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. 😂
deleted by creator
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.
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.
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’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.
I determined that it would be an issue and upgraded. I’ve needed to anyway
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.
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.
Yeah, but the new market’s process could be warped so much from tariffs that it affects the used market.
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. 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
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.
I thrift for a fair number of things so, I’m not that affected. 86% of the things in my apartment are through thrifting. The only things I know I’m going to probably wrestle with at times is groceries and newer things I would actually need like some appliance or something breaks down. It depends.
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?
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
In life it’s generally safe assumption that the vast majority of things we worry about never happen or if they do it won’t be as bad as we thought.
Tell that to the women in texas.
So, because you can point to one example where the worst-case scenario happened, we should live our lives constantly fearing the worst? Is that really what you’re arguing for here?
The people that have been put in charge have literally said that things are going to get worse and more expensive. Why not believe them?
My comment clearly states that it’s about life in general. Not everything is about the U.S.
I do see where you’re coming from and appreciate your optimism. I have ADHD and I’m prone to catastrophism haha.
But I feel like there’s actually substance and credibility to how much the very near future is gonna suck. :( I’m trying to stay optimistic though!
If it makes you feel any better, the times you were hopeful about the future were as much a matter of perspective as it is now. Pick any time you think things were going well and I can tell you how many numerous awful things happened at the same time.
I’d recommend placing a lot less weight on national politics in general. Your state government and local governments affect your life far more day to day. Your immediate family and friends also do in a different way.
Basically if you think on a large enough scale you can always find bad and good, there really is no “trend”. Youll find meaningful trends on a much more micro level in my opinion.
iran and germany say lololol
Good takeaway my dude.
The future doesn’t look too bright at the moment, but what’s the alternative? You’ve just got to play the hand you’ve been dealt. In Buddhism, they call it “the second arrow” when you’re in a bad situation but make it worse by overthinking it. Looking back on my life, I can think of countless times I worried about something that never even happened. I’d essentially tortured myself mentally for no reason - and that seems counterproductive.
I try to live in a way where I don’t contribute to making things worse, and wherever I can, I try to nudge things in the right direction. Beyond that, I avoid worrying any more than I already do, because intellectually, I know it’s probably wasted effort and a form of self-harm.
