Basically title. I’m a digital artist in the USA and not rich by any stretch. In fact, somewhat in debt. (Aren’t we all.)
I also try really hard to not be a mindless consumer. I use old equipment as long as I can, repair, refurbish, etc…
All this talk of upcoming tariffs has me worried that, rather than being able to get a day-job at newly opened US manufacturing for electronics or something, I’ll instead be paying +60% more on like everything.
I know tech is a depreciating asset, but should I try to upgrade now to hold out for the next ~5 years or so?
I was considering hunting down a motherboard/cpu/RAM combo for instance.
Are worries about tariffs overblown? Trying to figure out how to prepare as best I can with my meager resources before everything just…keeps getting worse.
I am getting paid for my digital art, it’s not living money though. My spouse has a more stable income that enables me to keep trying.
Thanks in advance. <3
EDIT: Thanks a ton for all the helpful replies! I’m glad I’m not being overly paranoid.
Some of you have asked for system specs so here they are for the curious:
System Specs:
- OS: OpenSUSE Tumbleweed
- Mobo: Z590 Aorus Elite AX
- CPU: i7-10700k @ 5.1 Ghz
- GPU: Nvidia RTX 3090
- Mem: 32GB DDR4 (forget the speed…3000?)
I want to be clear: I don’t mean to sound too panicked and I’m more than happy to be content with what I have and see my blessings for what they are.
However, as I’m trying to break into being a 3D Blender artist and gamedev professionally, I’m trying to strategize whether standards will significantly increase and leave me behind in the next 5 years or so. (Game industry, not trying to do Hollywood VFX models on my home rig or anything lol)
I don’t game so much these days unfortunately. And if I do, like 5% of my library is particularly demanding. 😂
Regardless of whether or not the tariff increases happen, Black Friday sales are going on right now, and depending on what stores are near you (namely Micro Center), you could find some good deals. Just make sure you check price history on anything you’re looking at (if you’re able) to ensure it’s actually a deal.
This is the biggest one. I use Keepa for things, and I’ve heard other people suggest camelcamelcamel. Always check the pricing history first, don’t get sucked into the “Save money!” trap. You’re not saving anything if you wouldn’t have bought the item in the first place.
Unless Trump has a stroke it’s very likely that the cost of electronics will go up significantly. And with corporate price gouging, I would expect they’ll stay higher even if the tariffs are lifted.
It’s black Friday. Probably no time like the present to get things you think you’ll be buying in the next few years anyway.
I’d say that unless you absolutely need to upgrade, don’t do it and set it aside to save the money. Money is going to get very tight soon for a lot of essential goods, so having it ready is a good idea for prep. If you never need to dip into it and manage to save some, then it’s possible that you can upgrade later.
Yep. But invest them cash in safe real assets, since inflation might skyrocket.
If you buy used stuff already, you won’t run into tarriffed goods for a while after they are implemented. Not sure what thats worth though.
Yeah, but the new market’s process could be warped so much from tariffs that it affects the used market.
Tis computes
Thats true but this is also happening at the same time Microsoft is bricking a ton of older hardware for their windows 11 push.
I think thats going to have a larger effect on the used market, and will push prices down.
Speaking of bricking hardware. I’m very upset that they’re just dumping Windows Mixed Reality because it isn’t making them 10,000% returns or something.
Lots of wonderful HMDs will just be paperweights without a ton of work.
“Can you release the code to us to keep em running then?”
M$: “Lol no.”
If anything, maybe we’ll see a lot of good hardware going for cheap, ripe for the taking by anybody who knows how to use a boot USB and doesn’t care about TPM. :)
Yeah I imagine most those computers will just become “linux” computers by default.
Its interesting you mention the hardware side of VR, I hadn’t considered it since my biggest gripe is that each headset plus pcvr is siloed off for a specific device. There might be enough games to sustain VR if there was a single marketplace for it, and all headsets were designed around that.
I think right now each company still thinks they can be that single marketplace, so theres too many chefs in the kitchen.
Is microsoft actually bricking their WMD headsets or just not supporting them anymore? Could you still treat it as a retro gaming console?
There’s an effort called Monado that’s making strides, but we hope there’s a sustained interest and a breakthrough of some sort. The controllers are no-go at the moment.
Is microsoft actually bricking their WMD headsets or just not supporting them anymore? Could you still treat it as a retro gaming console?
So they’re not literally “bricking them”, but effectively doing so. They require “Windows Mixed Reality” to run, all the drivers are proprietary, and M$ is “deprecating WMR”, at which point it will no longer be offered, and will be taken down from the Microsoft Store.
So basically you’d require an un-updated Windows 10 machine that previously had it installed, or else the device is a paperweight.
They can’t even pretend to have any kind of “environmental responsibility” when they’re actively just creating tons of e-waste as a matter of policy.
Used hardware is crazy cheap. You can get a tower with 16gb memory, 8th or 9th gen processors, ssd storage for like 200$. Workstations are also super cheap if doing 3D modeling.
I know it’s not completely rational but the one thing I don’t trust is used drives.
