PC Building NOW is Unaffordable.

Scannerman · Aug 16, 2026

Lance1 said:
My PC build is the last PC build for me. Who can you afford the costs of RAM Storage GPU PSU CPU and the list gos on. I built my PC in 2024 and the total coste for my build was $2,500.00. And I Most Likely overspent at that too. Look at my specs! Yesterday I looked up all my PC parts and to build my PC with all that I have now would coste me $4,500.00!!! OMG! Did I pick the right time to build my PC or not? So is anyone out there planning a new build??? I bet not...

Already the gurus are referring to 2024 as the last year of the Golden Age of PC building. Steve from Gamer's Nexus, Jay from Jay's Two Cents, even Wendell from Level 1 Techs agree that those days are gone. Yes, you picked precisely the right time. Motherboard manufacturers are reporting a 30% (or higher) decrease in system board sales. This isn't just happening with ASUS, MSI, and GIGABYTE but pretty much all manufacturers across the board. (No pun intended.) It stands to reason when the RAM that an enthusiast pays for can easily amount to 3X the cost of the system board itself. One needs a really good reason for building a brand new system apart from enthusiasm.

Sure. It started with system memory but it didn't take long before the process dominoed. NVMe prices doubled and then tripled, SSDs doubled in price, and now, as I predicted would happen, anything silicon went up in price. The builder is drowning in an avalanche of inflation. TBH I'm surprised the PC you built (I saw the pictures) didn't run closer to the 7G mark to replace. In Canada it's a nightmare.

Even when I stopped building PCs for strangers I would still occasionally build one for a family member or a friend. I can't even do that now. Nobody can realistically afford to pay for a decent brand new PC. I must have been on the right track though as I kept urging others to keep their old PCs and stick to upgrading if at all possible. My motivation for this was different: I could see how users were being manipulated through engineered obsolescence and I didn't like it. I could also see (from the mountains of discarded desktops in transfer stations) the obvious impact this was having on the environment. Just because I'm pro capitalism doesn't mean I don't care about the ecosystem. The AI syndrome was the last straw for me. So much hype and gas lighting committed in the name of artificial advancement. None of this was an accident. All of it was strategically orchestrated to milk the end user for every dime.

I have enough old PCs (and RAM) to keep me occupied until these old fingers can't put stuff together anymore. In fact, I'm really excited now because I just discovered a way to redeem my X299 SAGE build without having to shell out more bux after experiencing a recent catastrophic hardware failure.

Sadly, I have to start again from scratch, but I won't be losing any coin. Meanwhile, for those who are looking to build Work Stations, there are currently some very affordable X299 system boards available on E Bay, many of them brand spanking new, at a fraction of the cost they originally sold for. I'm half tempted to buy one just as a backup. Go look. Some of these are being sold with RAM.

Scannerman · Aug 16, 2026

*Update* I should have known these things would go fast.

ASUS X299 WS

Scannerman · Aug 16, 2026

TairikuOkami said:
This is most likely my last PC, I will keep upgrading it as much as possible, then back to a laptop.
But I guess that in a decade, a cloud PC will be a norm, just a monitor with the internet connection.

Yeah, I get a razzing when I say the same but I agree. Glorified word processors for all. Just plug into your favourite ISP and let AI do the rest.
Take me to your mainframe because somewhere along the line I lost mine.

gunrunnerjohn · Aug 16, 2026

Scannerman said:
Already the gurus are referring to 2024 as the last year of the Golden Age of PC building. Steve from Gamer's Nexus, Jay from Jay's Two Cents, even Wendell from Level 1 Techs agree that those days are gone.

Actually, I built my two systems in March of 2025, and the prices were still at rock bottom.

Example: Crucial Pro DDR5 RAM 32GB Kit (2x16GB) 6000MHz CL36, $94.99.

Same memory today...

Scannerman · Aug 16, 2026

gunrunnerjohn said:
Actually, I built my two systems in March of 2025, and the prices were still at rock bottom.

Example: Crucial Pro DDR5 RAM 32GB Kit (2x16GB) 6000MHz CL36, $94.99.

View attachment 179816

Same memory today...

View attachment 179814

Yeah, that's when I purchased my Crucial RAM too. Spring of 2025 was still good.

bipinvsnl · Aug 16, 2026

I have 2 laptops, first an old i7 7700H with a GTX 1060, second a modern Ryzen 7840U business laptop. Had this weird thought last year when the prices were low to get some parts to build a desktop feeling I should buy them when they are at discounts. Postponed it. Big mistake. Now had to ditch all plans and just upgrade my 1080p monitor to a 4k MSI. Happy that atleast something improved.

gunrunnerjohn · Aug 16, 2026

I was upgrading my 2016 vintage computer and my even older backup computer, both running Win10. So I bought two new systems as detailed in my system spec's. I spent around $3500 for everything, I'm betting with current pricing the two systems would be closer to triple that!

SlicEnDicE · Aug 16, 2026

gunrunnerjohn said:
I'm betting with current pricing the two systems would be closer to triple that!

Yep, not far off the truth there. Prices are ridiculous now.

