So bizarre when these AI bros are currently using less than 1/3 of what they have already bought. To top it off they have reserved a shit ton more when they can't even utilize what they got.
This is definitely market manipulation monopoly behavior.
this post was submitted on 07 May 2026
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We will deal with old hardware on clandestine black markets running from matabots & exchanging USB drives with foss software, dank memes, & old games ...
Gonna have to be an entire market replacing SMT, capacitors, etc. These mobo’s parts don’t last forever.
Actually smol lithography chips degrade quite fast with use, the current ones might not survive decades (CPUs, GPUs, SSDs).
Better than massive piles of e-waste.
Doubt it, but it does feel like the good times are behind us. I imagine pc building as we know it is going to continue to skew towards high end.
Though I can see mid range and lower end stuff move in the direction of sbc’s and stuff like the Framework desktop, where your cpu, ram, and probably gpu are a single package soldered to your main board. So when you upgrade you might keep your chassis, psu, and storage, but everything else is one piece and has to be replaced at the same time. Which, tbh, I don’t think is the worst thing in the world.
If all the medium range stuff is just last year’s high end, I can live with that.
I see it going high end builds, mid and low end will become single board mini computers. Super charge this as we phase out x86
I feel like the popularity or gaming handhelds could help accelerate this as well. I would actually love a higher performance sbc standard that you could chuck into a mini desktop, laptop, or handheld. That would kind of be the dream for me. You could cascade your boards down to your other systems. Like take the board out of the desktop and put it in your handheld, and the one from your handheld into your laptop. Would be sick
I don't think we're the last generation of PC builders. But I do agree with /u/kahjtheundedicated 's comment that it is increasingly going to skew towards very high-end builds.
I think there's a couple reasons for this. The first, of course, is the strangulation of supply causing sharp, sharp price increases. When the entry point for making a "decent" machine starts to sit around $1200+, it's obviously going to turn people away (especially when one of the big points of Build Your Own was once 'it is actually financially better').
But the other is that there is far less of a growing market. People in the 'young-teenager' to 'young adult range' - the point at which they'd once start getting excited over punchy new specs and customizing their computer - are increasingly attached to handheld devices and even the instant gratification of consoles rather than high-spec PC games or the custom built machines to run them.
and well, consoles and phones are also getting more expensive!
Put it on the massive pile of stuff that will bite us in the ass in a major way in the future.
You will own nothing--because you can't afford it, and be happy
The market for them may shrink but that's just an adjustment and can always grow, too. You might see fewer models, slower releases, etc., but that doesn't necessarily impact availability or pricing. Plus, eventually RAM and SDs should become more available again after the bubble burst or if new competitors enter the market.
Now, if you told me a bunch of them went out of business or changed their entire structure, that's more concerning. I know one of them (or more?) had to get out of the RAM market and that could have lasting damage.
Yeah. Crucial
Please sir, may I rent a computer please?
Sure. Just do this cheek swab, let us scan your retina and fingerprints, show us your government-issued ID, provide a little blood and a stool sample, and unlock your phone so we can review your social media posts and messages for the last 5 years. We'll need bank statements and a credit history too. If you're approved you can rent shared space on a Chromebook for only $30 per month. Terms and conditions apply.
I'd buy em if I could afford em.
On one hand things suck and we are getting priced out of our hobby, but on the other side, pc gaming was going through a consumerism/fomo era so I'm glad that has ended.
Nah, pc building is going to get more popular as consoles get more and more expensive. The RAM and SSD situations will get better as AI gets more efficient and more manufacturers enter the market.
We’re just in the painful transition phase of a new “normal”.
Yeah honestly. The market exists, the want is there. Across the world people talk about these productions needing to be scaled up or created in certain countries.
It'll suck for honestly 15-20 max but after it'll probably flip and become a lot cheaper because of the increase
Nah, steam PCs will probably start to be best bang for buck based on economies of scale. This will push more general steam library adoption and game devs will target specific steam machine benchmarks.
Steam machines become the new console market, they enshittify with hardware DRM or similar, prices creep up and the entertainment market will move somewhere else.
I doubt powerful consumer hardware will ever rise again. Consumers who only want the entertainment don't want the hassle and corporations are always happy to crowd us out of the market so they can rent us back the compute.
Not a chance. The steam machine is woefully underpowered and limited in not being able to play most of the most popular and played games in the world. It’s also going to be insanely expensive for what it is.