davdud101
 
Really strange stuff, especially since it seems all this cryptocurrency stuff emerged from the woodworks into the public eye only 5 or so years ago. Makes me sort of wish I'd upgraded this time last year, I would definitely got what I wanted at the price I meant to pay 

Take a look at this Coinranking list.  Click on the chart for Bitcoin (the #1) and expand the view to 1 year.  Speaks for itself, LOL!!!  No wonder they are buying every GPU in sight! 
 
"Gold rush" ...
 
https://coinranking.com/

If you can hold-off, now is not the time to buy higher-end video cards.
Cards that were $250 six months ago are now going for $600.
Wait for things to get back to normal...

Jim Roseberry
If you can hold-off, now is not the time to buy higher-end video cards.
Cards that were $250 six months ago are now going for $600.
Wait for things to get back to normal...

Yikes! As far as the build goes, now would be primetime to buy since I have so much time for gaming and I have the money  - but I know I'd only regret that in 4 or 5 months when prices come back down and I could've saved $20 or $30. That's a sting I've felt before and that I don't need to feel again!
 
[edit] : okay - according to EVGA's site, the card I'm looking to buy IS indeed being sold at the current going rate. Knowing that (and this card was released Oct 2016, so it's actually rather new in the big picture), I think I'm safe to go a head and just make the purchase. Not expecting much of a price drop here. I probably should look for rebates and stuff though.

That's great if EVGA will sell it for that price, but it appears to be on a wait list.  At least they are limiting it to one per customer!
 
Any stock available from other resellers appears to be marked up. except for the top model in that list, where the Newegg price matches EVGA's price of $169.99, and it's in stock at Newegg.

abacab
That's great if EVGA will sell it for that price, but it appears to be on a wait list.  At least they are limiting it to one per customer!
 
Any stock available from other resellers appears to be marked up. except for the top model in that list, where the Newegg price matches EVGA's price of $169.99, and it's in stock at Newegg.

Yikes! I'll have to inspect that. Mind you abacab, I'm looking at the "FTW" model of this card and not the big brother, the Ti, so maybe that's where the price differences comes in. Most sources are selling / talking about the Ti and it was actually sorta tough finding the info I wanted about the standard model, haha
 
In any case, it looks like ASUS, MSI, Zotac AND Gigabyte all have their own versions which according to the net give pretty much the same performance at slightly varying costs, so I guess the best bet for me is going to be the Zotac.
That five/ten dollahs is a make-or-break!!! 

I was referring to the model at the top of the EVGA FTW list that you posted, for $169, rather than the one for $139 that was selected.  "EVGA GeForce GTX 1050 FTW GAMING, 02G-P4-6157-KR, 2GB GDDR5, ACX 3.0"
 
Seems about the same spec, with a faster clock speed.  I saw that one in-stock at Newegg for $169.

davdud101
 
The newest game I'll probably be playing on this system is 2008's Fallout 3

Hey looky here... Fallout 4 from 2015 is half off for $14.99 for the next day or so at Humble Bundle!!!
 
https://www.humblebundle.com/store/fallout-4
 

abacab
I was referring to the model at the top of the EVGA FTW list that you posted, for $169, rather than the one for $139 that was selected.  "EVGA GeForce GTX 1050 FTW GAMING, 02G-P4-6157-KR, 2GB GDDR5, ACX 3.0"
 
Seems about the same spec, with a faster clock speed.  I saw that one in-stock at Newegg for $169.

Whoops. Turns out I wasn't even looking at the FTW version  yup, the one I sent in the link was what I was referring to, haha
 
 

abacab
 
Hey looky here... Fallout 4 from 2015 is half off for $14.99 for the next day or so at Humble Bundle!!!
 
https://www.humblebundle.com/store/fallout-4

WOOHOO!! I'm all over it!!!! I have it on Xbox One but knowing that I can do a Cloud savefile (and that's it's a quarter of what it cost originally) makes it totally worth it! Thanks for mentioning it abacab :)

davdud101
In any case, it looks like ASUS, MSI, Zotac AND Gigabyte all have their own versions which according to the net give pretty much the same performance at slightly varying costs, so I guess the best bet for me is going to be the Zotac.
That five/ten dollahs is a make-or-break!!! 

While the main chip is the same, other components vary. That normally does not hit performance (much), but that does hit the noise level, durability and the price. I have controversial experience what that means in practice, except for the noise level: cheapest solutions always use horrible coolers. That does not automatically mean expensive solutions always use good one, but some of them do.  
 

azslow3
 
While the main chip is the same, other components vary. That normally does not hit performance (much), but that does hit the noise level, durability and the price. I have controversial experience what that means in practice, except for the noise level: cheapest solutions always use horrible coolers. That does not automatically mean expensive solutions always use good one, but some of them do.  
 

Hmm, I didn't think about that. It IS only $5 - $10 going from Zotac to Gigabyte - and Gb is the brand I'd be most inclined to choose. That $5s really is of no consequence if there are more 'RISKS' associated with going cheaper than there are upsides with saving five or ten dollars.