I have an external USB-C 4 TB portable SSD called the Samsung T7 Shield 4TB Black.

I bought it at the middle/end of 2024, and I paid 3790 NOK (~357 USD at the time).

The lowest price online in my country for the same product new online today is 10233 NOK (~1085 USD)!

270% of what it was before, it’s absolutely bonkers.

I was even considering putting it up for sale a few weeks ago. But of course what I would be able to get for it would be no where near $1000 when selling second hand. Instead I might if I am lucky get slightly more than I originally paid which would be nice and all except that if I then regret selling it it’s still expensive to replace, or I have to also buy it second hand from someone else that may have worn theirs out considerably more compared to what I have done to the one I currently have. Mine is very well taken care of since the start, and although it’s nearing capacity now I haven’t written and deleted data over and over on it. So there has been very little wear on the flash.

"... we will see people focusing on small, efficient software to make the most of what we have..."

Been doing that for myself for the past 15 years

Advances in hardware are only impressive and useful for me when I avoid the so-called "tech" company "engineer" BS

The reason I stop using old computers is never due to software. It's always outdated proprietary cables, failing power adapters, screens, hinges, and so on

Sometimes "minimalism" is simply for _speed, resource usage control and/or reliability_ (that's what I get from small software, anyway) in contrast with prevailing marketed garbage that is bloated and sluggish by commparison

Other times, claims of "minimalism" might be trying to capitalise on some silly trend

Personally I like what the computers I own can do for me and learning to make them do more. I have a brain, I don't do much "guessing" and I don't really need "inference" on a daily basis, certainly not for such a high cost

I have all the "convenience" I can handle

It also won't be worth it to make games for next gen consoles if the prices end up being what people are saying. So in the end they'll just keep doing what they're doing right now, and not increase the hardware requirements of their games.

not true. it wont be worth it anymore to implement Path Tracing or Ray tracing which is absolutely not needed for a prime gaming experience. its deterimental even because ull only get into games with a certain type of person who can afford a big machine.

Many games that come out still, and are quite successful, do not require such technologies.

AI slop-cloning is killing small indie games too.

It's interesting trying to be an AI "moderate," which as the owner of a 16gb card I definitely am. Still working on the balance, but it really does feel like I'm going to land on something like "use external AI services to build a few tools, but use my local rig to actually handle everything personal once those tools are built."

Already here. 3.8-27b is good enough.

5 years ago it would have been science fiction

I was floored to discover that my i3-1215U with integrated graphics can easily run PS2 games at 60ish FPS. These are triple A games, just a little older.

If I started today and played 10 games I can emulate every single day for the rest of my life restricting myself to purely emulation, I wouldn't run out of new games for...five and a half years. (assuming my rough calculation of ~20k available games).

Drop it to a game a day and I will likely never run out of games given my life expectancy.

Consider that I will find some games I like to play for more than a day and there are easily well more than enough games in emulation alone to entertain me for the rest of my life on existing entry level hardware.

Will I ever play MODERN SHOOTER {CURRENT YEAR} on this device? Certainly not, but I can't see a reason to bemoan lack of access to such a small portion of the available industry.

Like, suppose you're a reader. You might be right that you might enjoy your favorites in their original languages, but you'd be silly to be worried about your future ability to enjoy books just because you'll likely never get to experience reading 三体 as a chinese citizen fluent in the language.

Not just the Console and PC's market, the Phone market to. On my country before, IDR 2.000.000, you can have a 8GB phone with G100 Ultimate. How about Now? On that price, you'll just got the 4/128 with Unisoc T7250.

Most of it has switched to mobile phones and tablets. It doesn't help that almost everywhere digital classroom means tablet instead of laptop. Sure, the control is convenient for the teacher, but it also means we are raising our children in walled gardens. So much so, that whole generations don't even leave that garden in their spare time.

Office tower PCs aren't a market anymore. It's only laptops or single-board mini PCs connecting to a remote environment.

Cyberpunk runs even on steamdeck, it doesn't need an extreme machine.

Pi6 might get very close to buisiness usage but i guess microsoft will use just more cpu/gpu for windows to stop that from happening.

Sound systems are a bad analogy. A decent amp and a pair of speakers can be had for next to nothing and the tech hasn’t changed that much since 1970. If the parts haven’t broken due to age a vintage set can sound very very good and be picked up second hand for less than 100€ or $

If not for adults, my opinion is that teenagers/younger generations are gonna be interested within buying ultra-realistic games. Aside from Minecraft, Roblox, GTA 5 as indie games, most players in this age do in my opinion play AAA games or the most solid graphics game that the world has to offer (as much as their laptops allow them to)