PC Building NOW is Unaffordable.

retiredat44 · Tuesday at 11:08 PM

most people I know build gaming computers, a few thousand at least if you start from scratch it's more. add the software (games/simulators) and we get over $5K and are still not getting the best. Just good enough to play.

larc919 · Tuesday at 11:36 PM

Thankfully, I upgraded my main PC with a new CPU, motherboard and RAM not long before this catastrophe hit. Removed parts got handed down in turn to 3 other desktops (2 Insider). Here's hoping I'm fixed for the duration.

pparks1 · Wednesday at 12:04 AM

gunrunnerjohn said:
I paid $259/ea for my Samsung SSD 990 EVO Plus 4TB drives that I have in external enclosures for my air-gap backup, they only went up to A$575, I expected them to be more.

One reason for it not going up as much is that it doesn't have a DRAM cache. That helps keep the production costs down.

Scannerman · Wednesday at 1:50 AM

First couple of minutes on Links with Friends. Companies are folding on product lines because RAM costs too much to continue.

SIW2 · Wednesday at 8:16 AM

If you check motherboard bundles at the usual retailers they now only include mobo + cpu. No ram.

MisterEd · Wednesday at 8:52 AM

XxXxX said:
when ordering from China its best to do your home work.

example.
i was refurbishing my old second-hand Dell 13" laptop and it required a new battery
the manufacturer of Dell batteries is written on the old battery.

i found the web address of that manufacturer/supplier and ordered a battery for the Dell laptop direct from them
Dell wanted over £100 for a replacement battery, from the manufacturer/supplier in China that makes Dell's batteries £45
which included postage and packaging.

the only difference was no Dell logo on the battery. they battery is still working just fine.
with RAM and Drives i would look at the manufacturers/suppliers of the components within that system and then order direct
if the components are good enough for the main players to put into their systems then you improve your chances of buying reliable replacement components at a better price/cost. its just a matter of are you willing to do the foot work or not.

the main players have deserted the home computer upgrade market totally and it looks like China will be stepping into the worldwide gap the main players have vacated and doesn't look like the main players are coming back any time soon.

just my thoughts
best of luck Steve ..

There is someone that fixes old Dell laptops on YouTube. He says he has the largest supply of genuine Dell parts maybe in the world. You still have to depend upon Dell for newer laptops still in warranty. After the warranties end Dell generally sells the parts. He usually buys these pallets of parts directly from Dell.

You can always buy a Dell-compatible part online and take your chances. You have no way of knowing how well it will work or last. However, if you want a genuine OEM Dell part such as a battery you can buy it from him. He goes by Parts-People.

MisterEd · Wednesday at 9:07 AM

To show how bad it is I sometimes watch a YouTube channel where someone used to buy old laptops and sell them. He might buy a pallet of old laptops that used to be used by a company that bought new ones to replace them. The laptops used to come with a drive and RAM. Now the ones he gets have all of that removed beforehand.

Before this year he would upgrade the drives and RAM if needed and install a new copy of Windows. He could do that and still sell them for a profit. Now if he did that he would have to sell them at a loss.

gunrunnerjohn · Wednesday at 9:39 AM

MisterEd said:
But back then computer parts were so expensive that a person could only afford to build one.

I miss the days when a person could afford to build more than computer.

Today I have 3 desktop and 3 laptop computers. The newest is 4 years old. I hope these computers will get me by until I can afford to get a new one.

I put together my main and standby machine last year with all new parts except for a couple of SATA SSD drives that I salvaged from the ten year old machines. The prices were quite reasonable for all the new hardware. I even replaced the main display with an LG 45" wide curved monitor for $520, even those went up in price significantly. Now the parts I used are from 2x to 4x the price I paid for them just last spring not much more than a year ago!

Catnip · 2026-08-27T15:21:10-0400

I did the math on my PC. I spent about $2500 CAD a few years ago, now it is worth about $5200 CAD at current RAM prices.

That does not include the 5070 Ti that I was going to buy but now can't afford. In that case the cost is over $7000 CAD.

Yikes!

PC Building NOW is Unaffordable.

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