DDR4 Ram expensive

>DDR4 Ram expensive
>no multi die GPUs
>no Zen 2
>cryptofags driving up GPU and power suplies prices

is this the worst time for PCs?

yes, it is

you forgot microsoft making the worst operating system ever and sticking to it

>CPUs with ridiculous speeds and core counts
>M.2 SSDs with multi-GB/s speeds
>RAM is faster and more plentiful than can be taken advantage of
>GPUs largely outpacing consumer needs
>Laptops and ITX systems give up very little compared to similar desktops

As a 90's fag I'm just glad that you can build a system today that won't go utterly obsolete in 6 months, heck I think that if you get a decent system now It'll be good for 5 years minimum no problem.
Yeah, stuff is more expensive now, but you also don't have to junk it all the time just to run the latest version of your software. A $400 GPU used to be very high-end simply on account of the fact that it wouldn't stay high-end for very long, the next iteration would literally be 2x the performance.
If you say buy a 1080 Ti today, what could possibly happen in the following years that would obsolete the card in a defacto sense? Games aren't getting that much better over time graphics-wise, and computer displays are largely stuck around 1080~1440p for 99% of users, and one of those cards can easily run 1440p at 144hz.
In terms of cost-over-time, computers are cheaper today than they have ever been in history.

You forgot backdoor in our CPUs.

I backdoor your mom.

wait like a year.

Only if you're an underage faggot. Building a gaming PC has rarely ever been cheaper.

>you can find core2duos and core2quads even in dumpsters or next to them, or given away for free.
>you can find business laptops with very few faults, if any, from the last 5 years for less than 100USD with a little bit of luck
>android phones are like 20 bucks used or heavily subsidized for entry-mid level phones that just werk

Is this the best time for technology? And the worst time for privacy?

> >no multi die GPUs
> no quantum PCs
> no 512bit CPUs
> tfw no Petabyte HDDs
Oh noes, PCs are finished and bankrupt & on suicide watch!

God how I miss multi die GPUs. I loved my HD7990 back in the day.

Zen has shaken up the CPU market greatly and I'd say it's at its best for at least a decade. Unfortunately the GPU market is shite and RAM and SSD prices have shot through the roof and probably won't fall for at least a year.

So basically I'm hoping my X58 system doesn't go bang until at least 2019.

Just Wait© for Navi

Granted technology has evolved but that same tech 2 years ago was alot cheaper than it was now. If ram prices stayed the same as they where a year ago we would see 16GB in budget builds but not when its over $160.
SSD prices are the same way, if you purchased an SSD a year ago you can sell it on ebay and make a decent profit.
Pic fucking related

>is this the worst time for PCs?
It's the worse time for anything really, because we let manufacturer's get away with being shit.

>not just getting zen

You need atleast 3200MHz CL14 RAM to get reasonable performance out of Ryzen and that's fucking expensive.

Yeah, this is easily the worst time to be a PC enthuasist I remember.

Back in the day when there actually was competition an actual natural carastrophe was required to have a situation where same piece of hardware would be more expensive year or two later. The Taiwan earthquake raped memory prices pretty bad in 1999 and the standard amount of RAM in market PCs dropped from 128MB to 64MB.

Now that there is no real competition remaining in PC hardware the development of technology is progressing at snails pace and prices on several key components have been steadily going up.

Remember when in early 1999 the fastest CPU you could buy was either a 500Mhz Athlon or 500MHz Pentium III but just one year later 1GHz models were out. Same stuff with graphics cards, in early 1999 TNT2 and Voodoo 3 were hot shit but just half a year later GeForce 256 blew them out of the water and by summer 2000 you could get faster than GeForce 256 SDR performance for just $120 with GeForce 2 MX. Taking inflation into consideration that would equal to getting GeForce 1080 performance for just $170 today but fuck you because no competition.

Hey man this is off topic, but you seem to know a lot about old hardware. Would you mind giving a quick build list for a windows 95/98 retro gaming build (Doom, C&C Gen., Warcraft 3, Original Starcraft, Diablo II, and etc.). Thanks.

I think this brings up a good point, that this might be the best time for anyone using their shit for anything other than gaming or luxury/showing off. If you don't fall for the meme that you need a GPU that can run games that don't even exist yet on highest settings, or the meme that you need the shiniest possible NSA tracking dongle every six months, you can set yourself up very affordably.

C&C Generals is so new you'd be better off playing it on Windows XP rig. Warcraft 3 is quite demanding too, as 1 GHz CPU is recommended.

If you want to play old DOS games then Super Socket 7 and AMD K6-2+ or AMD K6-III+ are the way to go since you can use software to underclock them and to disable caches. This makes it possible to play speed sensitive games while also being able to play most of the games up to end of 1999.

If you want to play newer games I'd just use a modern PC since everything works infinitely better on modern PCs (no driver conflicts, can emulate pretty much anything, stability is much better etc). If you absolutely must build a retro PC for games like C&C Generals get a fast Pentium 4 or Athlon XP from a dumpster.

Barring C&C: Generals from your list I'd make a following build:
Intel BX440 based Slot-1 motherboard
1 GHz Coppermine Pentium 3 or a faster Tualatin Pentium/ Celeron (latter requires modding the Slotket)
768MB of 133MHz CL2 SDRAM (3x256MB, max supported by most motherboards)
GeForce 3 or GeForce 4 Ti series GPU
Voodoo 2 SLI for Glide games
for audio card there are tons of possibilities (Aureal Vortex 2, SB Live!, SB Audigy, SB AWE64 for DOS games, Yamaha based cards etc) just be prepared for tons of driver issues
7200RPM 120GB HDD (max size supported by most BX440 motherboards)
when selecting the PSU be aware that old motherboards like to draw from 3.3V and 5V lines which modern powersupplies don't like to supply that much. look for ATX 1.3 standard PSUs
for display I'd recommend one of those professional grade CRTs since many old games have fixed resolutions or rather low resolution limits

Personally I'm currently building a Super Socket 7 build with AMD K6-III+ and 3dfx Voodoo 3 but it seems I need to swap all the capacitors in the motherboard I'm using. Super Socket 7 retro builds with 3dfx cards are getting ridiculously expensive to do. Good luck finding a decent mobo or a Voodoo 3 for sub-$50.

I also have Abit BH6 and BE6-II motherboards waiting to be recapped for Slot 1 builds and about 20 different video cards from 1996 to 2002 to test out (Voodoo 1,2,banshee,3,4,5 cards, Riva 128, TNT2, GF1/2/2MX, Savage 4, Matrox G200/400/550, Ati Rage II, 128, 128 Pro, Radeon, Rendition Verite 2000, Permedia 2V etc can't remember all).

Thanks man I really needed something like this. I'l just keep C&C, and warcraft one a separate build. My goal is to have a retro room based on the old internet gaming cafes from that era.

Just be prepared to be surprised by the asking prices of retro hardware. Good Slot-1 and Super Socket 7 motherboards can go for $100+ and 3dfx cards are damn expensive.

I remember how good Generals looked in 2003
Also Unreal 2

post yfw there were mods made for Generals in this decade

Windows ME is still the worst with Vista closely behind.

>cryptofags driving up GPU and power suplies prices
What a great time to be alive, when miners are simultaneously revolutionizing banking and solving the Sup Forums problem

>with Vista closely behind.
Take your meme opinion and fuck off. As much as I hate Windows, Vista is almost identical to Windows 7. If you really think Vista is that bad then you must feel the same about Windows 7 because there are very few meaningful differences between the two. Windows 8 and Windows 10 are far worse than Vista.