Honestly that’s pretty fair. Depending on the nature of the drive. You don’t know if it was sitting there spinning up and down in some mining rig (that one crypto used HDDs to store hashes) sitting on somebody’s washing machine or something LOL.
I never really trust used HDD’s with anything I care a lot about. I’m either backing it up on the cloud or storing it on an SSD. Used HDDs are still decently useful if you get them cheap and crystal disk reports they are good.
SSD’s fail much more predictable so even if its got a decent amount of run time and a couple dead sectors I have an OK amount of. Havent worked computers for a while, but if I remember, SSDs kind of burn out like a wick, bit by bit more clusters/sectors fail until the drive slowly becomes unusable.
SSDs have gotten so cheap new I’d probably just buy a new one if the old one isn’t already in tip top condition
Haha really? That’s interesting, I always heard it was the opposite. HDDs might slowly develop problems and if you’re lucky you’ll have time to move everything over before it kicks the bucket.
But SSDs will one day just fail.
Maybe the actual cause of the failure has to do with it?
HDDs are a lot more complicated with a ton of components and moving parts. You can measure and predict the wear on the disks, but not really anything else. Parts like the main motor, read head, secondary motor can fail suddenly. Theres also other stuff that wears down like springs, bearings, ribbon cables, lubricant, etc. The logic board on HDDs are also super complicated, since it has to do a lot. It has to control the brushless DC motor, which requires a complicated driver, control the read head motor, and a ton of other stuff. look online and compare the logic board of an HDD to an NVME and it’s a miracle HDDs stayed relevant for so long.
It comes down to simplicity, SSDs just have so many fewer components that can break.
In addition to electronics going up, there’s also the looming End of Life for a lot of older computers because of Windows 10 going end of life/support, and windows 11 having some strict security hardware requirements.
This is going to impact businesses. They are going to gobble up the market. The threat of tariffs has already started some panic buying.
We’re going to see computer prices go up in 2025-2026.
Better switch to Linux sooner than later.
Oh believe me I’m already there. I just made the jump to start gaming on OpenSUSE Tumbleweed after using it primarily for art and dev, and 99% of what I care about runs beautifully. While the world around us seems in constant chaos…
… we’re living in a great age of open source for those who seek it. :)
And used compuers price go down, maybe.
Oh yeah there’s going to be a lot of used computers on the market. If you’re Linux-curious you’ll be able to find some good stuff soon.
I have too many already 😅
This is what I was hoping for, exactly! Some kinda nice used hardware trade.
…Except with how things usually work I’m worried that’ll just skyrocket the price/demand of used stuff…
When I’m on the lookout I target 5 year old stuff, because companies usually upgrade after 5 years throwing away totally fine things IMO. The only new thing I bought in ages is a big SSD and a low power GPU.
One benefit of buying stuff companies throw out is that the early breakdowns has been weeded out and the stuff is kind of sure to work.
Heh maybe this will push Microsoft to extend support. No one can afford new computers.
I bet they start a trail run of windows 12 subscriptions or something for low end/discount models, rebrand windows s mode. Or they’ll find another way to squeeze more ads into the desktop.
Unless you’re in the market for old shit
Just bought “old shit” 7th gen and 8th gen intel PC’s, complete, for 350, with gtx1080 cards. These are still pretty good. My own pc is a 7th gen intel with a 1060 and it still does everything I want with ease. It never feels slow, except for, of course, the latest games. Which I can now run on the PC’s with the 1080. I wanted to bridge a gap and found these are actually very capable for anything I throw at it.
That old shit is better than my current old shit so I’m licking my shit chops ready to upgrade my shit
The tariffs will have to be paid by someone, and distributors will not take a hit on account of the idiot pumpkin, so it will be shifted to the end user.
Right now is a pretty good time to upgrade. Both Intel and AMD have shown their hands in the CPU market and I can personally attest to the performance of AMD’s X3D CPUs. Older models with the AM4 socket will become cheaper, and AM4 motherboards are plentiful.
Basically plan to pinch pennies for at least the next four years.
I determined that it would be an issue and upgraded. I’ve needed to anyway
For as much as everyone is saying to buy now out of economic fear, I wouldn’t say they are wrong, but there are several steps that will have to happen first. Tarrifs must be congressional approved first. That means the bill must be presented, debated on, voted on, then signed. I would start to worry a little when we see the bill presented, but even then if he presents some insane ranting that everyone knows will kneecap the economy for the rich, then it won’t go through and I wouldn’t worry. But if he lets his economic hit men write it and it is airtight, targeted, and specifically- then I would be buying my computer parts before the effective date hits for the reasons people are saying.
Tarrifs must be congressional approved first.
Well it’s a good thing that Trump bootlickers control both houses of congress as well as the courts they might be challenged in.
Their majority in the House is historically slim: they can afford to lose only a single vote. Something that is this obviously terrible for the economy will have some trouble there.
I tend to agree with that, but the messaging has also been sent out by the loudmouths that if you don’t toe Trump’s party line, they are going to sick the MAGA gun nuts on ya. And we also know Democrats are not overly safe on critical votes, Ala Manchin.
