Which Parts do I Buy First? (timing is everything)

[Tomblvd]

I haven't bought a desktop in 10 years, preferring to upgrade parts as I find necessary.

Well, the time has come that the family needs a new box and I'm more than willing to sacrifice my current rig to the cause allowing me, of course, to build a new system. Now, I do everything on my current one; gaming, photo editing, internet, home video..... lots of multitasking. So I'm looking for a high performance rig. What I plan to do is buy a few components at a time so I can have them ready to put together a couple months after the new year.

So the question is quite simple, what pieces of hardware are most likely to drop in price, and what do I buy now? I'm not asking for anyone to predict the future here but I do realize that some things are more volitile in price (i.e. memory) than other things (say, cases).

Any thoughts on the timing (case, power supply, cpu, mobo, memory, hard drive, video card?). And I'm not being purposely vague here, I just haven't made my mind up what I'm buying.

Thanks in advance

 

[sonic-boom]

There are certiant things that stay the same and some that change every month. The case, dvd burner and psu are the same all month all year. Buy those first. The one thing you have to be careful about is the watt of PSU. If you don't plan on crossfire than get a 550w Corsair. If you want crossfire capability then get 650-750w. 650w is enough to crossfire all cards up to the 5970 atm, but if you buy say a new nvidia card later that isnt build on 40nm than 650 won't be enough. So i would say a 750w. Your HDD can also be bought with that stuff or whenever. A Spinpoint f3 is the best choice. The next components you can look at is the vid card. Lastly, you should get your processor, mobo and ram all in one purchase. You can buy your ram before but make sure its going to be ok with your processor purchase.

 

[Tomblvd]

Sonic, clear, concise, exactly what I needed to hear.

Thanks for the reply.

Reason #1 why this is the first and only place for recommendations.

If you don't mind another question. What would you suggest I add if I wanted to use this as a HTPC? Since I'm going with a high-end graphics card already, what else do I need?

TIA...

 

[sonic-boom]

Maybe just a sound card if you plan to use surround sound. Thats all I can think of.

 

[dpaul8]

Sonic's advice mirrors exactly my own experience. I bought all of my system components over a two month period as I found items on sale. The case and power supply were a combo deal from Newegg. Next I bought four hard drives on sale also from Newegg. Third, I bought the video card from Tiger Direct on sale. Fourth, I bought the CPU from Microcenter. Last of all I bought the Mobo and RAM from Newegg.

Newegg gives you 30 days from the date on the invoice to return most items. You want to make sure you purchase critical components last to give yourself some time to put everything together and check things out before your 30 days are up. After 30 days, if you find a problem, you will have work through the manufacturers warranty instead of Newegg.

Other retailers have different return policies, so always read the fine print before you make a purchase.

 

[Tomblvd]

What about mobos? It seems not all of them (even higher-end ones) have the necessary connections.

Although I guess that's a self-answering question. If I'm going to want to do HT, I'd need an HT mobo. A better question is, are there trade-offs between "all-in-one" and gaming mobos?

 

[sonic-boom]

What connections are you talking about?
There are no mobos for certiant things but some are better than others for things. Like some mobos have enough spaces for 3 graphics cards and such, so they are for high end systems. But that doesnt mean you cant use it in your system. There are no "HT" mobos, but usually HTPCs just use a mATX, but you can make ATX computer a HTPC, although it is defnied by its case.

 

[jaymoney61]

Buy the computer parts first

 

[sonic-boom]

^^.....trying to rack up post points???

 

[jaymoney61]

^^.....trying to rack up post points???

Hehe...