Over the years, we've observed PC builders employing all kinds of interesting methods intended to save money or stretch a buck. Let's ponder for a moment whether these strategies actually make sense.
IS ADDING A SECOND CARD LATER EVER WORTH IT?
There's a famous cheapskate maneuver that we'll call the "Multi-Card Gambit,” where a consumer buys a midrange $250 GPU with the intention of doubling the performance a year later when the prices of the same card have been cut in half. The problem is the gambit rarely works.
The key to the gambit is timing. Do it too soon, and you really haven't gained anything at all except suffering lower frame rates for six months. Wait too long, and it will make more sense to buy the next-generation card instead. An exam- pleofthisistheGeForce560Ti dilemma. Originally $270, GeForce 560 Ti cards are now as low as $180. For a cheapskate, that's cheaper than having to shell out the $400 for a GeForce GTX 670, and you will get a decent frame rate increase you can feel. Six months from now, however, the 670 will have dropped in price or a new card will replace it, making the Multi-Card Gambit a foolish move.
THE RELEVANT CONUNDRUM
Cheapskates know the best time to buy a 2012 car is afterthe 2013 models have been introduced. But does that same wait-and- see approach hold up for CPUs? We looked at several popular models of CPUs and found that while buying the last-generation model can yield some savings, the tight controls the chip makers exert over their inventories can make this strategy unreliable. For example, the Core i7-2600K debut price in 2011 was $330. Today? It's $290. Its replacement, the Core i7-3770 is $330. The even more popular Core i5-2500K came out at $225 in early 2011. Today it costs $220, and its replacement, the Core i5-3570K, is $229. Intel's former top chip, the six-core Core i7-990X, made its debut at $999 last year. Today? It sells for $999. Its replacement, the Core i7-3960X, fetches $999. Even Intel’s ancient Core i7-870 hasn't gotten cheaper over time after you factor in Intel’s price cuts to it two years ago. We simply can't recommend paying $330 for a Core i7-870 today. Even eBay prices put the chip at $250 or more—and it's two generations old at this point.
But what about in AMD land, where the controls aren't as iron-fisted? There the prices are what you would probably expect when buying older hardware. Since its introduction, the
AMD Phenom II X4 965 has made a stair-step drop from its initial price of $245 to $104 today. Even AMD's FX-8150 has steadily dropped from its $280 introduction to $199 today.
THE REAL HARDWARE HOARDERS OF ORANGE COUNTY
Cheapskates, invariably, want to "stock up” on a good deal when they see one. Frankly, we think that's a poor strategy to follow if not done wisely. Yes, such a move might look prescient in light of the Thailand floods of 2011 that caused hard drive prices to triple and quadruple overnight, but stocking up for future builds is often fraught with risks.
Take RAM, for example, which climbed in price late last year and seemed bound to climb higher following the bankruptcy of DRAM maker Elpida. The reality is, RAM prices are insanely low today. You can get four 8GB DIMMs of DDR3/1600 for $200. If you had stocked up on RAM last summer because prices were 'headed back up," you would have paid $150 for four 4GB DIMMs of DDR3/1600. If you stocked up on DDR3 DIMMs now for a build next year, they would introduce DDR4just to spite you.
It's far safer to bet on one constant in technology: It always gets cheaper, and it always gets better. So unless you're sure it's a killer deal you're getting, it's generally safer to wait until you need to buy it.
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