PhilB · Aug 16, 2026

Scannerman said:
Already the gurus are referring to 2024 as the last year of the Golden Age of PC building. Steve from Gamer's Nexus, Jay from Jay's Two Cents, even Wendell from Level 1 Techs agree that those days are gone. Yes, you picked precisely the right time. Motherboard manufacturers are reporting a 30% (or higher) decrease in system board sales. This isn't just happening with ASUS, MSI, and GIGABYTE but pretty much all manufacturers across the board. (No pun intended.) It stands to reason when the RAM that an enthusiast pays for can easily amount to 3X the cost of the system board itself. One needs a really good reason for building a brand new system apart from enthusiasm.

Sure. It started with system memory but it didn't take long before the process dominoed. NVMe prices doubled and then tripled, SSDs doubled in price, and now, as I predicted would happen, anything silicon went up in price. The builder is drowning in an avalanche of inflation. TBH I'm surprised the PC you built (I saw the pictures) didn't run closer to the 7G mark to replace. In Canada it's a nightmare.

Even when I stopped building PCs for strangers I would still occasionally build one for a family member or a friend. I can't even do that now. Nobody can realistically afford to pay for a decent brand new PC. I must have been on the right track though as I kept urging others to keep their old PCs and stick to upgrading if at all possible. My motivation for this was different: I could see how users were being manipulated through engineered obsolescence and I didn't like it. I could also see (from the mountains of discarded desktops in transfer stations) the obvious impact this was having on the environment. Just because I'm pro capitalism doesn't mean I don't care about the ecosystem. The AI syndrome was the last straw for me. So much hype and gas lighting committed in the name of artificial advancement. None of this was an accident. All of it was strategically orchestrated to milk the end user for every dime.

I have enough old PCs (and RAM) to keep me occupied until these old fingers can't put stuff together anymore. In fact, I'm really excited now because I just discovered a way to redeem my X299 SAGE build without having to shell out more bux after experiencing a recent catastrophic hardware failure. Sadly, I have to start again from scratch, but I won't be losing any coin. Meanwhile, for those who are looking to build Work Stations, there are currently some very affordable X299 system boards available on E Bay, many of them brand spanking new, at a fraction of the cost they originally sold for. I'm half tempted to buy one just as a backup. Go look. Some of these are being sold with RAM.

AI isn't a bubble. It's more like the 1958 movie The Blob. (Old guys like me saw it in first-run movie theaters. The Blob - Wikipedia Only this "blob" is worried by heat, not cold.

Scannerman · Aug 16, 2026

PhilB said:
AI isn't a bubble. It's more like the 1958 movie The Blob. (Old guys like me saw it in first-run movie theaters. The Blob - Wikipedia Only this "blob" is worried by heat, not cold.

I pity those who think they can just wait for the "AI bubble" to pop. We aren't going back to 2024-25 prices no how. Competition kept pricing sane until AI gobbled up the competition. The inflated cost is a real thing but it was hardly haphazard. It wasn't the domestic end user market that drove up the prices. What occurred here, plain and simple, can only be defined as corporate greed. The shortage for the end user was in fact artificially created when artificial intelligence companies took it upon themselves to hoover up all the RAM. There is no shortage of silicon. The focus merely moved to keeping the corporate compute companies fed. Frankly, I hope it blows up in their faces but that isn't likely to happen any time soon.

Sure. We will witness many of these data centres crash and burn while the "big boys" volley for power and control. In the meantime the corporate monopolies that prevail will continue to keep trying to force feed the public their AI operations, shape public opinion in favour of their flavour of the abomination of the month, while harnessing the tax payer with the bill to build more facilities. Manufacturing companies like Micron are hardly exempt from this ploy. For as long as silicon is required to keep those operations up and running nobody will be witnessing that huge popping sound associated with a bubble burst any time soon. Again: There is no shortage of silicon. We, the plebs, simply get to grovel at the feet of the master manufacturers tables for the expensive scraps they may or may not offer.

The best way to combat these moguls is to say NO to AI. Alas, I'm of the persuasion that not enough of us have the intestinal fortitude to do so.

pparks1 · Aug 16, 2026

Scannerman said:
The best way to combat these moguls is to say NO to AI. Alas, I'm of the persuasion that not enough of us have the intestinal fortitude to do so.

And this is only going to get harder and harder to say no to utilizing AI. I work in a tech industry field as a systems engineer. The use of AI at work isn't really something that is very optional at this point, but rather something that is becoming required. Even if I don't utilize it directly from my machine, various systems are kicking off various AI components to complete the work that I start. I wouldn't be surprised if at review time, we didn't get dinged from not utilizing AI consistent with corporate standards.

AI tools are running that summarize meetings and provide output to each participant. AI agents are catching me up on slack channels that I was away from while I was gone on PTO. AI tooling is being used to generate the PR's that we put into GIT. AI is reaching out when stories in Azuze DevOps (ADO) isn't being updating and due dates are approaching.

I don't really have a choice to take a philosophical stand against AI. Unless of course I want to physically change careers at this point. I'm nearing 30 years in the industry with about 8 to go before retirement, so I don't think that's going to happen.

