Buying hardware isn’t nearly as complicated as people think; great deals are often available if you buy the right component at the right time. Speaking of which, now is the right time to buy the components listed below.

RAM

RAM is at an all time low, which is a good thing. RAM production looks to be stable (bar any unfortunate natural occurrences, like a portal to hell opening in Asia), and the best bit is that next generation chipsets have stuck with DDR3, making sure it will be around for a long time yet.

A new arrival to the RAM world is quad-channel RAM sets, to be used by the recently released Intel X79 chipset. This RAM is compatible with previous gen hardware from both Intel and AMD, and can populate all RAM slots in a dual-channel system with matched modules. What this means is that you can stick 16GB of DDR3 1600MHz ram in your system for under R1,200, while 32GB of the same speed RAM will cost just short of R2,300.

In terms of capacity, most gamers (or indeed, most consumers) don’t need anywhere near this much RAM. However these kits are also pushing down the price of older 4GB and 8GB kits, meaning whatever your capacity need, there is cheap RAM to fulfill it.

G Skill Quad channel RAM

Cases

Cases don’t really move much in price, meaning there is no better time than the present to invest in one. There won’t be much of a shift either way in case prices for a while to come (bar our previous hell portal scenario), so you can buy a new PC case confident that you’re not about to be shafted by massive price drops next week.

Even better, brands such as NZXT and Bitfenix which were previously unavailable in South Africa are here now, meaning you’ve got an even wider range of products to choose from. If you’re looking for a new case, there is no reason to hesitate.

Coolermaster Cosmos S II

Power supplies

You see what I said about cases above? Same thing here really. A good power supply is roughly the same price it was a year or two ago, and with such a long term hardware investment, even if the price decreases slowly over time, you shouldn’t need to upgrade again until either the PSU dies or its warranty runs out.

A high end 850W PSU can be had for between R1,500 and R2,000. Unless you’re planning on running a Quad-SLI system with water-cooling and enough neon to make Tokyo’s red light district blush, it should be plenty for the next 3 or more years.

Corsair AX1200

Televisions

With the recent price drops of LCD, LED and Plasma televisions, you should seriously consider biting the bullet and getting one now. Prices may continue to drop slightly, though if I were a betting man I would put money on the low- to mid-range price points of R3,000 to R7,500 not moving around much.

With the inflated prices of computer monitors thanks to our tax laws, buying a television to act as your new PC monitor has never been more of a good idea.

Samsung 32-inch Full HD