Today, after 6 months of trying to get a GeForce RTX 3080, I finally gave in and paid double the suggested retail for one. Not from a scalper on Ebay, but through a local store, who are authorized dealers. They should ship the card on Tuesday, and I hope to have it by this time next week.
While I would have been happier to have found one sooner, and at a more reasonable price, waiting 6 months has actually worked out for the best, let me explain...
Back in early November after a month of trying to get an RTX 3080, I realized that I wasn't going to find one in 2020, so I decided to take the $750 I had budgeted for the GPU and use it to buy Bitcoin. At the time it got me 0.05 BTC.
This morning I was up at about 5am and decided to go and check the graphics cards listings at Wootware (a local computer store), and low and behold there was an EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 XC3 Ultra in Stock. Not only the first 3080 I had seen in stock in months, but one that would actually fit into my NCASE M1 without modification.
I ordered it, and cashed out my 0.05 Bitcoin, which is now worth $3150. Not only does that cover the inflated pricing of the graphics card, but it's also paid for a new monitor to go with it!
Unfortunately, there's a very long 6 week lead time on the Alienware AW3821DW that I've ordered, but that gives me enough time to build and tweak my new PC.
Super excited as you might have guessed! It's been over 7 years since I last had a new desktop PC.