Scannerman · Aug 16, 2026

pparks1 said:
And this is only going to get harder and harder to say no to utilizing AI.

Absolutely. I can afford to keep dodging it because I'm retired and I can work with what I have but I realize I'm in a niche situation. Not everyone can or even wants to keep their own mini-data base/home server/network up and running. As people become more and more dependant on cloud based operations they will also find themselves dodging AI more and more or, simply capitulating. In fact, any data they have stored elsewhere is very likely already being maintained on AI regulated systems. In the IT industry it's unavoidable. In a manner of speaking practically everyone using the internet is already using AI either indirectly or directly. Myself, I don't want it actively running on my work station. I don't know for how long I will be able to enjoy this privilege but I'm prepared to hold out for as long as possible. Even Linux users are having a challenge escaping from the long arm of AI.

pparks1 · Aug 16, 2026

Scannerman said:
Absolutely. I can afford to keep dodging it because I'm retired and I can work with what I have but I realize I'm in a niche situation. Not everyone can or even wants to keep their own mini-data base/home server/network up and running. As people become more and more dependant on cloud based operations they will also find themselves dodging AI more and more or, simply capitulating. In fact, any data they have stored elsewhere is very likely already being maintained on AI regulated systems. In the IT industry it's unavoidable. In a manner of speaking practically everyone using the internet is already using AI either indirectly or directly. Myself, I don't want it actively running on my work station. I don't know for how long I will be able to enjoy this privilege but I'm prepared to hold out for as long as possible. Even Linux users are having a challenge escaping from the long arm of AI.

Yeah, I don't use it extensively, but I'm certainly using it. Mostly CoPilot at home and Claude code at work. I'll take a bash shell script that I have written and convert it into Powershell, and in a matter of minutes I can have it working in Windows.

And I'm a Linux user too, been supporting and maintaining Linux systems for years. Red Hat Certified Systems Engineer back in the day. It's expired now, but then so are my MCSE's that I earned as well back in the day.

This is just the next evolutionary step in computing. I used to think that virtualization and containerization were going to be the biggest thinks in my IT career, but shockingly I think it's going to be AI. I don't see it going away.

Scannerman · Aug 17, 2026

pparks1 said:
I don't see it going away.

Ditto. I used to think Qubes was going to really be something great. Nope. The winds shifted and compute is taking a totally different direction.

PhilB · Aug 17, 2026

pparks1 said:
I don't really have a choice to take a philosophical stand against AI. Unless of course I want to physically change careers at this point. I'm nearing 30 years in the industry with about 8 to go before retirement, so I don't think that's going to happen.

Let's all hope that you manage to hang on

RD Mercer · Aug 17, 2026

Read this below on X “formally Twitter” does anyone know if this is true?

Elon Musk let it rip without a filter:All the chip factories on the planet combined…Samsung + TSMC + Micron + the others…barely reach 2% of what he needs.He looked them in the face and told them:“I’ll buy ALL your production.And it still won’t be enough for me.”That’s why he’s building a monster in Texas: 100 million square feet.50 times bigger than the Pentagon.Just the first phase: $16.8 billion.His final phrase was lethal:“Either we build the Terafab… or we don’t have the chips.And we need the chips.”What the entire world produces in 50 years,he wants… every year.This isn’t ambition.This is declaring war on scarcity.

PhilB · Aug 18, 2026

RD Mercer said:
Read this below on X “formally Twitter” does anyone know if this is true?

Elon Musk let it rip without a filter:All the chip factories on the planet combined…Samsung + TSMC + Micron + the others…barely reach 2% of what he needs.He looked them in the face and told them:“I’ll buy ALL your production.And it still won’t be enough for me.”That’s why he’s building a monster in Texas: 100 million square feet.50 times bigger than the Pentagon.Just the first phase: $16.8 billion.His final phrase was lethal:“Either we build the Terafab… or we don’t have the chips.And we need the chips.”What the entire world produces in 50 years,he wants… every year.This isn’t ambition.This is declaring war on scarcity.

So is he going to acquire ASML and cut off all its other customers? Or is going to _try_ to build an ASML-class competitor? The man has more money than I have fingers and toes to count, Who knows what he thinks when he is high on "something."

pseymour · Aug 18, 2026

PhilB said:
So is he going to acquire ASML and cut off all its other customers? Or is going to _try_ to build an ASML-class competitor? The man has more money than I have fingers and toes to count, Who knows what he thinks when he is high on "something."

It's super hard to look it up.

It's a joint venture between Intel, Tesla and SpaceX to produce integrated circuits, memory modules and multi-chip modules under one roof.

Josey Wales · Aug 18, 2026

https://www.tomshardware.com/desktops/pc-building/asus-rog-edition-20-gaming-pc-build-a-pretty-powerhouse-pc-that-next-to-no-one-can-afford

Lance1 · Aug 20, 2026

My 2TB NVME that I purchase from Newegg at 2024 and Now. It's becoming criminal OMG!

PC Building NOW is Unaffordable.

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