Next you won’t be able to own computers yourself. It’s all going to be rented through sky high subscription fees. Technofeudalism intensifies.
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Maybe not PSU shortages, but definitely power supply shortages.
I love gas turbines! I love pollution spewing power plants reliant on a scarce natural resource! (heavy /s)
That's why I'm planning on investing in a solar+battery system for my home this spring. Well, that, and because my electric rate keeps rising.
If you don’t already know this, you should look into used solar from solar power plants. They cycle out their equipment on a schedule, so it’s still got most of its life left, but for like half the price of new solar.
Downside is you have to figure out all the parts you need yourself, and get the whole shebang shipped, which can be expensive if you don’t live near where they originate (still less than new solar, ofc). You also need to arrange to install and hook them up. The install portion can easily be done by anyone if they are relatively handy, and then just have them professionally connected, which saves even more.
Did the GPU shortages ever really end, though? We just have more shortages on top of it.
Built my computer in 2019. It may be the last one I build.
I wanted to build a computer a couple years ago, but the prices they were charging for individual components even then just didn't make sense compared to buying a more affordable, comparably strong pre-built.
I can't imagine trying to build one now with these RAM prices, it's insane.
I haven’t built my own computer since the 90s. Early 90s. It seems like you will always get a way better deal buying a comparable prebuilt one. And then there’s all the goddamn hassle. But I guess if that’s what you are into, maybe that’s fun. Like people who work on rebuilding old cars. I’m a software guy. Hardware is always such a pain in the ass to deal with.
Same. Still holding up quite OK in 1080p Gaming though. Wanting to wait for the GPU prices to drop but oh well.

I just needed some fucking m.2s and I was done, I thought I made it. I was wrong.
The interesting thing about this is that people are now stuck with whatever PC they had when the prices suddenly shot up. In the past there was always a hardware adoption curve, where some people had the newest stuff, other people waited for it to get cheaper before they bought it.
In the past, if a game company was developing a game that was scheduled to be released in 2 years, they could look at what hardware people were using now, and estimate what people would be using in 2 years. Graphics and gameplay that was possible on game studio machines running the latest hardware would be too much for home PCs when development at the studio started. But, by the time the game was ready, home machines would have caught up and people could experience these amazing graphics at home. Now, I assume game studios are going to have to re-think things and assume that most people at home will still be playing on the old gaming PC they built before the AI price apocalypse.
watch the push for cloud gaming.... all these companies are going to push the narrative of gaming aaaaaaa slop on crappy spec systems and paying them monthly fees to use their computers.
I've already seen some fluff ads 'talkinhg bad' about cloud gaming, but then instantly pushing for it.
I'll just quit gaming and using the internet for personal use entirely if this happens. thankfully I've been prepping for a global internet outage for a few years now so I have endless media/games/music etc where I won't care but Yeh...
I built my PC shortly before the GPU shortage and plan on not updating till the RAM shortage is over (not that I could update earlier since money is currently an issue)
I bought a used workstation (xenon, ecc memory) pre-covid hit. I swapped the processor with the highest spec one that would fit the socket (thanks for changing sockets so frequently intel... not) and 64 GB ecc momory. Both were cheap because they were used. About 6 months before the GPU crazyness I bought a used 1070 TI for around $200. Upgrading the GPU a few years later was out of the question and now upgrading the whole thing is out of the question.
Due to the processor age I'm just going to install Linux on it and cozy into my older game library. Gaming time is pretty limited these days anyway due to having kids and these days I'm doing most of my gaming on a handheld.
I hope this can help make open source RISC-V and ARM systems more common.
It’ll probably spur on a higher influx of soldered unified memory based systems until even desktops are commonly soldered in terms of ram and processors. It might even allow for new socket standards, since consumers would be begging at that point.
It kinda even aligns with my theory of how electronics improve through standards becoming incredibly commonplace but stale, which then creates new form factors that are soldered, and then the rest of the market follows, creating new modularity standards to replace the old ones.
I'm still recovering from the crypto mining caused GPU shortages during covid.
I got really lucky. bought my pc parts end of november and paid ~1800 euro for a full pc build with a 9800x3d, 9070xt and 64gb ram.
I spent months trying to get my GPU, I finally got it and settled on my ram figuring “I’ll just wait a year or so then upgrade when there are better options.” Whelp, there goes that plan.
There was a huge PSU price hike in the early 2020s… They’ve since come down, but I did snag a Corsair 1KW Platinum for like 130USD on a sick sale back then JUST IN CASE.
I built right as the nVidia 3000 series came out, and when I wasn't able to get one in the first month or two after release I said fuck it and bought one of the last new 2070 Supers I could find. Hooray for availability alerts.
I've been wanting to upgrade parts for like a year now, because it's just starting to have issues with higher graphics settings on 1440p (had 1080p monitors when I bought it). Glad I went with 64GB RAM (DDR4, as was the standard of the time) and a little above mid range on the CPU. It's absolutely fucking absurd to me that the parts that are still available (mobo, PSU, and GPU aren't anymore) have effectively held their price point.
Yeah, I feel like I've kind of "won" that game. I bought a R5 2600 for 130 when the 3000 series came out, a 1050Ti for 170 when the first crypto craze ended (2018?) and then earlier last year I've got a second hand 3060 for 200 before the AI bubble went crazy (all prices in EUR).
Sadly, I barely play stuff any more, and for regular PC stuff, I use my laptop with a dock, as it uses half the power and created half the heat :(
This stuff reminds me of all those capo dogs who would constantly talk about how hard it was to acquire a car in the USSR
My decision to buy a top end card for my 2019 base build PC in Q4 2025, Quickly spiraled into a panic buy of a full stack of new computer parts.
I calculated it last night. I spent about $4000 CAD in 2019 on my build then, which was high end for the time (tack on another 3000 or so in upgrades through its life, 16>32 RAM then switching it out for 64gb, 2070 > 3080 > 5080, and at least one SSD addition)
I havent even built it yet and I've spent like 6800 CAD on my next PC, I didnt plan on making the switch until Q4 2026 when my ESU Windows 10 expired but the rampocalypse and everything-pocalypse has forced my hand into buying now at bad prices, instead of buying later at worse.
I wouldnt have even lifted a finger if It wasn't for the fact that my machine is so old, its stable but for how long?
PSU had shortage or really high prices a few years ago because the new GPU gen needed beefier PSU.




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