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Have hardware prices gone crazy during Covid?



 
 
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  #1  
Old June 28th 20, 11:17 AM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10,atl.comp.hardware.homebuilt,alt.windows7.general
Yousuf Khan[_2_]
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Posts: 2,447
Default Have hardware prices gone crazy during Covid?

Well, I was looking at a couple of upgrades for a friend's computer. I
built the computer for them several years ago, so it's now time for a
few performance upgrades. The system currently consists of a
Haswell-generation Celeron, and using just Intel graphics. So the idea
is to upgrade that processor to higher end 4th or 5th gen (Haswell or
Broadwell) Core i5 or higher, preferably i7. And also to upgrade that
graphics to a lowest-end graphics card, because they got themselves an
ultrawide monitor.

So I looked at the prices of some of these parts and my eyes popped out
of their sockets! Have they gone crazy? WTF?

CPU's, the prices of the CPU's range from C$89 to C$3316! The cheapest
$89 one was the price of the same Celeron G1840 that they currently have
right now, and it's more expensive than when they first bought it! I'm
going to ignore any of the ones that cost over $1000 (actually some of
the $1000 ones are Core i3's)!!! The cheapest Core i3's range from $281
to $607. The Core i5's range from $400 to $953. The Core i7's range from
$631 to $817, and in some cases the lower end ones cost more than the
higher end ones.

https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/products...ice&X=0,100000

Then I looked at the low-end GPU's, eg. RX 550, something that should be
easily under $75 these days. They're going from between $85 and $252!

https://pcpartpicker.com/products/vi...ort=price&qq=1

I mean, I guess I can go towards used parts, but after seeing these
prices for new parts, I wonder how low used parts would be by comparison?

Yousuf Khan
Ads
  #2  
Old June 28th 20, 12:33 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10,atl.comp.hardware.homebuilt,alt.windows7.general
SC Tom[_3_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 4,089
Default Have hardware prices gone crazy during Covid?



"Yousuf Khan" wrote in message
...
Well, I was looking at a couple of upgrades for a friend's computer. I
built the computer for them several years ago, so it's now time for a few
performance upgrades. The system currently consists of a
Haswell-generation Celeron, and using just Intel graphics. So the idea is
to upgrade that processor to higher end 4th or 5th gen (Haswell or
Broadwell) Core i5 or higher, preferably i7. And also to upgrade that
graphics to a lowest-end graphics card, because they got themselves an
ultrawide monitor.

So I looked at the prices of some of these parts and my eyes popped out of
their sockets! Have they gone crazy? WTF?

CPU's, the prices of the CPU's range from C$89 to C$3316! The cheapest $89
one was the price of the same Celeron G1840 that they currently have right
now, and it's more expensive than when they first bought it! I'm going to
ignore any of the ones that cost over $1000 (actually some of the $1000
ones are Core i3's)!!! The cheapest Core i3's range from $281 to $607. The
Core i5's range from $400 to $953. The Core i7's range from $631 to $817,
and in some cases the lower end ones cost more than the higher end ones.

https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/products...ice&X=0,100000

Then I looked at the low-end GPU's, eg. RX 550, something that should be
easily under $75 these days. They're going from between $85 and $252!

https://pcpartpicker.com/products/vi...ort=price&qq=1

I mean, I guess I can go towards used parts, but after seeing these prices
for new parts, I wonder how low used parts would be by comparison?

Yousuf Khan


Core i3 - $26 to $563
https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?N=100007...&orde r=PRICE

Core i5 - $50 to $429
https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?N=100007...=3&order=PRICE

Core i7 - $34 to $773
https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?N=100007...96&order=PRICE

These are refurb, used, and new CPU's, and I have no idea what shipping
would be to your neck of the woods, but they seem pretty reasonable here
(although for the high-end ones, not a lot cheaper than what you're seeing).
--

SC Tom


  #3  
Old June 28th 20, 12:47 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10,atl.comp.hardware.homebuilt,alt.windows7.general
Carlos E.R.[_3_]
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Posts: 1,356
Default Have hardware prices gone crazy during Covid?

On 28/06/2020 12.17, Yousuf Khan wrote:
Well, I was looking at a couple of upgrades for a friend's computer. I
built the computer for them several years ago, so it's now time for a
few performance upgrades. The system currently consists of a
Haswell-generation Celeron, and using just Intel graphics. So the idea
is to upgrade that processor to higher end 4th or 5th gen (Haswell or
Broadwell) Core i5 or higher, preferably i7. And also to upgrade that
graphics to a lowest-end graphics card, because they got themselves an
ultrawide monitor.


The first thing I look at is the disk. If it is rotating rust, I upgrade
to SSD. That alone improves performance a lot.

