PC parts are so expensive thanks to buttcoin that you have to pretend to build a pc now via a video game.
The first stage of the economy’s domination of social life brought about an evident degradation of being into having—human fulfillment was no longer equated with what one was, but with what one possessed. The present stage, in which social life has become completely dominated by the accumulated productions of the economy, is bringing about a general shift from having to appearing—all “having” must now derive its immediate prestige and its ultimate purpose from appearances. At the same time all individual reality has become social, in the sense that it is shaped by social forces and is directly dependent on them. Individual reality is allowed to appear only if it is not actually real.
When the real world is transformed into mere images, mere images become real beings—dynamic figments that provide the direct motivations for a hypnotic behavior. Since the spectacle’s job is to use various specialized mediations in order to show us a world that can no longer be directly grasped, it naturally elevates the sense of sight to the special preeminence once occupied by touch: the most abstract and easily deceived sense is the most readily adaptable to the generalized abstraction of present-day society. But the spectacle is not merely a matter of images, nor even of images plus sounds. It is whatever escapes people’s activity, whatever eludes their practical reconsideration and correction. It is the opposite of dialogue. Wherever representation becomes independent, the spectacle regenerates itself.
an Insta post of my leet gamer rig laser-engraved with an ASCII portrait of Debord
Computers are just animals that co-evolved with us so we can run pacman -Syu on them and attempt to fix the mess
i like building computers but don't have the cash to buy a bunch of parts every week
yeah it actually looks pretty fun, i've had a low interest in it for the last couple years
Because building PCs is fun but unless it's your job you can only really do it once every few years.
Guess it depends on your income. I built one in 2017 and I'm already thinking about upgrading. Only problem is I can't get my hands on a 3070 FE.
Check the stockdrop discord. Bestbuy has some anti-bot measures, so you have a chance if you're there to click the button at a specific time every 2 weeks.
I got 2 just before christmas, but canceled one.
If there's a microcenter near you, check the unofficial microcenter discord, and they'll generally know when new shipments are gonna arrive. Then you can just arrive before the store opens.
I did say thinking about upgrading. I don't really think I should be spending the $500. And I especially don't think I should be spending the $1500+ to build a new computer. I can, but I shouldn't. So far it's been "if I stumble on a 3070 available, go for it and just slap it in my current PC" instead of intentionally building a new one.
But yeah, I've heard some stuff about discord servers. If I do actually decide to go through with it, I'll have to try that.
If there’s a microcenter near you
lol
Oh yeah no if your current computer is working, it would be dumb as hell to build now. Because of bitcoin miners fucking up the market, my PC's parts have appreciated by almost 50% since I built it almost 2 years ago.
Also, when you do build, monitor diskprices.com for your PCIe 4 nVME primary drive @<$150/TB and diskprices.com+shucks.top+Newegg are worth monitoring for big, enterprisey HDDs @ <$16/TB.
If you ignore White label drives, <7200 RPM drives, and other garbage, occsionally you'll find like a 14 TB exos @15/TB.
Don't buy HDDs too far ahead of when you'll be able to test them because they have very high early failure rates, it's easier to deal with a RMA than warranty.
Because of bitcoin miners fucking up the market, my PC’s parts have appreciated by almost 50% since I built it almost 2 years ago.
lol, I built mine at the end of 2017. I didn't know Bitcoin was spiking, and it was my first build so I didn't know what normal prices were. I now know I paid way too much for some of the parts, especially the RAM. On the upside, if I knew Bitcoin was spiking I probably would have spent my Bitcoin to buy it. Instead it's worth a lot more now.
Also, when you do build, monitor diskprices.com
Oh cool, I knew about shucks.top, but not diskprices.com. I've been waiting for 12+TB@$15/TB for a bit now just for more space on my current computer. I kinda regret not getting that 18TB for $280 deal.
Don’t buy HDDs too far ahead of when you’ll be able to test them because they have very high early failure rates, it’s easier to deal with a RMA than warranty.
Oh yeah, at worst I can take my measly 2TB HDD out of my computer and slap in the new one. What's the recommended way to test them? I only know of h2testw, but I think that's more for flash drives and SD cards.
There is something relaxing and slightly cathartic about putting stuff together, its like the video game equivalent of a zen garden.
