Here's what data centers are doing to the PC business. I built my own PC last Sept. as mu old one was 13 years old

[Cheezoholic]

I wanted a nice one that was fairly future proofed for at least 7 years. I always do my DD when going about a project like this. I had a budget of 1500 dollars. That would give me a mid to maybe upper mid range desktop. I came in slightly over budget at 1600 because I wanted a case that would blend in with the living room/office/gaming space. I do most of my browsing, gaming, streaming from my couch.

Regardless, I just priced the exact same parts from the parts builder list I had saved on the web. 2600 to 2800 to build that same PC what, 6-7 months later? I knew there'd be an increase but wow, thats insanely inflationary. All so people can ask their phones for recipe's (yes I'm aware its much more than that)?

These datacenters have bought nearly 90% of the memory capable of being manufactured through 2027 so this is not just affecting PC's and laptops. Nearly everything uses these silicone chips and there are only a few places in the world that make them. All of those products will/are seeing additional inflationary pressure on their final product pricing. I see this as a reverse kind of monopoly where big billion dollar corps buy so much of a single product that whats left prices the consumer out almost all together. Especially a product this hard to produce. It takes nearly 5 years to bring a chip factory online from ground breaking. It's just messed up across the board.

These things need to be strongly regulated because of the giant circle of impacts they have on the general public from pollution to water/energy waste to breaking wallets. They drive up costs on consumers from all directions while profiting a single entity.

[Keepthesoulalive]

1. The computer geeks

Sent out a warning last October and I started buying the components to keep our network running. The prices on anything related to home computing has exploded and I don’t see anything to stop the increase other than the collapse of the data center bubble.

[Cheezoholic]

3. Yes, it's why I built mine when I did, and in September. I still came in under Black Friday pricing, which is nuts n/t

[kimbutgar]

2. When the orange piggy turd was elected

I brought a new laptop, 2 extra Samsung cellphones and cashed out on points on my credit card and was able to buy two IPads. I checked recently and the laptop same model increased by $100 and the IPads same model increased in price. They’d re back ups I haven’t used yet.

[Initech]

12. I need to buy a new laptop, mine's 6 years old.

I'm currently looking at Asus, Lenovo, and HP Omen. The Asus is my favorite because I can hot swap SSDs. But the price Micro Center is asking for - $1599 - is still a hard pill to swallow.

[UpInArms]

27. You might look at an Acer

I have a fairly recent one and it is pretty solid.

I use a 2012 Asus ROG for my desktop publishing, as I own the programs and I refuse to pay a monthly installment just to do what I can do with my old stuff.

[Initech]

28. Yeah Acer was on my list.

All the ones I'm looking at are around $1300 - $1700. I could go a bit higher since I'll be using this thing for the next 3 - 4 years.

[BamaRefugee]

4. And Windows 10 will start becoming unusable in October. I can't put Windows 11 into my perfectly fine desktop.

So I will have to get a new computer I guess, but so will MILLIONS of people around the world, this is going to be chaotic i think.

i have an HP "all in one" computer that is maybe 8 years old and still perfect with tons of memory, any suggestions for a replacement would be appreciated.

i don't watch movies, play games, stream, nothing like that, just ultra heavy use for my business basically and a few websites I like.

[Keepthesoulalive]

5. I am still using my old windows machines

7,8.1, and 10. I got a virus once and that was eBay 20 years ago. Make sure you harden your modem and router also be careful of scammy sites. Windows 11 sucks hard as the kids say. I turned off the regular upgrade setting and they turned it on again. It is bloat loaded . Good luck in your search.

[Sector 001]

9. I have a 10 year old HP all in one.

And Windows 11 runs perfectly fine on it.