--
Cheers, Carlos.
  #4  
Old June 28th 20, 01:30 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10,atl.comp.hardware.homebuilt,alt.windows7.general
Yousuf Khan[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,447
Default Have hardware prices gone crazy during Covid?

On 6/28/2020 7:47 AM, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 28/06/2020 12.17, Yousuf Khan wrote:
Well, I was looking at a couple of upgrades for a friend's computer. I
built the computer for them several years ago, so it's now time for a
few performance upgrades. The system currently consists of a
Haswell-generation Celeron, and using just Intel graphics. So the idea
is to upgrade that processor to higher end 4th or 5th gen (Haswell or
Broadwell) Core i5 or higher, preferably i7. And also to upgrade that
graphics to a lowest-end graphics card, because they got themselves an
ultrawide monitor.


The first thing I look at is the disk. If it is rotating rust, I upgrade
to SSD. That alone improves performance a lot.


The disk is fine, it's actually one of those hybrid SSHD's with a small
SSD caching a 1TB HDD. The important upgrade here is the graphics card,
they really need something that will accommodate their ultrawide
monitor's resolution natively.

Yousuf Khan
  #5  
Old June 28th 20, 01:34 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10,atl.comp.hardware.homebuilt,alt.windows7.general
nospam
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 4,718
Default Have hardware prices gone crazy during Covid?

In article , Yousuf Khan
wrote:

Well, I was looking at a couple of upgrades for a friend's computer. I
built the computer for them several years ago, so it's now time for a
few performance upgrades. The system currently consists of a
Haswell-generation Celeron, and using just Intel graphics. So the idea
is to upgrade that processor to higher end 4th or 5th gen (Haswell or
Broadwell) Core i5 or higher, preferably i7. And also to upgrade that
graphics to a lowest-end graphics card, because they got themselves an
ultrawide monitor.


The first thing I look at is the disk. If it is rotating rust, I upgrade
to SSD. That alone improves performance a lot.


The disk is fine, it's actually one of those hybrid SSHD's with a small
SSD caching a 1TB HDD.


it may be fine, but an ssd will be a significant improvement, by far
the easiest and most cost effective upgrade.

hybrid drives are only slightly faster than a regular drive except in
the unlikely scenario everything is running from cache.

The important upgrade here is the graphics card,
they really need something that will accommodate their ultrawide
monitor's resolution natively.


how wide is ultrawide?
  #6  
Old June 28th 20, 01:48 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10,atl.comp.hardware.homebuilt,alt.windows7.general
Mayayana
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 6,438
Default Have hardware prices gone crazy during Covid?

"Yousuf Khan" wrote

| So I looked at the prices of some of these parts and my eyes popped out
| of their sockets! Have they gone crazy? WTF?
|

I've noticed that, too, but it started before
coronavirus. I don't know why, especially given that
just about any hardware these days is "good enough".

I built my current system in 2015, with an 8-core
AMD FX-8300. At the time I think it was about $65.
The whole system was only about $400. The motherboard,
Asus M5A78L-M, was also about $65, and the onboard
network/graphics/audio are perfectly fine for me. I don't see
why anyone but a gamer needs a dedicated graphics card.
Later I saw the same CPU for more like $200+. And today
there seems to be a much larger range. It used to be that
the newer ones were expensive, then they quickly
got cheaper. Today I haven't kept up with technology
changes, so I have no idea what another $1,000 buys
you.

Recently, though, I needed a cheap graphics card
for an older Win7 computer so that I could get an HDMI
port to feed to a TV. I think it was something like $39
at Microcenter. Reasonable. They must have had 100 of
them. apparently low-end graphics is a big seller.

I also find things vary more than they used to. Staples
sells an HDMI cord for maybe $22-35 while Microcenter
has it for $10. Similarly, Staples was selling network switches
starting at about $50. I think I paid about $20 from a
company called Provantage. The prices often just seem
arbitrary. I suspect that maybe software is setting the
prices.

I saw an interesting example of that the other day in
Home Depot. A couple were looking at safety glasses.
There's a whole section of them, mostly the same thing.
They were loolking at a pair of plastic glasses for $10, in
a blister pack. I stopped and pointed out that the very
glasses I had on, as part of my coronavirus shopping attire,
were the same thing and came in a plastic bag, 6 pair
for $20. That item was just a couple of feet away. It's nuts.

Recently I decided to set up something new for my brother,
who recently had a stroke, and I decided to do it with a
Raspberry Pi. Microcenter had a monitor on sale for $70.
That was the big expense. The whole Pi setup kit was only
$90, plus about $20 for wireless keyboard/mouse. About
$200 for a complete, serviceable Linux system for Internet,
email, etc. That gets him 25 GB+ storage and 2 GB RAM.
And those Pi's are fast.


