After memory and SSD prices surged due to the AI boom, power supplies and CPU cooling solutions now appear to be next in line for price increases, per the latest news from China.
Im skeptical of this. I think the opposite might happen, at least in terms of supply. Ramm/GPU price hikes are all supply driven. If no one is building/buying a computer due to increased ramm/GPU prices, then I bet a lot of PSUs/coolers/cases and other consumer gear that isn’t used in the datacenter will be overstocked.
When theres increased demand, companies raise prices because of scarcity. When theres decreased demand, they raise prices so they can make their profits over fewer units sold.
This works in a vacuum, but falls apart once you have competition to drive prices down. That said, the world is falling into cartels that price fix anyway.
I have to agree. I mean come on, cpu coolers? There’s nothing proprietary about them, nothing particularly high tech or difficult to produce, it’s a heat sink and a fan… Fancy ones may have a coolant loop, but still… I just can’t see any reason that prices would go up noticeably for such easy to manufacturer, commodity parts.
I’m just saying, it seems a little early to start screaming “the sky is falling”.
I mean, the supply is pretty large for that. You’d think that electrical grid rollout in developing nations would have a higher impact than all the ram in the world.
I think that reasoning works for PSUs as power conversion may use the same components (do datacenters even run on AC power tho? Or do they run DC and then step down?), but most consumer CPU coolers are milled alluminium plus a fan, the only overlap I can imagine are the heatpipes.
Im skeptical of this. I think the opposite might happen, at least in terms of supply. Ramm/GPU price hikes are all supply driven. If no one is building/buying a computer due to increased ramm/GPU prices, then I bet a lot of PSUs/coolers/cases and other consumer gear that isn’t used in the datacenter will be overstocked.
When theres increased demand, companies raise prices because of scarcity. When theres decreased demand, they raise prices so they can make their profits over fewer units sold.
This works in a vacuum, but falls apart once you have competition to drive prices down. That said, the world is falling into cartels that price fix anyway.
Basic economics is understamding supply-demand. Advanced economics is knowing when it’s being manipulated.
I have to agree. I mean come on, cpu coolers? There’s nothing proprietary about them, nothing particularly high tech or difficult to produce, it’s a heat sink and a fan… Fancy ones may have a coolant loop, but still… I just can’t see any reason that prices would go up noticeably for such easy to manufacturer, commodity parts.
I’m just saying, it seems a little early to start screaming “the sky is falling”.
They still have to be made from something, and it just so happens that ‘something’ overlaps with stuff datacenters currently vacuum out of the market
Copper? Is there really a copper shortage?
I mean, the supply is pretty large for that. You’d think that electrical grid rollout in developing nations would have a higher impact than all the ram in the world.
Apparently yeah
I think that reasoning works for PSUs as power conversion may use the same components (do datacenters even run on AC power tho? Or do they run DC and then step down?), but most consumer CPU coolers are milled alluminium plus a fan, the only overlap I can imagine are the heatpipes.
Companies (e.g. HP, Dell, Lenovo) will still buy PCs. The individual like you and me will be a drop in a bucket as big as the whole ocean.
True, but the coolers/psus/cases in OEMs are dog shit by comparison. Very different markets.