this post was submitted on 28 Feb 2026
460 points (99.8% liked)
RetroGaming
28208 readers
414 users here now
Vintage gaming community.
Rules:
- Be kind.
- No spam, AI slop, or soliciting for money.
- No racism or other bigotry allowed.
- Obviously nothing illegal.
If you see these please report them.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Blaming it all on AI seems misleading given the owner explicitly blames leechers in the community. Selfish chuds were routinely bypassing download limits and then had the gall to add their own paywalls without contributing anything back.
AI datacenters buying up the hardware is why their hosting costs increased. Worsening the problem significantly.
I'm sorry but this is bullshit. For basic storage you absolutely don't need a lot of RAM or SSDs, older gen hard drives are extremely easy to find and very cheap. People have been hypnotized into believing they absolutey definitely need the latest gen of hardware, without realizing it's useless, and it's the only kind of hardware that knows shortages and high prices.
edit : okay seems i've overplayed my hand a little here. My personal experience comes from buying used hardware which is still going pretty cheap but obviously that's a dicey sell for professional hosting.
Dude, in case you weren't paying attention the last two weeks, HDDs are practically already sold out through their expected 2026 output. I is not just ran and ssds.
Where have you been?
A 2tb hard drive I bought about a year ago is now twice as expensive.
The same mechanical hard drive I bought for $250 three years ago is now going for $500 online USED. I was lucky enough to see a Microcenter listing them as in-stock for $410 about two months ago and drove an hour each way to get the last one. I haven't seen them available new since.
https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/hdds/western-digital-is-already-sold-out-of-hard-drives-for-all-of-2026-chief-says-some-long-term-agreements-for-2027-and-2028-already-in-place
I'm sorry but this is bullshit.
Huh?
RTFA
I read it which is why I was surprised, because the front page gives the impression that unrestricted free access is kind of its shtick?