Why are computer parts so expensive right now? More importantly, what must one fathom the way to get computer parts without overpaying? We’re visiting to discuss everything you would like to understand about PC hardware pricing without delay, and when it would improve.
Why Are Computer Parts Expensive In General?
Even if there weren’t some unprecedented economic events occurring at the time of writing, computer parts have always been made from some decently expensive components. whether or not you don’t have an especially premium PC, the materials and labor costs of contemporary CPUs and GPUs are still quite high. While the material used isn’t as high as something sort of a car, you’re still paying for an excellent deal of Research, Development, and Manufacturing horsepower once you buy something sort of a Graphics Card.
Why Are Computer Parts So Expensive Right Now?
But this pricing situation is extreme, even for constituents. There are some different major reasons for this, and I’ll list them below:
The Chip Shortage
So, the most reason that PC parts are abnormally expensive at once is that there has been a worldwide chip shortage from 2020 to now. (December 2021 when this is often being written, though the shortage is probably going to continue into 2022.) And like most disruptive events that happened in 2020, this one happened as an instantaneous result of COVID-19.
The Pandemic
Since the pandemic required many workers across the globe to quarantine safely reception, the availability chain upon which PC hardware is reliant was greatly diminished. Manufacturing a given PC component isn’t as simple as running one factory for it: often, individual components for dozens of various products from dozens of various factories that are located in several countries across the world are required to provide one high-end PC. Not only does this shortage of labor, logistics, and materials make hardware dearer, but it also leads to there being much less hardware to travel around overall. And since the pandemic resulted in people spending much, way more time indoors and dealing from home, this ends up in Incredibly High Demand. Besides the pandemic disrupting the availability chain and workflow that kept PC hardware on the market, it also created a way higher demand for hardware capable of keeping people entertained or within the workplace from home.
Work from home
Another source of high demand has is available the increasing rise of cryptocurrencies like Ethereum, which are reliant on high-end graphics cards so as to “mine” the currency at profitable rates. Even before the pandemic, this was becoming a controversy within the PC hardware market, especially for professionals and PC gamers who needed the graphics horsepower these cards were originally meant to provide.
Scalpers
Ever since it became possible to use bots to shop for up swaths of stock for immediate resell at inflated prices, scalpers became something of a heavy problem in consumer electronics. Gamers became particularly embattled against scalpers even outside of the PC space, where their treatment of consoles or limited run games and peripherals drew ire even before the chip shortage. Scalpers get the foremost success doing this with GPUs and gaming consoles.
GPU shortage because of scalpers
If it can in the least be avoided, don’t buy hardware from scalpers! Their business model relies on people being willing to pay their inflated prices, and also the sooner they are going out of business, the earlier we would start getting products at their proper MSRP again.