Editorial: In 2006 The PC Industry Shrunk and Prices Went Up

Post by **Apoptosis** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 5:27 pm

It is around this time at the start of a new year that people believe they can get off to a fresh beginning. While most people are running out getting gym memberships or buying magical patches to stop smoking, I took some time to reflect on 2006 and ponder what 2007 will hold for enthusiasts and gamers in the PC industry. Read on to check out the editorial ramblings if you dare.

Is it just me or does it seem that prices on computer hardware seem to be getting out of hand? With $800 video cards, $600 power supplies, $650 memory kits and $1000 processors, building a top end gaming system with all the latest technology will easily set you back $5,000 doing it yourself! If you want that computer built for you then you better be willing to cough up at least $8,000 for the same system in a fancy case that has some clear coated automotive paint on it. This leaves the true gamers and enthusiasts high and dry because Joe Gamer canâ€™t afford to spend $5,000 to $10,000 on a gaming system. If these numbers seem too high to believe run over to Dell and price out a loaded-to-the-gills XPS 710 Desktop PC and you'll be amazed just how high the price goes.

Article Title: In 2006 The PC Industry Shrunk and Prices Went Up
Article URL: http://legitreviews.com/article/437/1/

Enjoy, but remember it's an editorial (just my thoughts and opinions on the industry from my perspective).

Post by **dicecca112** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 5:37 pm

my take at this is some point us consumers have to go wait. WTF is going on. I'm not buying this crap, you guys need to lower your prices, or offer me a product that is such a huge upgrade over the previous generation that its worth the price tag. I only bought a top end GPU once. It was a 6800gt and it 400$. I regretted doing it to this day. I never jump on high end. If I can't do a whole rig for 1k, then its not worth it. I'll wait. Personally I have had 3 rigs, an Athlon XP, a Dual Xeon System and a 775 system (630 to 820 to 930 to C2D), and each system was a huge jump over the next.

Companys are going for money now and its getting bad, price gouging is rampant, and its not right. Power usuage and heat must go down for this industry to go anywhere.

kenc51 · Post by **kenc51** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 6:05 pm

I blame enthusiasts sites like LR ;)

More and more people have been making the switch to DIY systems.....those people read sites like LR and watch various forums. It's a basic fact most products reviewed on the web are high end stuff. The manufacturers want this........why spend money marketing your value line of memory, when you can push your h2o cooled stuff, esp. when it's benchmark result will be on top of your competitors. Sure review sites might be unbiased (like LR)..the companies don't care, infact they prefer that.
OCZ for example. They know their Flex XLC ram will beat the others when run at rated speeds, since they are/were the fastest (mushkin are now)
Soo......the home user checks online reviews....sees product A is beeter than B, so saves up and buys that -> "electronics envy" again.
OR he goes to a forum and sees "joebloggs" doing superpi 1M in ~9sec so he buys that brand. Since the top end product costs ~500$ the mid range stuff is also overpriced.

SLI/Xfire also makes things alot more expensive. People still don't understand 2x cards doesn't mean 2x the performance

Then there's the likes of alienware etc. --> this is just someone who's lazy and has "electronics envy"
Intel and AMD also played their part --> Extreme Edition & FX Line

It all boils down to "electronics envy" -> Just now more companies are understanding/abusing this!

My 2 cent.

bubba · Post by **bubba** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 8:02 pm

I have been shopping for a while now for my next set up. I have been taking my time with this round of parts just for the fact that they are that costly.

every part I'm looking at will cover everything that I currently do and give me a little room to upgrade parts as need with out getting a whole new system.

Hell I'm building my own case due to the fact that the Lain-Li case I wanted was 110 bucks, and it was just the case, no PSU..nothing, just the case. To me that was nuts. So I set down and started to build my own.

