Anyone know if PC components are cheaper in the UK than the USA right now?

[peanutismint]

I moved to America but I'm (finally!) coming back to the UK for a visit just after Christmas and in dire need to upgrade/rebuild my gaming/VR PC which I built in 2012....!! I'm probably looking to save some money by buying used, as long as that's not a bad idea since crypto mining became a thing in the decade since I built my PC.

I know the chip shortage and GPU inflation from mining is happening EVERYWHERE right now but I'm just wondering if anyone knows if by some weird quirk of supply/demand things like CPUs/GPUs are any cheaper in the UK right now than in the USA, or is it all kind of the same when you're buying used? Or should I be looking to buy new?

 

[raralis]

Components are normally always cheaper in the US (depending on which state) than the UK even when taking into account the currency/wage differences.

I know of people in the US lining up at brick and mortar stores to get PC components at reasonable prices.
It's not that easy I'm the UK particularly when it comes to GPUs.

 

[peanutismint]

Interesting; it's not often you might get something cheaper new at a brick & mortar rather than used on eBay or similar...! Maybe I'll try in shops, but is there any way to know what the MSRP of cards like the 2060 is, so I can tell if a shop is even inflating their prices??

 

[Rroff]

Everything is expensive in the UK at the moment the only thing I would say is that with a bit of time and patience I've managed to snag some good hardware deals, which are probably hard to beat even in the US i.e. NVME drives at over 50% discount on their normal price, but that doesn't really help if it is just a visit to the country.

 

[Craig_d1]

just look on microcenter website..you can pick up a evga 3070 for $709.99...that £529.84... i know you then add tax on but think it's quite low(less than 10%)..over here cheapest on OCuk is £900...same for some cpu...5800X is $329 or £245, OCuk £385. Stands to reason if you can buy new cheaper then 2nd hand would be cheaper too...buy in the States, not here

 

[Jay85]

Interesting; it's not often you might get something cheaper new at a brick & mortar rather than used on eBay or similar...! Maybe I'll try in shops, but is there any way to know what the MSRP of cards like the 2060 is, so I can tell if a shop is even inflating their prices??

I've tried a few shops around London and no.. they are not cheaper. Prices are insanely inflated around a few i visited including things that are usually not inflated like ddr4 memory! One shop was selling a 32gb (2x16gb) Ram kit for £200 where as literally everywhere else online is £130. Dunno if he was just fishing for a potential idiot to just pay whatever he asked for but my jaw dropped when he said lol. He had a few gpu's in stock too but all were around £100-200 over ocuk's price regardless of anywhere else, it's no wonder his store was empty!