Is it too soon to order a gaming pc for xmas?

roosterbean

Hi, my son has asked for a gaming pc for xmas which I could order now, but I was wondering how fast things get upgraded and whether there would be any benefit in waiting until nearer the time. I wouldnt be talking top spec, my budget would be about £800 but would like to get as much as I can for my money. I hope some kind techie can help me out

I_have_spoken

Buy it now, use it now. Madness to have £800 of kit sitting in a box

roosterbean

Thanks for your advice, unfortunately, I can't afford to give him an £800 off the cuff present before Christmas, so I'll take it that waiting is the best bet

shortchanged_2

Very generous xmas present. Can I have one?

Own_My_Own

roosterbean wrote: »

Hi, my son has asked for a gaming pc for xmas which I could order now, but I was wondering how fast things get upgraded and whether there would be any benefit in waiting until nearer the time. I wouldnt be talking top spec, my budget would be about £800 but would like to get as much as I can for my money. I hope some kind techie can help me out

I would wait. If you buy it now the guarantee would be nearly over by the time you used it.

Lum

These sort of things don't tend to have December price rises or January sales, newer and faster kit is coming out all the time so prices are constantly dropping.

The exception to this is the price of memory which varies all the time due to supply/demand.

May as well wait until nearer the event.

Are you intending to buy a whole PC or build one yourself? If the latter then maybe you could spread the cost by buying the parts that don't get updated and depreciate in price (case, power supply, memory, optical drives, monitor) sooner and then the rest closer to the time.

roosterbean

Lol shortchanged! This is the first time he has ever asked for anything this expensive and it has been explained to him that there will only be one gift under the tree this year.

Thanks for the advice folks, I will definitely leave it until later in the year then. I wish I was patient and clever enough to build my own, I think it would stress me out to the max :eek:
I was going to look at customising one from PCSpecialists or somewhere similar, any advice on this would be muchly appreciated also. Good point about the warranty, thanks

Crinkmeister

Don't know if I'm allowed to recommend suppliers, but take a look at ebuyer. If I'm breaking rules, I apologise in advance!

Don't forget a decent monitor and speakers!

mttylad

Put the money away now, that way you can keep adding to it if needs be.

Then when you see the PC late on you can get it.

Just be aware that you need to test and use it when you get it.

paddyrg

Prices go down, specs go up. The longer you can defer the expenditure the better the machine for the price, the longer the warranty left on it, and you can use the interest on £800 to get a Mars bar for yourself

tyllwyd

But whenever you buy the machine, don't leave it in a box for weeks before you start using it - if there is something wrong you need to know asap because it will be much easier to return it for a replacement within the first seven or fourteen days. I would say either buy it earlier and let him start using it, or tell him that the IOU will be under the tree, and you will go and buy it together after Christmas.