[BamaRefugee]

25. For some reason when I've run the test

They tell me my computer can't load Windows 11.
I have no idea why but my entire income depends on a reliable computer and I cannot risk anything around out of business a sole proprietor that I use the computer every morning to print out tons and tons of summonses and subpoenas to serve for the courts.
Over 6,000 pages per month.
But now also whatever the last update was of is it Edge? It got totally corrupted and I can no longer use it so that may be why I can't upload Windows 11 I do not know but I'm using a Firefox and Google Chrome and hobbling along

[Sector 001]

29. Officially

My computer is not Windows 11 compliant; I use Rufus to bypass that little issue.

https://rufus.ie/en/

I don't know your hardware specs, but if your computer is running Windows 10, most likely it will run Windows 11 just fine. If you have an SSD drive you should be fine, If not, get one. SSD drives are so much faster, it will feel like a brand new machine.

[LuvLoogie]

11. Get something refurbished.

Amazon has a number of HP prodesk 600 G6 of various configurations from 350 to 700.

10th generation Core i5 - i7 processors running Win 11 Pro.

Stay away from 11 Home and S mode

Choose More RAM over more Drive space

e.g. 32GB RAM, 512 GB drive vs 16 GB RAM, 1TB drive.

[BamaRefugee]

26. Thank you I'll check that out

What kind of warranty do they have because my entire business and my income depends on ultra reliable computer with a good warranty.

I can't afford to be out of a computer for more than 2 days but that's never happened and all the years I've had that HP all-in-one

[LuvLoogie]

34. Refurbished I think is standard 90 days, but

You can purchase an extended warranty I think. Depends on the seller and whether they're partnered with Amazon. I don't know the details.

[Initech]

6. I built mine last year. Bought a 7800X3D and 9070XT. Cost less than $1,000.

I already had the case, PSU, RAM, storage, etc. But my motherboard died and I am glad I bought at the right time. I am planning a new build later this year but I don't know if it's going to happen or not. I have RAM, storage, and a case ready to go.

[purr-rat beauty]

7. Will Linux become more popular?

As planned obsolescence pushes people's pocket books and the end of software forces hardware purchases. Linux may be the more forgiving OS on "old" machines

[usonian]

10. Not only that, but computer makers are "baking in" age verification and who knows what else.

A roll your own OS may be the only answer.

As you hand the computer for your now-40-year-old kids so they can access not porn, but github and other learning tools that may have "naughty words" embedded in them.

Words like LGBTQ+, agnostic, and oligarch .... who decides what is "objectionable"?

Why THE GOVERNMENT decides for you.

[Luciferous]

14. My daughter just switched to Linux

because she's fed up with Microsoft.

[Prairie_Seagull]

17. My daughter has been using Linux for years and

she loves it. I don't ever hear of problems, mega or otherwise. Maybe it is time for a change. Although could be high bar for me.

Thinking.

[tinrobot]

21. I will switch as soon as the apps I use move over.

The big one for me is Adobe Suite. I absolutely need it for work.

And no, I can't cobble together a bunch of Linux apps to replace it.

[retread]

8. I salvaged the monitor, keyboard and mouse from my last Windows 10 PC. Used them on a $449 m4 MacMini.

Count me as a convert.

[Soul_of_Wit]

15. Apple supports their hardware for a ridiculously long time

I own a Windows 10 gaming rig, and I will use it long past the time it is supported. After October, the only internet connection will be for Steam and safe (non-Windows) software updates. The rest of my hardware (including phones, tablets and streaming box) is Apple.

I will finally update my non-4K Apple TV box (still barely supported by Apple) when the new version finally comes out. I also avoid using Google services as much as possible, since they make me the product. There are free versions of the Office suite. Apple also has free software to read/write Office files. Why pay for subscription-style software?

[Trueblue Texan]

18. Once you get a Mac, you'll never go back. nt

[Fil1957]

13. Every desktop I've ever had I've built myself. It's fun, you save money and you get a depth of understanding of your

machine that you don't get from one off the shelf. Can't imagine doing it any other way.

15 years ago I got a really cool art deco style case, which I reused for my latest machine. So I got a brand new computer, but it looks exactly the same as the old one.