  #7  
Old June 28th 20, 03:53 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10,alt.windows7.general
Stan Brown
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Posts: 2,904
Default Have hardware prices gone crazy during Covid?

On Sun, 28 Jun 2020 13:47:46 +0200, Carlos E.R. wrote:

On 28/06/2020 12.17, Yousuf Khan wrote:
Well, I was looking at a couple of upgrades for a friend's computer. I
built the computer for them several years ago, so it's now time for a
few performance upgrades. The system currently consists of a
Haswell-generation Celeron, and using just Intel graphics. So the idea
is to upgrade that processor to higher end 4th or 5th gen (Haswell or
Broadwell) Core i5 or higher, preferably i7. And also to upgrade that
graphics to a lowest-end graphics card, because they got themselves an
ultrawide monitor.


The first thing I look at is the disk. If it is rotating rust, I upgrade
to SSD. That alone improves performance a lot.


Second that. In my very limited experience, SSD with slower CPU makes
for a faster experience overall than HDD with faster CPU.

I have a Dell Inspiron with i7 and rotating hard drive, and an Asus
with only i5 but an SSD. When I bought the Asus, after five years
with the Dell, I was amazed at how much faster it was with the slower
processor.

The Asus is much, much faster at opening programs and files, or
saving files to disk -- no surprise there. But it even seems faster
at computational stuff. I imagine that means those operations depend
on virtual memory, and of course virtual memory is just disk
accesses.

--
Stan Brown, Tehachapi, California, USA https://BrownMath.com/
https://OakRoadSystems.com/
Shikata ga nai...
  #8  
Old June 28th 20, 05:18 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10,atl.comp.hardware.homebuilt,alt.windows7.general
Yousuf Khan[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,447
Default Have hardware prices gone crazy during Covid?

On 6/28/2020 8:34 AM, nospam wrote:
how wide is ultrawide?


3440 X 1440
  #9  
Old June 28th 20, 05:23 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10,atl.comp.hardware.homebuilt,alt.windows7.general
Yousuf Khan[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,447
Default Have hardware prices gone crazy during Covid?

On 6/28/2020 8:48 AM, Mayayana wrote:
I don't see
why anyone but a gamer needs a dedicated graphics card.


If you have an ultrawide monitor, you would need a graphics card too.
3440 X 1440 is ultrawide in this case. I don't think any embedded
graphics can run at such wide resolutions. Perhaps some of the Ryzen
APU's with embedded Vega graphics??

Yousuf Khan
  #10  
Old June 28th 20, 07:00 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10,atl.comp.hardware.homebuilt,alt.windows7.general
nospam
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 4,718
Default Have hardware prices gone crazy during Covid?

In article , Mayayana
wrote:

I also find things vary more than they used to. Staples
sells an HDMI cord for maybe $22-35 while Microcenter
has it for $10.


$7.49 at staples:
https://www.staples.com/32AWG-High-S...eneric/product
_2504576

less than $4 online:
https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=3992

of course, not all hdmi cables are created equal, but if price is your
only criteria and you want it same day, staples is fine.

Similarly, Staples was selling network switches
starting at about $50. I think I paid about $20 from a
company called Provantage. The prices often just seem
arbitrary. I suspect that maybe software is setting the
prices.


actually, staples has switches starting at $20 for a trendnet, but it's
out of stock, however, they do have a netgear in stock for $23:
https://www.staples.com/NETGEAR-ProS...-Ethernet-Desk
top-Switch/product_446867




Recently I decided to set up something new for my brother,
who recently had a stroke, and I decided to do it with a
Raspberry Pi. Microcenter had a monitor on sale for $70.
That was the big expense. The whole Pi setup kit was only
$90, plus about $20 for wireless keyboard/mouse. About
$200 for a complete, serviceable Linux system for Internet,
email, etc. That gets him 25 GB+ storage and 2 GB RAM.
And those Pi's are fast.


not really, especially the zero.

a pi 4 is acceptable for casual use but it's not what one would call
fast by any reasonable standard, and they're a *lot* less than $90.

a pi 4 2 gig is $35, assuming you buy only one at a time:
https://www.microcenter.com/product/...model-b---2gb-
ddr4
  #11  
Old June 28th 20, 07:05 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10,alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt,alt.windows7.general
Paul[_32_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 11,873
Default Have hardware prices gone crazy during Covid?

Yousuf Khan wrote:
On 6/28/2020 8:34 AM, nospam wrote:
how wide is ultrawide?


3440 X 1440


HDMI 2 or 2.1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI

Perhaps DP 1.2 ?

Tables here are less useful.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DisplayPort

The problem is, the entry level video cards
now are pretty expensive. And even if you
could find an FX5200, it wouldn't have the
output :-)

Paul
  #12  
Old June 28th 20, 07:37 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10,alt.windows7.general
J. P. Gilliver (John)[_7_]
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Posts: 603
Default SSDs/HDDs, memory ... (was: Have hardware prices gone crazy during Covid?)

