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PC Prices to Rise?
guinan writes "The Economist is running a story about how now that PC makers think the worst is over, it's high time to raise prices. In particular, the focus is on the steady price of flat-panels and a possible end to the decline we've seen in the price of memory. Granted, most of the /. crowd build their own boxes, but if you want to buy a computer from a major brand better go for one soon while you can still get all the perks."
Many people actively want to spend more. One of my relatively clueless neighbors asked me to bless his decision to spend $2700 on a new Dell. It was top of the line. I knew he did a bit of word processing and spent the rest of the time at home playing flight simulator games. He's not an avid, fast-twitch gamer. I tried to talk him into a $700 system. He wouldn't budge. He wanted to spend that much. He wanted to make sure it was "upwardly compatible" and "expandable", even though he would just spend another $2700 in a few years. There are plenty of suckers who have too much money. It's fine by me if the computer companies take it. The only thing that worries me is that they'll increase the cost of low-end systems that I like. It's been a long time since I did anything but basic coding and editing.
doo you know what this will do to the "over priced Mac" argument!!!!
I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
I always build my own, stopping by Pricewatch to find the best prices.
But everywhere I look, places are building custom PCs now. BestBuy was even building pcs to order. They had many vendors, Alienware, hp, compaq, etc.... You could order a custom PC, or build your own with off the shelf items. CompUSA started to carry OEM products awhile back, funny to see those white boxed oem products on sale at a retail store.
These are just usual rumours to get the people buy now, and not postpone. We've seen such manipulation over and over again (e.g. with memory prices, causing huge price fluctuations; there is always a group earning lots of money on price fluctuations).
Over time PC prices shall come down inevitably, there is no fundamental reason why progress of technology (enabling more power for same price or equal power for lower price) should stop any time soon.
Example: LCD prices are bound to fall sharply in the second half of the year. New production capacity comes available in big quantities in july/august (new generation plants, higher efficiency, less shortages etc). I guess some stakeholders want to push people into buying now (out of fear for price increases) to get rid of their old inventories.
B) I smell a poll!
Then we'll find out for sure that CowboyNeal built most of our computers.
"and a possible end to the decline we've seen in the price of memory."
A possible end?
The ram I'm using in my system, which I bought late August/early Septemer, has nearly tripled in price since then! At the time I bought it, I thought it was a reasonable price, but now it's just way too expensive.
Keep in mind that memory prices have a great deal to do with supply and demand (or so they say.) Here's a price FAQ I found at crucial.com when wondering why my ram had become so expensvie.
-kidlinux.
What your "clueless" neighbor wanted to you to "bless" was his decision to spend a huge amount of money on a computer merely to demonstrate his commitment to being on the cutting edge. In other words, he wanted you to let him know how L33T he is.
;#)
Normally, I wouldn't be so condescending about a newbie, but the fact that he asked you about it, specifically telling you the price, indicates that he was just showing off. It would be kind of like him showing you his brand new Porsche, as he rubs his chin thoughtfully saying, "hmm, do you think I paid too much??"
Meanwhile, I don't think you need to worry too much about the cost of low-end systems being affected, since we l33t coders "know" that building it yourself will always be cheaper, especially since you don't have to pay the Microsoft Tax...
I really don't think prices will go up too much and if they do go up it will probably be a temporary increase. Look how much competition there is amongst the PC makers. The reason why PC prices are so low is because of the ease of entry in to the marketplace coupled with rapidly changing technology and a reduced consumer demand for the latest and greatest PC. Ten years ago, you had to buy a new computer every two years in order to run the latest and greatest software. Not so anymore, a Pentium II will run just about everything the non-gamer needs to run, plus I've seen some thrifty gamers running P-II's with not too much of a problem, besides a little wait.
Well I know from personal experience, that I have a hard time latly making any money building systems for people. With complete systems available from gateway for 600 its really hard to compete, I've got to be able to sell the same system for maybe 450 to be able to sell as I can't provide the same level of warrenty, putting together a complete system with monitor and a legal copy of windows at that price leaves me with no profit.