[charliea]

22. So have I

Always built my own, and built a new one for each kid as they went to college. Built a few small form factor systems for friends over the years. Never could build a laptop though, at one point I saw some limited kits being offered but I wasn't impressed. I've got Windows on my current laptop but Linux on all of the desktops. Windows demands to have a TPM 2.0 on 11, precludes most systems older than 2019 although I know you can work around that with some effort.
Started to look at building a new one recently and saw what the AI (ha!) gold rush has done to component pricing. The new HBM4 memory standard is whizzy fast but the demand is higher than production capacity, and all other RAM prices rise with it. Expensive even to add memory to existing systems.

[Fil1957]

32. A few years ago I really wanted to build a laptop, and the kit I saw was pretty good. If it was a little more expensive

than an off the shelf machine, I would've done it. But is was WAAY more expensive, and I couldn't justify the large extra cost.

[Bluetus]

16. Also hard drives

Hard drive prices are insane as a direct result of the data centers buying every drive In sight. I generally add a hard drive to each of my network storage boxes every january. This year I decided to skip a year because the drives are just so expensive.

It is not just the data centers, although that is a huge factor. Don't forget that Trump's tarriffs really screwed up all these markets.

[Grumpy Old Guy]

19. I just bought a prebuilt gaming PC in late February.

I can't give you exact figures, but I know I probably spent a few hundred more than I would have a year ago. I had no choice, because my seven year old laptop couldn't keep up with Photoshop or Premiere anymore. I needed a lot of RAM and a killer GPU.

I did OK because I got some great specs and a 4k 32" monitor for $2k. This beast rips through PS and PR, and I'm pinching myself. Still, the sales people all said it was the best they could do. I wanted to get 64gb of Ram, but that just wasn't possible, so I settled for 32gb.

[tinrobot]

20. 64GB of RAM cost me $153 last year. Same product today is $839

Because the AI companies are cornering the market on RAM, as well as drives and graphics chips.

Just so they can build more data centers that suck up our electricity and water while warming the planet and putting people out of work.

F*ck those guys.

[Melon]

23. If we slow AI, it's liking horse and buggy drivers yelling at cars.

Production needs to catch up to demand. That is truly the answer.

On this board there is endless comments about how dumb AI, but I can see that it is speeding up our workflow exponentially.

China isn’t slowing AI development. They are pushing it. The US will only fall behind in a competitive market.

[FascismIsDeath]

31. China doesn't care about killing jobs or the environment.

Apparently, neither do you.

[Melon]

35. I work on a competitive industry

Artificially slowing progress kills industries. It also doesn’t work. Efficiency in technology will always win. You can be in the front of the pack or the back.

[tinrobot]

37. Horses? Not even close. It's more like car companies hoarding all the steel.

Simply because they fear other car companies might hoard all the steel first.

Meanwhile, anyone else needing steel can't afford to buy any.

Similarly, AI companies are hoarding all the chips that are also needed for other vital applications besides AI.

And these companies don't need ALL the chips, they can develop the technology with less.

[jmowreader]

24. You left something else out

Not only are there only a few places in the world that make integrated circuits, there are only so many they can make. With complex ICs like GPUs and CPUs, it takes about four months from the moment they slice the boule into wafers to the moment the finished, packaged IC is prepared for delivery to an electronics company.

[FascismIsDeath]

30. I had my newest machine custom made with a nice nVidia card that has 16GB of VRAM.

I had this done probably within months before the prices started going insane. That card is now worth more than I paid for it. That isn't suppose to happen with PC parts.

[yourout]

33. M2 SSDs pricing has gone insane.

[eppur_se_muova]

36. Remember when the fiber optic market collapsed because it built out too far, too fast ?

Probably, all that "excess" capacity is in use now, but at the time, you couldn't sell it for enough to keep all those companies in business. Some of the biggest tech company crashes around the turn of the century came from that.

Now, what's going to happen when AI companies discover end users don't demand or even access all the capacity they're building ? Those big resource-gobbling data centers could be home to mall-walkers in another few years. By the time demand builds up, the hardware will be obsolete, and sold off by the ton.

INTERESTING READ: https://pracap.com/global-crossing-reborn/