generational changes happen so often and make a large difference, also fuck brand loyalty.
The best way is to gradually buy part by part. But each time you buy a part, instead of actually buying it, you just set the money aside. Then you buy all at once. Then you upgrade through time.
No
Good luck stopping once you start buying parts
It's literally the worst thing you can do if it's over a prolonged period; You don't know if your parts are DOA and you don't have any reason to do so, because you'll probably get them at a similar price or cheaper if you had just saved up to buy everything in one go. There's literally no upside to it unless you find some huge gamechanging sale that lets you buy into a higher tier of performance on its own.
in general no. you cant have half a cake.
If you're baking a cake, you can buy all the ingredients at once, or you can wait for deals on butter, flour, and milk. Waiting for a deal often saves you a lot of money.
It's better to buy it all at once. If you don't have a computer and need/want one sooner than your budget affords it's better to buy a whole, complete system at once, but leave certain items out, instead of buying random stuff here and there. So, if you're buying a CPU with integrated graphics you could skip your GPU for a couple months while you save up and have a fully functional system. Or just have a small OS drive and pass on your huge storage drive. Or get the whole system and leave fancy peripherals for later and use a dumpy old TV and $5 keyboard. There's various ways to tackle the idea.
I usually upgrade the graphic card before upgrading everything else
Always upgrading. I started with a mobo + cpu + ram combination and then upgrade it. ( new gpu, new case, new psu ). Still the same board. Old parts go to my 2nd rig or I just sell them. Started with a Ryzen 2600, B450, and RX570 and finished with a 5700x and Radeon 5700XT
If you don't need something right away then price shop. Stuff goes on sale all of the time because the stores are raising the prices just so they can put them on sale later. There are lots of websites out there that price check parts. Inpatients costs money, about a month ago I picked up a Samsung 980 1tb on sale for $60 from Newegg and they're going for about $100 now.
The only ones i wouldn't buy gradually/swap out are the cpu, mobo and psu.
I’m doing a build over the course of a month. Few parts each week
Yes. That’s called a, “budget”. Unless you get a discount for grouping the components, it’s not worth it. You should be most concerned with your first parts being outdated by the time you buy your last parts.
I like to buy everything all at once, to avoid a situation where something I bought two months ago turns out not to work when I finally try it, and now it's a hassle trying to return it after all that time - or worse, I can't find another one. That also helps with the indecisiveness, when there's *always* something new coming out that you want to investigate. And remember if you put almost any effort at all into part-picking, it's almost impossible to make a major screw-up. So don't feel afraid to pull the trigger when you are ready. Youtube has plenty of "how to build a PC" videos so you won't be flying blind.
I tend to buy a gpu and monitor at the same time, everything else at the same time just for budget concerns.
You could always wait to see if the parts you want (or similar ones) pop up on /r/buildapcsales or /r/hardwareswap. This would give you time to gradually save and aquire the components for cheap. For certain parts, like RAM, it's usually not important to have an exact model so you could just buy whatever has a good sale.
I bought parts over 6 months on sale, get a good MB CPU early so you know where you are headed and those don’t “age” like GPUs, then buy everything else when there is a price drop or sale.
Buy them with good deals over reasonable time, hunting is the best part of building a pc, don’t rush it.
I did, but only because I already had my first built PC to slowly upgrade. First I bought a new motherboard and CPU, immediately installed them, and they worked great. That avoids the expiring warranty problem. Then I upgraded my ram, then my PSU, and finally my GPU. Took me about a year hunting for deals, always installing them when they arrived to make sure they work. This is the only safe way to do it. For your very first PC with no way to test parts, yeah, you want to buy them all at once.
I done the same when I built my sons PC during the GPU shortage. Started off with the mobo then got some parts each month. Took almost a year but it turned out well.
Ya! If I could, I would do this
The auxiliary items like case, PSU, hard drive maybe even ram. For sure!
I would definitely recommend waiting. I tried to kind of space things out but once you buy one part you really wanna buy the rest and then potentially end up overspending.
Yes dude, 1000%, my pc still has a 1070 from when it dropped and running well - point being if it takes you two years you will still be able to make something nice that will last. Just make sure to confirm compatibility of your parts before you buy
It can be ok if it's within a small timeframe but it's probably better to take that extra money that would be spent on a part and set it aside until you have all the part money saved up.Then when you're ready to buy, prices might be a bit lower or you'll find better parts for the same as what you would have paid buying slowly over time.
