The best time to buy in terms of price is when a new chip or OS comes out and there is excess inventory of previous generation to move. There are almost always discount for Dell floating around the web, but computers are pretty cheap relatively speaking. So best time to buy is when you have the cash. Dont finance your new rig. If you build your own rig search Gnome and Nitros sage advice on the subject. If you want to have one built many options. tradingcomputers.com for one. supermicro.com for another Also dont forget Ebay. You cant get some tremendous components for next to nothing. My last computer I ebayed 2 matrox g200 mms video cards for pennies on the dollar and they worked like a champ.