if you're near a microcenter, then there should be a good chance for you to get one. MC appears to be marking up their gpus unfortunately, but i don't think it's anywhere near as bad as scalpers on ebay. join the unofficial microcenter chat on discord (your local MC), and ask around on what popular shipment days are, how the inventory has been, etc.
i generally recommend waiting to get the GPU first, since the downsides of buying the other components first and having them sit around are:
1. you'll lose the return window (especially if they're defective and you haven't had a chance to test them)
2. they might be more discounted in the future
3. new components may pop up before you get to use them (DDR5, for example)
especially for gamers, i recommend either acquiring a gpu first or buying a prebuilt at a good price.
however, if you need to do cpu-intensive tasks now, then you can plug in your gt640 for now and do what you need to do while waiting for a gpu.
I would also agree that if you NEED a new GPU then getting that first makes sense. Especially since CPU stock seems to be holding steady. My GPU (GTX 1080) is much newer than the rest of my components (FX-8300 & 8GB DDR3) so I'll be holding onto my GPU for now and will just upgrade it when it's much easier to do so.
I'm mostly working and not gaming on my PC now, nothing that needs 12 cores, but I probably won't upgrade again for 4-5 years which is why I'm thinking about going big now.
Seemingly nice prices except when you consider how little of a performance increase these CPUs have over CPUs from 2+ years ago. There was a time when after 2 years, performance was doubled over the older technology. We need some innovation
When was the last time or generation that overall performance was doubled in 2 years? Is this going from single threaded to multithreaded? Is this using synthetic benchmarks?
B&H still has the 5800X in stock and is adding a coupon, bringing it to $420. If you use their Payboo card which pays the tax for you, that is better than this deal, unless your Microcenter is not only close to you, it's in a state without sales tax.
if you're near a microcenter, then there should be a good chance for you to get one. MC appears to be marking up their gpus unfortunately, but i don't think it's anywhere near as bad as scalpers on ebay. join the unofficial microcenter chat on discord (your local MC), and ask around on what popular shipment days are, how the inventory has been, etc.
i generally recommend waiting to get the GPU first, since the downsides of buying the other components first and having them sit around are:
1. you'll lose the return window (especially if they're defective and you haven't had a chance to test them)
2. they might be more discounted in the future
3. new components may pop up before you get to use them (DDR5, for example)
especially for gamers, i recommend either acquiring a gpu first or buying a prebuilt at a good price.
however, if you need to do cpu-intensive tasks now, then you can plug in your gt640 for now and do what you need to do while waiting for a gpu.
Thank you for the excellent info! I am about 40 minutes from the microcenter so I can't easily get over there. I joined the discord channel -- excellent resource!
I'm not in a rush, but I think I'll head down there one afternoon and hang out for the shipment. If a video card is there, great. Otherwise I'll at least nab the processor and maybe the motherboard. I'm running an AMD 9850 Phenom and it's a little long in the tooth and not very stable any more so even if I don't get a shiny video card for a little bit I'll be happy with the purchase.
Thank you for the excellent info! I am about 40 minutes from the microcenter so I can't easily get over there. I joined the discord channel -- excellent resource!
I'm not in a rush, but I think I'll head down there one afternoon and hang out for the shipment. If a video card is there, great. Otherwise I'll at least nab the processor and maybe the motherboard. I'm running an AMD 9850 Phenom and it's a little long in the tooth and not very stable any more so even if I don't get a shiny video card for a little bit I'll be happy with the purchase.
Thanks again!
actually the best chance for you to snag one is to line up before they open (all the good stuff will sell out by mid-morning usually). so it's a bit of a gamble where you won't know if it's a big shipment day, so it might take a couple tries. but there are common shipment days (tues/thurs or something like that).
Seemingly nice prices except when you consider how little of a performance increase these CPUs have over CPUs from 2+ years ago. There was a time when after 2 years, performance was doubled over the older technology. We need some innovation
I dont know if it's my build or if anyone else shares the same story. I had a crosshair vi and a 3600. The upgrade DRAMATICALLY stabilized my computer. No more fluctuations in performance. It was similar to when I side graded from a 7700k. The difference is tangible in real world applications where you're running 10s of programs at any given point (antivirus, discord, chrome, spotify, OBS, etc) versus benchmarks done in a vacuum where only the benchmark is ran.
Thank you for the excellent info! I am about 40 minutes from the microcenter so I can't easily get over there. I joined the discord channel -- excellent resource!
I'm not in a rush, but I think I'll head down there one afternoon and hang out for the shipment. If a video card is there, great. Otherwise I'll at least nab the processor and maybe the motherboard. I'm running an AMD 9850 Phenom and it's a little long in the tooth and not very stable any more so even if I don't get a shiny video card for a little bit I'll be happy with the purchase.
Thanks again!
Sign up for EVGA notify list. It's basically a no charge upfront pre-order for any graphics cards on their website. They send you link to order the card when it's your turn. Don't expect to get a 3080 anytime soon, but 3060 cards shouldn't be too bad. I signed up on release date for a 3060 and just received it yesterday.
