A few week into 2026

Happy 2026, anyone?

Going into 2026, I was wishing for a new gaming pc. My current one dated back when COVID hit. Yup, it was that long. Even back then, the introduction of the new GPU by Nvidia was not exactly peachy. Stocks was scarce thus the prices were higher. I managed to secure mine at SRP via a programme by ZOTAC (thank you, ZOTAC) that enable buyer to buy at SRP after registering interest via social media (IINM). I even managed to sell my Nvidia GTX 1660 with a bit of profit from what was expected a slight drop in price but the scarcity really put a dent on that drop in price.

Since then, storages shot up because of crypto. GPUs fluctuated because of stocks and the introduction of newer SKUs. But who would have thought that AI, of all things would make pc hardware even more expensive. DRAM of all things. Not that they're hogging the consumer hardware but OEM decided that profit was better than actually serving the consumers that had supported them all of those years. Shocking. 

There are the used parts. My 5600X was bought used, along with the Asus ITX motherboard. Still rocking till this day though I only fire up the MMORPG. I need to unsub my XBOX since they unlisted Stalker 2. I'm still seething till this day. But used parts are much like lemons, you never know which are good and which are not. That being said, my NAS is powered by used parts and still rocking after few years.

So, here we are, looking at pricelists and facebook marketplace. Unless I stumbled upon an oil field or a gold mine, a new gaming pc is not in the card for the first quarter of 2026. So, Jensen. Now you know why the average Joes are angry at AI. And you too Microsoft, I will not be using AI in a way that would benefit you.