In light of the deteriorating situation surrounding coronavirus, news reports have begun to appear in various outlets that the price of PC hardware may rise soon due to a decrease in manufacturing in countries like China, impacting stock levels and rising costs. While little has changed so far, at least in the UK, we have no idea what the future will bring.
The worst-case scenario is that the lockdowns continue, supply is reduced, and PC hardware prices rise, although this hasn’t happened in any significant way so far, at least for those of us in the United Kingdom. However, this isn’t the first time it’s happened.
A few years ago, factory floods drove up the cost of hard discs, and who can forget the skyrocketing price of GPUs during the crypto-mining boom? We may see multiple areas affected this time around, of course.
This begs the question: is now the best time to upgrade or build a PC this year if you already planned? If you can afford it, build the best PC you can now, rather than wait for prices to rise. Actually, I think there’s some logic in that. Even though it’s unlikely that prices will remain unchanged, there are some compelling arguments for making a purchase now rather than waiting until later in the year.
To begin with, there are some excellent bargains to be had in the current market. The 12C/24T Ryzen 9 3900X now retails for less than £400, whereas it would have cost you around £500 when it was first released. When it was first released, the Ryzen 5 3600 was selling for close to $200. It is likely that these prices will fall even further because of AMD’s previous antics around product launches (both its own and the competition’s).
The Core i9-9900KF – the integrated graphics-less version of the Core i9-9900K – is now available for less than £470 from Intel. Aside from that fact, graphics card competition is healthy, at least below the $400 mark. To compete with AMD’s new RX 5600 XT, Nvidia has reduced the price of its RTX 2060 FE card, but there are also many good third-party Radeon and GeForce GTX/RTX cards now.
On the other hand, new products are just around the corner. Hyper-threading may be coming to all Intel desktop CPUs, bringing a much-needed multi-threaded boost and tantalizingly, for similar prices if the latest reports are to be taken into consideration. In contrast, AMD is working on 4th Gen Ryzen CPUs and a high-end GPU, which is expected to compete with Nvidia’s new models soon after.
To put it another way, the current uncertainty has come at a very inconvenient time for both gamers and manufacturers who are hoping to launch new products later this year, both of which rely on well-oiled supply chains. Don’t be afraid to make a purchase right away, in my opinion. After all, there are some excellent bargains to be had. However, if you’re willing to wait, the coming months will be exciting in terms of new hardware launches, but supply and pricing may be highly unpredictable, depending on where you live.
In the event of a virus outbreak, are you planning to buy now to avoid the chaos, and if so, how soon? Tell us in the comments what you think.
