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.
Are there notable constraints for ‘just making more’ of these items?
Like I know short term shortages are possible for everything, but what components of a PSU or Cooler are difficult to source or manufacture? Combined with consumer versions of these not typically having a lot of direct overlap with their datacenter counterparts, do we really think this is going to be a major issue?
The reason given is rising raw materials costs, i.e. metals, and the price increases they’re talking about are on the order of around 10% which is obviously a slap in the face along with everything else that’s going on in the hardware world, but by the same token pretty minimal compared to said selfsame everything else.
I think I paid $40 for my CPU cooler. So, if I ever need to buy a another one for some reason and now it’s $44, well, I guess I’ll live.
This increase is due to the cost of copper and tin shooting up. Copper is up 45% over the past year. Coolers are basically nothing but copper. Copper is hitting record highs due to much larger economic pressures too large for a Lemmy comment. So like if you want to find untapped copper vein and start a mining company then yeah you can lower the price but that’s about the only way right now.
Yeah, but these are not exactly complex parts, especially compared to RAM/etc. RAM fabrication is orders of magnitude more difficult than the parts we’re looking at here.
I’m not saying it’s something someone could get going tomorrow, but beyond the PCB for the PSU everything else is fairly standard and mostly interchangeable. People have made PSUs in their basements. And, for CPU coolers, it’s effectively a piece of metal with a fan attached. If we’ve lost the capability to machine more aluminum and copper I feel like our problems have evolved beyond computer hardware.
Biggest and probably current constraint is the time it takes to create new manufacturing facilities. With how bad things are, I would imagine they have already maxed the output of the available production lines.
From what I’ve seen working in manufacturing and production facilities, it takes a handful of years to set up new production lines and many more to set up while new production facilities.
Are there notable constraints for ‘just making more’ of these items?
Like I know short term shortages are possible for everything, but what components of a PSU or Cooler are difficult to source or manufacture? Combined with consumer versions of these not typically having a lot of direct overlap with their datacenter counterparts, do we really think this is going to be a major issue?
It says in the article.
The reason given is rising raw materials costs, i.e. metals, and the price increases they’re talking about are on the order of around 10% which is obviously a slap in the face along with everything else that’s going on in the hardware world, but by the same token pretty minimal compared to said selfsame everything else.
I think I paid $40 for my CPU cooler. So, if I ever need to buy a another one for some reason and now it’s $44, well, I guess I’ll live.
This increase is due to the cost of copper and tin shooting up. Copper is up 45% over the past year. Coolers are basically nothing but copper. Copper is hitting record highs due to much larger economic pressures too large for a Lemmy comment. So like if you want to find untapped copper vein and start a mining company then yeah you can lower the price but that’s about the only way right now.
I looked around a bit more after this site wouldn’t load and it seems like you are ahead of me, you hit the real reason.
Raw material costs seems to be the primary problem.
Most coolers are aluminium actually.
Heatsink fins are aluminum. Heatpipes are usually copper. I’m sure we’ll start seeing even less copper and more aluminum.
The machinery. Takes years to make and has to be maintained and only had a certain output. It’s been this way for 100s of years.
And the market waves means that companies don’t want to buy machines so they can’t use them once the price goes back down.
Yeah, but these are not exactly complex parts, especially compared to RAM/etc. RAM fabrication is orders of magnitude more difficult than the parts we’re looking at here.
I’m not saying it’s something someone could get going tomorrow, but beyond the PCB for the PSU everything else is fairly standard and mostly interchangeable. People have made PSUs in their basements. And, for CPU coolers, it’s effectively a piece of metal with a fan attached. If we’ve lost the capability to machine more aluminum and copper I feel like our problems have evolved beyond computer hardware.
For any mass produced item the amount of factory machinery available is a very “notable constraint”
Biggest and probably current constraint is the time it takes to create new manufacturing facilities. With how bad things are, I would imagine they have already maxed the output of the available production lines.
From what I’ve seen working in manufacturing and production facilities, it takes a handful of years to set up new production lines and many more to set up while new production facilities.