Post by **dicecca112** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 8:58 pm

Yeah but Lian Li's are so worth the price, what are you looking at?

bubba · Post by **bubba** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 9:28 pm

The PC-V300

box god review -> http://www.boxgods.com/dept/htpc-sff/in ... cle&ID=212

Post by **dicecca112** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 9:31 pm

eww microatx and 80mm fans. I will never ever go lower than 120mm and atx, but that is just me. My next case is a mountain mods. Now that after this coming semester, the comps not gonna move, other than if I move places, I'm going with a case I want other than one I can lug into a dorm room.

bubba · Post by **bubba** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 9:35 pm

yeah, I'm going against the grain with the mATX, but I'm cramped for space. Cram a family of 4 into 1000ft see how much room you have for a desk

Bwall · Post by **Bwall** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 10:49 pm

Continuing the slightly off-topic about m-ATX, I love my SilverStone SG01. I couldn't live with the V-300, you can't fit anything bigger than a 7900GS in it. No 7900GTX/X1900/8800GTS.

Tech_Greek · Post by **Tech_Greek** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 11:23 pm

I agree with KenC on this one!

I personally had a Athlon XP system with an ECS Motherboard, HD, 2 GB Ram, FX GPU, etc that cost me all of around 1,100 to build when I bought (new EVERYTHING).

This was like, two years ago now Iâ€™d say and it lasted me a year before I needed to upgrade again (Command And Conquer Generals was lagging!)

So I went the one place I worked (Geek Squad, Best Buy) and decided to use my Best Buy Credit Cardâ€¦

$900 â€“ Tower, Pentium D 2.8, 1 GB Ram, TV Tuner â€“ TOWER ONLY
$250 â€“ 17 Inch Samsung 730B
$200 â€“ THX Cert 5.1 Logitech Gaming Surround Sound
$070 â€“ G5 Gaming Mouse
$100 â€“ G12? Gaming Keyboard
$020 â€“ Gaming Mouse Pad
$350 â€“ BFG GeForce 7800 GT
$200 â€“ Creative X-Fi Platinum Sound Card
$200 â€“ 2GB DDR Ram

Basically I spent right around 2,500 on the whole system (as I know Iâ€™m missing parts) which was TWICE as much as I spent on my Athlon system thinking at the time I was getting almost the best of everything at the time and it would last me a few yearsâ€¦

Boy was I wrong, this past few weeks itâ€™s been hitting me pretty hard when the games I play sometime lag at the very highest settings at 1280 x 1024 when I think for the money I paid I should be kicking ass at those settings and resolution.

Iâ€™m personally disgusted with the move in computer gaming, and if my room mates xbox 360 had a mouse and keyboard I sure as hell would have sold this computer by now and given up computers all together.

Thanks for reading my rant!

zparker · Post by **zparker** » Fri Jan 05, 2007 12:34 am

Personally i think that the value of the dollar has alot to do with it. The dollar is worth about 1/2 a Pound. The Britts i work with talk about spending 300 pounds like its nill. Im like **** thats 600bucks.

But they spend a pound like we spend a dollar. So we have to spend 2 dollars just to keep up.

You know what i am saying!

jigr69 · Post by **jigr69** » Fri Jan 05, 2007 4:37 am

Unfortunately for us Brits, there is a conversion ratio of $1 to Â£1 when it comes to computer components.

In a little experiment, I went onto Dell UK and Dell US websites and built identical XPS desktop systems. When certain components where standard on the US site, I had to upgrade to the same specification on the UK system.

The price for the Dell US XPS = $2,158.
The price for the Dell UK XPS = Â£1,740.

If your yard stick of $2 = Â£1 then the same system should cost Â£1079. But using the latest conversion rate, it equates to Â£1,111. So infact we are paying over Â£600 more for the same specification computer from a well known system builder. Or put it this way, you should be paying $3,377!

That is the reason why we Brits spend Â£300 like nothing is because thats what we get for that amount - nothing. This land I live in isn't called Rip-Off Britain for no reason.....