On Sun, 28 Jun 2020 at 07:53:20, Stan Brown
wrote:
On Sun, 28 Jun 2020 13:47:46 +0200, Carlos E.R. wrote:

On 28/06/2020 12.17, Yousuf Khan wrote:

[]
The first thing I look at is the disk. If it is rotating rust, I upgrade
to SSD. That alone improves performance a lot.


Second that. In my very limited experience, SSD with slower CPU makes
for a faster experience overall than HDD with faster CPU.


OK you guys. I accept (daft not to) that SSDs are faster than HDDs.
(Though I do have of course the nagging feeling that lazy programmers
will soon have eliminated that advantage - but they're going to rule the
roost for everyone anyway, so that's irrelevant.)

My main concern over SSDs is still of sudden and complete failure - more
so than HDDs (which I know - yes, from experience - _can_ go suddenly,
but _tend_ not to). Yes, I know everybody should be backing up their
system, on the hour, every hour, to a remote site, so it - but come on,
some of us want to _use_ our computers.

so: using an SSD, is there anything - either something in the SSD, or
third party software - that will _reliably_ give, say, a month's warning
of failure? (And by "failure" I include go-to-read-only.)

I have a Dell Inspiron with i7 and rotating hard drive, and an Asus
with only i5 but an SSD. When I bought the Asus, after five years
with the Dell, I was amazed at how much faster it was with the slower
processor.

The Asus is much, much faster at opening programs and files, or
saving files to disk -- no surprise there. But it even seems faster
at computational stuff. I imagine that means those operations depend
on virtual memory, and of course virtual memory is just disk
accesses.

If you're using virtual memory for more than very occasional peaks, then
I'd say you haven't enough RAM. This may be less definite with SSDs, but
I suspect your old Dell with the spinner _does_ have that problem. Have
you _looked_ (at what it is using) lately? Memory consumption has, like
everything else, been creeping up steadily: I'd say more web "pages"
(really programs) in the last four or five years than anything else.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

"To YOU I'm an atheist; to God, I'm the Loyal Opposition." - Woody Allen
  #13  
Old June 28th 20, 07:47 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10,alt.windows7.general
Paul[_32_]
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Posts: 11,873
Default SSDs/HDDs, memory ...

J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:


so: using an SSD, is there anything - either something in the SSD, or
third party software - that will _reliably_ give, say, a month's warning
of failure? (And by "failure" I include go-to-read-only.)


A RAID1 mirror consisting of a multiplicity of
different brands/models of SSD. Mirrors can have
more than two drives as far as I know.

When one drive fails, the array runs in "degraded" mode.

You could use, say, a couple WDC Blue 1TB drives and one
(good) Samsung Pro-class drive. The WDC ones are $100 each.

The reason for mixing up the drive brands, is so failures
don't correlate (precisely). If you used all Samsung drives,
maybe they all wear out on the same day.

Paul
  #14  
Old June 28th 20, 08:04 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10,alt.windows7.general
nospam
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 4,718
Default SSDs/HDDs, memory ... (was: Have hardware prices gone crazy during Covid?)

In article , J. P. Gilliver (John)
wrote:


My main concern over SSDs is still of sudden and complete failure - more
so than HDDs (which I know - yes, from experience - _can_ go suddenly,
but _tend_ not to).


ssds are significantly more reliable than hard drives, but if they do
fail, they generally give warning (via smart) and often fail read-only,
which means you can still access your data.

Yes, I know everybody should be backing up their
system, on the hour, every hour, to a remote site, so it - but come on,
some of us want to _use_ our computers.


backups can happen in the background.

backups can also be scheduled to run in the middle of the night when
you *aren't* using your computer.

better yet, do both, to two different targets.

so: using an SSD, is there anything - either something in the SSD, or
third party software - that will _reliably_ give, say, a month's warning
of failure? (And by "failure" I include go-to-read-only.)


yes, via smart. you can also run a diagnostic every so often.

or just not worry about it since ssds fail a *lot* less than hard
drives do.
  #15  
Old June 28th 20, 08:04 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10,alt.windows7.general
nospam
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 4,718
Default SSDs/HDDs, memory ...

In article , Paul
wrote:

The reason for mixing up the drive brands, is so failures
don't correlate (precisely). If you used all Samsung drives,
maybe they all wear out on the same day.


it's best to *not* mix brands (and may not even work).

however, it *is* a good idea to get the same drives from a different
manufacturing *batch*.

don't buy the drives at the same time from the same vendor. buy one
each from different vendors and/or different times. unfortunately, it
might be more expensive that way.

and raid doesn't answer the original question about ssds.
 




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