Supply shortages

News
,
1

My old PC has at least another good year of life in it (probably several) but was incompatible with Windows 11. So I was planning to build a new one end of next year, on its ten year anniversary.

But after the election, with the tariff sword of Damocles hanging over us, and Win10 EOL set at only one year, I decided to go ahead and build a new one in advance. (Plan to gift my old one to my kid.)

Ordered all the parts during the Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale timeframe. Planned to spend this weekend building it out and getting it setup. But I still haven’t gotten the graphics card. Site says it is expected to ship in a couple weeks, but also the listing now says out of stock and may not be coming back.

So I tried looking for other brands of the same model. They are all either sold out, backordered, or have delivery dates even further out. Tried other sites (Best Buy, Newegg, Walmart, etc.) They’re all sold out, or in the best case, not available for delivery but you could take an Uber for a 120 mile trip to maybe get the last one on the shelf if it’s still there.

I expanded my search to competitive cards, on any site. There are a few scalpers selling them at twice the retail price on eBay or whatever, but otherwise, everything is sold out everywhere. Unless you want to pay twice as much (and well above retail) for the next tier up or pay about the same for an old lower-tier used card (way above value).

Watched a Youtube video by a guy who builds PCs to sell them to people, and he was seeing the same. But also with motherboards. Seems like everyone decided to get now before the tariffs, so it’s already gotten crazy out there. Some stuff is still plentiful, but other parts are just not available, or way above normal price if you can find it.

It’s like the crypto card shortage, but totally different cause, which seems like it might get worse instead of better in the near future. And leaking over into other things too.

Curious if anyone else is starting to see supply shortages, lengthy delivery delays, and price hikes, on other stuff?

11 Likes
2

I’m still using a perfectly capable Windows 7 computer but it has a second hard drive installed with Windows 10.

I’ll keep using that until it dies.

Someone just gave me a decent Lenevo laptop with Windows 11 that my wife uses but the monitor hinge is a little flaky.

We were just talking about picking one up before prices go up but I also just built my wife a desk and I’m thinking about getting one of those mini PCs because all she uses it for is shopping, email, and banking.

I really should get off the pot and buy something before it’s too late.

On the other hand it’s been a few years since I built something so maybe…

6 Likes
3

Ideapad or Thinkpad? Lenovo’s Ideapads’ hinges have a common bad history. The fix cost me ~$300. The cheaper “fix”? Never close the laptop; cycle-fatigue kills the hinge.

9 Likes
4

I have not noticed anything yet. But this is why I mentioned buying some hardware for the house before the inauguration rather than after.

I will watch this thread with a great deal of dread.

7 Likes
5

Are you building your own desktop? That’s very cool. May I ask how much it costs to source it all yourself?

I am currently using an old all-in-one desktop of my mom’s and it’s been so slow that I just bought 8 GB RAM off eBay and am installing it myself. I’m hoping the extra RAM will make it a more useful computer.

7 Likes
6

The desk I just built for my wife can hide the laptop, I have a keyboard mouse arriving tomorrow and I think I have an old 24 inch Samsung TV I can use as a monitor.

For the time being I’ll use the laptop as a desktop until I decide on a laptop or mini pc.

Leaning towards a mini pc.

7 Likes
7

Yes, I built my first about a decade ago, despite having used computers since around 1990.

As for the costs, they’re pretty much all across the board. I built my last one in 2016, to replace an off-the-shelf PC from 2006. And it has held up quite well. This new one that I’m building, I’m hoping will last another 10 years, so I’m not going for cheap budget parts. I’m intentionally overspending to build something that 10 years from now I’ll say well, it’s still good enough, but maybe I’d like something newer.

You could build one a whole lot cheaper. You could have an equally-performing PC for half what I spent, or less. It might not be as good in 10 years though, which is what I’m going for. You kinda have to choose between something cheaper and easily replaceable, or more long-lasting.

The actual building process is pretty simple, surprisingly simple if you’ve never done it, mostly like snapping together legos. Just getting the cables and wires tied off properly is to me the only hard part. And that should be pretty easy nowadays since you can just look up a youtube video where someone else did it and follow their lead.

I would recommend building one yourself if you can. It’s a fun afternoon activity and you’ll get just what you want out of it.

8 Likes
8

Do the components still come with sharp edges in unexpected places that make you sacrifice bits of skin and drops of blood to the various deities of computing?

6 Likes
9

As a person who has probably assembled more PCs than many, 90% of those sharp edges were from the crap steel in the cheaper cases, the rest were things like solder/wire ends on exposed components. More expensive cases come with rounded internal edges nowadays, and tend to be much more forgiving of your knuckles and hands in general.

9 Likes
10

Yup. I try not to close mine if it’s just sitting on a desk, until i need to take it somewhere.

6 Likes
11

I’m in the same boat, and have been looking to replace it before tariffs hit, but I’ve been slacking. I was looking to see what parts I could upgrade, but the rig is old enough that I think pretty much everything would have to be replaced. I’ve always wanted to do my own build, and in the past I’ve looked up parts to see if I could put together a gaming PC at less than the cost of a pre-built one, and haven’t managed it. Probably because I have no idea what I’m doing, never having built a pc from scratch before. I think I’m going to have to stick with a pre-built, where there don’t yet seem to be shortages, probably because the graphics cards are just slightly dated. At some point I still really want to put together my own machine, but this seems a bad time for me to start.

7 Likes
12

I hooked up that Lenevo to a Samsung TV and added a wireless keyboard and mouse, that really breathed some life into the finicky laptop.

I was pleased that the sound plays nicely through the TV.

The bonus is I built the desk in the feral cat room and now she can watch bird videos.

I still think I’m going to pick up a mini pc but for now my wife is happy an Mrs. Feral is happy.

1000008271
10000082711440Ă—737 167 KB

10 Likes
13

That is a nice catroom!

8 Likes
14

Update: it still hadn’t shipped, so I was looking this weekend and I found a different shop that had 3 in stock, and I canceled my old order and ordered from this place instead last night. This afternoon I got a notification that it had shipped! Yay!

Shortly later I got another notification “We’re sorry, your package is running a bit late. We’re working closely with the carrier to ensure your order reaches you as soon as possible.”

I looked up the address it was sent from… it’s a few blocks from the fires in L.A., and the major streets around it are all closed off.

9 Likes