Fogey · Post by **Fogey** » Fri Jan 05, 2007 9:41 am

Nice article Nate:

Got a chuckle out of this:

I know that I canâ€™t speak for everyone, but my day revolves around sitting in front of the PC from the time I get up till the time I give up on the list of things to do and crash on the couch.

I love being a computer hobbiest. I went to school, got A + cert. Been building high end gaming/systems for over 6 years now. How time flies. Then started to learn programing. Great stuff. But want to do it for a living. HELL NO!!! Just a hobby for me. I give you credit for doing it. I wouldn't want it.

Other thoughts on the article: I'm not a high end push my system to the max person. I'm not an average user either. I fall somewhere in between. I know I'm getting sick of the computer upgrade cycle. My last build was in May of 2005. AMD FX-55 with air cooling, 6800 gtx's in SLI on an Asus sli deluxe. Since then I have upgraded it to a water cooling rig case, a FX-57 and 7800GTX's. Been playing with various ocing with it. It was a worthwhile adventure from the educational point of view. From the money point of view for what I spent on the upgrade vs what I got in return. Not worth it. The FX-57 on the SD core had very little ovehead for ocing. Sold the old FX-55 on E bay. The 7800 preformed a littel better than the 6800's, but for the cost of the upgrade, wasen't worth it. Sold the old 6800's on E Bay also. Working on a new build but am taking my time. Will have very few high end componets, but more mid range ones. No more SLI for me. It was nice, but now one can get a new card that can do what two 7900's in sli do.

Just bought an X Box 360. Never thought I'd buy a gaming console for myself. So much for being a die hard PC gaming only gamer. As for the games themselves, the eye candy is nice, but how bout a great game story line FIRST and FOREMOST. I've got two EB game stores within 60 miles of my home. Over time they offer less and less of PC titles while the PS-X BOX-ETC titles seem to grow. The more costly this pc gaming gets, the more I do see people going over to the consoles. If it wasen't for gaming or video encoding, what would you need one of the top of the line PC's for? Wouldn't one of your OLDER machines suffice for Internet surfing and e-mails. The industry needs to understand average Joes are not building/buying the high end machines as a general rule. Very few great PC games and more costly PC componets spell long term failure vs the console route.

Then again Beta was better tha VHS and we got VHS. Who knows.

Now, when Is that Asus P965 Commando going to be on the shelves.

Sidenote: Hey Bubba. I got like about 740 sq.Ft. here. Three of us living here. I got three atx machines, my one son has two and the other son one plus MY X Box 360. One can get creative at times with what space one has. Then again, this Bachelor pad of ours won't make better homes and gardens top homes of 2006 either.

zparker · Post by **zparker** » Fri Jan 05, 2007 9:45 am

oh, your bad!!

the current conversion rate is (1 pound = 1.94429 USD)

So it sounds like you need to build your own system, remember dell is an american company. Greedy and their products suck as well as their extended warranties (next day parts next day service) as i have a company laptop here that is now at 3 calender months on next day parts/service, and the fkin thing has been shipped to their corporate repair facility for special repair, since oww crap I am going to put this story into a topic of its own..

Anyways yeah the conversion rate is 1.94429 to 1usd.

kenc51 · Post by **kenc51** » Fri Jan 05, 2007 1:43 pm

Electronics are expensive in Europe.....period!
You guys in the US also have New Egg........I hope you appreciate them because most of us in Euroland have ~2-3 good sites to shop with. The trick is to get to know your local store owners.......give them good business and they tend to treat you well......special order in parts or give discounts etc.

But in the end, it all leads back to Nate's first Editorial on this a year ago......ELECTRONICS ENVY!
I like most of us, know what parts to get which are the best bang for buck but that temptation is always there............especially on the last week of every month.........I've eaten microwave dinners for a month a few times, all because of this..........Hey we all have our priorities.....mine are just on (permanent) hold ;)