Honestly, youre probably wasting your time waiting for a massive drop if that project is due next Friday. Cyber Monday shipping is a nightmare and usually the deals on current gen chips like the Intel Core i7-16700K 20-Core 5.6GHz are only like twenty bucks off anyway. Since youre in NYC, honestly just go down to the Micro Center in person and check the open-box shelf. I found a Intel Core i9-15900K 24-Core 5.8GHz for around $430 last time I went to the Brooklyn store because someone returned it after two days. If youre stuck at $450, youre gonna have a hard time getting a brand new i9, but you can definitely swing a Intel Core i7-15700K 20-Core 5.5GHz right now. Dont stress the price trackers too much... that video editing project is gonna pay more than the small amount you might save by waiting. Just go get the parts today so you have time to troubleshoot if the build gets wonky. You got this.

i am facing the exact same dilemma right now and it has been quite a source of frustration for the last few weeks. my budget is also limited to that 450 dollar threshold and i have yet to see a single legitimate price drop on any major retailer site. it is genuinely difficult to remain patient when you have work deadlines looming... i actually spent most of this morning researching the specific chemical properties of different thermal interface materials because i was so tired of looking at price trackers. the way that different gallium-based alloys interact with copper heat spreaders is honestly fascinating even if it is a bit of a niche topic. i ended up looking at old overclocking forums for three hours instead of actually making progress on my build. anyway i still havent found a solution to the pricing problem either but yeah.

Bookmarked, thanks!