Introduction

It goes without saying that 2021 has shaped up to be a very strange year in the DIY PC component market. We entered the year with GPUs hard to find, and AMD’s impressive new Zen 3 CPUs sold out nearly across the board, but that was just the tip of the iceberg. Soon enough, the cryptocurrency craze hit, sapping the market of all remaining GPUs, along with most high-end power supplies and even some hard drives as well! Things are slowly returning to normal, but as with so many things in life these days, it’s a “new normal.”

TBG’s Take

For TBG’s thoughts on the current situation and what’s to come over the next year or so, check out our YouTube discussion!

Conclusion

Luckily, the news is not all bad, and there are certainly good deals to be had, especially on RAM and SSDs, but the video card market is going to be tough to navigate for quite some time, especially if you’re looking for a “deal.” Hopefully, Intel’s upcoming Alder Lake 12th-Gen CPUs bring some much-needed excitement to the industry, because right now enthusiasts are probably feeling pretty drained!

As always, you can check out all of TBG’s recommended components in our 24 monthly PC Build Guides.