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.

O7

We will deal with old hardware on clandestine black markets running from matabots & exchanging USB drives with foss software, dank memes, & old games ...

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.

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.

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.

Please sir, may I rent a computer please?

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”.