Hardware you shouldn’t buy right now

New technology just around the corner is often the reason for specials on hardware as companies try to clear their shelves and make way for the latest and greatest. However, sometimes the market is just a stagnant bubble waiting to burst, and sometimes hardware prices are really good, but waiting a few months could save you even more.

With this in mind, here are 4 components you shouldn’t buy right now:

Monitors

The gaming monitor market has been stagnant for a while, and if you’ve got a decent monitor there isn’t much reason for you to look at upgrading. But this is all about to change. The iPad 3 has a monster resolution crammed into a tiny 9.7 inch screen, and Apple Macbooks are now offering 2880 x 1800 resolution displays, and it doesn’t stop there. Laptop manufacturers including Lenovo and HP are starting to offer 15.6 inch class laptops with Full HD screens, something that is fast becoming the norm on mid- to high-end machines.

All of this points to a resolution increase for standard gaming monitors within the next few months to a year. The size might not increase, but the resolution certainly will. Finally a reason to run a high-end graphics card… or two.

Apple Cinema display: LED backlit at 2560-by-1440 resolution.

CPU/Motherboard

If you haven’t yet jumped to Intel or AMD’s latest platforms, chances are good that you can hang on for another few months, which is a good thing. Intel are releasing Ivy Bridge-E at the end of this year, which should become the de facto standard for high-end gaming machines. If you’re into slightly less expensive parts, Intel have the Haswell CPUs and motherboards expected to release in Q2 next year. The new socket (1150) means you won’t be able to use your current CPU, so there is little point upgrading to Ivy Bridge if you plan on going for Haswell.

AMD are also coming out with processors based on the 28nm manufacturing process, with Steamroller cores as the successor to Piledriver. PCIe 3.0 is also expected to be a part of the new AMD motherboard lineup, so it’s worth the wait.

Intel Socket LGA 2011 (Patsburg)

Hard drives

This time last year the price of hard drives sky-rocketed thanks to flooding in Asia that had a huge impact on the main hard drive manufacturers. Fast forward a year and pricing is still higher than it was before the floods, though it does seem to be dropping down slowly. Unless you absolutely need more space, hold out on buying more hard drives until the pricing is better.

SSDs

The odd one out on the list, SSDs are the cheapest they have ever been and buying one now is a great idea. However, previous MyGaming pricing roundups show that the price has steadily been decreasing, and may still have some way to go before it hits the next cost barrier. It may be a gamble, but gamers could save a bit more on their SSD by waiting for the best moment to buy. You are risking the prices hiking up due to a number of factors, not least of which is the Christmas shopping season that is a little over a month away, and the current weak Rand/US Dollar exchange.