If you priced up a gaming PC this time last year and went to buy the same parts this week, you'd need roughly another €800. That's not me exaggerating for effect. The Dutch tech site Tweakers keeps six reference builds and re-prices them regularly, and between September 2025 and October 2026 they went up by an average of 51%.
I build PCs for people around Roscommon, so I've watched this happen one quote at a time. Here's where the money actually went, which parts are still reasonable, and the question everyone asks me: should I buy now or wait?
Where the extra money went
Price change by component, September 2025 to October 2026 (Tweakers reference builds)
Why it happened
One word: AI. The three companies that make nearly all the world's memory (Samsung, SK hynix and Micron) have moved production towards HBM and server memory, the expensive stuff that goes into AI data centres. That leaves less capacity for the ordinary DDR5 and DDR4 that goes into your PC, and prices followed.
The numbers are hard to believe until you see them. Tom's Hardware tracked a Crucial 32GB DDR5-6000 kit going from about $90 to $459. Micron has since shut down Crucial, its consumer brand, altogether. Even DDR4, the old standard, hit record prices in August.
SSDs got caught in the same squeeze, because NAND flash comes from the same factories. A 2TB Samsung 990 Evo Plus went from $113 to $363 in about a year. And graphics cards are now feeling it too: memory makers are winding down GDDR6 and GDDR7 supply is limited, so the memory on the card itself costs more.
Part by part: what's sensible right now
| Processor | Fine to buy. Prices stable |
| Motherboard | AM5 is the safe bet |
| Memory | Buy only what you need |
| SSD | Start smaller, add later |
| Graphics card | AMD is the better value |
| Power supply, case, cooler | Good time to buy |
Processors are the one bit of good news. They've barely moved. AMD has said its AM5 socket will be supported through 2029, and its own documents show the next generation (Zen 6) landing on AM5, probably in 2027. Intel's next desktop chips, Nova Lake, need a new socket, and the board makers at Computex were talking about early 2027. So if you're buying a platform today, AM5 is the one that keeps an upgrade path open.
Graphics cards are where you need to shop carefully. PC Gamer's price tracking in August had the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB selling for about 82% over its launch price, more than an RTX 5070. AMD's cards rose far less: the RX 9060 XT 16GB and RX 9070 XT are the closest thing to sensible value at the moment. The RTX 5090 has effectively vanished from shelves. Nvidia says it hasn't been discontinued, but good luck finding one at a price you'd want to pay.
There are rumours of an RTX 50 Super refresh with more memory in early 2027. Nvidia hasn't announced anything, so I wouldn't plan a build around it.
So, buy now or wait?
I'd love to tell you to hang on and it'll all get cheaper. The forecasts don't support that. TrendForce, which tracks memory contract prices, expects DRAM to rise another 10 to 15% in the last quarter of this year and says supply will stay tight through 2027. SSDs might ease first, with some relief possible in the second half of 2027 as new capacity comes online.
Wait if…
Your current PC still runs what you play. You're chasing a high-end GPU that's marked up 50% or more. Or you're on AM4 and a drop-in CPU upgrade would buy you another couple of years.
Buy now if…
Your PC has died or can't run Windows 11. You need it for work. Or you can carry over expensive parts (SSD, case, power supply) and only replace the core.
One date worth knowing if you game on Windows 10: Nvidia's last Game Ready driver for Windows 10 is this month. After that it gets security fixes only, so new games won't get the usual driver tuning. Windows 10 itself can stay patched until 12 October 2027 through Microsoft's extended updates, so Windows alone isn't a reason to panic-buy.
How I'd build one today
- Reuse what you can. A good power supply, case, SSD and even DDR4 memory can come across to a new build and save you hundreds.
- 16GB is the floor, 32GB if you can stretch. If you have to choose, spend on memory before storage. You can add an SSD next year in five minutes; swapping memory means buying a whole new kit.
- A 1TB Gen4 SSD is plenty to start. Gen5 drives cost more and you won't notice the difference in games.
- Look at AMD for the graphics card unless there's an Nvidia feature you specifically need.
- Don't pay launch-day premiums for rumours. Zen 6, Nova Lake and any 50 Super cards are 2027 stories.
If you'd rather not track prices across five shops, that's what I do. I quote builds with parts at cost and I'll tell you when a prebuilt is the better deal. More on the individual parts in my posts on RAM prices, SSD prices and whether to wait for Black Friday.
Where that leaves you
Building a PC costs about half as much again as it did a year ago, and nearly all of that is memory and storage. Processors, cases and power supplies are as good value as ever. AMD graphics cards are the sensible pick, AM5 is the safe platform, and prebuilts are worth a serious look for once.
The forecasts don't back up waiting for prices to fall. Buy what you need, reuse what you can, and leave room to upgrade.
Sources: Tweakers reference-build prices, via BornCity (Oct 2026) · Tom's Hardware on RAM (Jul 2026) · Tom's Hardware on SSDs (Jul 2026) · TrendForce Q4 forecast (Sep 2026) · TrendForce 2027 outlook (Oct 2026) · PC Gamer GPU prices (Aug 2026) · PC Gamer on the RTX 5090 (Oct 2026) · Hardware Busters on Zen 6 and AM5 · Tom's Hardware on Nova Lake · Nvidia Windows 10 drivers · Microsoft Windows 10 ESU