I'm having a hell of a time getting Microcenter to price match this for me. I went in to buy it when I saw the previous $280 sale about a month ago and when I got to the register the price was $360. I had already spent an hour selecting motherboard for the combo and driven an hour and planning on building the computer that day so but the bullet and bought thinking I'd price match to the $299 msrp later, hopefully.
Meanwhile a BestBuy closer to me had one for $299 I later find out, which would have saved me $40 after losing the $20 cpu/mobo discount.
Next, AMD.com drops them at $299. I eat in price chat with MC rep and tell them it's available elsewhere for $299. They ask where, I check BB and they've just sold out, I screenshot AMD and send that to the chat rep. They check AMd and say they can't see the stock. Admittedly AMDs store does some funny stuff to try to fight bots so if they were using a vpn or visiting the site a lot it might look different to them. So failed then.
Another week later AMD is dropping cpus and 5600X is up all day For $299 I mean hours after everything else is sold out. I get on with the chat rep and show them. Now they see it, but they don't price match AMDs website they say. Well what Can I do about that???
That was less than a week ago. Hopefully they price match themselves…!
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i generally recommend waiting to get the GPU first, since the downsides of buying the other components first and having them sit around are:
1. you'll lose the return window (especially if they're defective and you haven't had a chance to test them)
2. they might be more discounted in the future
3. new components may pop up before you get to use them (DDR5, for example)
especially for gamers, i recommend either acquiring a gpu first or buying a prebuilt at a good price.
however, if you need to do cpu-intensive tasks now, then you can plug in your gt640 for now and do what you need to do while waiting for a gpu.
I'm mostly working and not gaming on my PC now, nothing that needs 12 cores, but I probably won't upgrade again for 4-5 years which is why I'm thinking about going big now.
When was the last time or generation that overall performance was doubled in 2 years? Is this going from single threaded to multithreaded? Is this using synthetic benchmarks?
Would wait for the next gen AMD if I was swinging that way.
The 5600x at $300 is arguably one of the best gaming and general-purpose CPU available right now.
If prices would normalize on the 5900x 12 core, I'd upgrade to that in a heartbeat and call it a day for the next 5 years or more.
IPC AMD and Intel: https://www.techspot.co
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i generally recommend waiting to get the GPU first, since the downsides of buying the other components first and having them sit around are:
1. you'll lose the return window (especially if they're defective and you haven't had a chance to test them)
2. they might be more discounted in the future
3. new components may pop up before you get to use them (DDR5, for example)
especially for gamers, i recommend either acquiring a gpu first or buying a prebuilt at a good price.
however, if you need to do cpu-intensive tasks now, then you can plug in your gt640 for now and do what you need to do while waiting for a gpu.
I'm not in a rush, but I think I'll head down there one afternoon and hang out for the shipment. If a video card is there, great. Otherwise I'll at least nab the processor and maybe the motherboard. I'm running an AMD 9850 Phenom and it's a little long in the tooth and not very stable any more so even if I don't get a shiny video card for a little bit I'll be happy with the purchase.
Thanks again!
I'm not in a rush, but I think I'll head down there one afternoon and hang out for the shipment. If a video card is there, great. Otherwise I'll at least nab the processor and maybe the motherboard. I'm running an AMD 9850 Phenom and it's a little long in the tooth and not very stable any more so even if I don't get a shiny video card for a little bit I'll be happy with the purchase.
Thanks again!
I dont know if it's my build or if anyone else shares the same story. I had a crosshair vi and a 3600. The upgrade DRAMATICALLY stabilized my computer. No more fluctuations in performance. It was similar to when I side graded from a 7700k. The difference is tangible in real world applications where you're running 10s of programs at any given point (antivirus, discord, chrome, spotify, OBS, etc) versus benchmarks done in a vacuum where only the benchmark is ran.
I'm not in a rush, but I think I'll head down there one afternoon and hang out for the shipment. If a video card is there, great. Otherwise I'll at least nab the processor and maybe the motherboard. I'm running an AMD 9850 Phenom and it's a little long in the tooth and not very stable any more so even if I don't get a shiny video card for a little bit I'll be happy with the purchase.
Thanks again!
I'm having a hell of a time getting Microcenter to price match this for me. I went in to buy it when I saw the previous $280 sale about a month ago and when I got to the register the price was $360. I had already spent an hour selecting motherboard for the combo and driven an hour and planning on building the computer that day so but the bullet and bought thinking I'd price match to the $299 msrp later, hopefully.
Meanwhile a BestBuy closer to me had one for $299 I later find out, which would have saved me $40 after losing the $20 cpu/mobo discount.
Next, AMD.com drops them at $299. I eat in price chat with MC rep and tell them it's available elsewhere for $299. They ask where, I check BB and they've just sold out, I screenshot AMD and send that to the chat rep. They check AMd and say they can't see the stock. Admittedly AMDs store does some funny stuff to try to fight bots so if they were using a vpn or visiting the site a lot it might look different to them. So failed then.
Another week later AMD is dropping cpus and 5600X is up all day For $299 I mean hours after everything else is sold out. I get on with the chat rep and show them. Now they see it, but they don't price match AMDs website they say. Well what Can I do about that???
That was less than a week ago. Hopefully they price match themselves…!
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