Tarrifs must be congressional approved first. That means the bill must be presented, debated on, voted on, then signed.
Unless Congress has already given the president that authority.
In early 2018 President Trump imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. This law states that the president can raise tariffs on imports that pose a threat to national security. Section 232 allows the President to implement these tariffs without the approval of Congress, following an investigation by the Department of Commerce. The Commerce Department has noted that threats to national security may include “fostering U.S. dependence on unreliable or unsafe imports” or “fundamentally threatening the ability of U.S. domestic industries to satisfy national security needs.”1
Except they’ll jack prices anyway then if the tariffs don’t stick they will say it was a precautionary cushion against potential tariffs while collecting the profits.
You’re assuming that the tariffs exist in a vacuum. They do not.
As soon as vendors feel they can blame Trump/tariffs/whatever and not lose income, they will raise prices. Their costs don’t need to actually go up - and if called out, they can say they’re just responding to the uncertainty or whatever.
There are several reason why a President can impose tariffs without congressional approval. If he wants to do them, all he needs is a pretense, regardless how non-credible, and his own pen. Like the ‘immigration emergency’ that let him loot the military construction budget to build bits of border wall.
That’s the biggest thing. More than anything they want us to keep buying, and they want to maximize profit. The guaranteed thing that will happen is they won’t do anything that will jeopardize profits. So I’m really curious how much was just politicking, because more than anything they want the public to be dumb with their pocketbooks open.
I say upgrade. The tariffs he’s most likely to back off on are food and oil. High tech from Asia is last on the list.
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People were already complaining about thrifting being gentrified, what’s going to happen when everyone has to do it?
When has he ever followed through on a promise?
Given he put tariffs in place his prior term, good chance he actually does it again.
Things that can be done via executive order are highly likely … Because one of his staff will draft it and he’ll sign based on what they tell him it’s about.
Some lackey: “this is that tariff thing”.
Actual EO: contains whatever
He said he would get roe vs Wade over turned
He didn’t do that though. Even if he somehow masterminded it, one truthful statement out of millions of lies isn’t something I’d plan long term for.
What? His judicial appointments directly brought it about. That’s the most direct way a president could have impacted such a topic
if you need an upgrade, or will within that five years, yea. now is the time to get a reasonable upgrade vs waiting for 5 years for some of the trump stench to fade.
It’s worth getting familiar with how tarrifs impact the economy in general. This is a good overview in my opinion.
I appreciate the recommend! Added to my short-list. :)
I was in the same position as you, except in regards to buying replacement automobile. My current car will not last another 2 to 4 years, or however long it would take for automobile prices to come back down after a major spike. I am looking back over the COVID period and using that as a predictor of what could happen in the next two years.
AND it is is not pretty. Cars are already way too expensive as it is and adding another 10% to 20% puts buying a car outside of what I am willing to do. Could I make my car last longer? Not without putting a short block in it, which is a $6000 proposition and the car might be worth $7k if it was in mint condition, which it is not. Even if I did replace the engine, it would start having the myriad of “old car problems” over the next few years and just how expensive will parts be?
What are interest rates going to be?
So instead of waiting another 6 months, where I would have enough to pretty much pay cash, I went ahead and bought a car this past Wednesday, but with a lot more financing than I really wanted to do. But with good credit, I got a sub 6% rate, I’ll just pay it off faster so I don’t take a bath on the interest.
Now I have a car, 2019 Camry Hybrid, with 30,000 miles on it that I feel will easily last the next 4 years without much more than maintenance. I kept my old car, I have a teen driver that needs it, and will keep it till he goes to university next August. I’ll keep an eye on the used car market and when I can sell it for a good price, I will. Then use that money to pay off my current car, saving that interest.
Or I might just sell everything, go buy a boat and explore the south Pacific the next 4 years… Who knows.
Hey that’s cool you were able to do that! I absolutely feel you.
I had an '06 Honda Element I bought at 119k miles as my first vehicle way back. I taught myself how to do a lot of things with that car, and thought I’d keep it running til it rust out from under me!
Well, replacing a failed sensor lead to me snapping a bolt in the engine block. Every conceivable method to get it out failed. Oil was even leaking through the SteelStik putty I used as a last resort to hold the sensor in. Mechanics wouldn’t touch it, machinists wouldn’t touch it. My cousin tried to help by drilling an adjacent hole (you should’ve seen the elaborate mirror setup to even see in there)… But we must’ve breached the engine because oil gore was EVERYWHERE if we tried to start it.
Basically enough was enough. I was lucky to get one of those haul away sites to give me ~$880 for it. We were using kitty litter in a desperate attempt to clean what came out of it when it got towed. But man…I owned it outright! I got it to ~210,000 miles though…
We just got a 2017 CR-V that was babied for like $22k with 70k miles on it. It’s lovely, but man even with excellent credit the interest sucks and I’m wondering how we’re gonna kill that debt. :(
Gotta tell you. I hate cars anymore. I’ve become a bit radicalized at how stupid American city planning is and I found out how lovely bicycling is. Your “explore the South Pacific in a boat” idea sounds mighty tempting. :p
