The next age of the desktop PC is here and the outlook doesn’t look all that good. Industry analysts have been saying that the desktop PC is dying and will go on to cite several sources indicating that declining sales is going to ruin the market. As hardware enthusiasts we have seen the effects from a noticeable decline in product selection, a rise in component price and the removal of features that made building your own PC rather enjoyable.
For the longest time we have dealt with a GPU shortage that didn’t remove GPUs from the market but the sudden decrease in supply did inflate the prices such that we started to question their affordability. Outside of the PC market there was a shortage on Raspberry Pi SOC computers, mostly due to issues related to manufacturing. Of course, now we are dealing with a memory shortage due to increased demand for HBM (High Speed Memory) required for AI that has all but removed DRAM and NAND from the market.
In this episode the duo discusses some reasons behind the shortage and what the trickle-down impact will be on the PC market. All current indicators show that this will be a lasting shortage as the chip capacity has been consumed by AI hardware demand. Normally the PC market can survive minor changes in supply however, the challenge comes when companies forecast demand. This is easy to get wrong in the memory market where over corrections can destroy profits and create even more problems.
Episode 177 featured music:
Little People - Start Shootin' (http://www.littlepeoplemusic.com/)
