Is now the worst time ever to build your own computer?
My answer to that question would be yes.
This is going to be different from my other posts here I just ask a question and complain about things. In this post I'm actually going to research my question and share what I find.
So a while back I built my computer. I chose to skip out on some parts that I could later upgrade to so I could get better parts then. Well that as almost backfired because now some of those parts are now more expensive than they used to be.
Graphics Cards:
So this was the main thing that I had skimped out on. I did choose one that I would buy, and that's the PNY GTX 1060 6Gb. The set price on that card was $250 on PNY's site(and other sellers), now on their site it's now priced at $289.99. That is a 13.79% increase in price over the span of almost a year.
Not only that, but that's the case with most of the graphics cards on the market right now. Even worse is that the graphics cards whose price have only gone up that much seem to permanently sold out.
The Reason For This Rise in Price:
Most of us probably already know why, but here's for those that might not. that the reason behind this rise in price is that Bitcoin(and other crypto) mining is a huge trending thing right now. Bitcoin mining uses computing power to generate new bitcoins. So very passionate people are getting graphics card by the dozen so they can have more computing power for those processes. That has caused a hue demand for graphics cards, causing them to sell out and go into low supply and an influx in price.
Here is a price histoy chart showing the adverage price of all 1060 6Gb graphics cards. cutosy of https://pcpartpicker.com/
RAM:
So back to when I built my computer I only bought 1x 8Gb stick planning to upgrade later on by getting a second stick. Now though, that might be later than I had originally thought. I got the Kingston HyperX Fury 8Gb DDR4 2133 RAM at about $50 for the one stick, now the same stick will cost you around $71. That is a price increase of 29.57% or basically an extra $21.
The Reason For This Rise in Price:
It isn't like the increase in price for RAM back in 2013 due to a fire. This time it's because the large manufacturers making the RAM have been focusing on the mobile phone market and making RAM for phones. This is the case for almost all DDR4 Ram and I find it almost ridiculous that the increasing popularity of mobile phones (newer ones having even more RAM) has impacted the price of desktop RAM, but I guess since it's all made int the same place; it is.
Once again here is a price history chart on the price of DDR4-2133 288-pin DIMM 4x4GB curtosy of https://pcpartpicker.com/
So Overall:
When I built my computer It cost me about $640 (+250 for if I bought the graphics card then), but now it would cost $706.88 which is an increase of 9.46% after about a year. Or basically an extra $66.88 (which considering that over time, the price of tech should go down.... is really ridiculous)
Also if I add the graphics card into the mix the numbers get even more ridiculous. It'd be an 10.72% more; or basically an extra $106.87.
*note* the prices do normally fluctuate so keep that in mind and I got most of my prices from PCPartPicker data. if you want my part list I have a post on what I bought here: https://steemit.com/technology/@doubledeeyt/my-computer-specs-and-future-upgrades
Thanks for reading! Feel free to upvote, resteem and comment what you've seen yourself on the things I had talked about!!
and remember to folllow me @doubledeeyt
I never thought of it that way.... I have a PC that was a gaming PC 7 years ago.. now it barely plays any recent game on the lowest setting.... I want to have a better RAM as I got a good Graphic Card from a friend but....
Thanks for the article.... However, I always think while the best time to do something is gone the second best time is right now.... it'll probably be worse in the future!! much worse!!
That's true! But only time will tell if the market gets worse or better. And oops I accidentally put the msp group bot votes on your comment and not the post. Lol :P
Wow!! thanks... if you can reverse it you're free to do so~
sorry I can't make it up to you.
Lol, it's all good :)
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ebay helps locate parts :-)
True, but... Used is often semi risky with computer parts
Interesting read. Of course I knew about the GPU issue, but I hadn't thought about the rest. Thanks.
Thank you! and yeah, it's surprising how that it's become more expensive to build a computer now, that it was about a year ago.
really interesting data, thanks totally agree with the increase of prices with all this mining for crypto
Thank you, and yeah that's a biggie but it's also even the RAM market effected my mobile phone RAM being prioritized by the manufacturing companies
so i can blame bitcoin miners for not being able to build a cheap max settings pc right now.
Aha, partly. Them... And also manufacturers making ram for phones instead of computers