Since about 1987, I have always built my own boxes, but recently I've wavered... and it's purely on account of the cost issue. Now my time is becoming more and more valuable (higher pay, family) and PC prices [have been] getting lower and lower. It's getting harder for me to justify (especially to my wife) the time it takes to roll my own when the difference between parts and off-the-shelf is only a 100 to 200 bucks (or perhaps even less).
Used to be, I'd do it just for the love of it (and to save some dough). Now, it's usually just a pain in the ass. And I don't believe hardware prices are going to increase to point where I'll change my mind.
Only the losers buy systems at DELL, Compaq, IBM, HP or whatever the brands are.
And BIG companies. Like.. umh.. Those that matter. And consumers, those who really pay manuf.'s bill.
Those who can build their own system are not a big market, they're more like marginal. Maybe a PR market, but really, really small.
fucktard is a tenderhearted description
Because there was a huge glut of it on the market. Memory manufacturers had increased capacity immensly during the boom times. Then the slump happened, and they were left with a huge amount of excess inventory and capacity. The only real way for them to alleviate that was to basically dump it into the market at whatever price people would pay... Since there was sooo much, the price was extremely low. Now that inventory and production are nearing demand levels, the price is rising back up again...
Not to mention people who want support. Or rack mount servers.
By the time you buy a rack chassis and the compatable parts, you might as well have purchased it from Dell.
Or, if computers is your business, i.e. webhosting, you want something with a warranty, because if it breaks, as far as the clients are concerned, it's *your* problem to fix.
Plus you have to look at: If you can get a system from dell for $500 with a celeron 1.1 Ghz, 256 MB ram, and a 20 gigabyte hard drive, you have to think, by the time you get all that from pricewatch, you're going to spend about $400 by the time you include shipping, they send the parts class R mail, and they're not quality pieces anyway, then you have to pay your employees $10/hr to put it together and test it? Not only do you lose time, but you lose money cause the time could have been spent doing something else.
Even walmart sells computers with no windows. Honestly, its hard to save money building your own low end system anymore.
sig?
You know, I used to think building my own box was the way to go. I'd get on Pricewatch and find the best motherboards, CPUs, etc. and build the whole thing. It used to be cheaper.
:)
Then my parents needed three new computers at once, and I decided to check out Dell Refurbished.
For $580 shipped (each), I got 2 computers with a 1.1GHz Celeron processor and one with a 1.6GHz Pentium IV. All had at least 128MB RAM and one had 256MB (I bought extra memory from Crucial.com to bring them all up to 256MB.) All had at least a 20GB hard drive, which was all my parents needed for the office. All came preinstalled with Windows XP Home (fine for office work.) And one came with a Firewire card; one came with a kick-ass video card. All had either Ethernet or a 56K modem (in card format, even, not built on to the motherboard.) All of this also came with free one-year ON-SITE hardware tech support from Dell.
I was a bit worried about the quality, since I've seen how Dell shafts its low-end users with shoddy parts. But the computers performed flawlessly upon arrival and have since, with no system crashes. Then, when it came time to swap out a CD-ROM for a CD-RW, I was truly impressed. Swapping out of a drive consisted of the following:
1. Unplugging the computer.
2. Pulling a thumb-tab at the top of the computer.
3. Pulling a latch that released the CD-ROM drive.
4. Unplugging the CD-ROM drive's cables.
5. Pulling out the CD-ROM drive and putting the drive brackets on the new drive (which just snapped on.)
6. Sliding in the new drive, plugging in cables, snapping case back together.
7. Plug in.
Done! No screws, no screwdriver, no nasty cheap ATX case with a hood you have to struggle with getting in the right place. Check out this picture to see what I'm talking about.
There was no way I could have built these computers, bought Windows XP, and had any money left over to profit at $580 a computer. Plus, I would have had to put them in an ugly case that would have caused hassle for me later.
I don't think it's economical any more to build your own computer. This is a GOOD thing -- it shows that computers have become a commodity. Do you build your own TV? Probably not. Microwave? Heck no. The quality to price ratio of pre-built computers is now such that even geeks are starting to buy pre-built computers. I, for one, am glad. Let Dell take over the hassle of being called when the computer has a problem. I'll spend more time doing things that I'd rather be doing.
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