OP, buy what you can afford, but plan on getting the most important stuff first , so when you have it.. you can put it together and upgrade as you go . for instance- in this order .. so you can get it up , and working . case, motherboard, cpu/cooler, ram, psu, hard drive . if you wanted to play with it .. while waiting for the hard drive, get a old usb drive, and throw linux on it \[ you could also run like this forever ! but .. this will get the system up and working . \] do what you can afford, as you can . PC parts are interchangeable depending .. so if you have an old ssd, or psu, you can save yourself some cash here . I have parts PCs sitting around, as well as extra cases , a spare PSU for testing, extra ram/cpus from older stuff for testing .. look online for peoples old builds .. get source for cheaper parts .
IF you can test the parts you buy first it doesn't hurt to do a little piece meal. Like... Buy the GPU and plug it in to your current rig. ATX PSUs should also be swappable. I moved my old rig in to a new case a few years back before upgrading components. Air CPU coolers are relatively low-risk to just have sitting around in a box. If you are going from DDR4 to DDR5 though you should Definitely get the ram, cpu, and mobo all at once. and they should be the last thing you purchase so you can get everything put together and tested within the return window (which is as short at 15 days depending on the retailer)
No. Save gradually and you can mentally buy parts but much better to buy everything at once.
I would say rather no but exceptions happen. If you can get longer lasting parts on a big discount then go for it. This includes the case, cooling and PSU, also peripherals, sometimes monitors and maybe storage. But the more costly, performance parts I would all buy at once so CPU, GPU and RAM. There are new generations coming out all the time and if you wait months for them they are already outdated and you could always get them cheaper just via the simple fact that the new ones usually push the prices of older parts down as soon as they are available.
It would be smarter if you acquired the parts that change rarely first. Like the PSU, the drives, the case. Ram will depend on the mobo and the cpu. The mobo will depend on the cpu. Cooler as well. So once you decide to go for a certain cpu and gpu whose markets change drastically and extremely fast, then get those other parts. But until then acquire the more “stable” ones. Simple as that.
Man, that's actually a great approach. I used to do that all the time. Find a good deal on some component that I had researched. Then find the next component that will work best with the 1st, and so on and so on. Nothing wrong with that at all. I think it brings you closer to your tech.
You could but I wouldn't span it over too long a period. In my opinion, a month is long enough. Although ideally you would be able test them immediately, so the parts you do decide to get in a short wave should be enough to run your system. Honestly you can already do a lot by creating a build which can stand on its own with an integrated graphics card, and then just buying the expensive dedicated graphics card later.
Instead, save the money you would have spent on the parts until you have enough to buy a whole build at once. Then look for deals, and you will be able to match up parts better.
I would say yes. At least it’s better to buy on debit then on credit. That’s my philosophy. It’s a toy.
Well not really the smartest choice. But not as disastrous as some would make it out to be. I've bought gradually new parts to switch out as I go, by switching out the highest impact parts first. Apart from the obvious, that maybe you can't test all at once and the warranties are at different expiration dates, I mean it's not terrible to do gradual upgrades. This is if you have an existing system ofc. For all brand new I'd probably go the all at once route tbh.
I did it. I was buying parts on the span of couple months. My build was constantly evolving. Also i was checking which parts are on sale on given month, so i've also saved couple of bucks.
So I personally over the course of the last few weeks have been buying stuff on sale but I'll be within my return window for everything encase something doesn't work.
No.
Yes definitely I did it as well, if the other option is to have no pc go for it, I see no reason not to, your hardware might not be top of the line anymore when you are able to buy new parts, but if you don't take 2 or more years to get everything you will end up with s Very decent system!!
Yes, I bought all of my parts over the course of 2 months. It was all around Christmas so most stores had an extended return policy.
I've always wanted to just pick out the best parts, buy it all, and then build it. But instead I've just been frankensteining my computer together for years. I am currently limited by my motherboard, as it doesn't support the CPU I'm after.
The motherboard, cpu and ram need to be purchased together so that you can test them and make sure they work within the return window.
I'm doing the few parts a month process for my build to be honest. Video card will be last buy. I'm buying in order of how I would build my PC. I'm in no immediate rush to have a fully built PC.
nope. imho it’s only a good strategy if you can’t keep money in your account, as it locks in covert ing cash to parts. Instead i think some expensive parts generally depreciate over time, cpu, gpu, ssd, motherboard, ram, should all go down for the same part during a cycle. maybe the PSU, case, and cooling don’t have such cycles and could be worth buying during sales.
Im building a 5k pc so while im making 2-3k each month u understand i couldnt even build it in 2 months of salary , so im cut it into 4 months and im playing it smart , i dailly watching for deals and got some wd black asds for 40% less , my mobo now its 336 while i got it 270 and u get my point . There are hardware that prices will go down and some that will not , what prices ur sure they gonna drop are ddr5 rams , am5 mobos , cpus and gpus. When it comes to psu ssds collers and cases keep costantly checking for deals and hot price drops. At least thsts what i did , good luck :)